Cybersecurity Report: Protecting ABCT Company from Emerging Threats

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Executive summary
This is the report which is summarizing about the cybersecurity measures in home and offices
but this report is majorly focusing on the office-based security measures because the
organization taken for the purpose of studying is ABCT Company which is working overseas
and is responsible for the development of a wide range of hardware and software products. It is
detailing about the multiple functions of the company and how the company is operating its
functions, it is also detailing about the security issues being faced because of the company
operations and how these security issues can be mitigated in order to protect the brand image of
the company. It is really important for the organization to maintain brand loyalty and customer
satisfaction for which it is vital to develop some security-based policies for the prevention of
growing cyber crimes.
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Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Cybersecurity...................................................................................................................................5
Importance of Cyber Security of ABCT......................................................................................5
Security Vulnerabilities in ABCT’s System................................................................................6
Risks associated with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)............................................................7
Risk Associated with Free Wireless LAN Access.......................................................................8
Emerging Threats Affecting ABCT.............................................................................................8
Recommendation of protecting home and offices from cyber Attack...........................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
This is the report which is based on the cybersecurity under which the ABCT Company is being
taken and the entire report is focusing on the functioning of the ABCT Company related to the
threats and the security issues being faced by the ABCT Company and how all these threats and
issues can be mitigated to prevent the security issues by implementing cybersecurity measures.
This cybersecurity measure involves proper implementation of the security software and
systems, educating the employees about the growing threats and attacks and by teaching the
employees about security preventive measures which must be adopted for controlling the threats
and attacks. Also, at last, the recommendations are detailed which is specifying how
cybersecurity can be ensured at the homes and office by controlling the growing threats and
attacks.
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Cyber security
Cybersecurity is the method by which the network and systems can be well protected from any
kind of digital attacks and threats. The cyber attacks are designed to perform the functions like
destroying the system, extracting the personal or any sensitive information from the device,
interrupting the business functions and most importantly it can lead to extraction of money from
the bank accounts. It is really important to implement multiple cybersecurity measures that will
be helpful in protecting the systems and devices from all these mishaps (Ben-Asher & Gonzalez,
2015).
ABCT is an Australian organization which involves the development of multiple hardware and
software products with its branches situated in multiple areas. It is also allowing its employee to
follow the policy of work from and bring your own device (BYOD). Every IT business is prone
to some of the cybersecurity threats and risks for which it is important to implement the better
cybersecurity measures which are capable of providing security to the systems as well as
organization. This report is also majorly focusing on providing the support and security to the
operation of ABCT organization. As detailed the organization is allowing the employees to take
work from home by using VPN (Virtual Private Network) that is being provided to all of the
branch offices from the organization. The implementation of the BYOD policy is also providing
free WLAN to all the guests and the visitors who are visiting the organization. Apart from, one
more reason to implement cybersecurity is that all the data or information related to organization
is stored in the cloud which is also prone to cybersecurity. All of these issues or problems are
creating fear for the company that it might lead to potential reputation loss for the company and
the loyalty of the customers will also be affected because of it.
Importance of Cyber Security of ABCT
 Most importantly it will be helpful in saving the business reputation which can be done by
gaining the loyalty of the clients and employees working in the organization. The leakage of
any data or private information might lead to harm the identity of an individual for which it is
important to have the implementation of cybersecurity measures.
 Cybersecurity allows providing security to private and confidential information. As detailed
by ABCT company that all the data or information is stored in the cloud it is important that
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cloud must be well protected and all the security measures are provided so that there is no
risk to any private and confidential data related to the organization.
 As the organization is being operated by using the VPN which is providing the online
security but there is also a trust issue which comes along with the installation of VPN.
Therefore it is really important to take proper cybersecurity measures in order to protect the
security threats spreading because of VPN.
