Wrapping up the Red Cross

We discussed the power that technological advancements provides companies and The Red Cross is the perfect example of that.  In today's world we expect everything to be fast and efficient.  The key to The Red Cross success is their ability to adapt  to the fast passed lifestyle that today's world requires by keeping up with the technological advancements and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube; which provides a flexible way to reach out the communities.  Given their position of sensitive and private information, The Red Cross leaders are

actively seeking ways to protect both beneficiaries and benefactor's identities against the constant threats that come with the use of technology.   Even with the technological advancements, and the great leaders The Red Cross would not be the organization that it is without all the volunteers and people that works for their success.  After all The Red Cross' success is success for all the people they help. 

How About other Technology Problems???

How does the organization address concern such as the type and size of bandwidth and the capability of implementing web 2.0 tools?

The American Red Cross has been around for many years, and with that it has had the capability of  keeping up with the latest and greatest in technology. Let's take their websites for example (www.redcross.org/) they update it on a regular basis and has web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Flicr, YouTube, Facebook, and email communications. The Twitter account gives the public live updates on events, donation needs for various disasters, and seminars. The latest addition they made was the Smartphones applications, they introduced it which live up to the moment news, seminars, and a donations tab.
Presently the American Red Cross uses Exede Enterprise satellite services from ViaSat Inc for their bandwidth, it provides them a high capacity Ka-band satellite that has speed up to 15 Mbps using a

transformational high-capacity satellite system (ViaSat.com, 2013). With all of this speed it can allow disaster response at very fast pace, especially with disaster, they need up to minute information on where the need is a higher demand. The Red Cross units dispatched to a disaster can respond to the main headquarters and they will receive information on a real time basis.

“Reliable satellite communication is a vital part of getting help to the public during emergencies.” said Keith Robertory, American Red Cross Disaster Response Emergency Communications manager. “That’s why we are bringing ViaSat on board as a partner in our disaster response efforts (ViaSat.com, 2013).”  All of these things are very important to the Red Cross in times of disaster.  They must be constantly updated and improved as needed. 

A recent challenge that the Red Cross (the British division) had to manage was the infrastructure of their complex backup system was starting to fail and become a nuissance problem. In the past they used a Windows backup system through an EMC NetWorker company in the past but that system was starting to fail and a new solution needed to be done. From the remote server to the main hub the backup was failing like a domino effect. The Red Cross had to fix it by doing a major upgrade to their system including recovering files from previous disaster to future projects. It was a modernization approach or in other words a complete technology overhaul. They replace or upgraded the system with Novell NetWare/OES and GroupWise, as well as Windows, SUSE and Red Hat Linux (BackTechnology.com, 2013).



Reference:

BackupTechnology.com. (2013). Backup Technology-Protecting British Red Cross's Data. Retrieved from: https://www.backup-technology.com/clients/british-red-cross/

ViaSat.com. (2013). Red Cross Chooses by ViaSat Enterprise service for Disaster Response. Retrieved from: http://www.viasat.com/news/red-cross-chooses-exede-viasat-enterprise-service-for-disaster-response

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility- Volaire

This quote was probably originally from Voltaire, but it was recently made popular by Uncle Ben in Spiderman.  Since the Red Cross steps in and acts in a heroic fashion this too applies to their work and to the power of the technology and tools they wield in their hands.   Connecting with people at their most vulnerable times allows them special information and resources that must be safeguarded in our ever-shrinking world.  They must seek to protect victim's identities.  They also have the trust and faith of most people as the go to organization in times of disaster to donate or find ways to help.  Ben Franklin. said "It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. "  With this in mind an organization like the Red Cross must safeguard its donors financial information.

Fitzgerald put it this way, the Red Cross, is well aware of the cyber activities, and are developing methods and procedures daily to “improve privacy management in the event of a breach” (Fitzgerald, D., 2012).  Being aware of problem and know that it needs to be tackled is an important part of an organizations response.  The Red Cross also uses key leaders to put into place measures and continually strives to better their online security.  The American Red Cross has held yearly summit meetings to discuss, negotiate, develop strategies, and rectify cyber security threats to the organization, and the entirety.  The CEO’s of the organization, the boards, (stakeholders- CEO’s, CIO, Internal Audit, CFO, CTO, Compliance and Legal Team), meet to establish measures to combat the cyber activity (Fitzgerald, D., 2012).  People give regularly to the Red Cross and it is important that they continue to feel safe doing so. 

When we turn our topic for discussion to “Balancing Business Enablers versus Business Risks” we see some reoccurring themes (Fitzgerald, D., 2012).  Under that category, there are regulatory government (scrutiny measures), data loss prevention (customer data), social media (cyber threats), mobile & emerging technology (cloud computing), threats & vulnerability management (hard-drive information), and cyber crisis management.  These could effect not only the disaster reaction of the orgnaiztion, but the education network.  Previously we had mentioned how volunteers private information is stored on the network and this information is allow them to work with Red Cross 

With these security risks in the background, American Red Cross has increased security mandates, boards are not accepting technology that could potentially pose a threat or harm the organization’s entirety. 

 They are working on how to protect the sensitive data in addition to making sure vulnerabilities to corporate assets are protected.   This is an ongoing project. 

Stakeholders are accountable for developing strategies for security risks management and privacy control.

Security risks in association with the organizations customers, partners, and suppliers, the American Red Cross had “never considered those individuals to as threats until the past 24 months” (Fitzgerald, D., 2012). Once they were considered a risk more was done to counteract the risk.

  Regarding mobile devices and social media, new safeguards are constantly being invented to protect the organization from security hackers that could affect that technology. The main concern was with the hand-held mobile devices and employees within the organization.  Since then, strategies have been incorporated enabling the corporation to stay abreast and monitor organization technology activities. 

It will be an ongoing effort in insure the safety and security  of all cyber areas for this great organization! 

 

References

Daniel.w.fitzgerald@us.pwc.com

Fitzgerald, D., (2012). Development national frameworks & engaging the private sector: focus on information/cyber security risk management [Multimedia]. Retrieved from Fitzgerald, D., website.

www.pwc.com

www.redcross.org