Hydropack India Pvt. Ltd.: Resolving a Data Breach

In April 2018, Amit Darekar, director of operations at Hydropack India Pvt. Ltd. (Hydropack), was focused on revamping the company’s information technology (IT) infrastructure. This had become crucial in the face of a product design leak resulting from an employee who had left Hydropack to join a rival company and taken valuable data with him in the process. The design that Hydropack had made was for a tender floated by a public sector company. The rival company had submitted the stolen design with a lower bid, putting Hydropack’s own bid in jeopardy. Darekar now had to rise to the challenge and ensure that Hydropack implemented secure IT infrastructure and policy to avoid further data leaks in the future. His objective was to ensure that all of Hydropack’s data in the form of designs and other confidential documents was suitably protected and accessible only to those who had authorized access.

This case can be used in undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on risk management, information technology (IT), and cybersecurity. It can also be used to discuss the issues and challenges faced by family-run businesses. This case provides an opportunity for students to understand the challenges faced by small- and medium-sized enterprises in preventing data breaches. It explores the use of the 4A Framework (agility, accuracy, access, and availability) and applies it to the given scenario. Students are expected to utilize the data given in the case and exhibits to identify and assess various IT risks and to create contingency plans. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Become familiarized with potential IT risks faced by organizations and the implications of these.</li><li>Understand and analyze different risks in order to identify businesses’ vulnerabilities.</li><li>Apply the 4A framework in order to define policies that can prevent possible disruptions in organizational functioning.</li><li>Identify alternative risk treatment options and create contingency plans for IT risks.</li></ul>

• data breach
• IT risk
• 4A Framework
• information security plan