Reference no: EM132330256

Professional Skills in Information Communication Technology Assignment - Report

Objectives - This assignment is designed to stimulate critical thinking outside of the classroom by requiring students to write a formal academic report.

Assessment Task - Students are required to write an academic report as per the format outlined.

The report is to be based on the following cybersecurity use case for office and home systems.

With the recent progress of computer networks, growth of interconnected devices through Internet, cloud computing, big data and web services, the number of cyber threat/attack has grown exponentially. Malware attack, phishing, man-in-the middle attack, denial-of-service are some of the common types of cyberattacks that hits businesses every day. Therefore, cybersecurity is an essential practice for the digital age to protect systems, networks, applications, data/information and hardware from cyberattacks or unauthorised access, and to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information. The goal is to prevent the risks to individuals and organisations such as, damage or loss of sensitive data, stolen money, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, disruption to business.

The major challenges to cybersecurity efforts are mobile connectivity, online payment, the ever increasing use of cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, remote access and third-party outsourcing. These days almost every business has a website and externally exposed systems that make it easier for the attackers to enter the internal networks. Moreover, most smart devices (both at home and at work) are connected to the Internet which makes the system prone to attack. Hence, ensuring cybersecurity is an absolute must for every business and also for individuals. Common types of cybersecurity are application security, hardware security, network security, cloud security, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Cryptography, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Antivirus/anti-malware.

You are a Security Consultant of a famous security consulting company that provides security consulting services to a wide range of business, individual, education institutes and companies. Recently one of your clients, ABC Technologies (ABCT) has contacted your organisation to prepare a document on Cybersecurity as it was the recent victim of several cyberattacks.

Here are the details of your client company: ABCT is an Australian technology company whose line of business ranges from different types high-tech products which include both software and hardware. ABCT has multiple offices nationwide, and two overseas offices. All computer services are provided by virtual private network (VPN), which is maintained in Canberra (the head office). ABCT allows their employees to work from home (using VPN connections) and also have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for their employees who work onsite. Each location also provides free wireless LAN access to visitors/guests. ABCT currently have 10,000 regular customers. All their customer and product information are stored in the cloud. Because the company was the victim of several recent cyberattacks, they are concerned that company's data might have been compromised and hackers might have gotten hold of customers' information. They are also worried that they would lose the trust of their loyal customers, which could potentially result in a loss of revenue. So ABCT wants to improve their security system and security related policies. As a first step, they want your organisation to prepare a document on cybersecurity to train their staff on the basics of cybersecurity. As part of that, your team leader asked you to research and write a report that should cover the following tasks:

1. Explain what is cybersecurity and why it is important for ABCT?

2. Identify and explain at least 3 security vulnerabilities in ABCT's system (you need to consider ABCT's case as presented above). You need to justify your answer with evidence from research.

3. Do some research, and find and list 5 different types of emerging threats (that might affect ABCT) and describe each of them in detail. In your discussion include what damage the attack might cause, who is responsible for these attacks and their attack techniques.

4. Do some research, analyse the information and give your recommendations (at least 3) how to protect home and office from cyberattack.

You have to complete this investigation and write a report for your team leader in the next three weeks. Since this is an initial investigation, moreover, some of the staff do not have IT background, the report does not require in-depth technical details.

Specifically report should include the following -

1. Title page

2. Executive summary

3. Table of Contents (ToC)

4. Introduction

5. Body of the report (use appropriate headings in the body of the report.)

6. Conclusion

7. Recommendations

8. Reference list

9. Appendices if necessary.

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar