Ethical hacking

Ethical hacking Chapter 1 Introduction Ethical hacking is an emerging tools used by most of the organizations for testing network security. The security risks and vulnerabilities in a network can be recognized with the help of ethical hacking. This research completely concentrates on ethical hacking, problems that may occur while hacking process is in progress and various ethical hacking tools available for organizations. Information is the important source for any organizations while executing business operations. Organizations and government agencies have to adopt ethical hacking tools in order secure important documents and sensitive information (Harold F. Tipton and Micki Krause, 2004). Ethical hacker professionals have to be hired in order to test the networks effectively. Ethical hackers perform security measure on behalf of the organization owners. In order to bring out the ethical hacking efforts perfectly a proper plan must be executed. Ethical hacking has the ability to suggest proper security tools that can avo id attacks on the networks. Hacking tools can be used for email systems, data bases and voice over internet protocol applications in order to make communications securely. Ethical hacking can also be known as penetration testing which can be used for networks, applications and operating systems (Jeff Forristal and Julie Traxler, 2001). Using hacking tools is a best method for identifying the attacks before it effect the entire organization. Ethical hackers are nothing but authorized users for the sensitive information or networks of an organization. Using hacking techniques for handling employees in organization and for solving critical judicial cases is not a crime. An ethical hacker use same tools and actions as performed by normal hacker. The main aspect in ethical hacking is that target permission is essential for performing hacking on the information. Ethical hacking can be used while performing security audits in the organization (Kevin Beaver, 2010). Thus, ethical hacking can help in testing the networks by finding out various vulnerabilities. In ethical hacking, a user will get permission to access the important data. Aims and Objectives Aim To investigate the importance of ethical hacking and its implementation in organizations Objectives Finding the importance of ethical hacking tools Understanding the ethical hacking process Implementing ethical hacking tools in an organization Purpose of Study The main of this research is to recognize ethical hacking tools that can be used in organizations and government agencies. Testing the networks is essential in order to maintain security for the organizational information. The difficulties in networks have to be recognized by the security professional so that they can be solved before effecting the organization operations (James S. Tiller, 2005). This research also focuses on carrying out the ethical hacking tools in a particular organization. The advantages of using ethical hacking in business firms can be evaluated by this study. Ethical hacking tools can be implemented in various fields of applications. Various security professionals can be efficient in ethical hacking tools by undergoing a training process. Another major intension of this research is to identify the importance of ethical hacking professionals in providing security to the networks. (Nina Godbole, 2008). Thus, this research entirely focuses on ethical hacking tools which can be implemented for testing the networks. Research Context This research on ethical hacking can be very useful to many organizations as it can provide clear idea about hacking tools. Security professionals and normal users have to be trained well in order to use hacking tools. The importance of ethical hacking while solving many judicial cases can be identified with the help of this research. Management of an organization can be benefited largely through implementing hacking tools. Hacking tools implementation process can be understood with the help of this research (Ronald L. Krutz and Russell Dean Vines, 2007). Network security or data security engineers in organization will come to know about new ethical hacking methods and techniques that are available in the present market by concentrating on this research. The concepts in this study provide knowledge related to security improvements. Business users can hack the data in order to use it for the purpose of evaluating a correct process. Management has to take precautionary measures while a llowing the professional to hack ethically because data may be misused (Rajat Khare, 2006). Scholars who concerned with information security can take the help of this study for attaining the knowledge on hacking systems. Many organizations are encouraging ethical hacking professionals in order to control their business operations effectively. Email systems, data bases and communication applications can avoid or identify attacks by adopting the hacking tools. Malicious attacks on the information or software can be prevented by implementing this research while using ethical hacking tools. The organizations that concerned with security in networks have to use ethical hacking tools (Greg Meyer and Steven Casco, 2002). Hence from the above discussion it can be understood that, business firms, investigating agencies, government systems and web users can make use of this research to achieve the important information in authorized manner. Chapter 2:Literature Review Ethical Hacking and its importance The word hacking is defined as an illegal use of the others computer system or the network resources. Hacker is the term which is formerly meant for the skillful programmer. This is mostly found in the countries like United States and many other countries. The word hacker refers to the names of the persons who enjoys the work in learning the details of the computer systems and stretch the capabilities from the system (Rajat Khare, 2006). The system of hacking describes the fast improvement in the new programs that make the codes for the providing a better security to the system with more efficiency. The word cracker also belongs to the same field it make use of the hacking skills for the unlawful purposes like email id, intruding into others system. Hacking is of different types such as back door hacking, viruses and worms, Trojan horses, Denial of Services, anarchists, crackers, kiddies and ethical hacking (Kevin Beaver, 2010). In the types of hacking system one of the most common h acking is ethical hacking. This is defined as the services that provides the securities for the customers networks, information assets and identifies the vulnerabilities to maintain the reputation of the corporate sectors before it exploit the company. This type of the hacking system provides the high securities to the customers methodologies and techniques to yield high qualities of infrastructures. The ethical hacking system includes some of the service like: Application Testing War Dialing Network Testing Wireless Security System Hardening Application Testing This is an uncover design or the logic flaws which result in the compromising with the unauthorized accessing of the systems, networks, applications or the information regarding the systems. This application testing is used for investigating and identifying the extent and the criticality of the problems exposure to the thick client (Java) and thin client (web browsers) applications. This application testing includes the services like client-side application testing and web application testings (Joel Scambray, Mike Shema and Caleb Sima, 2006). The client-side application testing is the process of developing the software that is used for the measuring the integrated security into the client software constituents. In this system this testing application is based on the gathering of the information by observer using the reverse engineering system. War Dialing This is one of the services that are provided by ethical hacking. War dialing is a method of dialing a modem number to identify open modem connection that supplies access in a remote way to a network for targeting a particular system (Kimberly Graves, 2007). This word is originated from the day the when the internet has come into the existence in most of the companies. This follows the method of scanning to find the strength of the network connection. The tools of War dialing work on the concept that organizations do not pay attention to dial-in ports like they do towards the firewalls. Network Testing The networking testing services of the ethical hacking provides the information on the exposures of the network, services, and solutions on the convergence, protocols and system devices including the virtual private network technologies. This testing process includes a number of constitutes in external and internal devices. It also analyzes the applications of the voice over Internet protocol within the environment of the organization (Greg Meyer and Steven Casco, 2002). The main goal of the network testing application is to make obvious demonstration of the political effects on its development. By making use of this application into the organization, it provides a complete enlightenment to the work for determining the result in the organization. Wireless Security Wireless security services measures the security in the available architecture to provide a guidelines to ensure the system integrity and accessibility of the resources. The working of wireless security is based on the three phases. In the first phase of the operation it identifies the activeness of the wireless networks (Cyrus Peikari and Seth Fogie, 2003). The team of the ethical hacking demonstrates the exposure to the attackers with the space in the wireless network. In the seconds phase of this system it implements a normal users to evaluate the measures of the security that secures the infrastructures of the organization to control the accessing of the devices. During the third phase the team will try to utilize the discovered threats to gain access on other networks. This provides the security in wireless local area network, virtual private network, intrusion detection system and wireless public key infrastructure. System Hardening The system hardening stresses on the network vicinity. Security is the prime factor that determines the level of integrity of the information and resources used in the computing. Effective deployment of the security controls unauthorized, accidental disruption if resources in information technology (Kevin Beaver and Peter T. Davis, 2005). The system hardening assessment is complemented in three phases. The ethical hacking team will analyze the network to identify the loop holes in security updates and other frequent security defects. Scanning of the remote access devices is done for finding out the vulnerabilities. The configuration vulnerabilities and missing security updates are determined in the initial phase. In the second step the host operating system is examined to determine the services available for remote users and their level of impact. All the TCP/IP services and also the Telnet, FTP, Send-mail, DNS and others are tested (James S. Tiller, 2005). The packet fragmenting and loose source routing are used in an attempt to bypass filtering routers and firewalls. The last phase is complicated as the team uses the information gathered from the first two steps to mine the weaknesses and threats that were identified to gain access to the host system. Before the start of the three steps the boundaries for actions and events are determined. Hence from the above context it can be stated that ethical hacking is a methodology that is used for gathering the information on the hacker. The ethical hacker is the expert who is hired by an organization to solve the problems related to hacking in their network and computer system. Need for Ethical Hacking The process of employing someone to hack ones company is ethical hacking. Ethical hacking is one of the tools that are used to judge the security programs of the organizations. It is also referred as penetrating testing, red teaming, intrusion testing, vulnerability and even security judgments. Each one these has different meanings in different countries. Hacking is also described as new development of the existing programs, software and code. It makes them better and more efficient (James S. Tiller, 2005). Ethical hacker can know the details of computer while hacking and become the security professional. It involves in foot-printing, scanning, tacking all the secured information. Ethical means a philosophy with morality. Hackers hack systems to detect dangerous, unauthorized access and misuse (Shon Harris, Allen Harper, Chris Eagle and Jonathan Ness, 2007). Threat and vulnerability are the two dangers the hacker has to face. The hacking report must be confidential as it should face the organizations security risks. If this goes wrong in any way the organization results in fatal, penalties and loss. For example: computer crime is done by misuse of their hacking skills. The need to hack is for catching the thief. Ethical hacking is the correct method to make your computers work properly (Kevin Beaver, 2010). Ethical hacker needs higher level skills compared to penetration testing. Penetration testing is same as ethical hacking but the hacker uses the penetrating tools and tests the security danger. Ethical hacking is known as White Hat in some of the literature. It tests both the security and protective issues whereas penetrating test mainly leads with the security issues (Asoke K. Talukder and Manish Chaitanya, 2008). Some of the websites and companies offer the training, but they cannot be created they are self-made. Various types of testing need different types of softwares and tools. Game freaks use hacking technology in order to win the game. Hackers will d iscover many ways to hack like trial and error method, operating systems, online and determining the threats. Ethical hacking is done by hackers on behalf of the owners, and in normal hacking they use their skills for personal use (Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Micheal Cross, 2008). Cyber terrorism includes common hacking techniques such like viruses, email bombs and natural disasters. Thus ethical hacking is done by hackers on owners request. Mainly this is seen in corporate companies and organizations. Ethical hacking techniques are used for game cheat codes, hacking accounts and other for good result. Majorly used for fight against cyber terrorism and to take preventive action on hackers Types of ethical hackings Ethical hackers use various methods for breaking the security system in the organizations in the period of cyber attack. Various types of ethical hacks are: Remote Network: This process in especially utilized to recognize the attacks that are causing among the internet. Usually the ethical hacker always tries to identify the default and proxy information in the networks some of then are firewalls, proxy etc. Remote dial up network: Remote dial up network hack identify and try to protest from the attack that is causing among the client modern pool. For finding the open system the organizations will make use of the method called war dialing for the representative dialing. Open system is one of the examples for this type of attacks. Local Network: local network hack is the process which is used to access the illegal information by making use of someone with physical access gaining through the local network. To start on this procedure the ethical hacker should ready to access the local network directly. Stolen Equipment: By making use of the stolen equipment hack it is easy to identify the information of the thefts such as the laptops etc. the information secured by the owner of the laptop can be identified (Kimberly graves, 2007). Information like username, password and the security settings that are in the equipment are encoded by stealing the laptop. Social engineering: A social engineering attack is the process which is used to check the reliability of the organization; this can be done by making use of the telecommunication or face to face communication by collecting the data which can be used in the attacks (Bryan Foss and Merlin Stone, 2002). This method is especially