Network Security Threats and Recommendations

Assignment 1
Network Security
Part I. Potential Threats
Threats
 Complaints 1, 2 and 5 describe the client-side attack. Client applications are the target
vulnerabilities. The running slow and crashing of the computer is caused by the excessive
attacks through the use of the buffer overflow vulnerability. A compromised server is
invaded by a malicious application during their interaction. Data is stored in CPU, RAM,
memory and as a result the size of the buffer is exceeded. This leads to lack of space as
most of the computer resources are filled. Due to this, the computer easily gets crashed
and runs slow and low memory space is available.1
 Complaints 3, 4, 6, 7 involve networking-based attacks that target the network. From the
description provided by the employees, it’s evident that there are too many data requests
in the remote server. Denial of service attack prevents the network from offering the
normal services. The attacks occur on the network bandwidth and connection spots. This
attack leads to malfunctioning of the website. Additionally, a drive-by download program
automatically downloads files to the users’ computers without authorization from the
user. This leads to a slow speed of downloading or accessing the network since the
network resources are used up.2
Recommendation
 The common preventive measure is to always keep the company software up to date.
 Installation of the web filtering software that keeps users from accessing sites infected by
drive-by download attacks.
 Users’ rights restrictions can also be implemented in order to restrict the level of damage
in case a user accidentally downloads a malicious software.
1 Martial Carrie and James Wilshire, "Virtual extension of buffer to reduce buffer overflow
during tracing." U.S. Patent 8,612,650, issued December 17, 2013.
2 Rutvij Jhaveri, Sankita Patel and Devesh Jinwala, "DoS attacks in mobile ad hoc networks: A
survey." In 2012 second international conference on advanced computing & communication
technologies, pp. 535-541. IEEE, 2012.

 Installation of a spam filter on the other hand can be use in detection of unwanted and
unverified emails and prevent entry to the user’s inbox.
 Denial of service attack can be prevented by use of anti-spoofing. It verifies the accuracy
of the port, packet address and carry out reverse detection.
Part II. Firewall, Honeypot/s, and Other Network Security Technologies Planning and
Design for Brisbane Branch
1. Proposed secure network diagram
Figure 1. Brisbane branch Configuration