Network Security Threats and Control Measures for Open University Malaysia

This document discusses the network security threats faced by Open University Malaysia (OUM) and the security and control measures that can be implemented to protect the university's network. It provides an overview of the security needs of OUM, the types of external and internal attacks, and the key approaches for cyber security. The document also emphasizes the importance of data security and suggests preventive, detective, and corrective control measures to enhance network security.

NETWORK SECURITY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of security needs of OUM ..........................................................................................1
External network attacks .............................................................................................................1
Types of External Attacks............................................................................................................2
Internal Attacks............................................................................................................................3
Types of Internal Attack..............................................................................................................3
Control Against Network.............................................................................................................4
Preventive method for Cyber Attack...........................................................................................5
Detective Control ........................................................................................................................6
Corrective Control.......................................................................................................................6
Key Approaches for Cyber Security................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Network security is defined as the approach used to protect the integrity and usability of
the networking services and data. Cyber attack is one of the most alarming threat to the network
security and thus it is very essential to adopt suitable measures for providing network security
(AbdAllah, Hassanein and Zulkernine, 2015). In the era of information technology when all
operational activities of organisations are performed via networking services. Open University
Malaysia (OUM) is planning to open its three new learning centres. However, in the wake of
recently faced cyber attacks university is having concern for improving its network security for
existing as well as new learning centres. The report will discuss the network security threats
which may be experienced by OUM and the security and control measures which can be helpful
for the university.
Overview of security needs of OUM
The biggest networking threat for the OUM is data breach and malicious threats. The
existing threats make the network system of university highly vulnerable for the unauthorised
access and data breach. The malicious threats such as virus, trozen horses, spyware and adware
can also affect the hardware in addition to the software. Thus along with the network security
and maintenance cost OUM is also required to protect its internal data which consist of
information related to students, teachers and other sensitive information of organisation. Thus
there is need of security measures which can prevent these threats and better network
performance to university.
External network attacks
The malicious campaign and threat actions that are conducted form the outside of the
organization and attack the surface that exist outside the firewall. This attacks are well
coordinated and well executed by skilled and sophisticated hackers. In external attacks hackers
try to find the vulnerability of network and penetrate it. These kinds of attack can cause major
damage to organization and harm and misuse their information and data.
External attack can be considered as method, process and acts that are performed by
unauthorised entity to compromise the security and privacy of network or data base of host. This
action are performed by network attacker, hackers and crackers. These are some conditions that
can be consider as external attack- deep web discussion of organization, phishing, domain and
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subdomain infringement and data leakage. Normally these actions are performed to disrupt,
deny, destroy and degrade information stored in network and server.
Types of External Attacks
There are different type of techniques are used by Attack hackers and external people
from the organization to cause damage to the data and information (Franck, 2016). That possess
by the organization. Mainly these techniques are- Malware, Phishing and cross site scripting.
Malware
Malware and malicious software are known as programs and files that are dangerous to
computer. Computer viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware are considered as malware.
Malware can perform different functions like stealing, encrypting, deleting and overwrite
sensitive content and information on company network. Attackers and hackers use various
physical and virtual devices to spread malware to infect devices and networks. As these malware
get entry in any system they start downloading malicious programs without permission of user.
These malware can affect financial stability and operational efficiency of OUM (Open university
Malaysia).
For example Zbot is a notorious trojan which was used in the recent cyber attacks. It is an
financial malware that is used by the hackers to retrieve the confidential and classified financial
information of user. Target of Zbot was mostly windows operating systems. Zbot was created to
steal and gather financial information including bank details to make unauthorised money
transfer through complex computer network. This is a complex and most dangerous malware that
can make an organization bankrupt. So, the malware like Zbot can intensely damage Open
University and its financial capital which is most important for functionality of organization,
Phishing Attack
This type of cyber attack are common these days. Phishing is a process that is used by
hackers to infect computer system of user (Ghali, Tsudik and Wood, 2017). Ransomware is a
kind of Phishing attack which was designed to encrypt the complete data and information stored
on the particular system. In this method hackers encrypts all folders in the unknown code which
can not be read by the compiler. Also, hackers provide message to user to pay ransom to recover
their data and information. Few years back many organizations were attacked by this malware
and it caused huge financial and data loss to many companies. It is how Phishing attacks can
affect network of OUM.
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Cross site scripting
Cross site scripting is a application layer web attack. It is a XSS vulnerabilities target
script that id embedded in the page which is executed on the consumer end not on server side.
