Advantages and Disadvantages of Accounting information systems (AIS) The WritePass Journal

Advantages and Disadvantages of Accounting information systems (AIS) Introduction Advantages and Disadvantages of Accounting information systems (AIS) IntroductionType and nature of both the risks and the security threatsNature of riskType of RiskType of Security ThreatsSecurity Strategies/Measures  Control ProcedureConclusionRelated Introduction Accounting information systems (AIS) have experienced vast changes in several decades, improving from paper-based journals and ledgers to completely automated, paperless systems. However, the migration from paper to computer has its risks to the company. It contains the confidential information which becomes compromised if it is unprotected. The unauthorized use of the accounting system can be misused and involved in risking loss of the information, disastrous and bad data input. Security of accounting systems is a priority in many companies. In recent decades, the changing environment has posed a threat to the company. As a system accountant of a large established UK based Retail Company specialising in the sale of household electrical appliances, it is necessary to consider the risks and the security threats that the company would face in today’s business environment. According to Tony Boczko, risk is related to the likelihood of loss, the probability of mischance and the possibility of hazard or harm. Moreover, risk can be defined in several ways such as the chance of bad consequences, the exposure to mischance and the probability of loss. These risks and threats can lead an undesirable impact on both the present and future of the company’s financial activities and stability. Type and nature of both the risks and the security threats Nature of risk The nature and source of the risks can be distinguished into two primary sources of risk which can be categorized as the event/activity-based risk and resource/asset-based risk. By referring to Tony Boczko 2007 (pp. 681), he mentioned that event/activity-based risk is defined as the risk which is associated with the particular event/ activity or the group of activities/ events. The resource/ asset- based risk is the subsidiary primary source which can be defined as the risk which is associated with the possession and use of the resource/ asset or the group of recources/ assets. In addition, Tony Boczko 2007(pp. 681) mentioned that the source of risk can be categorized into four associated secondary sources of risks such as authorized internal employee and external agent-based risk, unauthorized persons-based risk and nature-based risk. The case of the authorized internal employee/ external agent-based risk is the possible loss which can be resulted from the unintentional or deliberate errors. Unauthorized persons-based risk is most likely involved in the risk of possible loss which can be resulted in the possible breaches of security and misappropriation of assets and information. The nature based risk is involved in the risk of possible loss which is resulted from the geographical disaster or meteorological conditions. Type of Risk What are the different types of risks? There a number of differing types of risk that can affect the household electrical appliances company in today’s business environment. One of the risks is unintentional error. Unintentional error is the error which is related to the inadvertent mistake and erroneous actions attributable to the bad judgement in decision making, ignorance and inattention. The unintentional errors that happened through computerized systems are always at of risk power failure of the computer, viruses attack and end up with losing the important information of the company such as financial documents. Furthermore, problems with computerized system could lead to a standstill in usage of the database. When the household electrical appliances company is focus and reliant on the accounting information system, the unintentional error due to the power and computer outage could lead to a work disruption. Work disruption can disable the input of the information of the c ompany can access to the stored information. Additionally, if the data is not backed up properly, the company will end up lost its important data. Risk such as deliberate errors can cause the company with the bad and serious implications. According to Tony Boczko 2007(pp. 682), deliberate errors can be explained as the conscious erroneousness and incorrectness whose occurrences are designed to damage, destroy and defraud a person, group of persons and organization. Such errors are intentional and premeditated. What if there is ‘someone’ else hosting its precious and valuable data? ‘Someone’ refers to the hacker. Hacking is the illegal action which involved in gaining unauthorized access to the company accounting information system to steal and get the data illegally. The big news of the hacking system is NASA’s system. ‘In 2002, Gary McKinnon was arrested by the UKs national high-tech crime unit, after being accused of hacking into NASA and the US military computer networks.’ (BBC NEWS, 2006) Besides that, the hacker ‘The hacker has also denied that he had made Washingtons com puter system inoperable, although he did admit he may have deleted some government files by accidentally pressing the wrong key’. (Jo Best, 2005). Deliberate errors brought a serious implication to the company. Besides that, natural disaster is also counted as the serious type of risk in today’s business environment. ‘A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, or landslide). It leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the vulnerability of the affected population to resist the hazard, also called their resilience’. (Wikipedia, 2011) As a household electrical appliances company, if it is suffered from the natural disaster such as floods. Floods can destroy drainage computer system and cause the raw sewage to spill with water. Besides that, building and company’s equipments can be also damaged due to the floods. It will lead to the catastrophic effects on the environment as the toxic such as gasoline will be released and caused pollution. Floods can cause a huge amount of money losses to the business. Type of Security Threats In today’s business environment, there are many computer frauds and computer crimes through computerized accounting information systems. Fraud can be defined as ‘deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage. In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual’. (Wikipedia, 2011) As a household electrical appliances company, the internal employees or managers as well as the shareholders can be also fraud through the computerized accounting information system. The information stored electronically can be manipulated and accessed if proper controls and security measures are not taken place. This will affect the operation of the business. Fraud such as account takeover is a serious activity which always happens in today’s business environment. ‘An account takeover can happen when a fraudster poses as a genuine cu stomer, gains control of an account and then makes unauthorized transactions’. (Action fraud) The information of account holders such as credit card can be taken over by those fraudsters. Los Angeles attorney Christopher Painter said: If you have an explosive growth on the Internet, youre going to have this great huge growth in fraudulent conduct and crime committed over the internet. (BBC NEWS, 1999) From this evidence, we can see that there is a security threat on today’s business through the computerized accounting information system. Fraudster can be sued if they found out by people. For example, ‘Bank of America and two of its former bosses have been charged with fraud for allegedly misleading shareholders during the takeover of Merrill Lynch’. (guardian.co.uk, 2010) There are few types of fraud, such as false billing, financial fraud, advanced fee frauds, identity theft and phishing. In false billing scam, the fraudster will send out a so-called invoice for a particular product or service that are never be ordered, fraudster hope that it will be paid for sure from the victim without any investigation. This activity usually happened in large business organization, it is because large business organization has a billing or payments system which used to pay the invoice of the company, fraudster sends out those fake invoices and hope that this will be unnoticed by the large business organizations. ‘Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication’. (Wikipedia, 2011) It is dangerous for today’s business operation, it is because instead of stealing the personal and business information, ‘phishers’ can affect the computer with the viruses and convince the victim in order to participate in money laundering. Another security threat is computer crime, according to Tony Boczko 2007 (pp. 691), he mentioned that computer crime can be defined as the deliberate action to gain access to, or steal, damage or destroy the computer data without authorization. Computer crime involves in the activity of dishonest manipulation of computer programs or computer-based data. It also involves in the fraudulent use/abuse of computer access and resources for personal gain. The types of computer crime such as the inappropriate use of corporate information systems, theft of computer and hardware, unauthorized access and information theft or the fraudulent modification of data and programs, system failure and premeditated virus infection and disruptive software. It is hard to define a computer crime; it is because computer crime is always and easily be happened in the business organization. People might think that fraud is also kind of computer crime. It is a wide context in security threats. As a household electrical appliances company, premeditated virus infection such as spyware, it gathers the users and client’s information and relays it to the third party such as advertisers. Spyware can monitor operation of the computer, scan the important information and files, snoop on the private applications such as chat programs. By reading the cookies and change the default web browser, spyware can consistently relaying the information from the database. It is dangerous for the business organization, because if their competitors spy into their programs and get the costs and type of materials of the electrical appliances as well as the client’s contact number, the business organization will be easily defeated by competitors. There is a latest issue about the Sony PlayStation Network which involved in the identity theft. ‘Up to 3 million Britons are believed to be among the 77 million users of Sonys PlayStation Network, which has been hacked into by criminals who have stolen users personal information, possibly including credit card details’. (Charles Arthur and Keith Stuart, 2011) ‘Sony, which shut down the online games, movies and music delivery system last week after it was attacked by hackers, has said that although names, birthdates, e-mail addresses and log-in information were compromised for certain players, it has seen no evidence that credit data was taken, but cannot rule out the possibility’. (Richard Newman, 2011) Security Strategies/Measures Due to the vulnerability of the computerized accounting information system, it is easy to be attacked by internal and external people of the business organization. It is necessary to implement some