Arrows Group was founded in 2003 in the UK by James Parsons and Adrian Treacy. The company provides staffing solutions for clients who require professionals with specialized IT skills. More specifically, they help with onboarding new specialists, pay rolling and redeployment. The have vast reach in terms of leads and potential technical consultants through years of experience in recruiting.

Our focus for the digital transformation project is on the Amsterdam division. We were fortunate enough to have an extensive interview with Ms. De Rooy (CareCon Team Leader), who explained her main points with the current IT systems.
Currently, Arrows Group operates using 5 software systems, that each serve independent functions within the business. The identifiable issue that Ms. De Rooy highlighted is that none of these systems are integrated, which means that many of the tasks she performs are done manually and often have to be repeated (to ensure consistent data throughout the different software systems), thereby wasting time and causing frustration. Additionally, and as indicated in the interview, it is an extensive and difficult process to have any IT process changed within the business. The IT department is reluctant to consider unsubstantiated suggestions, even if the problem is a heavy burden for employees. Based on this, it can be concluded that IT merely serves a supplementary function within the business and that there is an overall misalignment between the IT and Business strategies.

The novel solution that we suggested in our report, is for Arrows Group to employ Salesforce as a CRM and SFA platform that can integrate all software into one platform, in order to reduce redundant tasks. We applied Luftmans model to discuss how Salesforce could help improve the scope & architecture of the IT systems. For the implementation plan, we used the same model in order to discuss how “Skills, IT Governance and Communication” areas within Arrows Group need to be adjusted in order to successfully implement the new technology.  As the model states, a new innovative technology cannot be implemented in isolation without the support of the entire organization as well as the right IT governance. This project should provide Arrows Group with a good foundation for a successful systems migration to a novel technology that can align the company’s business and IT structures.

Group 87

Derek Loots

Christian Moesby

Silas Voerman

Kristian Voldrich

Bruce Schneier, a fellow at Harvard and the CIO of a security company for IBM (Resilient) has stated that a “nations military has been probing and attacking major companies that provide the basic infrastructure of the internet” (Schneier, 2016). These attacks are carried out through distributed denial-of-service-attacks (DDoS), the most common form of attacks. DDoS attacks to put it simply is flooding or blasting the bandwidths or resources of another’s system. What is interesting about these attacks as Dr. Schneier pointed out is that these attacks seemed to be probing the systems of companies rather than taking them out. These attacks were aimed to find out the defense capabilities of these systems in order to potentially carry out one coordinated attack.

As many of you might know these DDoS attacks are quite common and might be nothing new. But what is troublesome as Dr. Schneier pointed out is the fact that these DDoS attacks are “much more complex, frequent and more persistent than ever before” (Schneier, 2016). These attacks are too strong to be simply carried out by activists, anarchists or criminals and it seems to be a nation state that is coordinating DDoS attacks. The country of origin is unclear, some people are seeing data that suggests it is coming from China. However, it is very easy to disguise the identity of the attacks so it is dangerous to be making assumptions.

Verisign is an American internet company that provides a diverse array of network infrastructures, they also report quarterly DDoS figures. They stated that in Q1 of 2016 alone the amount of attacks increased by over 111% and that the average attack size increased by 182% (Verisign, 2016). These are some truly alarming figures, the rise in DDoS attacks have always been in double digits growth but never in triple digit growth.

The effects that taking down the internet might have on nation states and businesses is unimaginable. Some companies that completely depend on the internet like Uber, AirBnb and Facebook might see some rough times ahead. To many it may seem that taking down the internet is impossible as there are too many independent internet service providers to take down at once, and that simply said no one has enough power to coordinate one attack. What do you think? Who do you think is behind these attacks? What is their mission? and how could this disrupt complete industries/companies/social infrastructures?

Bibliography
Schneier, B. (2016, 09 13). Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet. Retrieved from Schneier on Security: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/someone_is_lear.html

Verisign. (2016, 05 25). Verisign Q1 2016 DDoS Trends: Attack Activity Increases 111 Percent Year Over Year. Retrieved from CircleID: http://www.circleid.com/posts/20160525_ddos_trends_attack_activity_increases_111_percent_year_over_year/

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