Project of DISA 2.

0 Course CIT of ICAI

Security and Control Risk assessment of Toll Bridge operations

1. Introduction
ABC Toll Company is a Road Toll Bridge Authority set up as an autonomous company
by the Government of India. The company is responsible for managing the Bangalore-
Hassan Toll Bridge. Users of bridge have to pay toll charges as per the classification of
vehicle. The bridge is expected to be available for use on a 24 x 7 basis. The toll bridge
collection system is completely automated and collections are made through 8 toll
centres at both sides of the bridge. The IT department of the company has a business
continuity plan. The senior management is concerned about the impact of failure of IT
on the continuous operations of the bridge. The Government wanted an independent
assurance on the integrity of the information processed to ensure there is no revenue
leakage.

1. Background
As a CA with DISA certification, you have been approached you to conduct a IS audit to
assess adequacy of all BCP related controls, verify correctness and completion of
transaction processing, identify areas of weaknesses and suggest appropriate
recommendations. The primary objective of this assignment is to provide assurance to
the management of ABC Company about the capability of the company to continue its
operations despite any unexpected disruptions or disasters and also provide assurance
to the Government about integrity of information processing using IT.

2. Auditee Environment
The company’s IT environment as related to bridge operations consists of a Mini-
Computer with Windows Server 2008 as operating system and Oracle as the Database.
The Toll bridge application software is developed by an external vendor in Oracle on a
client server platform. This computer is connected to a standby server with disk-
mirroring facility and users are shifted instantly to the standby server in case the main
server is down. The PC network platform comprises of a Windows workstations which
are installed at each of the 8 Toll booths. There are 4 workstations kept as standby (2
each) at the East and West Toll Plaza. Connectivity to the servers is provided through
physical cabling from the toll booths to the toll plaza. The toll booths have electrical
power through a UPS with a battery backup of 2 hours and a generator to provide
power to the servers and computers. There are smoke detector alarms installed at Toll
plazas and toll booths. Fire extinguishers have been installed at the Toll plazas and toll
booths. The company has insured all the IT assets.

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3. Overview of Business Processes

The Toll Application software captures 2 images of the vehicles (one at entry and one at
exit from tool booth). This can be used for the control and auditing of collection
operations. The system has an Auditing menu for verifying the images with the
collections made by operators. This system upon receiving a trigger from the Alarm
Contact Closure triggers a specific camera related to the trigger. The application
software also gets inputs from the 8 cameras at the top of toll booths which capture and
automatically sends an output signal to the Quad Switcher, which feeds the camera
image to the system thereby capturing the image related to this data, and storing both
data and image to the software. The processing of toll at the tollbooth takes place
sequentially is explained in the next page.

When a vehicle enters the lane the following takes place.

 The camera captures the image of the vehicle as it passes a specific point near
the toll booth.
 The operator classifies the vehicle visually and selects the classification category
of the vehicle. Category classification should be automatic, lesser interference of
operated.
 The correct monetary value is acquired and displayed to the operator.

The above is termed an Event and the event is stored in workstation and also
transmitted to the Server. This is done via a specific application trigger, which is
allocated to that particular lane’s classification buttons. After toll operator has collected
the money, he presses the update key which validates the event and opens the boom
facilitating the vehicle to enter the bridge. This is also termed as an event and stored in
the database. The details of the event with its unique transaction id, date, time, image,
classification category, operator id and lane id are captured and sent to the server. The
event is also stored as a sequence to the Event from the classification button. In
addition, an image of the vehicle exiting the lane is captured and stored together with
the relevant data.

Once the two Events namely, entry of Classification and pressing of Validation key have
been received by the application, this is recorded as a complete transaction. Should one
of the Events, such as the classification or validation not get triggered in allocated
sequence (i.e. separately) the application software stores this as a violation with the
lane identifier. An image is also captured with the violation information. All the toll
collections are manually collected by the toll operators in cash other means of
collection should be recommended and the computers at the toll booth are physically
connected to the server stored at the east plaza. The objective of toll operations is to
ensure 24 hours availability of bridge for toll users after collection of toll.

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Project of DISA 2.0 Course CIT of ICAI

The Tollbooths at the East and West Plaza are the key control points where all toll users
have to halt and pay their toll charges. The computers at toll booths are used for
controlling the collections, and provide as the normal input points for the Application
software. In case of non-availability of Computers at the toll booths on account of any
reason, the toll will be operated manually by the operators under the personal
supervision of the officers and all the collections are entered in computer at toll plaza
through a separate menu. The duration for which the computers were not available is
also captured by the software. This not serve any purpose

4. Situation
The audit department Government has expressed concern on the adequacy of controls
regarding availability of bridge using the IT. Further, they have also expressed concern
on the need to have appropriate controls to ensure that there is no revenue leakage in
the toll collection process.

5. Deliverables
You have identified significant control issues relating to security and controls covering
all areas of toll collection process and provide recommendations for mitigating control
weaknesses.

A. Prepare list of risk scenarios covering failure of technology and other disruptions.
B. Identify the control weaknesses in the technology deployment with
recommendations.
C. Provide detailed audit program how you will execute the assignment.

6. Format of Finding/Report
Please provide your report covering above areas in standard format using guidelines
and best practices.

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