HI6008 Business Research on Cybersecurity Challenges

Running head: CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES FOR BUSINESSES 1
Cybersecurity Challenges for Businesses
Name
Institution

CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES FOR BUSINESSES 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
2.0 Project Objective.....................................................................................................................4
3.0 Project Scope............................................................................................................................4
4.0 Literature Review....................................................................................................................5
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................5
4.2 Resasons for cyberattcks.....................................................................................................5
4.21 Lack of security...............................................................................................................5
4.22 Availability of mobile wallets.........................................................................................5
4.23 Popularity of Social Sites.................................................................................................6
4.24 Negligence.......................................................................................................................6
4.3 Cybersecurity Challenges for Business..............................................................................6
4.31 Malware...........................................................................................................................7
4.32 Inside risk.........................................................................................................................7
4.33 Hacking............................................................................................................................7
4.34 Phishing...........................................................................................................................8
4.35 Drone jacking...................................................................................................................8
4.36 DDoS Attack....................................................................................................................8
4.4 Recent Cyberattacks on companies...................................................................................8
4.41 Sony Pictures Entertainment............................................................................................8
4.42 GoDaddy..........................................................................................................................9
4.43 Yahoo...............................................................................................................................9
4.44 Morgan Stanley................................................................................................................9
4.5 Strategies to mitigate cybersecurity attacks......................................................................9
4.51 Dedicated Budget.............................................................................................................9
4.52 Physical Protection..........................................................................................................9
4.53 Encryption of Data.........................................................................................................10
4.54 Antivirus and passwords................................................................................................10
4.55 Security Culture.............................................................................................................10
4.6 Research gap......................................................................................................................10
5.0 Research Questions................................................................................................................11
5.1 Primary Question...............................................................................................................11
5.2 Secondary Questions.........................................................................................................11
6.0 Research Design and Methodology......................................................................................11

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6.1 Research design..................................................................................................................11
6.2 Sampling.............................................................................................................................11
6.3 Sample size and the participants......................................................................................11
6.4 Data collection....................................................................................................................12
6.5 Research validity................................................................................................................12
6.6 Research reliability............................................................................................................12
7.0 Research limitation................................................................................................................13
8.0 Research plan.........................................................................................................................13
9.0 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................13
10. Reference List..........................................................................................................................15
11.1 Cyber-crime rate report..................................................................................................18
11.2 Cyberattack targets.........................................................................................................18
11.3 Top cybersecurity challenges in 2016............................................................................19

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1.0 Introduction
Increase in technology is pushing businesses to embrace internet as a medium of
conducting businesses. Big and small companies are setting up websites in the World Wide Web
to tap the ever growing global market. However, with the increase, cyber vandals are also taking
advantage of the situation to sabotage businesses by stealing confidential information. Many
companies have been brought down by acts of cyber-attacks. Therefore, cyber security is a
challenge that most businesses are struggling to cope with (Singer & Friedman, 2014). In the
Global scene, Google has suffered acts of cyberattack which show that cybersecurity is an issue
which need redress. Furthermore, the last American elections also had cases of hacking into their
elections system. From those examples, it is clear that cybersecurity is very important for
businesses.
2.0 Project Objective
The general objective of this project is to examine the challenges of cybersecurity for
businesses.
On the other hand, the specific objectives of this project include;
i. To identify ways through which cyber-attackers use to threaten businesses
ii. To examine strategies to mitigate the cybersecurity issues.
3.0 Project Scope
The usage of internet based services and their impact on security will be evaluated in the
report. The theories of technical experts to enhance cyber security will be discussed in the report.

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Various cyber risks and their solution will be discussed in the report from the perspective of
different corporations.
4.0 Literature Review
4.1 Introduction
According to Knapp and Samani (2013), modern organisations are using internet based
services at a significantly high rate. With the use of latest technology, corporations are providing
better facilities to their customers. The modernisation of internet based technology has also
increased the number of cyber-attacks on corporations. Due to this threat, corporations are
realising the importance of cyber security in their organisation. Moreover, Waxam (2011)
attribute the incread level of cyberattacks to the davancement in technology since it allows
companies to implement internet usage with a goal of offering better services to their clients.
4.2 Resasons for cyberattcks
4.21 Lack of security
Most cyber vandals propagate their henious acts due to lack of security in the internet,
many businesses just operate without protection mechnisms which then makes it easy for
attackers to destroy, steal, and sabotage business operations.
4.22 Availability of mobile wallets
Arabo and Pranggono (2013), observe that with the easy availability of internet in
people’s smartphones, many organisations provide their services through the internet straight to
smartphones. Mobile wallet or e-banking are some of the examples of such services. People use

