Software and Tear
- 1. Software and Tear Kyle Skidmore Akira Wickes Ryan Lindholm Joshua Howell Lucas Schafer Zaymeen Deen LIS 3201 Research and Data Analysis
- 3. Research Problem, Significance, & Purpose ● Small companies face their fair share of technical issues. Mainly, we want to focus on software integration and data security issues, as well as what can be done to find solutions. ● “The tendency for small businesses to rely on outdated or illegally downloaded software can lead to many holes in their business's information security” (Keller, 2005) ● This is the reason we must research these issues: to pinpoint main software and data security faults, and to help small companies triumph them. 2
- 4. Research Questions Q1) What are the main issues with software integration in small businesses? Q2) How do small businesses suffer from practicing poor data security? Q3) How can software and security issues be improved within small businesses? 3
- 5. Methods 4
- 6. Data Collection We conducted surveys and interviews at small businesses we currently work for Convenience strategy for recruitment process Interviewed managers and bosses of companies we have worked for Only way to conduct interview regarding sensitive information Decided mixed methods of survey and interviews would facilitate the process and offer greater insight by gathering the opinions of regular employees (survey) and employees of a management position (interviews) 5
- 7. Research Instrument Development ● Survey: Questions were more general and direct. Used to gather the thoughts of company employees regarding their software use and thoughts on their company’s software integration and data security. ● Interview: Questions were more specific in order to get in-depth information. Used to gather insight from employees with power (manager, boss, etc.) 6
- 8. Population, Sample, & Sampling Techniques ● Population: Small business employees in Florida ● Sample: Employees of all levels throughout small businesses we are associated with. ● Sampling Techniques (Non-random): ○ Convenience Sampling ■ We were able to conduct interviews and surveys regarding such sensitive information by choosing small companies that we already work for and have trusted relationships ○ Snowball Sampling ■ After we got a handful of employees to complete the survey, we asked them to spread the word to their co-workers 87
- 9. Data Collection Process Interviews: Made appointments for interviews over the phone Interviews were mainly conducted in person, while a few had to be completed over a phone call (timing/schedule clashes) ● Survey: Strictly online through qualtrics. ○ We asked employees to complete the survey online and shared the link through text or email 8
- 11. Findings/Results (Cont’d.) Figure 1. 10 Figure 2. 15 Participants 80% 20%
- 12. Findings/Results (Cont’d.): RQ1 Q1) What are the main issues with software integration in small businesses? Employees are usually not informed that there is an update for software or new software being integrated Leads to loss of revenue Glitching and crashing Software chosen cannot smoothly handle necessary tasks Figure 3. 1
- 13. Findings/Results (Cont’d.): RQ 2 Q2) How do small businesses suffer from practicing poor data security? Security breaches Phishing attacks Identity theft Most attacks experienced are minor and not too detrimental Hinders customer’s opinion/loyalty 12
- 14. Findings/Results (Cont’d.): RQ 3 Q3) How can software and security issues be improved within small businesses? Businesses must orate new software and updates to all their employees Reinforce software and security protocol through emails and meetings “I sat down with employees to discuss risky behavior after some monitoring of the network, but after the sit down I don’t think we’ve experienced any further issues” Take time to analyze your company's needs in order to accurately choose software that can handle such tasks Address and take security breaches as learning experiences to prevent future issues “Last year we got attacked by some version of the Crypto malware and as a result we now have backups taken daily that prevent such an attack from doing damage like it did before” Backup all data on a regular/daily basis! Improve data security practices (antivirus software, encryption, etc.) 13
- 15. Findings/Results (Cont’d.): RQ 3 Figure 4. Figure 5. Q3) Although employees are only slightly to moderately knowledgeable on software security, they all agree that it is very to extremely important, and agree small businesses should improve their data security practices. 14
- 16. Implications - RQ1 Biggest issue with software is functionality Software doesn’t function as the small business expects it to. According to Kara & Cheikhrouhou (2014) it is becoming more difficult to pick the most proficient software for their rapidly growing needs. We found from the interviews that small businesses encounter software glitches and crashes because of the software they chose to execute the needed tasks Just as big businesses encounter many software issues, small businesses do as well. Problems include finding the right software and software integration issues Main implications of these software issues: Software freezing Software crashing Having to restart the software Various glitches with the software 15
- 17. Implications - RQ2(cont.) From researched gathered by Hahn and Layne-Farrar (2006), they found that businesses that have cheap and poor security software are at a huge risk for having data breaches. In our interviews, we found that some businesses use cheap security software and are open to the same issues and experience minor data breaches. Companies knew that they had security features but they weren’t exactly sure of how secure their devices were. They only took security precautions for their computers but not any other devices. Other devices that small businesses use could be open to attack when they don’t care about security precautions for devices other than computers. 16
- 18. Limitations 17
- 19. Limitations (Cont’d.) 1. Small businesses Only used small businesses in the Tallahassee area Small businesses that we work or have previously worked at 1. Interviewing small business personnel Making the right time that works for the interviewer and interviewee The interviewee completely understands the purpose of the study Many questions were asked; difficulty understanding Locating the proper personnel in the small business who could answer the questions in the most accurate and precise manner 18
- 20. Conclusion 19
- 21. Conclusion - RQ1, RQ2, RQ3 ● Companies stay up to date with software security ● Security issues are only addressed a few times a year ● All businesses have suffered a security attack, but most are not very detrimental ● Few businesses send mass emails or hold meetings to ensure employees follow proper security protocol ● Interview: ○ Companies do not orate software updates and requirements as well as they should - leads to revenue loss ● Recurring Technical Problems: ○ Software freezing/crashing ○ Device has to be restarted ○ Glitches in software ○ Relaxed data security ● Solutions: ○ Orate & enforce updates to employees ○ Analyze business needs to properly choose software ○ Backup all data on a regular/daily basis! ○ Improve data security practices (antivirus software, encryption, etc.) 20
- 22. Reflection on Conducting Research - Challenges - Tracking down experts and finding times to interview them on their schedules. - Condensing the research from 6 group members with very different schedules. - Trouble finding willing participants to take our survey. - Oftentimes our questions involved companies’ weaknesses in some of their software implementation practices and experts were somewhat unwilling to discuss it. - Oftentimes our questions were directed at the weak points in a company’s security and experts were extremely unwilling to discuss these points. - Lessons 21