Cyber Security Applied Research 2022

Running head: CYBER SECURITY APPLIED RESEARCH 1
Cyber Security Applied Research
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CYBER SECURITY APPLIED RESEARCH 2
Phase 1: Project Identification and security Environment
Data security is a vital concept which should be taken into account to protect the
organization’s information resources from various forms of attack. The loopholes, which may
lead to security vulnerabilities, should be covered fully to mitigate the adverse effects which may
arise (Hils, Young & D'Hoinne, 2015). The present paper will take into account security
vulnerabilities within the financial industry, creating emphasis on the Berkshire Hathaway,
which is the most expensive stock market in the world. It encompasses numerous insurance
companies which offer various forms of indemnity. Based on the information availed by the
Garner’s Magic Quadrant documents on firewall, version data breach investigation report among
other types of reports, vulnerabilities of data assets will be discussed comprehensively.
Phase 2: Security vulnerabilities, Threats, the likelihood of an attack, and business
impact.
Vulnerabilities, threats, and risk are important terms in understanding the cybersecurity
concept. Vulnerability is the situation where system assurance is well reduced by the attacker.
Notably it involves three major steps a flaw, attacker access to flaw and the capability of the
attacker to exploit the accessed flaw(Fortinet.com, 2019). A threat, on the other hand, is the
danger that the system experiences either intentional or accidental that may cause vulnerability to
the system. Risk is the possibility of a system to have an attacker successfully conduct crime
towards a system that is in place.
The three aspects are directly related in that the threat is a danger that leads to the
possibility of vulnerability, whereas risk is the possibility of the two aspects to happen on a
network or data. The process involves a series of activities such as the change of the
programming language of a system such that the attacker is ready to access it with much ease.

CYBER SECURITY APPLIED RESEARCH 3
Presumably, the change of the Program interrupts the software and all the programs and
application run on the hardware of the attacker.
Based on the information contained in the Garner’s Magic Quadrant documents on a
firewall among other reports, there are multiple security weaknesses that Berkshire Hathaway
faces. Regarding the physical vulnerabilities which the firm is facing, a break-in by burglars and
unauthorized access to data asset are very critical vulnerabilities worthy of mention in the present
paper (Team, 2015). If such vulnerabilities are exploited, there may be huge data loss, which
may significantly affect the operation of Berkshire Hathaway Company. Such kind of
vulnerabilities may also lead to loss of confidential information which may affect the
competitive edge of the company (Medina-Smith et al., 2018).
Concerning administrative vulnerabilities, the company may face system hacking which
may involve cracking of administrative passwords as well as data leakages due to weak
encryptions. This kind of administrative vulnerabilities when exploited may lead to loss of
wealth of information which may drastically affect the organization (Hossain, Fotouhi & Hasan,
2015). Weak data encryption may as well lead to loss of information to the competitor, resulting
exposure of operation fallout. Based on the technical vulnerabilities, unauthorized logical access,
inadequate software configuration, as well as software error, may create loopholes, leading to
high danger on the data asset.
When the mentioned technical vulnerabilities are exploited, Berkshire Hathaway
Company may lose a lot of information relating to its stock operation to the competitors,
affecting its financial position. When software error occurs, the system may become quite
vulnerable to attack, thus leading to the loss of confidential information to the third party (Le
Clair et al., 2017). Based on the information presented by the report, there are numerous more