Communication Network Security

This report discusses the case study of Comodo certificate fraud hack and the significant security risks with their mitigation plans. It proposes solutions to the risks and recommendations for network security. The risks identified are DDoS attacks, phishing, eavesdropping, ransomware, spyware, data breaching, and digital certificate threats.

Running head: COMMUNICATION NETWORK SECURITY
Communication Network Security
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
IT Security Problem...............................................................................................................3
Major IT Security Risks.........................................................................................................4
Proposed Solutions to the Risks.............................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations......................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10
Appendices...............................................................................................................................12
Appendix A..........................................................................................................................12
Appendix B..........................................................................................................................13

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Executive Summary
The main aim of this report is to know about the case study of Comodo certificate fraud hack.
A specific contractor is responsible for the maintenance of networks of the series of smaller
business customers, who are receiving payments from the government for various services,
they are offering. The private network security is the most popular for any organization, since
it is not used by the external users. The data or the information is well protected by this in a
highly safe and secured manner. For ensuring the privacy of the data of this particular
organization, this report will be focusing on the various significant security risks with their
mitigation plans. The most noteworthy and vital security risks identified are DDoS attacks,
phishing and eavesdropping. However, proper measures are also given in the report for
resolving all the above mentioned risks. The solution is absolutely cost effective so that the
organization does not face any financial issue.

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Introduction
Network security can be defined as the set of practices and policies that are eventually
adopted for the purpose of preventing as well as monitoring any type of unauthorized access,
modification, denial or misuse of the computer network or network accessible resources
(Laudon and Laudon 2016). The following report outlines a brief discussion on the case study
of Comodo Certificate Authority Fraud Hack. There are several confidential data of the
clients for the small business and hence the privacy should be ensured at any cost. This report
will be researching on the Comodo Certificate Authority Fraud Hack for analysis of security
risks and their respective solutions.
Discussion
IT Security Problem
IT security or computer security can be defined as the significant protection of several
computer systems either from damage or theft to the respective software, hardware and
electronic data (See Appendix A). This even help in stopping from any type of misdirection
or disruption of the services they are eventually providing. IT security involves the control of
physical access to the system hardware and protection against harm or damage that are done
through network access, code injection as well as malicious data. Any type of attack or
problem in the IT security is termed as IT security problem (Bajdor and Grabara 2014). These
types of attacks can either be accidental or intentional.
In the year of 2011, the infamous Comodo Certificate Authority Fraud Hack took
place and all the IT organizations were concerned for the data security of their network. A
contractor maintains the several networks of various business clients, who have received
payments for services (Grimes, R. 2018). For the purpose of ensuring privacy and security of

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the confidential data or information, proper measures should be undertaken. The various
attacks of the IT security could be extremely vulnerable and hence their data will be lost
forever.
Major IT Security Risks
In the case study of Comodo Certificate Authority Fraud Hack, an Iranian hacker
duped the certification authority to issue the digital certificates into either one or more
unauthenticated parties (Demir and Krajewski 2013). This hacker moved some critics to call
for both Microsoft and Mozilla for the purpose of removing Comodo as the most trusted
rooted certification authority. He generated certificates for various popular sites like Google,
Yahoo, Skype and Live.com.
In respect to this popular hacking case study, the various information system security
risks that are dangerous for the organization and data of small business clients are given
below:
i) Ransomware: The first and the foremost risk to the information system is
ransomware (Klukas, Chen and Pape 2014). It is considered as the most vicious as well as
vulnerable attacks whenever the devices or information are being locked and then held for
ransom. Ransomware is extremely common attack for the hackers, who can accidentally
download the malicious codes. The hackers spread various types of vulnerabilities through
these malicious codes and then demanding certain amount of ransom. The most popular type
of ransomware attack is the Wanna Cry Ransomware Attack in May 2017 (Castronova,
Goodall and Ercan 2013). Millions of systems were affected by this attack.
ii) DDoS Attacks: DoS attack or denial of service attack is the second significant type
of network vulnerability, where the perpetrator eventually seeks into the machine and
network resource for making it completely unavailable for all the intended users either by

