UCCyber is a cybersecurity organisation started by three former software engineering students Chris, Jill, and Leon, at University of Canberra in 2019. Their flagship product, UCEduSecure, is an antivirus software that is meant to address the unique cybersecurity needs of educational institutions such as universities. The software is still in development (as of May 2021) and has a scheduled launch date for the end of 2021.

Initial development of UCEduSecure

Development on UCEduSecure started in August 2019, when Chris, Jill and Leon were working together on a group project to develop an antivirus software that would not only find and isolate viruses, but also simulate the effects of the virus on the infected computer in real-time. They successfully developed a proof of concept (PoC), which they were able to present at the Project Expo (November 2019) to industry experts and senior members of faculty. They received an overwhelmingly positive response from all those in attendance their peers, faculty members and industry experts alike. This motivated them to create their own start-up with the hope of developing their PoC into a commercially viable product. One of the industry experts who attended the presentation decided to invest in their new start-up following which a contract was signed to have the product fully developed and ready for deployment to the market within a 1-year time frame (by the end of 2020). Using the proceeds of the investment, the company was able to recruit two (2) software engineers to serve as managers Claire and Albert, as well as six (6) other junior employees to serve in different departments within the organisation.

2020 and the pandemic

In the first couple of months of 2020, the team set out to work on implementing some of the core functionalities of the software, such as identifying the virus and analysing the payload. The new employees were brought up to speed with a quick demo of the PoC. The key deliverable/objective of the project was to develop an antivirus software tailored for use by cybersecurity students and researchers, to enable them to study the virus signature and analyse the level of risk posed by real viruses, safely on their own devices without the need for virtual machines.

After getting off to a flying start with the development of UCEduSecure, the company encountered their first major challenge the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown in the first half of 2020 meant that they could no longer get together in person to work collaboratively on the project, and instead had to switch to working in virtual mode.

Due to the change in working mode, it became difficult for the team to keep track of the progress of the project and the extent of work being done. The team also started to have divergent views on how best to proceed with the project and overcome certain challenges. This led to a lot of time being spent on debates and discussions, and consequently, less time was spent on real product development.

It soon became apparent that the team was not making much progress with the project, and they were faced with the prospect of not being able to build a commercially viable product in time to recoup their investments. One of the software engineers and manager, Albert, was worried about his job security and started doing some freelance web development in his spare time, which led to him not being able to concentrate as much on UCEduSecure.

In mid-June 2020, when the COVID restrictions started to ease in Canberra, the team was able to start meeting in person again, following which some of the lingering issues were addressed, and the team got back on track with the development. They had developed a virus detection system that was detecting viruses with 91% accuracy. However, there were further disagreements between some of the team members; Jill and Chris suggested that they should first work on improving the accuracy of their virus detection, whereas Leon and the 2 managers leaned towards starting work on the virus simulation module. Eventually an agreement was reached to commence work on the simulation module, but soon afterwards, it was realised that the team lacked the technical expertise to properly proceed with the implementation as it required good understanding of statistics, operating systems, etc.

Having hit a roadblock in the development of the virus simulation module, further disagreements ensued making team members to contemplate on what should be the next line of action. Ideas such as developing a VPN service or a data backup and recovery software were thrown up, and after much deliberation, they decided to first develop a full-fledged antivirus software based on the virus detection system they had already built. The plan was to release the product into the market following a me-too product strategy in the hopes of earning some revenue so that they could afford to hire some experts to develop the simulation module for the UCEduSecure solution.

Current Situation

The State of the Products

Over the last few months, they have worked on improving the antivirus software, and by mid-September 2020, the team has developed a software which now detects 94% of viruses and identifies false positives at a rate of 1.2%. They have also developed a user interface for the antivirus and are ready to launch it into the market following a me-too product strategy, given that several antivirus products already exist in the market.

Little progress has been made in developing the simulation module for UCEduSecure, with the only feature implemented being a function to provide the virus payload as an input for analysis.

The State of the Organisation

Due to the lack of progress on their flagship product, and the fact that they have not been gaining any income, they are currently in a poor state financially, with a current ratio of 0.7 and an acid test ratio of 0.65. The investor is also threatening to pull out and is fast losing confidence in UCCybers ability to provide returns on investment. One of the managers, Albert, has quit, leaving them with Claire as the only manager to superintend over the rest of the team. The founding partners are in a quandary and the organisation is in desperate need of help.

Assisting UCCyber

Your role

You are an old friend of Leons, and the CEO of UCConsulting, an IT and Management Consultancy firm based in Canberra. Leon has approached you and has asked for your help to save UCCyber. He has briefed you on the background and current situation of his organisation, and you have agreed to provide him with a detailed report analysing the problems, risks, and ethical issues he is facing while also recommending some solutions.

Question: Identify, explain, and analyse the problems present in UCCybers scenario, and also provide practical solutions with appropriate justifications. You must also identify, analyse, and provide mitigation strategies for any risks and ethical issues that are present in the scenario, and in your proposed solutions.