COIT20249 Assessment 3: Cybersecurity in a Digital World

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

COIT20249: ASSESSMENT 3
1

Executive summary
The main purpose of this report is to show the importance of cybersecurity in today's world
where technology is evolving at a rapid pace and everything is going digital. With the excess use
of the internet in almost everything, there is a risk of stealing data. Data can be the personal
information of the customers, bank details and other private documents. For the company like
ABCT which is an Australian technology company which produces high tech products includes
both hardware are software, it is necessary to secure the data with the help of Cybersecurity.
Cyber Security gives the security to all the data like personal information of the customers and
their private documents which will give the assertion to the customers regarding the safety of
their data. In the recent years, cybercrime is increasing day by day because many of the
companies’ still not using any security to their private data due to which it is quite easy for the
hackers to steal the data. There are various methods like cyber security assessments and external
cyber intelligence which can be recommended in order to secure the data from any kind of
cybercrime.
2

Contents
Executive summary...................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................4
Meaning of Cyber-Security and Importance for ABCT.........................................................................5
Security vulnerabilities in ABCT’s system..............................................................................................7
Different types of emerging threats (that might affect ABCT)..............................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations...................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................................13
3

Introduction
In this report, there is a discussion of cyber-attacks and the importance of cyber securities in
order to secure the data from hackers. Safety of data is the most important thing especially in
today's world where all the data like bank details, details of online transactions and credit card
details can be stolen easily. It is important to secure the personal data so that there will no
financial loss. In this report, ABCT is a technology company situated in Australia. ABCT
provides various high-tech products to the customers which consist of both software and
hardware. This company has many other offices in Australia and also has two offices in other
countries. The company main headquarter is located in Canberra. Employees can also do work
from their home with the help of VPN connections. In this report, ABCT Company is
recommended to use various methods such as physical security and external intelligence of cyber
in order to secure their data and also the personal data of its customers. The main objective of
this report is to show the importance of cybersecurity in expanding the growth of the business
more and to avoid any financial losses. This report contains various investigation which is done
in order to overcome the various cyber-attacks. There is a discussion of various security
vulnerabilities in the system of ABCT Company in this report. This report also shows the
different types of emerging threats that can affect the productivity of the ABCT Company.
4

Meaning of Cyber-Security and Importance for ABCT
Cybersecurity is a type of techniques which is used to protect the data from the various cyber-
attacks. This attacks can be done by hackers in order to steal the data. There is a rapid increment
in the cyber-attacks which is done on a regular basis. These attacks can be overcome with the
help of these techniques (Gupta, et. al., 2016). This hasty market expansion is getting filled with
technological trends. There are many security requirements which are the internet of things and
bring your own device in order to secure the data from hackers.
Cybersecurity can protect networks of computers and programs from the hackers which maintain
the security of the data. It provides safety to the major areas which are mention below:
 Information Security- It protects user data from any kind of unauthorized access in
order to protect the privacy of the customers. Information can be secured with the help of
many methods which are cryptography and agreement and verification of the users.
 Security of Application- It is the method which is used to protect the application from
any kind of external threats by using hardware and several software's. In the design of
any application, security is must needed so that customers can access those applications
without facing any issue (Andrea, et. al., 2015). In order to secure this application from
any kind of threat, a security measure is constructed under the application so that no one
can steal the data from that application.
 Network security- It is a method used to protect the network of any device. This security
method stops the various threats in arriving in the network. There are various components
of these security methods which are Virtual private network, Anti-virus, Firewall, and
Intrusion Prevention Systems.
Cybersecurity is essential for the ABCT because it will protect the data of the customers of
ABCT and also secure them from any kind of threats or cyber-attacks. By providing the security
to their system will ensure them that their customer’s data will remain secure from any kind of
attacks (Abawajy, 2014). ABCT Company have a huge revenue and also have a high customer's
rate, it is important for the ABCT Company to provide security to the data of their customers so
that their customers will not have to face any issues. This will ensure the company that its
5

consumers remain connected with them. This will improve the growth of the corporation and
also increase the revenue of the company. By applying these methods, the company can
strengthen their security and as a result, they do not have to face the case of cyber-attacks again
as all the information of their customers gets stored in the cloud. Providing safety to the data and
networks is an important aspect of growing the business at a faster rate without facing any
financial loss.
6