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temporarily disrupting or by making it indefinite in the Internet (Rhodes-Ousley 2013). In the
distributed denial of service or DDoS attack, the respective incoming traffic floods the victim
system and thus making it impossible for stopping the attacks.
iii) Spyware: Computer spyware can be defined as the specific software, which aims
for gathering information or data regarding any organization or person without taking
permission for accessing the data from the authenticated user. There are eventually four types
of spyware, which are adware, Trojans, tracking cookies and system monitors (Peltier 2013).
This particular malicious software is mostly utilized to track as well as store the respective
movements of the Internet users, by either serving up the pop up ads or by sending suspicious
links.
iv) Eavesdropping: The next significant security risk to the information system or
network of any organization is eavesdropping (Von Solms and Van Niekerk 2013). This
particular threat solely refers to listening to the private communications or conversations
without taking the consent from that user. It is considered as extremely unethical as well as
illegal practice in cyber world. Any type of network is extremely vulnerable to this type of
attack. The VoIP communication software is also dangerous to the electronic eavesdropping
through several infections like Trojans (Jouini, Rabai and Aissa 2014). The organization can
suffer through this type of attack, since the hackers can easily sneak into the network and
access the confidential data.
v) Phishing: This is the type of fraudulent attempt for obtaining sensitive information
like username, password or any other network security data. These are majorly for the various
malicious reasons and are done by disguising as the most trustworthy entity within the
electronic communication (Crossler et al. 2013). Phishing is carried out by simply email
spoofing or even instant messaging and thus it directs the users in entering personal

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information at the fake website. Since, the contractor maintains the clients’ network, phishing
could be one of the most dangerous attacks here and thus the confidentiality of the
information should be maintained eventually.
vi) Data Breaching: The data breaching is the type of breaching that is either
unintentional or intentional for exploiting the security of confidential data or information
(Cherdantseva and Hilton 2013). The data leaking is one of the data breaching that often
occurs while any type of financial data is involved. Since, the clients receive payments from
the government for various services; there is a high chance that the transactional data is
exploited.
vii) Threat to Digital Certificate: The Comodo Certificate Authority Fraud Hack was
regarding this particular IT security attack. The digital certificate can be defined as the
electronic passport, which enables the computers, persons or organizations for exchanging
confidential information securely over the Internet connection with the help of PKI or public
key infrastructure (Singh 2013). The other name of this public key infrastructure is the public
key certificate. There is a major threat to the digital certificate and hence it should be
protected with proper measures for this particular organizational data.
Proposed Solutions to the Risks
The proper analysis of the above mentioned risks after researching Comodo
Certificate Authority Fraud Hack is done eventually (See Appendix B). These risks, however,
could be easily mitigated or reduced with proper mitigation strategies (Feng, Wang and Li
2014). The proposed solutions for all the identified risks to the confidentiality of data or
information are given below:
i) Solution for Ransomware: The most effective solution for the IT security risk of
ransomware attack is taking backups regularly. Backups are considered as the most important

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and significant requirements for any confidential data. This type of security measure helps to
restore the sensitive data in an efficient manner by keeping a backup copy of data
(Kolkowska and Dhillon 2013). Thus, even if there is any type of attack, the hacker does not
get the chance to demand for ransom to the organization. Moreover, the backups should be
validated on a periodical manner so that there exists absolutely no loophole for the security of
the confidential data.
ii) Solution for DDoS Attacks: There is a respective mitigation technique for the
DDoS attacks. This a specific tool that is utilized to resist or mitigate the overall impact of the
distributed denial of service attacks over the networks that are being attached to Internet by
means of protecting the relay networks or the target networks (Baskerville, Spagnoletti and
Kim 2014). The IT engineer of the typical organization should utilize this technique for their
network security, so that the network and data security of this organization is maintained
substantially.
iii) Solution for Spyware: A proper antispyware technology should be implemented
within the network of the organization by the IT engineer for securing the confidential
information or data of the small clients. Several vendors are present, who are absolutely
reluctant to use adware as the users’ consents often raise liability issues (Von Solms and Van
Niekerk 2013). With the help of this antispyware technology, the organizational IT engineer
can easily detect or prevent the computer spyware efficiently without much hassle or
complexities. Moreover, the Trojans, adware and other types of spyware will also be stopped
with this technology and hence it is termed as one of the most important and significant
solution for the computer spyware.
iv) Solution for Eavesdropping: The significant solution for eavesdropping is by
employing encryption within the network. This would ensure that the confidential data or

