Security Checklist A Case Study
CP2414 Assignment 1
Security Checklist A Case Study
0393277WARNING: This is NOT a group-based assignment. You should complete all parts of your submission INDIVIDUALLY.
Discussions and online tools (e.g., Google and ChatGPT) are allowed; however, please practice academic integrity (jcu.edu.au/students/learning-centre/academic-integrity) by citing and paraphrasing the sources. Note that citing ChatGPT is not a proper citation at this stage.
00WARNING: This is NOT a group-based assignment. You should complete all parts of your submission INDIVIDUALLY.
Discussions and online tools (e.g., Google and ChatGPT) are allowed; however, please practice academic integrity (jcu.edu.au/students/learning-centre/academic-integrity) by citing and paraphrasing the sources. Note that citing ChatGPT is not a proper citation at this stage.
Due Date: 11.59 pm, 08/March/2024
Introduction
This assignment contains three parts:
Part I - Identify and analyse threats to a company. Then, search for appropriate devices/software to address those threats. Remember to justify your choices (feasibility, efficiency, etc.).
Part II - Design a secure network.
Part III Citation and Referencing.
Scope
The concepts we discussed in the first three weeks cover all you need to complete this assignment.
Deliverables
Submit a single PDF document (.pdf) containing all parts to the Assignment 1 submission box in LearnJCU.
Formatting
If you use Word: Calibri 11, Line Spacing 1.5, leave Margins and Space before/after Paragraph as default.
If you use LaTeX: Article class specifying A4 paper and 1.5 line spacing.
Use IEEE referencing (including both in-text citations and reference list). See https://libguides.jcu.edu.au/IEEE
NOTE
We strongly suggest you check the originality of your submission via Draft submission SafeAssign Originality Report. If your report returns more than 40% similarity (including the reference list), then you should paraphrase to reduce this number.
Assignment rubric can be found in subject outline.
A suggested report structure sample at the end of this assignment sheet.
If you use answers from ChatGPT, then you should find the original resources to cite the ChatGPT answers. For example, ChatGPT tells you how packet-filtering firewalls work. You go to Google to find a citable resource saying (almost) the same thing as ChatGPT, then cite that resource.
Scenario Background
An Australian mattress-in-a-box company, TheSleepyheads, is not confident about its IT system considering the global rise in cybercrime and ransomware. Your friends in this company recommended you as a Cybersecurity Consultant to look after their IT system.
TheSleepyheads is a growing mattress-in-a-box company consisting of two branches, the Perth (Headquarters) branch and the Sydney branch. Each branch has four departments, with approximately forty employees per department. The Perth (Headquarters) branch has one mail server, two web servers, and two database servers. The Sydney branch has only one mail server and one database server.
Both branches have high-speed networks; however, weekday traffic can be pretty heavy. This is especially true for the Perth branch.
They have asked you to:
For both branches - Identify and analyse application and networking-based threats to their company; and
For the Perth (Headquarters) branch only - Recommend preventative and mitigative technologies and strategies for potential intrusion and attacks on the network.
Assignment tasks:
Part I. Potential Threats
TheSleepyheads have collected a list of complaints from employees about the workstations for you:
Complaint 1 (Teddy): My computer takes a long time to start up and shut down. It seems that there are other programs, which I dont use, running when I start my computer as well.
Complaint 2 (Christina): I often get the blue screen of death, and my workstation keeps crashing. This is so frustrating.
Complaint 3 (Meredith): It takes forever to download a file from the company servers. It doesnt even matter what the size or type of the file is.
Complaint 4 (Alex): Ive got customers and colleagues informing me that Ive been sending them emails; this is very weird because my job doesnt concern sending out emails to my colleagues, let alone customers.
Complaint 5 (Richard): I get many pop-ups on my screen. I never visited any inappropriate websites.
Complaint 6 (Joe): My computer's fan is so loud. It spins fast and always, even when I am not using it.
Complain 7 (All employees): It is either no response from the website, mail and database servers or taking too long to load the contents from those servers.
From the complaints above, you are asked to analyse and identify the threat/s (if any) and recommend strategies and technologies to prevent and mitigate those identified threats.
NOTE
Your threat analysis and identification should ONLY focus on network security as a result of cyber-attacks. For example, we do not consider website server access difficulty due to an out-of-order keyboard.
The complaints may be correlated with each other.
Part II. Firewall, Honeypot/s, and Other Network Security Technologies Planning and Design for Perth Branch
Deploying firewalls, honeypots, and other network security technologies can effectively protect an organisations network. As such, TheSleepyheads asked you to design a network security configuration for the Perth branch of the company. To do this, you will need to consider the existing facilities at the Perth (Headquarters) branch, the solutions you recommended in Part I and additional honeypot(s). Specifically, we should
Draw your proposed secure network diagram, including the following:
Firewall(s)
Other network security technologies (hardware and/or software)
Honeypot(s)
Existing devices (e.g., servers, workstations, routers and switches)
Explain and justify the configuration diagram regarding the following:
The type and placement of each firewall;
The honeypot location/s and quantity;
The placement and purpose of each piece of hardware/software.
Part III. Use IEEE referencing style. See https://libguides.jcu.edu.au/IEEE.
Suggested Report Structure
For the highest marks possible, you should READ THE RUBRIC and submit your report using the following structure:
Part I. Potential Threats
Complaint [number] [name]:
Identify the problem/s stated by the employee/s.
[Identified threat/s] [Discussion and comprehensive explanation for the identified threat/s]
Solution [Recommended resolution for threat]
Overarching Threat:
[If an overarching threat exists, you should discuss this here. See Part Is Note]
Part II. Firewall(s), honeypot(s), and other network security technologies Planning and Design
Diagram
Explanation and justification of the proposed configuration.
End of Assignment 1
