Managers at a New York City import-export company suspected that two employees were robbing it. Corporate Defense Strategies (CDS) of Maywood, New Jersey, advised the firm to plan and install a software program that could secretly log every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS. Investigators revealed that the two employees were deleting orders from the corporate books after processing them, pocketing the revenues, and building their own company from within. The programme picked up on their plan to return to the office late one night to steal a large shipment of electronics. Police hid in the rafters of the firm’s warehouse, and when the suspects entered, they were arrested. The pair were charged with embezzling $3 million over two and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm.
The controlling measure initiated by Corporate Defense Strategies was:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The firm plan to install a software program that could secretly log every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS.
Option (1) The firm plan to recruit the new staff that could secretly log into every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS. — Incorrect. No new staff was hired. The watching was done by a computer program, not by people.
Option (2) The firm plan to establish new rules and regulations that could help staff in keeping secret logs of every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS. — Incorrect. The passage mentions no new rules. Rules announced to the staff would also have warned the suspects.
Option (3) The firm plan to install a software program that could secretly log every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS. — Correct. Controlling means checking that actual work goes as it should and acting when it does not. The software program recorded what the two employees actually did and sent the record to CDS. This let the firm find the wrongdoing and stop the planned theft.
Option (4) The firm plans to establish a new chain of command — Incorrect. A chain of command belongs to organising. The passage says nothing about changing who reports to whom.
Note: The passage is the NCERT box ‘Control Through Computer Monitoring’, which has been reproduced by NTA in the exam.
NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “Control Through Computer Monitoring Managers at a New York City import-export company suspected that two employees were robbing it. Corporate Defense Strategies (CDS) of Maywood, New Jersey, advised the firm to install a software program that could secretly log every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS. Investigators revealed that the two employees were deleting orders from the corporate books after processing them, pocketing the revenues, and building their own company from within. …” |