utilized to know the security information that is used in the organizations. Physical Entry: This Physical entry organization is used in the organizations to control the attacks that are obtained through the physical premises (Ronald l. Krutz and russel dean Vines, 2007). By using the physical entire the ethical hacker can increase and can produce virus and other Trojans directly onto the network. Application network: the logic flaws present in the applications may result to the illegal access of the network and even in the application and the information that is provided in the applications. Network testing: In this process it mainly observes the unsafe data that is present in the internal and the external network, not only in the particular network also in the devices and including the virtual private network technologies Wireless network testing: In this process the wireless network reduces the network liability to the attacker by using the radio access to the given wireless network space. Code review: This process will observe the source code which is in the part of the verification system and will recognize the strengths and the weakness of the modules that are in the software. War dialing: it simply identifies the default information that is observed in the modem which is very dangerous to the corporate organizations. Techniques and tools required for ethical hacking Ethical hacker needs to understand how to find the network range and subnet mask of the target system. IP addresses are used to locate, scan and connect the target systems. Ethical hacker also should find out the geographical location of target system. This can be done by tracing the messages that are sent to destination and the tools used are traceroute, Visual route and NeoTrace to identify the route the target (Kimberly Graves, 2007). Ethical hacking should use right tools or else task accomplishment of task effectively is difficult. Many security assessment tools will produce false positive and negative or may they even miss susceptibility to attacks. In case of tests in case of physical security assessments they miss weakness. In order for ethical hacking specific tools have to be used for the task chosen. The easier the ethical hacking will become if many tools are used. The right tool must be used at right place. The characteristics in tools for ethical hacking is it should ha ve sufficient document, detailed reports should be there on the discovered attacks regarding their fixing and explosion, Updates and support. The general tools used for ethical hacking in case to find passwords are cracking tools such as LC4, John the Ripper and pwdump (Bragg, Mark Phodes Ousley and Keith Strassberg, 2004). The general tools like port scanner like SuperScan cannot be used to crack passwords. The Web-assessment tools such as Whisker or WebInspect tools are used for analysis of Web applications in depth. Whereas network analyzer tools such as ethereal cannot give good results. While using the tools for any particular task it is better to get feedback from the simple Google searches such as SecurityFocus.com, SearchSecurity.com and Itsecurity.com will give nice feedback from the other security experts which makes ethical hacking easy and to select the right tool. Some of the commercial, freeware and open source security tools are Nmap (Network Mapper), Etherpeek, Super Scan, QualysGuard, WebInspect and LC4, LANguard Network Security Scanner, Network Stumbler and ToneLoc. The capabilities of many security and hacking tools are often misunderstood, such as SATAN (Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks) and Nmap. The other popular tools used in ethical hacking are Internet scanner, Ethreal, Nessus, Nikto, Kismet and THC-Scan (Kevin Beaver, 2007). Cain and able is a ethical tool used for recovery of windows UNIX problems. This is only password recovery tool handles an enormous variety of tasks. It can recover the password by sniffing the network, cracking the encrypted passwords using Dictionary and Cryptanalysis, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, revealing the password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. Ethereal is a fantastic open source tool used as network protocol for UNIX and Windows. It allows examining the data which is present in disk or file and can capture the data. This is also known as Wire shark. It has many powerful features which have very rich display filter language and ability to view the TCP session. Another cracking tool Aircrack is the fastest available cracking tool (John Hyuk Park, Hsiao-Hwa Chen and Mohammed Atiquzzaman, 2009). Thus proper tools and techniques has to be used for better hacking and it will be easier by using more and more tools required. Hacking operating system Linux is the operating system which is most useful software that supports and will be helpful to identify the passwords and uses in detecting interruption there are many software tools are utilized for the hacking and security tools are used for the Linux. The tools which are using in this are not harmful tools this is especially used to protect. John the ripper: John the ripper is nothing but password hacking software technique which is usually used to develop for the UNIX operating system. This the most significant process which is used for password testing as it joins all password crackers into single package and the auto detects password hash types which involves the customizable cracker (Ryan, David R. Mirza Ahmad, 2002). It can be run among the different encrypted password methods which involves various crypt password hash forms where usually found on the different UNIX operating systems that is based on the DES, MD5 etc, Kerberos AFS and windows like XP, 200etc.Generally passwords are placed in the LDAP and other tools. Various types of components are used to expand the capability and for involving the MD4 related password hashes. The other one is the NMAP; Nmap is the used to protect the network. It is especially used to identify the network related services on the computer network by generating the map of the network . Nmap is having the ability to identify the services on the computer network instead of this it never advertises its service detection protocol (James turnbull, 2005). However the Nmap can collect many details regarding the remote computers. This will involve the operating system, and uptimes etc are the software products that are used to execute the service, and are used to involve on the local area networks and also on the dealer of the remote network card. Nmap can be run on the linux. Linux is the most important operating system and the windows are the second most important operating system. The other operating system used is Nessus, this software is used to scan the virus. The main aim of this software is used to identify the virus on the tested system such as; the virus will permit the data on to the network (Mark Carey, Russ Rogers, Paul Criscuolo and mike Petruzzi, 2008). Default passwords are utilized on the network accounts. This software is also called as the external to ol which is used to launch the attack. By making use of the mangled packets rejection of the service among the TCP/IP can be done. Nessus the best software used to scan the virus. Many organizations through out the world are using this software. The check Rootkit is the normal program which helps the administrator to check their system for the known rootkits ( James Turnbull, 2005). This program is the shell script by using the LINUX tools similar to the strings and the grep commands to seek out to carry out the core programs for the signatures with the executed process status command to look for inconsistency. This program alternatively use own commands to run. This tool will permit check rootkit to get confident the commands upon which it depend a bit more. Applications and resources Ethical hacking is nothing but the one which performs the hacks as security tests for their systems. Ethical hacking can be used in many applications in case of web applications which are often beaten down. This generally includes Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) applications