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their smartphones as wallets by using them for payments, booking or performing other internet
based transactions. For example, PayPal, Google Wallet, and Apple Passbook act as wallet
which allows users to pay for things. Banks also allow customers to carry out transactions
through their phones. As such, cyber attackers take the advantage and hacking the system to steal
from unsuspecting customers.
4.23 Popularity of Social Sites
Social media sites are significantly popular in between people, making it an ideal place to
advertise company’s products and services. People also share a large amount of personal
information on social sites. According to the research of Youmans and York (2012), hackers use
social media sites to collect data regarding users and use them to hack their accounts.
4.24 Negligence
Most of the security breaches are conducted due to the negligence of employees. As per
Amoroso (2012), employees intentionally or unintentionally failed to perform their security
duties which make it easier for a hacker to gain access to information. Many IT employees do
not have enough knowledge or skills to stop a cyber-criminal from hacking into their accounts.
4.3 Cybersecurity Challenges for Business
Increase in the level of technoly has made it easy for criminals to carry out cyberattcks.
In most cases, hackers use various strategies to intefere with operations of various businesses and
corportaions. Some of the strategies used include;

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4.31 Malware
Malware is the virus used by cyber criminals to gain access or collect information from
another computer. There are different types of malware used by the hacker. For example, hackers
use adware to display advertisement on a person’s computer which redirects them to hackers
serves. They restrict the access of users from their computer and collect their data. Most notable
attacks have been on eBay and Red Bull, where cyber criminals use fake advertisement to hack
users (Zhu, Joseph & Sastry, 2011). Other forms of malware attacks comprise of spyware,
ransomware, and smartphone malware. Spyware collects information regarding their online
activities and for ransomware, hackers gain access to a person’s data and after that demand,
ransom to give back the access. Usually, after paying the ransom, they do not give back the
access (Sanatinia & Noubir, 2015).
4.32 Inside risk
As per Carr (2011), usually, the cyber-attacks are performed with the help of inside
employees. According to a study conducted by IBM, more than 60 percent of cyber-attacks are
conducted by the inside employees instead of outside hackers. Generally, to gain some profit,
employees give access of company’s computer to hackers
4.33 Hacking
Many cyber criminals hack another company’s system not to gain profits; instead their
objective is to expose the company’s information in public. As per Hampson (2011), these
hackers are more dangerous since their motive is to destroy the reputation and business of an
organisation.

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4.34 Phishing
It is another method of cybercrime, in which hackers send emails to random users as
reputable organisations. The emails contain some kind of offer or lottery prize to lure the user
into clicking on such emails. After clicking on such mail hackers usually give them false hope of
winning a lottery and ask for a small prize to get such amount, or they redirect them to their
servers to hack their accounts.
4.35 Drone jacking
Drones have become popular in past one year and many drone manufacturing companies
are making cheap drones for families. As per the research of O’Malley (2017), this popularity
raises the risk of dronejacking since drones are connected to a particular network, it is easier for
hackers to hack such network and take control of the drone.
4.36 DDoS Attack
Hackers gain the access of a business computer and prevent them from performing their
activities. The most recent attack of DDoS has been on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s
election campaign (Li et al., 2012).
4.4 Recent Cyberattacks on companies
4.41 Sony Pictures Entertainment
In November 2014, the hackers of North Korea attack on the servers to Sony to get
access to their confidential data. The reason for such hack was a movie produced by Sony which
depicts North Korea as a negative nation. The cyber criminals take terabytes of private data from

