Information technology governance entails directing and evaluating the information technology use to support organizations and tracking of this use to attain plans. It includes policies and strategies for using information technology in corporate institution. In other words, information technology governance is the obligation of executive management to provide guidelines as far as the use of information technology is concerned. It is the form of governance that integrates leaderships and organizational processes and structure that makes sure that IT framework in the organization sustains and extends the strategies and objectives of an organization.
The nature of information technology governance structure in place largely determines the process of decision making. Most shortcomings that have been experienced in the agency are due to the weaknesses in IT governance and inappropriate decision making process.
According to Brand & Boonen (2009), IT governance can be implemented by combining processes, Relational mechanism and structures. All these components are critical in ensuring that the decision making process in an organization’s meets the requirements.
The principle strength in US army is how they handle the security issues. Since the agency is the pillar for the national security, they have invested a lot on their IT governance. In fact, they are rated as the leading agency in terms of information security. The agency has managed to control all the cyber terrorism activities that target the nation. In addition, their intellectual participants in decision making process enable them to carry out security missions successfully.
The key weakness in the US army IT decision making process is the complexity and beauriocracies. The protocol followed before a decision is made is exceptionally long. As a result, some security threats, which could otherwise be managed, negatively affect the operation.
There are different sections that are vulnerable to cyber crime during the in the US army. The communication between different stakeholders is also crucial during the event. As such, its security should be maximized. The attackers can intercept the information or message that is passed through the electronic media and the internet and modify, delete or add more information. This will lead to different information reaching the destine person and hence can lead to mixing up of events. In the hotel industry, there are some hotels that have intensified the use of information technology, For example, a customer can book the reservation through the internet by giving the identification details. Like in the case of immigration, attackers can steal identity by giving the websites that resemble the ideal ones. Such websites have precedence in terms of access such that customers will be lured to access them yet the hotels do not even exist. This can be an enormous loss to visitors, and it will negatively affect the national picture of the country.
IT Governance to a greater extend depend on the internet technologies; this gives attackers an opportunity from diverse quarters. The attackers can attack the Olympic website. The electronic infrastructures that support the games are also vulnerable to be attacked, and this can cause problems since without these machines, the people in charge cannot have the ability to keep records that these machines can provide (Moore, 2010).
Structure covers the assignment and the arrangement of information technology function to specific departments or people, the presence of well formulated responsibilities and the building of a series of obligations relating to information technology operation and planning. Processes are the strategic planning of information technology, strategic decision making, monitoring and management of services, and control and tools for process definition. On the other hand, relational mechanisms are put in place to support the relationship that exists between the business and the information technology. Some of this mechanism is proactive involvement of corporate and IT management, training, dialogue, exchange of knowledge and experience and communication in the entire organization.
The recent study shows that approximately 50% of corporate institutions have implemented between 28% and 34% information technology governance systems. It showed a maturity average of 2.6 on a range of 0 to 5 for organizations that have already implemented IT Governance framework. The primary reason why the governance of information technology system implementation and maturity is slow is the lack of own IT frameworks within the university environment. Selig (2009) realized that roles and guidelines for information technology governance need to comply with the specific requirements of the organization. The existence of a rigid culture in non-profit organizations limits the governance and management.
The regulatory requirement for information technology governance deals with legal issues than any other issue. The issues include data protection, privacy and compliance regulations. There are extremely many ethical issues that the management needs to manage are immensely complex. The policies, ethical guideline standards that the company needs to follow determines a lot about the framework. The ethics officers can assist the employees at any level to ensure that the company makes correct decisions.
A strong IT Governance framework in the organization has massive significance to its information system. First, the information security policies largely depend on the governance framework in place. Research shows that the institutions that have a well established IT Governance framework have sophisticated security measures to their information system.
IT governance ensures that the US army is well prepared for disaster recovery and guaranteed state security. Any possible threat to the states physical and logical security system will be detected. IT governance can be taken as the future basis of business decision making process. It will determine information technology policies and the capability to increase and sustain the objectives of the business. This will result into IT and business strategic realignment. It will also change the role of the chief information officers and hence become an agenda in every board meeting.
The US Army should give more vigilance to bridging of one’s privacy via the cyber ware, unauthorized interception of conversation and in addition, the severity of the punishment was increased. Furthermore, the requirement of presence of a police officer before a warrant of arrest is issued was ruled out in order to raise vigilance
The enforcement of cyber security act of helped the citizens of the federal republic to regain the glory of data and information privacy. The fear of one’s information getting into the hands of unauthorized individual has been drastically reduced due to enforcement of severe penalties to any person found breaching this right. In addition, it has enabled more secure computerized financial transaction which had become a nightmare. With the enforcement of this law, the use of information technology has become better.
References
Brand, K., & Boonen, H. (2009). IT governance based on cobit 4.1: A management guide. Van Haren Publishing.
Isaca. (2009). Implementing and continually improving it governance. ISACA.
Selig, G. (2008). Implementing IT governance: A practical guide to global best practices in it management. Van Haren Publishing.
Weill, P., & Ross, J. (2010). It Governance: How top performers manage it decision rights for Superior Results. Harvard Business Press.