are most frequently attacked because most of the firewalls and other security are things has complete access to these programs from the Internet. Malicious software includes viruses and Trojan horses which take down the system. Spam is a junk e-mail which causes violent and needless disturbance on system and storage space and carry the virus, so ethical hacking helps to reveal such attacks against in computer systems and provides the security of the system. The main application of this is to provide the security on wireless infrastructure which is the main purpose of present business organization (BT, 2008). Ethical hacking has become main stream in organizations which are wishing to test their intellectual and technical courage against the underworld. Ethical hacking plays important role in providing security. Resources are the computer related services that performs the tasks on behalf of user. In Ethical hacking the resources are the core services, objects code etc (James Tiller S, 2005). The ethical hacking has advantages of gaining access to an organizations network and information systems. This provides the security in the area of Information technology called as Infosec. This provides security to the high level attacks such as viruses and traffic trough a firewall. This has been providing the security for various applications which are even bypassing the firewalls, Intrusion-detection systems and antivirus software. This includes hacking specific applications including coverage of e-mails systems, instant messaging and VOIP (voice over IP). The resources i.e. devices, systems, and applications that are generally used while performing the ha cking process are Routers, Firewalls, Network infrastructure as a whole, wireless access points and bridges, web application and database servers, E-mail and file servers, workstations, laptops and tablet PCs, Mobile devices, client and server operating systems, client and server applications (Kevin Beaver, 2007). Ethical hacking tests both the safety and the security issues of the programs (Ashoke Talukder K and Manish Chaitanya, 2008). Hence from the above context it can be stated as the ethical hacking is important in the present scenario as providing security is very important now a day. This is very important in web applications as the hacking can be easily done in this case. Problems Ethical hacking is the backbone of network security. The basic problems with this is trustworthiness of the Ethical hacker because lets take an example if a person has been appointed to do Ethical hacking, to provide security for the bank financial issues if the person is not trust to believe this is not safe as the person only considered as thief. Sometimes the big organizations face any problem like there passwords has been hack, this case hiring professionals is very expensive and the organization need to spend a lot on this (Ethical Hacking, 2009). Ethical hacking is just the security to the problem it is not the ultimate solution to it. Ethical hacking report must be kept confidential because they highlight the organizations security risks and attacks. If this document has been falls into the wrong hand the result would be very disastrous for the organization, the main drawback here is the entire information of the organization will be in hands of wrong person and which leads to the loss of the company (Kimberly Graves, 2007). Ethical hacking generally involves breaking down the computer applications and by collecting specific information from the target the ethical hacker can successful to access the information and can reveal it. This results in that highly sensitive information about the targets security capabilities is collected and maintained far away from the owners control. If this information fall into wrong hands results in real attack on the company and another problem is if the information is leaked to the public or stockholders, the business will be in risk, which results in all types of disasters, including negative character by media, loss of customers and legal consequences (James Tiller S, 2005). Ethical hacking use tools while it performing the activity, if the methods and tools are used incorrectly they cause damage (Dr. Bruce Hartly V, 2003). Hence from the above context it can be stated as Ethical hacking provides security but behind th at it provides the disadvantages like the Ethical hacker should be trusted by the organization or business and in case sometimes highly professionals may cost the organization very much so that company has to provide from the unplanned budget and if it goes into the wrong persons hand the business will be in danger and loss of the organization will takes place. Chapter 3: Research Methodology of Hacking Data types: Data type is defined as the format of a data storage which is used to store different set of values. It tells about which type of data to be stored and where to be stored. Data is stored in computer memory. There are two types of data. They are primary data and secondary data. Both primary and secondary data illustrates the gathering of information and to satisfy the goals of business. Primary data is nothing but it is the data which is collected newly and for the first time. The primary data is original. It is the fresh data and is never gathered before. Secondary data is the data which is collected by others (Norman Blaikie, 2009). The data is collected from newspapers, magazines and journals. Secondary data is gathered before primary data since it is time consuming. Data is gathered newly in case of primary data so it takes much time. Secondary data consumes less time. Primary data is used in ethical hacking since the data gathered in this type of data is very efficient. Ethical h acking is used legally for the official purposes. Since primary data is unique and is not compared with any one, it is used in the process of ethical hacking (Rajat Khare, 2006) Hence from the above context it can be said that data types are useful in the ethical hacking. Case study: According to media and people the word hacking denotes misuse and collapse of computers. They describe it as unfair method of solving the problem. In the view of ethical hackers the word hacking refers to creative. One of the organization namely Amazon, it is not proposed to point out the lesser features but deals with tricks for working the company efficiently. Hackers and developers will create new characteristics for Amazon. They bring out the creative thinking and innovative ideas by their work in company (Paul Bausch, 2003). Mainly the ethical hacking is the good way to improve the existing methods and qualities. Many organizations follow these because one can know the administrative password of employees, can reach the behaviour of them and working performance. Employee performance and his project carryout can be studied through ethical hacking. These hackings look easy for them since they are engaged with the security firms to protect the Amazon fields. Not only in Amazon in e ach and every organization is this steps fol

Ethics and Leadership in Engineering