Security vulnerabilities in ABCT’s system
The three security vulnerability in ABCT’s system are as follows:
 Sensitive data exposure- The major security vulnerability for ABCT Company is the
exposure of sensitive data. Sensitive Data is the collection of various private information
of the customers like their credit card details, bank account details, and online
transactions. ABCT is the company who manufactures various high-tech and expensive
products and have a high rate of customers rate. Most of the customers purchase the
products from the company do their payments online with the help of credit card or other
online payment applications (Nourian & Madnick, 2015). In order to make the payment,
customers share their private details like their credit card details or their bank account
details. This details of the customers got stored in the system of the Company. Hackers
can take advantage of this thing, by attacking the system of the company and can steal the
private data of the customers. This will affect the growth of the business and also affect
the productivity of the company. Therefore in order to suffer from any kind of financial
loss ABCT can apply some security measures in order to secure the sensitive data of the
customers.
 Insecure Direct object References- It is the other vulnerability in the system of the
ABCT Company. As the company deals with the many users and the employees of the
company have to deal with many user ids in order to secure their data in the system, it is
quite possible that many a time employee will accept database of the attacker and save
that database in the system of the company. This will allow the attacker to go through all
the database of the system and steal the confidential information of the company as well
as the other customers (Weber, et. al., 2016). This can happen in that case in which an
attacker provides the reference of the fake data in the system and due to some reason, the
employer fails to authorize that file and save that file in the system. An attacker can get
access to all the other file and can download those files in its own system. This will be
harmful to the company as the attacker can access the private data of the company and
other consumers as well. A company can avoid this situation by doing the authorization
of every user properly on a constant basis. Other Prevention Company can do is storing
7

all data of the users internally so that the company does not have to perform user
authorization every other time.
 Broken Authentication- Another vulnerability in the system of the ABCT Company is
broken Authentication. As the company has its own website in which nay customers can
fill their details like usernames and passwords (Thakur, et. al., 2015). In many cases
where working in websites generally generates a session cookie which needs a session ID
for every legal session. These are the cookies which consist of various confidential data
like username and passwords of the customers. Whenever this session gets over rather by
logout or by closing the windows then these cookies get closed. But in many cases, when
customers forgot to shut down the sessions then these cookies remain to exist in the
system. These cookies still consist of data like username and passwords of the customers.
Attackers can take benefits of these cookies and able to access the confidential data of the
customers. As the company provides various devices to their systems in which they
access their confidential data. An attacker can use the device of those employees in order
to access their information from the compromised data (Cabaj, et. al., 2018). As a result,
an attacker can steal important information like credit card details or any other useful
information.
8

