Example Scenario from Practicum in Enterprise Security
C-Bay Inc. is a real-estate auction company which just went public. They have grown rapidly from five to 54 employees. The companyÕs headquarters is in Cupertino, and they also have offices in New York and Dallas. The buyout of a rival company in Chicago is also on the horizon.
However, all is not well with C-Bay. Their servers have been down intermittently due to a possible security glitch. More broadly, the CEO of C-Bay has auditors, investors, and stockholders questioning the security of C-BayÕs networks, and C-BayÕs customers are worried about their confidential financial data! In response, the Head of IT has brought the students on as a contract team to review C-BayÕs Security Policy and to make recommendations on how well it is implemented, and then to make recommendations for ongoing monitoring, bolting down the network, and educating C-BayÕs community about its security policy. If they complete these jobs to the Head of ITÕs satisfaction, they will be hired as full-time employees.
During the course, student teams will complete the following tasks:
1. Assess C-BayÕs Security Policy and make recommendations for improvement
2. Diagnose and fix the causes of network outages
3. Define a policy for ongoing network monitoring, recommend monitoring software, and configure a trial version of at least one package.
4. Respond to a hacker attack
5. Respond to help desk inquiries about security and define a security education program for employees
6. Draft emergency response procedures for C-Bay.
More
Company Details (to be given to the students when they Òjoin the companyÓ)
1.1
Overview
C-Bay, an online real estate auction company, provides services that make the process of buying and selling real estate nearly effortless. Buyers have the option to purchase real estate in auction-style format, or at a fixed price through a feature called Purchase-without-Bidding.
Founded in May 2000, C-Bay now boasts a register of thousands of individuals and businesses from all around the world, making us the most popular real estate auction site on the Internet. Our mission is to provide a global trading platform where virtually anyone can trade any form of real estate.
1.2
Our
Marketplace
On any given day, there are more than 10,000 real estate items listed on C-Bay, including land, timeshares, residential property, and commercial property. In 2002, C-Bay members transacted millions of dollars in sales-generating (see Financial Statistics).
In addition to its United States base, C-Bay will have additional local sites that serve Canada, most of the EU, Australia and New Zealand, India, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan.
1.3
Revenue
Sources
C-Bay will generate revenues through a number of sources during our initial travel-related product launch:
+
ASP
Services: We believe that
major portals will want to offer our bid optimization services directly through
their sites. By acting as an ASP,
we will be able to collect one-time and recurring transactional fees.
+
Merchandising: By positioning ourselves as a premiere
destination for real estate buyers and sellers, we will market a variety of
merchandise and services to our members, such as land, residential property,
commercial property, and timeshares.
+
Promotional
Ties: We will establish a
program where members sign up for a product or service and sponsors add to
their bids (thereby increasing the odds of winning), similar to PriceKeyÕs
model. We will earn commissions on each promotion that is accepted.
+
Sponsorships: We believe that we can build a large
and loyal registered member base that will be very attractive to sponsors and
advertisers. We believe that many
firms with ÒedgyÓ brands will want to be advertised on an empowering site such
as C-Bay.com.
+
Subscription
Fees: We plan to expand into
helping corporate procurement departments figure out how best to negotiate with
suppliers. We believe that
businesses will be willing to pay subscription fees for data and analytics that
help them make better use of hidden price markets.
1.4 Management
> President
and CEO
> Co
Founder and Director of Finance and Operations (Reports to CEO)
> Director,
IT and Operations (Reports to Director of Finance and Operations)
> IT
Director, Dallas
>
IT Director, New York
>Technical
Project Team Lead, IT (Reports to Director, IT)
>System
Administrator (Reports to Director, IT)
> Tech.
Support Manager, Ops (Reports to Director, IT)
> Chief
Technology Officer / VP Engineering (Reports to CEO)
> Director
of Research & Development (Reports to CTO)
> Technical
Project Team Lead, Development (Reports to CTO)
> VP
Marketing & Business Development (Reports to CEO)
> Senior
Vice President, Global Online Payments (Reports to CEO)
1.4
Financial
Information
Financial Statistics
Our statistics for the U.S. market, taking into account only
revenues from advertising, sponsorships, affiliates, and e-commerce activities
for the first two years (2000-2001), and business to business revenues
beginning in year 3 (2002), are as follows:
|
US
Revenues ($mm) |
US
Pretax Earnings ($mm) |
|
|
|
|
Year |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|
US Pretax Earnings ($mm) |
(13.2) |
2.6 |
24.2 |
38.5 |
60.9 |