Engineers play a significant part in the development, prosperity and safety of people around the globe. The primary role of engineers is to identify/sense and respond to a need by constructing or creating a solution with certain specific guidelines. While it is the responsibility of engineers to develop such structures, it is also their responsibility that their creation serves the function in a proper manner, take all safety precautions while making it and give the safety directions to the users after handing it over. Discussion These structures, however, do not stay safe forever. No matter how safe a construction or a creation is, it reveals its failure after sometime. Eventually these failures lead to dire consequences some time. Engineers struggle all the time to avoid failures and make their solution safer and more efficient. Sometime mere lacking of professional ethics is the reason. In UK, the seriousness of ethical issues, which arise in professional lives of engineers, has been recognized recently. However, in USA this has been recognized for some time. Their universities offer substantial guidance and support to their professionals. The Royal Academy of Engineering, in 2005, initiated the process and brought its publishing in the form of â€Å"Statement of Ethical Principles†, which outlines the specific ways in which engineers across UK are committed to upholding certain ethical values. During the same time, UK Engineering Council amended its standards for chartered and incorporated engineers, in order to increase awareness of ethical issues. It appears that this has resulted in having a profound effect as many universities have incorporated ethical perspective in their studies. Professional Engineers strive to develop solutions that improve the health and safety conditions for the welfare of society. The statement of Ethical Principles sets standards for professional Engineers (Statement of Ethical Principles. 2005). It presents four principles that guide engineers in their professional duties. It includes Accuracy and Rigour, Honesty and Integrity, Respect for life, Law and the Public Good, and Responsible Leadership. Accuracy and Rigour means, Engineers have the responsibility to acquire and sustain the information relevant to their practices; they should also keep their knowledge up to date. It is also the responsibility to always act with care as their profession requires a strong commitment. They should only perform their services in the field of relevant competence. Since the technical knowledge, an Engineer can understand are not easy for the others, therefore, it is the duty of engineers to not knowingly mislead others as it can have dire consequences and therefore unethical. Honesty and Integrity means; engineers should act with high standards of professional ethics. They should not accept any bribery or questionable payment from anyone. They should act in the best interest of employer, unless it is not in conflict with rights of the other party. Respect for Life, Law and the Public Good, entails that engineers should be aware of relevant laws and regulations and should work accordingly. Conservation of nature and its resources should be a priority. They should act in the best manner that does not bring bad image to their profession. Responsible Leadership involves practicing high level of standards and leadership in the management of technology. Provide awareness to the public. Listen to the concern of the society. Adhering to these principles will bring good name to the profession and will make sure that it achieves what it is meant to be, welfare of society. However, we can have numerous examples from the past, of such negligence and improper conduct in this respected profession. In past successive accidents of railway occurred in UK, which were later fully investigated. These include the accident of Clapham Junction rail crash, on 12 December 1988. 35 people killed while 100 injured, when oncoming train ran into wreckage. Another on, 19 September 1997, Southall rail crash, killed 6 people and 150 injured. It occurred because of a collision with freight train. On 5 October 1999, Ladbroke Grove rail crash happened, when train passed the signal at danger and resulted in the head on collision, killed 21 while 523 injured. Investigation reports show that these could have been prevented by timely action of professional engineers. In America, a TV Antenna Tower collapsed in 1982, killing several people. Later investigation showed that safety measures were not taken as should have been (Uff, 2012, Pp13). Conclusion Engineering is a much respected profession. This respect demands responsibility. Adhering to rules but there arise ethical responsibilities too. However, if professional engineers stick to the four principles and apply them in their activities, it will surely add more value to this profession for sure. Running Head: leadership techniques Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing. [Name of writer] [Name of institution] Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing Thesis Statement â€Å"Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing†. Introduction â€Å"Leaders create and change cultures, while managers and administrators live within them.† (Edward Schein) Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing. Leader also sounds similar to the manager to the common man. But we know there are subtle differences. It takes a totally different approach to become a leader. These subtle differences create the difference that is visible in performances of organizations. There have been many theories on leadership and management. Talking about whether a manager is born or developed, what styles are of management exist and which is appropriate. Also, what a leader does, where his/her power comes from. First of all we will differentiate between a leader and a manager. Then we will discuss some models and theories related to it. Discussion The role of a manager is to achieve goals effectively and efficiently, by planning, organizing, co-ordinating and controlling. The importance of time is immense. On the other hand, leaders create and communicate a vision, then energise their followers towards achieving that vision. Leaders create a culture of shared values, beliefs and rituals to challenge the status quo. Managers use position authority to make subordinates work towards goals. While leaders motivate and inspire their followers to achieve their goals. Today the trait theory (born leaders) is criticized more. It is argued that even leadership has different styles, which are learned with experience rather than born traits (Daft, 2003, Pp.518). Ashridge Management College did research and found four major classifications of management styles. Tells, sells, consults, join. In tell style, the manager is autocratic, making a decision and imposing it on others. In sell style, manager still makes a decision on self like basis, but try to explain the logic behind it. In consult style, manager makes decision but in consultation with his/her subordinates. The most democratic style is join style, where manager himself becomes part of the team that makes joint decisions, and also claims the responsibility of that decision afterwards. Research indicates managers are generally thought to be having told or sell style. While employees prefer consult style. Choosing which style is more appropriate, depends on several factors. Contingency approach by Charles Handy suggests that four factors need to be understood to answer this question. The environment, task or people, trust or control, liking or respect (Schermerhorn 2012, Pp.266). Each particular combination of these factors results in a different situation and, therefore, requires a different tailored approach of management towards it (Robbins & Judge, 2010, Pp.393). Michigan and Harvard identified two basic types of leaders. Task oriented and people or relation oriented leaders. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Ohio state research suggests that task orientation and people orientation can be achieved simultaneously; they are not mutually exclusive. Blake’s management grid proves this research by suggesting rather than asking a question that a manager should be task or people oriented; ask to what extent a manager should be task and people oriented (Daft, 2003, Pp.522). Managers and leaders differ in their approaches towards performing similar tasks. The approach of management is routine in nature. They like to work under conditions of certainty, strive to gain as much information as they gain, take relatively less risk. Leaders on the hand challenge the status quo. They talk about changing the culture and create followers with their motivation and persuasions skills. Leaders create a shared culture towards achieving the vision that followers own. Conclusion Who is best, a leader or manager is, however, a question depending on what needs to be accomplished. If it is a routine or not so dynamic environment, then decision tilts in favour towards manager. While if it involves dealing with changing and fluctuating situation with lots of risk involved then it will require the initiative approach of a leader.

