Reference no: EM132204984 , Length: word count:2500

You are to answer the following assignment and submit for assessment.

Some parts of the coursework will require research beyond the material discussed in the course. This is intended and is part of the assessment.

In this coursework, you will study and investigate some of the network/operating system services provided by Debian Linux or Ubuntu using relevant protocol(s) and mechanisms.

This should include literature review, practical experiments, setting up and configuring necessary tools to deliver Virtual Private Networks (VPN) services as follows:

a. Operation, architecture and techniques
b. Methods and mechanisms
c. Setting up and configuration

d. Investigation of security protocols IPSec OpenSSL, or Open VPN between Linux systems, features and digital certificates, certificate authority, strengths and limitations

e. Key exchanges and authentication mechanisms
f. Tunnelling modes and operations
g. Client/server interactions, configuration and challenges
h. Testing, evaluation and comparisons
i. Security issues, types of attacks, handling attacks and countermeasures etc.

Your report should attempt to provide a clear, unambiguous statement of the Linux service application and system configuration. This should include a review of the current service protocol(s), mechanism(s), tools and provide an architectural diagram of the system and/or network. You will perform comparisons with relevant standards and be able to identify the major security risks and threats in a VPN service. In your report, the VPN service through its architecture should be evaluated in terms of its operations, techniques, settings, security provisions etc. This is to allow you to propose the necessary mechanisms and solutions to meet the service needs. These efforts will highlight the good practices and findings about the service and consider various technical reports and relevant documents. You will need to study and specify the requirement details and evaluation of tools in terms of meeting the necessary services requirements.

The final outcomes and practical results are intended to provide any necessary justifications to ensure a reliable and secure delivery of the service. To achieve this, you may need to identify and clarify any issues for the core operating system, technical review and assessment of system architecture. Finally, you might think of any other issues that need to be considered.

You will need to produce a professional technical report. Typically, your report might be organized (but not necessarily to be) as follows:

1. abstract
2. introduction
3. background information, literature review, scope and limitations
4. main body including methods used and investigations
5. experimental work and analysis
6. evaluation
7. conclusion
8. references (books, conference papers, journal publications, WWW references)

You should clearly state any assumptions that you have made with justification in your report and discuss any alternatives to your proposed solutions. Also, you should use the Harvard style of referencing.

The write up for this question should

• Be your own work - plagiarism will not be tolerated

• Use relevant sources, properly referenced throughout

• Include a bibliography of references