methods to solve the serious issues. According to American Institute of CPAs In order to protect the business organization from the attack of risk and security threats, , TOP Technology Initiatives Task Force, which is a group of the technologically astute members of the CPA profession and other technology professionals, collaborated in the AICPAs Top Technology Initiatives project, seeking to identify the most important technology initiatives. The first method is enhancing the information security such as upgrade the hardware and software in order to protect the information systems from the security threats. Company should implement and upgrade the level of firewall which blocks the intrusion from the internet. Update the anti-virus programs with the logins of password and username to limit access. Besides that, company should hire the experienced network integrator to check whether it is work properly with the security patches. Additionally, company can have a security audit for the independent confirmation on the company’s financial data and client’s information. Through this process, business organization can be protected. The other method is disaster and business continuity planning. It is an activity which involves in the developing, monitoring and updating of the climate change, accident and other malicious destruction. It can prevent the business organization to loss their important information. It is because having the computerized accounting information system down for few hours or few days due to the natural disaster; could lead a bad impact to the profitability and liquidity of the business organization. So, business organization should plan and design a process to keep the system stable to prevent any losses.   Control Procedure According to Tony Boczko 2007(pp. 729), he mentioned that the internal control which comprises the processes or procedures within a business organization designed to provide a reasonable assurance that business objective- primarily the maximization of shareholder wealth which can be achieved and those undesired events can be prevented or corrected. The internal control related to the management control. It can be defined as a diverse range of activities designed to conduct, direct and control business activities and ensure the consistency with corporate business objective. For example auditors, their role is to audit the business organization’s internal control policies, to assure that the control within the departments is under controls and adequate, it can help in control the financial statement to prevent the financial loss in order to achieve the mission of business organization. Furthermore, internal control such as risk assessment is also needed to be taken place in every business organization. It is an effective control procedure helps in protecting company. According to health and safety executive, the risk assessment, instead of creating the huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in the business organization. Risk assessment is help to protect people by putting in place measures to control those risks.   As a household of electrical appliances company, risk assessment is a good starting point; manager can actually investigate and look for the hazard which may cause harm to the business organization. Furthermore, a critical thinking about how the accident could happen and who will be influenced could help in noticing and monitoring the risk. Once the managers identify the risk, it will be easily to control and put a suitable measure on it. Conclusion As a conclusion, accounting information system brings a lot of disadvantages to the organization in today’s business environment, but accounting information system combines the study and practice of the accounting with the concept of designing, implementing, controlling and monitoring the information systems. It also combines the modern information technology and the traditional accounting system to provide a better financial system to manage and improve the financial performance of the organization.

The Epic of Gilgamesh a Story by Maureen Kovacs

The Epic of Gilgamesh a Story by Maureen Kovacs Heroism is a characteristic that entails a demonstration of unique traits by an individual, beyond ordinary expectations. The story of Gilgamesh and his achievements in the Epic of Gilgamesh portrays him as a true hero of the people.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on The Epic of Gilgamesh a Story by Maureen Kovacs specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More From the story, Gilgamesh, the protagonist, demonstrates many character traits that pass him for a hero. Gilgamesh demonstrates high skillfulness in his work. Besides, he is intelligent and possesses great courage. The fact that Gilgamesh is ready to die for the sake of his people, also shows that he is selfless, a character of a true hero. From the story therefore, it is in order to argue that Gilgamesh’s search for immortality is suitably heroic as developed in this paper. To begin with, it is quite evident that throughout the story, Gilgamesh demonstrates his ch aracter as a leader with high skilfulness. According to Kovacs Gilgamesh â€Å"is strong to perfection†¦an awesome beast with unmatched strength and a chant that fosters armies†¦leads his tribe into battle fearlessly and defeats everyone†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (8). Gilgamesh, as a skilful warrior, leads fellow warriors of his tribe to fight their enemies and in no occasion do they lose a battle. His strength is unrivalled; he has been able to slay even the most feared men like the highly feared Humbaba. In fact, his successful demonstration that he could fight Humbaba makes people of Urok village