Management of Marketable Securities Essay

Cash and marketable securities are normally treated as one item in any analysis of current assets and holding cash in excess of immediate requirement means that the firm is missing out an opportunity income. Excess cash thus is normally invested in marketable securities, which serves two purposes namely providing liquidity and also earning a return. Investing surplus cash in marketable securities is normally a part of overall cash management. The task of financial managers, who become involved with marketable securities either full time or part time consists of three issues. Initially the managers must understand the detailed characteristics of different short term investment opportunities. Secondly, managers must understand the markets in which those investment opportunities are taught and sold. Finally managers must develop a strategy for deciding when to buy and sell marketable securities, which securities to hold, and how much to buy or sell in each transaction. Need for investment in securities: Marketable securities result from investment decisions that really are not the main part of the firm’s business; however, marketable securities cannot be ignored, as they constitute a part of the value of the firm that is entrusted to management. However, they cannot use the short term surplus cash flows for any long term purposes. Surplus cash is thus invested in marketable securities primarily to earn an income, which otherwise remains idle within the firm. Companies which were flushed with money at one point of time and investing heavily in marketable securities, may issue short term securities to other and borrow money at another point of time. Another prominent reason for holding marketable securities is on account of mismatch between the borrowing and investment programs. Types of marketable securities: Marketable securities available for investments can be grouped under several ways and they can be classified under three broad heads namely debt securities, equity securities and contingent claim securities which in turn can be grouped under several heads. Debt securities: There are different kinds of debt securities namely money market instruments and capital market debt instruments. Money market instruments can be called as call money, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, banker acceptances, government securities or securities guaranteed by the government. Capital market debt instruments can be further subdivided into treasury notes and treasury bonds, Public sector undertaking bonds, corporate bonds etc. Students in order to get good grades in their examinations have to listen the lectures delivered by the teachers and professors keenly; they should allot certain number of hours for home preparation and in case of need they can get home tuition and by clicking the educational websites, they can also learn the topics by help available through finance homework. Reference: http://classof1.com/homework-help/finance-homework-help

Systems Essay Example for College Students - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 12 Words: 3505 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Report Did you like this example? Executive Summary The companys profits are falling and there is a build-up of inventory within the production process. This report considers three management systems which could rectify the situation. Considering theory of constraints, just in time and programme evaluation and review technique, the report recommends that more information regarding the cause of the problems is undertaken, and a suitable programme of revaluation of the business processes is undertaken. Introduction The role of management accounting in the organisation has become so much more that the reporting of the score to managers (Hansen, Mouritsen 2006). In the wake of the decline of Western Manufacturing and the relevance crisis of management accounting to modern business as outlined by Kaplan and Johnson in ‘Relevance Lost, the traditional cost accounting approach has been largely replaced by alternative methodologies (Kee, Schmidt 2000). The role of the management accounting in the modern firm is not only to report the score, but to seek to influence the score by using techniques and theoretical approaches to improve the business processes. As such it is important for managers to understand the use and usefulness of a variety of alternatives to traditional accounting approaches, especially traditional cost accounting and look to introduce other techniques which may have practical advantages for the firm (Dugdale, Jones 1998). There is no one size fits all approach which w ill work in any case and the application of cost accounting can and will always provide key information about how the business is doing in terms of its goals. Indeed many of the newer techniques focus on particular applications within industry and each of them has something to offer the firm in terms of improving the business processes (Plenert 1993). This report considers three approaches in the context of practical application to a range of common problems, problems which may be responsible for the inventory build-up of the firm in question and its declining profits. The approaches are the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the attendant logic of Throughput Accounting (TA), Just in Tim Inventory Management (JIT) and wider implications to ‘Lean manufacturing methodologies and the Program Evaluation and Review Technique framework (PERT). The report outlines the main features of these methodologies and the advantages and limitations of them with specific reference to their usefulness in a variety of practical situations. The report concludes that each of the methodologies has something to offer and that any management decision must be based on the goals and objectives of the company and its strategic direction. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Systems Essay Example for College Students" essay for you Create order Theory of Constraints and Throughput Accounting Developed by E.M. Goldratt as a response to the criticisms of traditional cost accounting, the TOC states that the traditional variable costs of Cost Accounting do not apply, or rather, they apply with less rigour in a modern management situation (Bragg 2007). In the past Labour was seen as a totally variable cost, workers would work to the managements discretion and short time and layoffs were dictated by the level of production need. Goldratt argued that this was no longer the case as changes to society and legislation had meant that the workforce was more of a fixed cost for the organisation (Wei, Liu et al. 2002). The TOC states that even though modern managers are still evaluated by labour use, such efficiencies can lead to decisions which harm the organisation rather than help optimise production. This criticism led Goldratt to develop the TOC as an alternative system, identifying ‘constraint as a decision relevant concept in the service or production process (Wat son, Blackstone et al. 2007). The central idea to TOC and TA is that each organisation has a specific goal (or a set of specific goals) which can be effected by decision making, better decision making leads to better completion of the goals (Linhares 2009). If one takes the normative assumption of a profit orientated organisation as the maximisation of the owners wealth, then the ‘goal unit will be the ‘throughput contribution (TC) which is similar to the ‘total contribution marginal costing (Hansen, Mouritsen 2006). The difference in TA is that ‘throughput contribution is defined in the TOC as Sales (S), less total variable cost (TVC) which is he cost of raw materials (not labour). This is placed in the context of two further conceptual mechanisms, Investment (I), which refers to money tied up in the system in terms of inventory and work in progress, as well as with machinery and buildings and the like, the second is Operating Expense (OE) which is the money spent by the system on generating goal units, but not the cost of raw materials, so items such as utilities and wages (Davies, Mabin et al. 2005). This delineation of the costs of production and services allows the processes to be viewed in terms of a number of optimization questions. Typically firms need to ask themselves how throughput (TC) can be increased, how Investment (I) can be reduced and how Operating Expense (OE) can be reduced. These questions in turn will