Cyber Attack and Information Security Case Study

This case study examines significant cyber attacks, particularly focusing on the ransomware attack known as WannaCry and a data breach at the University of Oklahoma. It discusses the problems caused by these incidents, the affected parties, the methods of attack, and potential preventive measures. The analysis highlights the importance of robust cybersecurity practices and the need for organizations to enhance their information security protocols to protect sensitive data.

Running head: CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

1CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
Table of Contents
Question 1-Part A.......................................................................................................................2
What was the problem?..............................................................................................................2
Who were affected and how?.....................................................................................................2
How was the attack carried out?................................................................................................3
What could have been done to prevent the attack?....................................................................3
Question 2-Part B.......................................................................................................................5
What was the problem?..............................................................................................................5
Who were affected and how?.....................................................................................................5
How was the attack carried out?................................................................................................7
What could have been done to prevent the attack?....................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

2CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
Question 1-Part A
What was the problem?
One of the recent security breaches that is discussed in this discussion is the security
breach at the university of Oklahoma on June 14, 2017 (Gray, 2015). The university has a
database regarding the student’s information which was leaked by chance from 2012.
According to the federal law it was an act of serious violation. The campus file sharing
system was first affected by the cyber attack. The vice president of the university was
informed about the cyber attack by the OU daily which first rectified the security breach
(Gao, Zhong& Mei, 2015). It is seen that the OU database was hacked and after getting the
regarding information about the security breach the information technology department was
working on it. The vice president also agreed about the security breach and the
acknowledgement of the university information system department about it. The IT team is
continuously working on the fact that people are claiming that they have downloaded the
content from the university’s website. Another important fact regarding the data breaching is
that the IT team of the university had not found any particular evidence regarding the data
breach. More than 29000 records were disclosed due to the security breach. Among that most
of the data was regarding the personal data of the students and also some official information
regarding the university (Federgreen& Sachs, 2015). Although it was unintentional according
to the educational board and for that reason this incident is not considered as the violation of
the federal funding of the university.
Who were affected and how?
Due to the cyber attack and the security breach the university and its student’s
information was mostly affected. The number of the affected student who loosed their
information due to the security breach is more than 29000. Official data of the university as

3CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
well as personal data of the students both were affected due to the security breach
(Kuo&Varki, 2014). The information contained personal data like personal details, financial
status and their accounting details also in some cases. For this reason the level of the security
breach was really high and the main website was immediately shut down by the university
authority. If there was any violation of law due to the security breach, then the university
could be affected in terms of the federal law.
How was the attack carried out?
According to some specialists who investigated the security breach, said that it was not an
external attack. The main source of the cyber attack was initiated from the inside of the
university (Young, 2014). The chance for the organisation was created for the regulation of
the organisational strength that cannot be hampered for the security breach. The information
technology department could not be able to monitor the fact that the organisation is being
attacked by such kind of threats (Ablon et al., 2016). Later the information technology
department of the organisation monitored that the source of the security breach is from inside
and some individual made the files of the university public (Peltier, 2013). It is already
informed to the university about the files that was to be opened to the public. It was also very
easy for the users to access the files so that the organisations can access those contents easily.
Anyone having login id of the university can also make the system more advantageous by
accessing the files.
What could have been done to prevent the attack?
The university can follow the regulations which are discussed following for making the
security system of the university stronger and advanced.

4CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
 The files which are being used in the information system of the university should be
encrypted. If the files are encrypted then other unauthorised access cannot make the
files insecure.
 The people of the organisation who work in the database system and in the
information technology system, should be given proper training so that the
organisation can make the people aware of such data breaches (Kwon & Han, 2017).
Proper training can also decrease the frequency of such incidents related to data
breaches and cyber security.
 Proper antivirus and firewall should be used in order to oppose the possible threats
that can harm the university’s security.
 Regular assessment of the vulnerability of the server should be taken care of.
 The maintenance and the checking of the system should be done in a frequent and
periodic way like once or twice per week.
 Security patching should be done in a regular basis by the IT team of the university.
 The backup of the information should be kept with highest priority so that the main
functionality of the university is not affected by the data loss.


5CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
Question 2-Part B
What was the problem?
One of the biggest cyber attacks in the recent days that have been going through worldwide is
known as the ransomware attack. Most importantly this problem has being reported and has
come out with a bigger image as the international Information technology giants and also
other big organisations have being affected by the virus. The name of the virus is the
wannacry. Ransomware is the particular type of this virus. The main problem is occurred on
the computers having the windows platform like windows 10 windows 8 and windows 7.
This virus is mainly distributed in the system with the help of the windows and also it uses
files like MS word, excel, power point and also the pdf files (Siponen, Mahmood, & Pahnila,
2014). This virus does not reveal its identity to the main computing system. Ransom basically
finds out the files and the information contained into the files (Wirth, 2017). It does not let
the computer system to further access the files so that it can be controlled by the virus.
Who were affected and how?
Most of the biggest organisations in the world were affected by the ransomware cyber attack.
International information technology organisations are affected by this attack and most of the
cases have found to be more vulnerable due to the attack of the ransomware virus (Kuner et
al., 2017). The list of organisations which were affected by the ransomware organisation is
given below.
 Rosneft: It is one of the biggest Russian oil producing company that is attacked by the
ransoware virus. The server of the Rosneft organisation is also affected by the
ransomware virus.

6CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
 Ap Moller-Maersk: It is a Danish shipping giant that is also attacked by the
ransomware virus. The computer system and the network were totally damaged by te
organisation.
 WPP: It is one of the biggest Britain’s advertising company which is attacked by the
ransomware virus.
 Merck and CO: It is a pharmaceutical company which informed by a tweet that its
computer system was hacked by the ransomware virus also.
 Russian banks: The Russian banks had a huge database of the information regarding
the public data. It is also seen that the organisation has not being able to make the
database purely secured. Lots of information is being hacked by the ransomware
virus.
 Ukrainian banks and power grid: It is reported that most of the banks and the power
grid of Ukrain are being hacked by the Ransomware virus.
 Saint Gobain: It is seen that Saint gobain which is one of the biggest material
company had been also attacked by the organisations (Renaud, 2017).
 Deutsche Post: The most important postal and logistic company was also attacked by
the ransomware.
 Metro: The metro of Germany was also affected by the attack of the wannacry virus.
 TNT Express: It is an organisation which is based on the Netherlands. The virus also
attacks the TNT express.
 Mars INC: It is also an important manufacturer organisation that is attacked by the
ransomware virus.
 Government organisations; Many administrative and government organisations are
also affected by the ransomware virus (Mohurle, & Patil, 2017). The computing

7CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
system of the department of police of different countries like China and India, are also
affected by the virus.
How was the attack carried out?
When a ransomware virus was initiated in the computer system, then the virus goes to the
main control system of the network. When a unknown link is downloaded into the system,
then it is sent to the organisation’s whole computing platform. The virus initiates its programs
into the system. The main feature of the virus is that the virus is not revealed its identity to
the computer defence mechanism (Collier, 2017). Then the virus starts to be shared among
the main system and it is also not identified until it attacks the main central system of the
computer. Normally it uses windows platform to be shared fast. It uses files like MS word
and MS exel and also pdf files for quickly being shared in the system (Martin, Kinross &
Hankin, 2017). The ransomware actually encrypts the files in which it has captured. After the
files are encrypted by the ransomware virus, then it is nothing to do with the files
(Chakravartula & Lakshmi, 2017). Most importantly this problem has being reported and has
come out with a bigger image as the international Information technology giants and also
other big organisations have being affected by the virus. The name of the virus is the
wannacry. Ransomware is the particular type of this virus. The main problem is occurred on
the computers having the windows platform like windows 10 windows 8 and windows 7.
What could have been done to prevent the attack?
To safeguard one’s self from such ransom ware virus, one should follow the following steps:
 The windows operating system should be updated always.
 The windows update option should be kept on in the main system.

8CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
 Update and use of the ransomware blocker software should be done in a frequent way.
 To block the port 445 for better security if the OS patches has not been installed in the
system (Collier, 2017).
 The system should be always updated in order to maintain the security.

9CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
References
Ablon, L., Heaton, P., Lavery, D., &Romanosky, S. (2016). Data Theft Victims, and Their
Response to Breach Notifications.
Chakravartula, R. N., & Lakshmi, V. N. (2017). Combating Malware with Whitelisting in
IoT-based Medical Devices. International Journal of Computer Applications, 167(8).
Collier, R. (2017). NHS ransomware attack spreads worldwide.
Federgreen, W. R., & Sachs, F. E. (2015). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/618,434.
Gao, X., Zhong, W., & Mei, S. (2015). Security investment and information sharing under an
alternative security breach probability function. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(2),
423-438.
Gray, M. F. (2015). U.S. Patent No. D746,305. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
Kuner, C., Svantesson, D. J. B., H Cate, F., Lynskey, O., & Millard, C. (2017). The rise of
cybersecurity and its impact on data protection. International Data Privacy Law, 7(2),
73-75.
Kuo, H. C., &Varki, S. (2014). Are Firms Perceived As Safer After an Information Breach?.
ACR North American Advances.
Kwon, S. M., & Han, C. H. (2017). Empirical Investigation on Information Breach Effect on
the Market Value of the Firm: Focused on Source and Long Term Performance.
Journal of Society for e-Business Studies, 21(2).

10CYBER ATTACK AND INFORMATION SECURITY
Martin, G., Kinross, J., &Hankin, C. (2017). Effective cybersecurity is fundamental to patient
safety.
Mohurle, S., &Patil, M. (2017). A brief study of Wannacry Threat: Ransomware Attack
2017. International Journal, 8(5).
Peltier, T. R. (2013). Information security fundamentals. CRC Press.
Renaud, K. (2017). It makes you Wanna Cry.
Siponen, M., Mahmood, M. A., & Pahnila, S. (2014). Employees’ adherence to information
security policies: An exploratory field study. Information & management, 51(2), 217-
224.
Wirth, A. (2017). It's Time for Belts and Suspenders. Biomedical Instrumentation &
Technology, 51(4), 341-345.
Young, E. (2014). Educational privacy in the online classroom: FERPA, MOOCs, and the big
data conundrum. Harv. JL & Tech., 28, 549.