Different types of emerging threats (that might affect ABCT)
This is seen that the cybersecurity is becoming an important topic for the companies due to
which the companies have to do the research so that they are able to increase the security for the
companies against the cyber threats. This is seen that every company requires a good number of
staff which helps in increasing the cybersecurity for the company. It is seen that to prevent the
data breaches and to improve the security in the company it is important for them to produce the
data compliance across the organization (Jang-Jaccard & Nepal, 2014). It is seen that there are
various types of cybersecurity threats which impacts the company most. These threats are
considered to be:
 Phishing: the cybercriminals are trying to access the data of the company through the
secure network which the company is having in their organization. The most common
form of accessing the data of the company is through the process of Phishing. This is
done by hackers through social sites and emails. It is done as the scammers would
convince the person to the click on the link that is provided by them and with the help of
it, they would be able to gain the access of the system of the person. This helps them to
download the content that is available in the system of the user.
 Malware: this is the process where the hacker provides a downloadable file to the user
when downloaded in the system gets malicious. This can be best understood through the
Trojan horse as one of the best examples for it (Benjamin, et. al., 2015). This can be seen
that it is a form of malware. This enters the system without getting the person known
about its entry. This manipulates the codes in the system and also helps the hackers to spy
the data that is available in the systems.
 Brute force or the password attacks: It is a form of threat where the attackers aim to
attempt to gain access to the network through the program which is linked with the
password of the user (Abomhara, 2015). Hence it is considered as the primary reason
where the user should not use the same password again and again as this can be stolen by
the user.
 Ransomware: It is a type of threat to the system which when opened attacks the core of
the system and locks its functions. This encrypts the device so that no one can use it
anymore. This is considered as one of the most damage causing threat. Through this, the
9

computer or the server would remain locked until the hacker is not get paid. This suffers
the business most as the functions of the business gets disturbed a lot through this threat
and it cost the company most.
 Algorithm Manipulation: this is the threat to the organization where the hacker
manipulates the algorithm of the devices that are connected to the server. Through this,
the hacker gets the entry into the system and make the system perform vulnerability. This
affects the system and sometimes due to this the system gets damaged causing the huge
cost to the company.
10

Conclusion
In this segment, the importance of cybersecurity has been concluded in order to show the various
aspects of cybersecurity in the growth of the business. There are many key issues which are
illustrated in this report which have a big impact on the productivity of the business. There are
various findings which have been examined in this report, these findings assess the ABCT
Company in order to secure their data and their customer's information. Security of the
customer's data is the most important thing for any company and the various methods to main the
security of their data have been concluded in this report. The most important factor of
cybersecurity is to secure the various online activities like online payments, mobile connectivity,
remote access and Internet of Things. These online activities can be secure with the help of
various cyber securities methods and these are illustrated in this report. In this report
examination of various security, methods have been concluded in order to achieve the objective
of the report. In the future, ABCT can adopt various security method so that their data will
remain secure from the major emerging threats as there are many emerging threats which might
affect the growth of their business in the future. There are many recommendations which have
been concluded in this report in order to protect the data of home and office from various cyber-
attacks.
11

Recommendations
There are various recommendations which can be done in order to protect the home and office
from cyber-attacks. These recommendations are as follows:
 Limit the access of data- Many of the companies give lots of access to the many
employees. This will increase the risk of leaking the sensitive data of the customers like
their usernames and passwords which will be harmful to the company. It is recommended
to limit the access of data to the fewer employees so that there will be no risk of leaking
of important data (Aras, et. al., 2017). A company should limit the access of the
employees so that they can access those data only which is required in their work. This
will help the company in managing the data more effectively.
 Strong Passwords for every Section- In order to protect the important data of the
customers, it is recommended to the company to lock that data with the strong passwords
so that no third person can be able to access those data. Strong passwords should be there
so that an attacker will not be able to guess the passwords and different passwords should
be there for every section (Fonseca, et. al., 2014). A company should keep a strong
password for all the workers as well as for all the sections.
 Update and Data backup- It is recommended to the company to regularly update their
data and also give a backup for that data. If in the scenario of an attack on the data then
the company will be able to generate new data with the help of backup data. In order to
achieve success, it is essential for the company to back up their data on a regular basis. It
will assess the company in storing the previous data easily in the case of any cyber-attack
or data fissure.
 Detect Sensitive Data- It is recommended to the company to identify the location of
important data of the company carefully. It will be essential for the company as they can
allocate several resources in order to protect that important data of the company. As in
the company, there is an immense amount of data but in those data, only 5-10% of the
data is sensitive data which need to be protected. Therefore it is recommended to the
company to determine the exact location of that data and protect it from various security
measures.
12