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Sony and leaked their sensitive information on the web. These attacks cause huge loss to Sony
entertainments due to leakage of their movies and data (Walters, 2015).
4.42 GoDaddy
In 2014, the Syrian-based hackers group attack the servers of GoDaddy to gain access to
Domain name of giant corporations such as CNBC, Forbes. PCWorld and the Chicago.
4.43 Yahoo
The data breach of Yahoo is world’s largest data breach where a billion accounts were
affected. In this breach, the hackers gain access to Yahoo’s user’s personal data and their account
information, which affected the site negatively.
4.44 Morgan Stanley
An employee of the company steals data of more than 350,000 clients and posts some of
the information online. The employee was fired from the organisation and data was removed
from the online websites as well.
4.5 Strategies to mitigate cybersecurity attacks
4.51 Dedicated Budget
Most companies avoid cyber security policies due to their high costs; this eventually
increases the number of cyber crimes. It is necessary for companies to prepare a dictated budget
for their cyber security expenses and implement such money on improving their cyber security
(Liu et al., 2012).
4.52 Physical Protection
It is necessary for organisations to physically protect their computers and software from
hacker’s access. The employees working on the computer should be checked properly before
entering or exiting the computer lab.

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4.53 Encryption of Data
Hacker usually attacks the remaining information which transmitting the data by
company. By encrypting their data, the company can avoid such risk. Encrypting s data does not
take a long time and provide a high level of security.
4.54 Antivirus and passwords
Use of antiviruses in all computer devices will assist the corporation in preventing any
virus from entering the server. Antivirus is created to protect the computer from cyber-attacks
and scan its data. The password use by individuals while using social media or banking services
to ensure a high level of safety, people should change their passwords every week. The password
should not be obvious such as date of birth or some personal details.
4.55 Security Culture
The security measure must be adopted by organisations as an essential part of their
organisational culture. The employees of the corporation should be trained to avoid any
accidental data leakage and should also perform their due diligence in data security (Gavas,
Memon & Britton, 2012).
4.6 Research gap
Considering the fact that several businesses, big and small are under constant threat of
cyber-attack, it is important to identify ways through which cyber vandals use to harm businesses
and consequently, offer possible solutions to protect businesses from losing their confidential
data.

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5.0 Research Questions
5.1 Primary Question
i. What are the challenges of cybersecurity for businesses?
5.2 Secondary Questions
ii. How do cyber vandals propagate their attacks on businesses?
iii. What are some of the strategies to reduce cyber insecurity incidences?
6.0 Research Design and Methodology
6.1 Research design
Cybersecurity issues requires participants to express their opinion how attacks have been
propagated on them. As such, this proposal will use qualitative approach since it will make it
easy to collect data and interpret the results. In this study, various organizations such as
businesses, companies, organizations will form part of the study and identifying them requires
qualitative approach (Bryman & Bell, 2015).
6.2 Sampling
This proposal will use random sampling techniques. After identifying companies and
businesses who have been under the attack of hackers, then, I will choose participating entities
randomly (Bryman & Bell, 2015). This sampling method will help in saving time since different
businesses experience unique challenges.
6.3 Sample size and the participants

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Creswell (2013) observes that sample size chosen should make a statistical significance
to the study. In my locality, different companies and businesses exist, some have been victims of
cyberattacks whereas to some, their customers have experienced phishing incidences.
Participants in this study will be those businesses that have been attacked and cybersecurity
solutions providers to give some of the strategies to counter cyberattacks. My sample size will be
48 as it is enough to represent the population.
6.4 Data collection
The main method of collecting data will be interviews. Interviews will give participants
ample time to express the nature of their attacks, how they were carried out and some of the
strategies they used to counter their ordeal. There will be also questionnaires where we will be
able to know the most prevalent form of attack.
6.5 Research validity
When a researcher sticks within the scope of the scope and objectives of the study, then,
that study is regarded as valid. Creswell (2013) notes that researchers often deviate from the
main research topic and cover other areas outside the objectives. I have observed this challenge
and taken necessary measures to ensure that research objective are followed to the letter.
6.6 Research reliability
When a research paper can be used in other studies, used as part of literature to conduct
other studies, then the research is considered reliable (Cooper, Schindler & Sun, 2006). For me