The objective of these attack is to manipulate the client side script of user application to execute
the desired action of unauthorised user. This type of script is difficult to find out and fix. It is not
for one time, this script starts as user load this page of browser. This action used by hackers and
programmers to hijack account and information of user. Also, this type of action can be used to
spread worms and malicious software on the server and network. This how hackers can use
OUM network and data base to infect other associated systems. For example many hacker are
using the online shopping site eBay to hack the computer system of users whoa are surfing on
the home page of website.
The above mentioned types of attacks are possible on the OUM network and it can affect
both organization and users of it which is very dangerous for server and network of Open
University Malaysia.
Internal Attacks
Internal attacks can be considered as the attacks which occurred when individual groups
in organization tries to disrupt operations of organization and harm organizational assets. This is
quit opposite of external attack where the attack is conducted by unauthorised user but in internal
attack this inappropriate activity is performed by person who have authority to access the data
based and server of organization (Kalkan and Zeadally, 2017). These type of attacks are more
difficult to handle because the person who is affecting network have access to the organization
server and they are capable to compromise the safety and security of information and data
organization is possessing. For OUM this type of attacks can affect both organization and
students who are perusing their education from the university.
Types of Internal Attack
Internal attack consists of different kind of actions that are performed by people who are
present inside the organization. Through different ways insiders can infect or manipulate the
network of OUM which are- Malicious Cyber Attack, misuse of gadget, fraud and weakpass
word. These are the most common type of internal attacks.
Malicious Cyber Attacks
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Employees and members of organization have access to the network and data. They have
higher chances to modify and steal the confidential data of OUM. Employees can miss use their
authority and capacity to open back door for hackers and unauthorised people to access, use and
manipulate network of university for their personal benefits. This action can cause a lot damage
to Open University and lead them to disaster (Karami and Guerrero-Zapata, 2015). For example
if a person from the university allows any external person to download malicious software on the
server and can hack their data or destroy their information. It is easy for employee to download
or inject malicious software that can allow other people to track and steal student information.
This is how this kind of attacks are threat for Open university Malaysia.
Misuse of Gadgets
Misuse of company gadget is common in the offices and it can damage the system of
organization as well. Hen employees of organization to access the inappropriate sites that
contains malicious software or opening back door to the hackers who can misuse the network of
organization for criminal offence and financial fraud. For example there are different gadgets and
tools are provided to perform their work in university and if they use this gadgets with bad
intentions then it can cause major damage to network, information and image of OUM.
Weak Passwords
People in the organization are careless about the passwords and they keep a common
password for all websites which is not good for organization and employees both. This si
difficult for organization to maintain their productivity and performance with this loop holes that
can cause vast damage. Hackers and crackers are always looking for these loopholes which
makes the system easy penetrate (Kaur, Kaur and Gupta, 2016). For example if a person is using
the university mail account and they set weak password. This weak password will allow the
hackers to easily crack password to hack mails of organization. This is how weak passwords and
repetitive common passwords provide opportunity to hackers to get into the system of open
University of Malaysia.
Control Against Network
Cyber attacks are common now days and it is really important for organization to take
preventive control to keep organization running without any data and information loss and for
this they need to minimise these attacks through different methods.
The Rising Cost of breaches
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Few years age the security breaches were normal and conducted by hackers on the
normal level but now days this attacks are getting bigger and costlier. This attacks are more
common and professional now. This is way to extort money from the people and damage their
data base. For example the viruses or malware like ransomware are different form the normal
breaches. This can cause major loss of data in OUM which is not good for them. Hackers are
demanding more Ransom to provide recovery software. This is how the cost of cyber attack is
increasing.
Increasingly Sophisticated Hackers
In the history, cyber attacks were just a way to cause damage the data base of people and
annoy the people and organizations but in current time these attacks and attackers are growing
more professional. This attacks are well organised and well targeted based. This thing makes
cyber attacks more damaging and dangerous for organization like OUM that have many
operations on the online server. This criminal minded hackers have their intension to cause
damage to the data base of organization As a open university most data and information of
student is available online.
Importance of Data security
Open University of Malaysia contains huge data base of students and their employees. It
is important and essential for OUM to take proper security measures to improve the security of
their data base to prevent any problem later. Attack on the server of organization can affect a lot
of people and this would be very uncertain condition for OUM to handle security breach in the
organization. A small leak in the student data base can lead to major problem and this
information can be misused for terrorist attacks.
This is how the cyber attack can cause major damage to the OUM and people associated
with organization. To prevent such damage it is important for university to consider different
security measures and this will help the organization to maintain data security in the future.