affect the Net Profit, Return on Investment, Productivity and Investment. Therefore it can be argued that the maximisation of throughput contribution is key to the maximisation of all of the above key performance indicators. The firm can seek to maximise TC by optimising a number of aspects of the production processes. There are five common steps associated with this process; Identify the system constraints Exploit the system constraints Subordinate everything else to the decisions made Elevate the systems constraints Restart the process if a constraint has been broken The following example illustrates the process. Company A has two workers and produces two products (Workers, A,B, Products X Y). Product Y Requires ten minutes of Worker As time, and product X requires fifteen minutes. Potential demand for X is 100 units, for Y is 50 units. If the total time available to worker A is 2000 minutes per week Worker A is not a constraint as the total time to manufacture both products is equal to the total available time (15 minutes x 100, 10 minutes x 50 = 2000 minutes). Worker B also works on the two products but takes 15 minutes on both products (15 minutes x 100, 15 minutes x 50 = 2250), assuming that Worker B has the same maximum time available (2000 minutes) there is a constraint around Worker B. Thus the constraint has been identified. Step two seeks to exploit the constraint. Concentrating on Worker B as this is where the constraint occur, the exploitation of the constraint means the company (according to its goal of maximising wealth ) needs to make a decision based on how to allocate production. To do this the managers need to know what the Throughput Contribution is for each unit. Assume that TC for product X is  £75 per unit and for product Y it is  £120 per unit. The constraint here is time, measured in units of a minute, therefore the TC per unit of constraint is found by dividing the TC by the time taken with each worker, at the point of constraint this is as follows (X, 75/15 =  £5, Y, 120/15 =  £8.33), as there are only 2000 minutes available the TOC suggests that all 50 units of product Y should be produced with a total time taken of (50 x 15 = 750, TC =  £8.33 x 750 =  £6247.5) leaving 1250 minutes to produce product X (TC 1250 x  £5 =  £6250). Net profit will therefore be (6247.5 + 6250 =  £12497.5). In this example this is how the TOC makes all other considerations subordinate to this decision. TOC does have its problems, it makes many of the normative assumptions about the behaviour of costs that traditional cost accounting does, and largely ignores costs of changing the activities of many of the business processes to suit a particular set of circumstances (Rand 2000). Yet it is a powerful decision making tool and one which, if used properly can alter the success of a manufacturing process in terms of the goal of maximising the wealth of the company . Just In Time (JIT) JIT Inventory Management is one of a set of ‘Lean manufacturing methodologies which has grown out of the Japanese Approach to management accounting (Abdul-Nour, Lambert et al. 1998). In particular much of modern JIT management is based on the Kanban system of Inventory management which is a part of the Toyota Production System (TPS) which is famous the world over for its efficiency and speed to market with new products (Houghton, Portougal 1997). JIT as a part of a Lean system relies upon the pull of the market rather than the push of production targets and generally states that investment in inventory, both in terms of raw materials and work in progress, also finished goods, represents a waste to the company (White, Prybutok 2001). JIT requires the accurate organisation of the production process in terms of both processes and components of production and finds a minimum level of stock holding at every level of the process. The original Kanban system was based around a set of two cards which accompanied an individual component through the production process. At each point where a component was removed from stock to be used in a process of manufacturing one of the cards would be returned to the previous process to alert that process that another was required. This meant that without the aid of sophisticated computers the TPS managed to cut its value of stock in the factory to a fraction of what it had been, requiring less investment of working capital, lower overheads in terms of storage and warehousing, and less risk of over production of any components or of finished goods (Abdul-Nour, Lambert et al. 1998). JIT is a system which has largely been adopted in many of the larger production facilities which have adopted ‘Lean technology. These range from most car manufacturers to manufacturers of high technology. But there is growing evidence that it may be very useful in terms of the smaller manufacturer, and even the service industry, especially as the cost of raw materials is rising in the face of increased demand for core materials (Abdul-Nour, Lambert et al. 1998, Khan, Sarker 2002). JIT is difficult to implement and requires considerable investment in the production processes (Hansen, Mouritsen 2006, Houghton, Portougal 1997). It is impossible to implement JIT unless there has been a programme of business process redesign to allow such minimum stock levels to be held, and this can present a large investment cost in the firm which may or may not ultimately benefit from such an inventory management programme. JIT requires the firm to invest heavily in partnerships with suppliers as well and to evaluate the supply chain from almost every angle to prevent a total collapse of the production system (David, Eben-Chaime 2003). This is because there is little room for error in the process, if demand is poorly predicted and is higher than expected then the firm will run out of the raw materials of production and may lose custom (Kelle, Al-khateeb et al. 2003). If lower than predicted the firm will not have the capacity to store inventory (die to process redesign). Further if suppliers fail to deliver for any reason the process will come to an abrupt halt. JIT therefore requires a significant amount of managerial information from both the external market and the internal processes to get right and there have been many cases of difficult implementation, especially in smaller companies (Abdul-Nour, Lambert et al. 1998). Notwithstanding this there is a lot of evidence that with more and sophisticated modelling techniques from increasingly advanced technology, JIT systems are getting easier to implement (White, Prybutok 2001, Yasin, Small et al. 1997). Therefore as long as the systems are set up correctly there are major advantages in reducing the waste of inventory throughout the process of manufacturing. Because of its requirements, and making everything subordinate to the level o f inventory, it is not applicable for JIT systems to be used in conjunction with the Theory of Constraints, as managers are unable to subordinate all decisions within the production process to a ‘bottleneck. Therefore some would argue that JIT systems are less flexible, or certainly allow less flexibility that TOC does (Yasin, Small et al. 1997). Programme Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) Put simply a PERT map is a model of complex processes which occur to facilitate an outcome (Castro, Gà ³mez et al. 2008). The PERT framework is very similar and often used in conjunction with a critical pathway diagram which shows the key processes involved in such an outcome (Mummolo 1997). PERT modelling makes a number of assumptions and has many conventions. In drafting a PERT chart the processes will be numbered in tens, to allow for further additions as the model grows. Further the model assumes that there is a linear relationship between the processes and therefore a number of key relationships (critical pathways) are determined (Cox 1995). These are often termed predecessor events and successor events. The PERT model deals with time in a number of ways giving an optimistic time and a pessimistic time for the completion of a process. It allows managers to view a project, task or process in a way which will help to maximise the efficiency of such a task in terms of a nu mber of variables (Shipley, de Korvin et al. 1997). Implementation of PERT requires a significant investment of time and expertise and so can have an impact on the costs of an activity, which must be weighed with the advantages or benefits such analysis brings to the process redesign (Azaron, Katagiri et al. 2006). Often PERT is a useful way to implement ‘Lean techniques of production as it allows the mapping of existing processes to look for ‘slack in the system. But its complexity can also be a disadvantage in terms of the time it takes to complete and the risk of errors in the model having unintended consequences to any new or redesigned process (Azaron, Katagiri et al. 2006). PERT is most useful at outlining the dependencies of a process and the identification of the critical pathways which affect the outcomes of a process. Further the methodology allows for the identification of the benefits of early, late and slack starts or a process (Cox 1995). It is a lso a way of organising a large and complex amount of information I a way which is relatively easy to understand by non-specialist managers, and as such allows the input of many areas of speciality in the redesign process, some of which may not be heard in terms of purely operations or accounting systems such as JIT and TOC. Yet PERT can have a number of significant disadvantages when used. First and foremost is the possibility of thousands of critical and interrelated aspect of a singly process (Mummolo 1997). The time taken to map out all of them can be considerable and even if they are all mapped out the subtle interrelationships are often difficult to place into such a restrictive framework. It is a given that in real life the process will not always work in the way in which it is modelled, and small changes across a few key aspects can vastly change the outcomes and behaviours of many of the assumptions behind PERT analysis. PERT is very useful in terms of initial inv estigation of a process or event, but it takes both art and science to appreciate how something will work in the real world situations of manufacturing or service industries. In this respect PERT should be seen only as an aid to understanding and not a ‘right answer (Castro, Gà ³mez et al. 2008). Conclusions The three managerial tools which have been outlined in this report are all powerful providers of decision relevant information. Further all three allow the management to view not only the outcomes at the current time, but also to make significant changes to the processes of production or provision of services which can dramatically improve performance. The case given points to both poor profits and returns on investment and poor inventory management as problems for the company, as such it is important before any decisions are made about the implementation of new management practices, as to why these are occurring. If the drop in profits are due to a slackening of demand, a change to JIT and the attendant redesign of the business along ‘Lean philosophy may be significantly advantageous, as it will allow tight control over inventory and allow the company to respond to the needs of the market more effectively. By removing overproduction and inventory as wastes to the busin ess, profits would be expected to recover, as long as the business is still a going concern (Hansen, Mouritsen 2006). If, however, the company still has similar levels of demand for its products then the company will need to investigate where the problems in the existing processes are. TOC would be one way of looking at this problem, so too would JIT. It is felt if the levels of demand are broadly similar it may well be worth the management of the company undertaking some analysis of the business processes with a view to coming to a decision about the suitability of either TOC or JIT, but it must be appreciated that each of these approaches carry some significant costs and risk if the analysis is not well thought out. PERT analysis will map out the internal process and identify the various problems with slack and time, but it does not look in much detail at costs. Other methodologies the company may like to consider as a part of any process redesign are the Activity Based a pproaches to costing, management and budgeting, these fit well with JIT management, but not so well with TOC. TOC has significant limitations because it subordinates everything to the constraint, and as new constraints appear the process has to be restarted from scratch. This criticism also gives it the flexibility that the other systems mentioned herein do not possess. This report recommends that managers identify the reason for the falling profits, and look to find out why inventory is building up (are these a symptom of slack demand, or of inefficiencies within the business). Based on these findings a decision as to what further systems are needed can be made. References Abdul-Nour, G., Lambert, S. and Drolet, J., 1998. Adaptation of jit phylosophy and kanban technique to a small-sized manufacturing firm; a project management approach. Computers Industrial Engineering, 35(3-4), pp. 419-422. Azaron, A., Katagiri, H., Sakawa, M., Kato, K. and Memarianai, A., 2006. A multi-objective resource allocation problem in PERT networks. European Journal of Operational Research, 172(3), pp. 838-854. Bragg, S.M., 2007. Throughput accounting: a guide to constraint management. Wiley. Castro, J., Gomez, D. and Tejada, J., 2008. A rule for slack allocation proportional to the duration in a PERT network. European Journal of Operational Research, 187(2), pp. 556-570. Cox, M., 1995. Simple normal approximation to the completion time distribution for a PERT network. International Journal of Project Management, 13(4), pp. 265-270. David, I. and Eben-Chaime, M., 2003. How far should JIT vendor–buyer relationships go? International Journal of Pro duction Economics, 81-82, pp. 361-368. Davies, J., Mabin, V.J. and Balderstone, S.J., 2005. The theory of constraints: a methodology apart?—a comparison with selected OR/MS methodologies. Omega, 33(6), pp. 506-524. Dugdale, D. and Jones, T.C., 1998. Throughout Accounting: Transforming Practices?, The British Accounting Review, 30(3), pp. 203-220. Hansen, A. and Mouritsen, J., 2006. Management Accounting and Operations Management: Understanding the Challenges from Integrated Manufacturing. In: Christopher S. Chapman, Anthony G. Hopwood and Michael D.Sheilds, ed, Handbooks of Management Accounting Research. Elsevier, pp. 729-752. Houghton, E. and Portougal, V., 1997. Trade-offs in JIT production planning for multi-stage systems: balancing work-load variations and WIP inventories. International Transactions in Operational Research, 4(5-6), pp. 315-326. Kee, R. and Schmidt, C., 2000. A comparative analysis of utilizing activity-based costing and the theory of c onstraints for making product-mix decisions. International Journal of Production Economics, 63(1), pp. 1-17. Kelle, P., Al-Khateeb, F. and Anders Miller, P., 2003. Partnership and negotiation support by joint optimal ordering/setup policies for JIT. International Journal of Production Economics, 81-82, pp. 431-441. Khan, L.R. and Sarker, R.A., 2002. An optimal batch size for a JIT manufacturing system. Computers Industrial Engineering, 42(2-4), pp. 127-136. Linhares, A., 2009. Theory of constraints and the combinatorial complexity of the product-mix decision. International Journal of Production Economics, 121(1), pp. 121-129. Mummolo, G., 1997. Measuring uncertainty and criticality in network planning by PERT-path technique. International Journal of Project Management, 15(6), pp. 377-387. Plenert, G., 1993. Optimizing theory of constraints when multiple constrained resources exist. European Journal of Operational Research, 70(1), pp. 126-133. Rand, G.K., 2000 . Critical chain: the theory of constraints applied to project management. International Journal of Project Management, 18(3), pp. 173-177. Shipley, M.F., De Korvin, A. and Omer, K., 1997. Bifpet methodology versus PERT in project management: fuzzy probability instead of the beta distribution. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 14(1), pp. 49-65. Watson, K.J., Blackstone, J.H. and Gardiner, S.C., 2007. The evolution of a management philosophy: The theory of constraints. Journal of Operations Management, 25(2), pp. 387-402. Wei, C., Liu, P. and Tsai, Y., 2002. Resource-constrained project management using enhanced theory of constraint. International Journal of Project Management, 20(7), pp. 561-567. White, R.E. and Prybutok, V., 2001. The relationship between JIT practices and type of production system. Omega, 29(2), pp. 113-124. Yasin, M.M., Small, M. and WAFA, M.A., 1997. An empirical investigation of JIT effectiveness: an organizational perspective. Omega, 25(4), pp. 461-471.