to fear him for such act is a great achievement. The task he accomplishes by slaying Humbaba has made the Great Gilgamosh to cower since his strength is incomparable to someone who was once their king. The revelation that the people of his tribe are angered by even small things just but demonstrates their confidence in Gilgamesh; they are confident that even if they go to fight with any t ribe, their king will not let them down. Gilgamesh is a man of great intelligence; throughout his reign as a king, he demonstrates great intelligence through the way he governs his people.Advertising Looking for term paper on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More He naturally possesses hindsight of what is likely to happen to his people and prepares in advance to overcome it. Besides, Gilgamesh has the ability to make wise decisions on urgent matters concerning his people (Heather Para. 9). This ability has earned his tribe a good name; a powerful tribe. By accepting to challenge Humbaba, Gilgamesh knows he could convince his people that he is strong and powerful and could actually slay the beast. It takes intelligence for an individual to look up and heed the counsel of the wise and for Gilgamesh he heeded his mother’s words of wisdom; Gilgamesh’s mother convinces him that Enkidu is a true friend not an enemy in disguise. The epic portrays Gilgamesh as a selfless man. Being selfless is one of the characters that people do admire in a hero. Selflessness as a character trait that â€Å"requires an individual to put his/her personal needs aside to care for other people’s needs even if it requires a sacrifice that would not benefit him/her† (Prine 23). By agreeing to fight Humbaba, Gilgamesh verily knows that it is possible that he may die during the fight; nevertheless, his selfless character compels him to take the risk and the fact that he is ready to die for his people’s safety passes him for a true hero. Only few people can give their lives for the sake of others and this move by Gilgamesh qualifies him as a true hero. His selfless nature also comes out when he fights the sky sent-bull (earthquake). When an earthquake hits his tribe, nine dozen people die but Gilgamesh does not flee to save his life; he simply stays put because he knows his people need him at a time like this. The earthquake incident further reveals his selfless nature as a true hero. Finally, Gilgamesh demonstrates high degree of courage that portrays him as a hero. His acceptance to fight Humbaba, a great fighter, shows great courage because he does not fear death, which is a possible outcome from this fight. His courageous nature comes out when he manages to climb up the steep cliff on Mt. Mashu. He does not cower midway but goes up until he reaches the top of the cliff. At the top, Gilgamesh meets the scorpion guard who reveals to him that in the past, no one had ever climbed to the top of that cliff. This revelation by the scorpion guard further brings out the courageous nature of Gilgamesh; he manages to do what no other man has done before and that’s what true heroes do; they go where no ordinary man has ever gone.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on The Epic of Gilgamesh a Story by Maureen Kovacs specifically f or you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More From the epic, it is evident that Gilgamesh’s search for immortality is suitably heroic because his character throughout the story demonstrates that he is indeed a hero. Many at times he has done things that underscore his courageous nature. As a leader, Gilgamesh shows great intelligence. In the battle field, Gilgamesh is a skilful warrior. Finally he is a selfless man ready to die for his people’s safety. Heather, Leah. True Love Conquers All Love and Heroes in the Epic of Gilgamesh, 2006. Web. Kovacs, Maureen. Trans. The Epic of Gilgamesh. California: Stanford University Press, 1989. Print. Prine, Jackson. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1997.

Works Ethics Focusing on Engineering Ethics Term Paper

Works Ethics Focusing on Engineering Ethics - Term Paper Example To enhance the effectiveness in engineering work the association has a code of ethics that every engineer must follow. First, a professional engineer must follow some fundamental canons in regard to completion of their expertise duties. They are required to perform services in areas within their competence. Safety, welfare, and health of the public should be held paramount. The statement offered by a professional engineer must be released in a truthful and objective manner. Engineers must be trustees or faithful agents for clients or employers. They should conduct themselves responsibly, ethically, honorably, and lawfully in order to enhance the reputation and honor of their professional importance. Secondly, professional engineers’ duties are guided by regulations of practice. Regarding their duties towards the society, they need to notify the appropriate authority in case of circumstances endangering property or life of people before they overrule any judgment. Engineers sha ll not disclose data and facts without the preceding consent of an authorized employer or client according to the law (Davis 34). The only documents engineering shall use will be those in conformity with the standards applicable. They shall not use and allow associates in business or their names to engage in dishonest or fraudulent enterprises. Following their performances in their areas of competency, they also need to act appropriately.  Engineers serving publicly as advisors, employees or members of a department shall not give directions with respect to solicited services either provided by themselves or business in public or private engineering practice.