Your Role in Security of the Domains of the IT Infrastructure

It is important to understand the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure and the risks, threats or vulnerabilities you will commonly find in today’s healthcare IT environments, as well as IT environments, generally. As an HIM professional your understanding will prepare you to undertake the roles, tasks, responsibilities and the accountability for anticipating and participating in mitigation of these common risks.

Requirements:

Part 1

· Select three of the seven domains of the IT infrastructure.

· Briefly describe the three domains you selected.

· Compare and contrast the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities for each of the three domains.

· In your own words, select an action that an organization can take for each of the three domains, which could effectively help to mitigate or help to prevent or lessen the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities for that domain.

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· Part 2

· Research on the internet to find an article regarding a security breach of patient health information at a health care facility that falls under one of the seven domains of IT infrastructure that we are studying this week.

· Give a brief summary of the breach.

· Select which domain you would identify as the one where the breach occurred.  You may identify more than one if appropriate.

· Identify the action that should have been taken to prevent the breach.

Your paper should include the following criteria:

· 2 pages in length, double-spaced.

· Two (2) resources cited in APA format.

· Free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

The Domains of an IT Infrastructure

The Seven Domains

IT professionals have identified seven domains of a typical infrastructure:

1. User – The humans who interact with the IT infrastructure.

2. Workstation – A device that a user accesses in order to connect to the infrastructure (note that this concept refers to any device, including smart phones and kiosks).

3. LAN – The local area network, including wiring, switches, wireless access points, and even the jacks in the conference room wall.

4. LAN-to-WAN – The equipment used as a gateway between the LAN and any other network.

5. WAN – Any service or equipment that the organization uses to link LANs together through the Internet .

6. Remote Access – The unique devices and software used to provide mobile users with direct access to the LAN by way of the LAN-to-WAN domain.

7. System/Application – Any software users access that makes use of the LAN to communicate and share information.

IT security experts examine the configuration and behavior of each of these domains to determine the relative security of the infrastructure. Although it is possible to be very secure in many areas but very insecure in others, most users in a business view only a portion of these domains, making it difficult for them to have a fair understanding of the overall security of the infrastructure.