1. UNDERSTANDING ISSUES Unit 2
RELATING TO THE USE OF Operational
Issues
INFORMATION

2. OPERATIONAL ISSUES
• Security of information
• Health and safety
• Organisational policies
• Costs for development, modification,
training, system upgrades
• Continuance planning

3. SECURITY OF INFORMATION
 Loss of data can have disastrous consequences for an
organisation.
 They must have systems in place to enable them to recover from
a situation where data may have been stolen or damaged.
 It can be deliberate or accidental damage, it could be a virus or a
natural disaster.
 Anti virus software, firewalls and data encryption are amongst
the methods used to protect the software.
 A regular and secure system for backing up information is
needed with the backed up data being stored away from the site.

4. HEALTH AND SAFETY
 All organisations must have a Health and Safety Policy
 In IT There are regulations that apply to screens and monitors,
their positioning and usage.
 Keyboards, mice, chairs and tables must be appropriately
positioned.
 Computer users are entitled to free eye tests.
 They should have regular breaks away from the computer.

5. ORGANISATIONAL POLICIES
 As well as a Code of Practice and Non Disclosure Agreements
some organisations have policies that dictate which staff can
have access to particular information
 They will have a policy telling staff what they should do if they
are aware that any data is incorrect.

6. COSTS
 Any new IT developments will involve costs.
 Buying equipment
 Installing the system
 User testing and training
 Maintenance
 Modern IT systems are complex and staff will require training.
 To ensure their systems are effective experts in both business
and IT will be required.

7. BUSINESS CONTINUANCE PLANS
 Organisations depend on their IT systems and system failure can
have major cost implications.
 They should have a BCP to enable them to overcome any system
failure as quickly as possible.
 A good example is to provide a dual network, attaching alternate
computers to each network. Then, if there is a complete failure
of one network, half the computers will continue to work.