IT Security Awareness Course Compliance and Network Outage Notification

Handling the Situation of Employees Not in Compliance with IT Security Awareness Course

1. Completion of the IT Security Awareness course is mandatory for every employee at EPA with a network-connected computer, this includes personnel who work with Building Automation Systems (BAS).  As per EPA policy, employees who fail to complete the course by the deadline must have their access to EPA systems removed.  A BAS Engineer on the EPA-RTP campus, responsible for operating critical HVAC systems, has not completed this required course by the deadline.  Action must be taken to remove their system access by the close of the current business day.  The manager in this area is known for being a difficult customer, usually claiming an impact to critical building automation systems anytime there is a potential disruption.  Because the manager is a senior executive, you inform your IT Director of the situation, and they direct you to resolve the situation.

As an Information System Security Officer (ISSO), your contractor staff is responsible for removing access from systems if employees are not in compliance with the EPA IT Security Policy.  Please outline your approach for handling this situation and ensuring that system access is only provided to employees who have completed the required IT Security Awareness course. Additionally, please explain how you will ensure this situation does not disrupt BAS support services.

2.The RTP telecom switches have reached EOL and will be replaced over the next few months.  As one of the ISSOs, you have been tasked with notifying EPA-RTP employees of network outages via an all-hands memo that is distributed via email.

Here are the specifics of the switch replacement project:

The project dates are July 7, 2022 – September 9, 2022.

Switches will be replaced on weekends, from Saturday at 9am through Sunday at 6pm.

Switches will be replaced on a per-building basis.  The detailed outage schedule for each building will be posted on the RTP Intranet site.

Impacted services include: Internet and Intranet access, access to LAN files, VoIP telephones.

The Health and Safety telephones will not be impacted and can be used in the event of an emergency.

NOTE: The EPA-RTP customer base is comprised of 60% non-technical and 40% technical staff.

Use the email template to construct the memo that will be distributed to the 2,000 federal, contractor and grantee employees on the EPA-RTP 
campus.

Email Template for question 2 :

SUBJECT:    

FROM:    , Information System Security Officer (ISSO)

Information Resources Management Division

Office of Administration and Resources Management, RTP

TO:        EPA-RTP Employees