Preventive method for Cyber Attack
This is a way to prevent different cyber attack for organization. Use of external firewall is
one of the best way prevent cyber attack on the organizational. It can be consider as the
preventive action of OUM (Yan, Zhang and Vasilakos, 2016). Firewall can be used by
organization to prevent unauthorised access from a user to the private network of university. By
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the combination of hardware and software firewall can be developed for company and this will
reduce the chance of hacking on inline server of Open University Malaysia.
Detective Control
In this process or method organization can use different tools or devices that can help
them to detect different cyber attacks and intrusion on the organization network. There are many
operations runes on the organization network and they need a specific system to detect the cyber
attacks on the network. Organization can use IDS to detect cyber attack on the organization
server. Intrusion detection system allow the user to respond to attack (Parker and Verizon Patent
2017). There are many malicious software's and hard ware are present on various sites that can
cause damage to the network of OUM. This system provide ability of virus detection to
networking server. By this detection they will be able to remove that particular software from the
server to prevent attack.
Corrective Control
As cyber attack occurs on the organization server it is important for organization to
resolve this failure as fast as possible (Learn About Internal and External Cyber Attacks & Ideas
to Be Safe From Them. 2018). For this corrective control OUM can use different corrective tools
like antivirus and malicious software removing tool. Antivirus are the best possible tool for this
action and it can help organization to recover from cyber attack and prepare the system for future
attacks.
Key Approaches for Cyber Security
Cyber security is major consideration for al type of organization. There are various
measures organization can use to prevent attacks and improve the security of servers. Ways that
organization can use to improve security are.
Consider Biometric security
This is one of the easiest way to prevent the cyber attack on organization internally.
Biometric security is currently used by many organizations to provide access to specific people
of OUM. Employees with in organization will be provided with the access to the company server
and this will prevent other people for using and handling data and network (Yan and Yu, 2015).
It can provide wide range of security to university. In this process organization can use the finger
prints, palm biometric, face recognition, and gait analysis to prevent unauthorised access to
network. In this method company can use three step verification method to keep their server safe
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from the cyber attacks. In this method biometric check will be on the initial phase and further
organization can use password and voice recognition before providing access to user. This can
also include the behavioural biometric in the access providing process. In this method
organization can consider the keystroke dynamics, mouse dynamics and eye movement
biometric to prevent the false
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding importance of different cyber measurement for OUM to keep
their data bases and record safe and private, To prevent these actions it is important for
organization to identify various kind of cyber attacks to consider proper methods to control and
eliminate this attacks. Different type of internal and external attacks has been analysed to
evaluate types of attacks that are threat for university. For each type of internal and external
attack different situations has been analysed to better understand the security issues. Various
kind of measures that are taken for organization has been considered to minimise the chances of
cyber attacks on OUM (Open University Malaysia). Importance of multilevel security protocol
has been analysed to know their importance for university. Key aspect of security aspects has
been explained in the report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
AbdAllah, E.G., Hassanein, H.S. and Zulkernine, M., 2015. A survey of security attacks in
information-centric networking. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. 17(3).
pp.1441-1454.
Franck, F., Alcatel Lucent SAS, 2016. Content-centric networking. U.S. Patent 9,338. 150.
Ghali, C., Tsudik, G. and Wood, C.A., 2017, September. When encryption is not enough:
privacy attacks in content-centric networking. In Proceedings of the 4th ACM
Conference on Information-Centric Networking (pp. 1-10). ACM.
Kalkan, K. and Zeadally, S., 2017. Securing internet of things with software defined networking.
IEEE Communications Magazine. 56(9). pp.186-192.
Karami, A. and Guerrero-Zapata, M., 2015. A hybrid multiobjective rbf-pso method for
mitigating dos attacks in named data networking. Neurocomputing. 151. pp.1262-1282.
Kaur, K., Kaur, S. and Gupta, V., 2016, March. Software defined networking based routing
firewall. In 2016 International Conference on Computational Techniques in
Information and Communication Technologies (ICCTICT) (pp. 267-269). IEEE.
Parker, B.J., Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc, 2017. Software-defined networking gateway.
U.S. Patent 9,680,870.
Yan, Q. and Yu, F.R., 2015. Distributed denial of service attacks in software-defined networking
with cloud computing. IEEE Communications Magazine. 53(4). pp.52-59.
Yan, Z., Zhang, P. and Vasilakos, A.V., 2016. A security and trust framework for virtualized
networks and software‐defined networking. Security and communication networks.
9(16). pp.3059-3069.
Online
Learn About Internal and External Cyber Attacks & Ideas to Be Safe From Them. 2018.
[Online]. Available Through: <https://www.cloudcodes.com/blog/internal-external-
cyber-attacks.html>.
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