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network is authenticated by allowing only authorized users (Peltier 2013). The emails and
voice traffics should be protected by the implementation of encryption technology. Thus, the
unauthenticated data access is stopped.
v) Solution for Phishing: This particular IT security risk can be stopped by the
implementation of VPN or virtual private networks. The access to the local LAN connection
or remote web server can be stooped by this (Klukas, Chen and Pape 2014). There are few
popular VPNs like Fortinet and SonicWall, which are both cost effective as well as good for
the network.
vi) Solution for Data Breaching: Disk encryption is the most effective solution for
data breaching. The systems are protected by this technique and hence the confidential data
or information is protected eventually.
vii) Solution for Digital Certificate Threats: The trusted certificate authorities or CAs
should be utilized in this type of threats and for this purpose the organization should remove
all the previously existing CAs from their systems and add only the CAs that are obtained
from the PKI (Demir and Krajewski 2013).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, conclusion can be drawn that the kind of
network security even includes the authentication of data access within the network that is
being controlled by the respective network administrator. The users can either choose any
specific username or password for authenticating the information within the authority.
Network security comprises of the combination of computer networks like private and public.
Hence, the transactions as well as communications within the departments of any particular

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organization are extremely easier with this security. The above report has clearly mentioned
about the detailed security risks with measures for the case study.
Recommendations
The organization can face several significant IT security risks like distributed denial
of service attack, computer viruses, eavesdropping, phishing, spoofing, data breaching,
spyware and many more. These above mentioned security risks are extremely vulnerable for
the organizational network; however, these risks could be easily prevented with proper
precautions. The following recommendations will be extremely effective for this
organization.
i) Using Encryption on the Wireless Access Points: They can use encryption
technology on the wireless access points and thus the WPA2 encryption can save the
authenticity of their data. Moreover, with the help of wireless networks, the sensitive
information could be easily gathered.
ii) Hiding Service Set Identifier: The next recommendation for this case study is to
hide the SSD or service set identifier. Each and every wireless router comprises of the
obscure IDs and thus the information could be easily protected.
iii) Changing Passwords Periodically: The third significant recommendation of the
case study is that the passwords should be changed periodically. This particular measure is
responsible for securing the confidential information to a great extent and thus overall
security is enhanced.

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References
Bajdor, P. and Grabara, I., 2014. The Role of Information System Flows in Fulfilling
Customers’ Individual Orders. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 7(2).
Baskerville, R., Spagnoletti, P. and Kim, J., 2014. Incident-centered information security:
Managing a strategic balance between prevention and response. Information &
management, 51(1), pp.138-151.
Castronova, A.M., Goodall, J.L. and Ercan, M.B., 2013. Integrated modeling within a
hydrologic information system: an OpenMI based approach. Environmental Modelling &
Software, 39, pp.263-273.
Cherdantseva, Y. and Hilton, J., 2013, September. A reference model of information
assurance & security. In 2013 International Conference on Availability, Reliability and
Security (pp. 546-555). IEEE.
Crossler, R.E., Johnston, A.C., Lowry, P.B., Hu, Q., Warkentin, M. and Baskerville, R.,
2013. Future directions for behavioral information security research. computers &
security, 32, pp.90-101.
Demir, I. and Krajewski, W.F., 2013. Towards an integrated flood information system:
centralized data access, analysis, and visualization. Environmental Modelling & Software, 50,
pp.77-84.
Feng, N., Wang, H.J. and Li, M., 2014. A security risk analysis model for information
systems: Causal relationships of risk factors and vulnerability propagation
analysis. Information sciences, 256, pp.57-73.

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Grimes, R. 2018. The real security issue behind the Comodo hack. [online] CSO Online.
Available at: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2623707/hacking/the-real-security-issue-
behind-the-comodo-hack.html [Accessed 18 Aug. 2018].
Jouini, M., Rabai, L.B.A. and Aissa, A.B., 2014. Classification of security threats in
information systems. Procedia Computer Science, 32, pp.489-496.
Klukas, C., Chen, D. and Pape, J.M., 2014. IAP: an open-source information system for high-
throughput plant phenotyping. Plant physiology, pp.pp-113.
Kolkowska, E. and Dhillon, G., 2013. Organizational power and information security rule
compliance. Computers & Security, 33, pp.3-11.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Peltier, T.R., 2013. Information security fundamentals. CRC Press.
Rhodes-Ousley, M., 2013. Information security: the complete reference. McGraw Hill
Education.
Singh, G., 2013. A study of encryption algorithms (RSA, DES, 3DES and AES) for
information security. International Journal of Computer Applications, 67(19).
Von Solms, R. and Van Niekerk, J., 2013. From information security to cyber
security. computers & security, 38, pp.97-102.

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Appendices
Appendix A

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Appendix B