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to achieve this, I have keenly followed qualitative approaches to the letter which therefore,
qualifies this research to be used in other subsequent studies.
7.0 Research limitation
Even though this research proposal is a success, I encountered some constraints. There
are other forms of cyberattacks which I got have are not academically proven. Therefore, it was
very difficult to decide whether to include them in this study. Again, I experienced time
constraint in researching for more information on cyber security issues.
8.0 Research plan
Week Activity carried out
Week 1 Gathered necessary material for the study
Week 2 Wrote introduction, objectives and scope
Week 3 Analysing various literature materials
Week 4 Put together the research design
Week 5 Compiled the whole study
9.0 Conclusion
The above report provided that the internet has become an essential part of an
organisational strategy to increase their customers. The popularity of internet and smartphones
has created a new market of opportunities for corporations but at the same time, it has introduced

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several risks. Corporations are required to properly implement security measure to avoid any
cyber crimes. Hackers are using the internet to attack new people and organisations to gain unfair
advantages. Cyber criminals use a new method to attack organisations such as Hacktivism, drone
jacking, malware, Phishing and Distributed denial of service. The companies are required to use
modern technology for protection against cyber crimes. Prepare implementation of security
policies and preparing a dedicated budget for security investments is mandatory for protecting.
Individuals can protect their data by using strong passwords and smarting brewing the web. The
awareness regarding online security should be spread between corporation’s employees and
effective implementation of security policies is necessary.

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10. Reference List
Amoroso, E. G. (2012). Cyber-attacks: protecting national infrastructure. Elsevier.
Arabo, A., & Pranggono, B. (2013, May). Mobile malware and smart device security: Trends,
challenges and solutions. In Control Systems and Computer Science (CSCS), 2013 19th
International Conference on (pp. 526-531). IEEE.
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Sage publications.
Cyber Guardian., (2014). Social Media: To be or not to be. Cyber Guardian. Retrieved from <
http://www.slcert.gov.lk/CyberGuardian/022014/index.htm >
Carr, J. (2011). Inside cyber warfare: Mapping the cyber underworld. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Cooper, D. R., Schindler, P. S., & Sun, J. (2006). Business research methods (Vol. 9). New
York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Gavas, E., Memon, N., & Britton, D. (2012). Winning cybersecurity one challenge at a
time. IEEE Security & Privacy, 10(4), 75-79.
Knapp, E. D., & Samani, R. (2013). Applied cyber security and the smart grid: implementing
security controls into the modern power infrastructure. Newnes.
Li, X., Liang, X., Lu, R., Shen, X., Lin, X., & Zhu, H. (2012). Securing smart grid: cyber attacks,
countermeasures, and challenges. IEEE Communications Magazine, 50(8).

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Liu, J., Xiao, Y., Li, S., Liang, W., & Chen, C. P. (2012). Cyber security and privacy issues in
smart grids. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 14(4), 981-997.
Nayak, S. (2016). Cybersecurity-Serverless-Graph DB. Slide Share. Retrieved from <
https://www.slideshare.net/SukumarNayak/cybersecurityserverlessgraph-db-70103538 >
Passeri, P. (2012). June 2012 Cyber Attacks Statistics (Part I). Hackmageddon. Retrieved from <
http://www.hackmageddon.com/2012/06/21/june-2012-cyber-attacks-statistics-part-i/ >
Sanatinia, A., & Noubir, G. (2015, June). Onionbots: Subverting privacy infrastructure for cyber-
attacks. In Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), 2015 45th Annual IEEE/IFIP
International Conference on (pp. 69-80). IEEE.
Singer, P. W., & Friedman, A. (2014). Cybersecurity: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford
University Press.
Waxman, M. C. (2011). Cyber-attacks and the use of force: Back to the future of article 2 (4).
Walters, R. (2015). Cyber Attacks on US Companies Since November 2014. The Heritage
Foundation, (4487).
Youmans, W. L., & York, J. C. (2012). Social media and the activist toolkit: User agreements,
corporate interests, and the information infrastructure of modern social
movements. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 315-329.
Zhu, B., Joseph, A., & Sastry, S. (2011, October). A taxonomy of cyber attacks on SCADA
systems. In Internet of things (iThings/CPSCom), 2011 international conference on and

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4th international conference on cyber, physical and social computing(pp. 380-388).
IEEE.

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11.0 Appendix
11.1 Cyber-crime rate report
Source: Cyber Guardian 2014
11.2 Cyberattack targets
Source: Passeri 2012

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11.3 Top cybersecurity challenges in 2016
(Source: Nayak 2016)