A Cyberhack@Randcom: The Three-Headed Janus: A CASE STUDY

by Erica Diffee Dr Pratt Datta

Multiple entities define the Ayn, an accomplished CIO; James, an idealistic CEO; Kira, an unscrupulous hacker; Randcom, a rail company; and Zuidia, a country reinventing itself. These entities intersect in a tense cybersecurity gameplay. A cyber-attack rages across multiple fronts, targeting Randcom’s technology, processes and people, suddenly delivering a staggering blow to the company. Ayn stands in the eye of the storm, figuring a path forward. This cybersecurity case study offers an active learning and role-playing experience for students. Immersing the student in the anatomy of a cybersecurity attack, this case converges various the hacker, the company, and the macro environment (e.g. country culture). In the process, this case highlights conflicting strategic choices and opportunity costs of decisions in an environment that requires a company to be both competitive and yet secure across three cybersecurity technology, processes and people. This case could be used as a class discussion and exercise as well as a role play with multiple protagonists. Specific roles include the CEO, the CIO, the hacker, and the CFO. This case brings together multiple viewpoints, often conflicting, representative of real-life decisional and ethical dilemmas in the context of a company. This case, further contextualized using a developing country as the backdrop, adds an additional layer of decisional trade-offs. Nonetheless, this case is representative of IS and cybersecurity decision making in a company, regardless of the type of country.

27 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 29, 2018