An analysis of the computer disaster patterns and its impact on the information management systems of businesses in Sri Lanka

With the popularization of the internet, cyber criminals use a wide range of computer disasters to attack businesses for various reasons such as financial gains, competitive gains, business disruption or political agendas. Cyber criminals often target the computer-based information management systems of businesses in order to achieve their unethical purposes, because it is the easiest and the most effective way to disrupt the overall business process of a particular organization. Furthermore, “Computer disasters” does not only cover the disasters which occur through the internet. There is a component of disasters which occurs without having any intervention of internet, including hardware faults, human negligence and natural disasters. Such kind of computer disasters is also capable in affecting the information management systems. After considering above facts, we can conclude that the computer-based information management systems are always in a risky position. Therefore the main objectives of this research are to identify the major types of computer disasters which can affect businesses, their adverse impacts on the information management practices of a business and their adverse impact on the overall capability of such information system to facilitate the entire business process.

In order to gain a sufficient understanding in this field, firstly, most common variables have been identified through analyzing the past literature stated by various researches. That foundation supported to develop an effective conceptual framework for this study. Thus, suitable hypothesis were developed in order to check whether there are relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable. A sample was used to carry out the investigation in Sri Lankan context. The study was limited to small scale because of the limited time period and the assignment restricted objectives. The convenience sampling method has been used to generate the sample which consisted of 60 officers who were bearing a management position in their respective organizations. The study was executed by a survey carried out through a questionnaire. A wide range of significant findings could be obtained at the end of the analyzing process of primary data. Finally, better conclusions have been made based on those findings.