Reference no: EM133000009

DATA4000 Introduction to Business Analytics - Kaplan Business School

Your Task
Consider below information regarding two case studies. Choose ONE of the two case studies and using the resources listed, together with your own research, complete:
• Part A (Industry Report)
• Part B (Application for data access presentation)

Assessment Description

Option 1: Equifax

Background

Who is Equifax?
Equifax is a global company who provides data, analytics and technology services. Their main service involves providing credit ratings, credit reports and credit histories for loan applications. The main users of this service are banks, mortgage brokers and finance providers. Equifax provides credit reports by using the name, address, phone number, social security number and forms of identification such as a driver licence or passport. They therefore hold a database of all the individuals who have been input in the Equifax system.

History
Equifax started out in Australia as a mutual organization named Credit Reference Association. After being renamed to Veda Advantage in 2006, they became the first company in Australia to provide comprehensive reports of car histories. Veda Advantage was eventually purchased by Equifax (NYSE:EFX) in 2016 to become the leader in credit reports in Australia.

When an individual applies for any sort of financing, especially with banks, a thorough check is made on the client in order to assess the credit worthiness of the individual. This is to decrease the asymmetric information issue which arises in principal agent relationships. Equifax being the leader in credit reports in Australia and having a presence in 21 countries, the company has amassed a vast database of individuals and their financial information.

In September 2017, Equifax announced a breach in their system in which 147 million customers were affected. This large scale breach is believed to be one of the most substantial in history. The hackers were able to retrieve credit card numbers, social security numbers, identification numbers and more. During the case investigation, it was found that Equifax were made aware of the possibility of a breach six months prior but did not act to safeguard their data adequately. As a result, the company has had to pay $700 million to settle federal and state suits.

Issues with sharing and integration of personal credit and personal financial data

1. Security
Hackers were able to access the company's servers using a known vulnerability in the Equifax system. The servers were not properly segmented, hence the hackers were able to access unencrypted data from the customer complaint portal. Although this fault should have been rectified long before the breach, no actions were taken due to a defective internal system within the company. The company also did not announce the breach straight away. Firstly, it took Equifax 76 days to realise that hackers had entered their system. Moreover, it took the company more than a month after they were aware of the breach to disclose it to the public, giving the hackers ample time to mine a significant amount of data but also to sell it on the dark web if they wanted to.

2. Privacy
As a remedy to the breach, Equifax created a secondary domain called equifaxsecurity2017.com. This move was greatly criticized as the domain name resembles a phishing scam domain. It was said that customers would have trouble trusting the new website, especially since their personal information and identity had just been compromised.

Option 2: Facebook

Background

What is Facebook?
Facebook is an American social media platform which originated from the dorms of Harvard College. Mark Zuckerberg, along with four fellow students founded the platform and expanded the service continuously until 2006, where any individual over the age of 13 years were allowed to join Facebook.

History
Facebook has worked its way through the masses to become the leading social networking service provider, by acquiring giants such as Instagram in 2012 and Whatsapp in 2014. With the four most downloaded apps under their belt, the company holds extremely valuable data, which it uses to provide analytics solutions to companies and marketers.

In April 2020, Facebook announced another cyber-security breach regarding its database. This breach resulted in the profiles of 267 million people being sold on the dark web. The profiles included personal information such as e-mail addresses, names, phone numbers, etc being sold for a mere $623. The information stolen did not include passwords, but with the use of e-mail addresses and phone numbers, the individuals whose profiles were compromised are now at risk of falling victim of phishing e-mails and texts to retrieve passwords and other information.

The above breach is not the first one committed to the Facebook server. In September 2018, the personal information of nearly 50 million users was stolen from the Facebook network. This breach was the largest in the company's history at the time. The hackers used a vulnerability in the code of the social platform in order to gain control of the data. This has come at an opportune time for Facebook, as they were already under review for allegedly giving access to the data of 87 million users to a British analytics firm.

Issues with handling of personal data on and by social network platforms
1. Acquisition
Facebook was found to have logged data from its users' phones and collected their phone calls and SMS texts without having clearly informed the users. This goes against Facebook's earlier claim that they only acquired the data for those user who have "opted-in" to having their data collected.

2. Data Harvesting
In 2018, it was found that the data stored for around 50 million profiles had been harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a firm working with Donald Trump's election team. The British analytics company used the data to target users in the now POTUS's electoral campaign. This scandal arose after Facebook executives claimed that the company had stopped giving access to their data to third-party app developers.

Assessment Instructions

Part A: Industry Report (1800 words, 25 marks)- Individual

You are required to choose ONE of the two options provided above and evaluate the implications of the GDPR on the company's business model. The structure of your report should be as follows.

Your report needs to be structured in line with the Kaplan Business School Report Writing Guide and address the following areas:

• Data Usability
» Benefits and costs of the database to its stakeholders.
» Descriptive, predictive and prescriptive applications of the data available and the data analytics software tools this would require.

• Data Security and privacy
» Data security, privacy and accuracy issues associated with the database.

• Ethical Considerations
» The ethical considerations behind whether the user has the option to opt in or opt out of having their data stored.
» Other ethical issues of gathering, maintaining and using the data.

• Artificial Intelligence
» How developments in AI intersects with data security, privacy and ethics.

Part B: Presentation (5 minutes, 15 marks)

Instructions: Students to prepare a presentation of 10 - 12 slides. Students can use MS Powerpoint to organize their slide deck but other tools will be accepted as well (e.g. Prezi).

Imagine that you are an analyst from one of the companies wanting to access the data generated by your chosen company in Part A for an analytics-based research project.

Create a presentation of approximately 5 minutes in which you discuss how your organization uses its data and the broad implications involved. Discuss the issues below, and imagine you are communicating this presentation to government (regulators and / or legislators) as your audience.

Consider:

1. Why you want the data and the resulting benefits to the community;
2. How the data can be sourced ethically and securely;
3. How you will keep the data safe and de-identify individuals; and
4. How you will present the results and add insights in an ethical way.

Attachment:- Business Analytics.rar