IT Networking Designing - Assignment

Running head: IT NETWORKING DESIGNING
IT Networking Designing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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IT NETWORKING DESIGNING
Table of Contents
Part 1: Research of Network Attacks.........................................................................................2
Part 2: Network Security Audit Tools........................................................................................3
Reflection...................................................................................................................................5

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IT NETWORKING DESIGNING
Part 1: Research of Network Attacks
The network attacks are responsible for stealing, damaging or altering any type of
confidential information and data within the network. These types of attacks are extremely
dangerous for any network as the network becomes vulnerable and loses the confidentiality
and integrity (Rid and Buchanan 2015). These are often done intentionally or unintentionally.
There are various types of network attacks that have created major destruction in the world.
One of the most popular and dangerous network attacks in the cyber world registered is
WannaCry Ransom ware.
Name of the attack: WannaCry Ransomware
Type of attack: Ransomware
Date of attack: 12 May, 2017
Computers/ Organizations affected: Thousands of systems, notably National
Health Service of the United Kingdom.
How it works and what it did: WannaCry ransom ware is one of the most popular
cyber attacks that are being registered in the cyber world. This ransom ware walloped
thousands of targets that mainly included the larger corporations and public utilities. The
most affected organization is the National Health Service of the United Kingdom (Mattei
2017). The emergency rooms were eventually hobbled in this case and thus the important
medical processes were delayed. This created major chaos for the British patients. The
attackers demanded for about 130,000 dollars or 52 bitcoins for stopping this particular
network attack.

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IT NETWORKING DESIGNING
Mitigation Options: The mitigation options for this type of attack are proper training
of the employees, back up to systems regularly, permissions for reviewing systems, regular
updates of software, protection from corrupt files, network security and many more. These
mitigation options would help the user in stopping the ransom ware from getting spread.
References and info links:
Mattei, T.A., 2017. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security of Health Care Information:
Lessons from the Recent WannaCry Cyberattack. World neurosurgery, 104, pp.972-974.
Retrieved from https://www.worldneurosurgery.org/article/S1878-8750(17)30996-8/fulltext
Rid, T. and Buchanan, B., 2015. Attributing cyber attacks. Journal of Strategic Studies, 38(1-
2), pp.4-37. Retrieved from
http://cs.brown.edu/courses/cs180/sources/Attributing_Cyber_Attacks.pdf
Part 2: Network Security Audit Tools
Network security audit tools are utilized for stopping any type of data breach, ransom
ware or any other cyber attacks. It is the means by which the current performance level of a
company could be monitored and thus it is allowed to investigate as well as pinpoint the
selected trend and particular incidents of security (Jammes and Papadaki 2013). There are
various network security audit tools and attack tools. The most popular examples are Nmap,
Crack, Ghba.c, John the Ripper, binfo.c and many more.
Name of tool: Network Mapper or Nmap
Developer: Gordon Lyon
Type of tool (character based or GUI): GUI
Used on (network device or computer host): network device

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IT NETWORKING DESIGNING
Cost: Free
Description of key features and capabilities of product or tool: Nmap has various
uses. It could be utilized for auditing the overall security of any device or firewall by simple
identification of the network connections that are made to be used by the users. The next
capability of this network security tool is to identify all the open ports on any targeted host
for the purpose of auditing (Calderon 2017). The third important feature of this network
security tool is to find or search for the vulnerabilities within any network. Moreover, the
network mapping, network inventory and management of assets are also doe with this tool.
The network security is identified by the new servers. Thus, WannaCry ransomware could be
easily mitigated with the help of Nmap security auditing tool.
References and info links:
Calderon, P., 2017. Nmap: Network Exploration and Security Auditing Cookbook. Packt
Publishing Ltd. Retrieved from https://dl.kuroy.me/foreign/learnflakes/Nmap_%20Network
%20Exploration%20and%20Security%20Auditing%20Cookbook%20-%20Second
%20Edition/Paulino%20Calderon%20-%20Nmap_%20Network%20Exploration%20and
%20Security%20Auditing%20Cookbook%20-%20Second%20Edition.pdf
Jammes, Z. and Papadaki, M., 2013. Snort IDS ability to detect Nmap and metasploit
framework evasion techniques. Adv. Commun. Comput. Netw. Secur, 10, p.104. Retrieved
from https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=iOAQBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA104&dq=nmap&ots=BWHKxIStMo&si
g=n8CiWNdy9WAMCVmqoStccenTI90

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IT NETWORKING DESIGNING
Reflection
1. I think that network attacks over the operation of any specific organization or
company are extremely dangerous as it corrupts the data or information over the network and
thus infecting the computer for the purpose of weakening the computer security. It helps in
providing the back doors to protected networked computers.
The steps are as follows:
i) Identification and Prioritization of Confidential Information
ii) Studying current flow of information and performing risk assessment
iii) Determining the correct access, information distribution policies and usage
iv) Implementation of Monitoring or Enforcement Systems
v) Reviewing Progress Periodically
2. The steps for protecting my own PC or laptop computer are as follows:
i) Requirement of Password while logging in.
ii) Utilization of password protected screensaver.
iii) Encryption of hard drive.
iv) Backup of data.
v) Keeping system or software up to date.