Security Vulnerabilities in ABCT’s System
VPN Security Risks
Virtual Private Network is an online network connection which is allowing the users to share the
data by connecting directly to the private network. ABCT organization is majorly operating all
its business operations by using the VPN where the computing devices are connected with the
private network and this private network is allowing effective sharing and exchange of
information and data online but this VPN is also prone to certain risks and attacks which are
leading the cyber crimes and these vulnerabilities involve:
 Logging: There are basically two types of logs which are usage and connection log. The
connection log seems to be the innocent log and doesn’t involve the original IP address that
can be helpful in preventing the identification of any private and confidential data but the
usage log is not the same it is creating the issues for the security (Gupta & Mishra, 2016).
 Privacy: Privacy is a very important issue associated with the VPN, it is important to
develop the privacy policy for the readers to read who are using the VPN so that well aware
about the privacy is maintained.
 VPN providing service in multiple countries: As ABCT organization is using the VPN
service in its multiple offices that are also creating the problem to security because it is really
important to have the strong base for the VPN and with the moving base from one office to
another office leads to security issues.
 Leakage of data: There can be leakage of private and confidential data in some wrong hands
which might land the organization into some serious problems as this data leakage will lead
to identifying ISP and private information that can expose the company in wrong terms.
 The IP address will be used as an Exit Node: There is a problem of IP address which might
land in some serious problem and this IP address will be acting as the exit node that will
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allow exiting the private and confidential information and data along with some illegal
activities that involve child pornography, downloading of irrelevant materials.
Figure 1: VPN based risks
Risks associated with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
As the ABCT company its employees to BYOD to the office which is also welcoming the
multiple security risks and threats which comes along with the device that is needed to be
addressed. Given below are the risk detailed with BYOD:
 Leakage of data: There is a possibility of data leakage where the employees can lead to
access the private and corporate emails and the payroll information by using the mobile or
any personal device. This can lead to stealing of private information and also the device
being used by the employee can be filled up with malware and attacks that might lead to data
distortion.
 Sketchy Applications: The devices used by the employees can have sketchy applications
which are capable of getting fake or unexpected data from the websites and web pages.
 Device Infection: The devices of the employees might be infected with vulnerabilities and
threats. The carelessness of the employees for not cleaning the device from time to time
might lead to some serious security problems that will keep on multiplying if not controlled
during initial stage (Do et al., 2017).
 Mixing business and personal Use: While implementing the policy of BYOD, employees
take advantage of it and use the device for their personal use also during the office hours
which is also ethically wrong and must be prohibited.
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Risk Associated with Free Wireless LAN Access
 Unencrypted Network: The information which is being sent from the computer to the
wireless router in a form of secret code so that no one can read or see the information or data
stored. But with the installation of free access of wireless network it will lead to unencrypted
network and anybody can get access to any information or data and which can be used in
wrong means.
 Man-in-the-middle attacks: This is the most common threats in case of the free access to
WLAN which leads to eavesdropping and during the sharing of data from one computer to
another computer can one in between can get access to the data.
 Snooping and Sniffing: The cybercriminals can purchase additional software kits which are
capable of snooping and sniffing by eavesdropping on WI-FI signals. This will allow the
attackers to identify the login credentials and hijacking the accounts.
Emerging Threats Affecting ABCT
1. Threats emerging with the application of VPN
There are several threats associated with the application of a VPN that involves intrusion and
denial of Service against a VPN that is detailed below:
Intrusion: It is allowing the third party to get control of the parts of the VPN. This will involve
the elements of the network such as a server, PC, and other networking elements. In order to
execute the intrusion, the attacker tries to enter into the traffic control and reaches the destination
of the VPN. The application of VPN by ABCT Company can lead to some serious problem
which like intrusion which is required to be addressed before it starts controlling the parts of
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VPN and it can also lead to a misconfiguration of malicious and accidental information. The
responsibility of this attack will be on part of the VPN which are trying to get the access to the
network elements for extracting the information from networking elements forcefully and the
techniques which are being used for the purpose of intrusion involves application layer and
protocol that are attacking the system and the normal activities of the VPN (Gratian et al., 2018).
Denial of Service
This is the problem of VPN service. This is the threat which is originated because of the VPN
and the internet. Denial of service is the problem which is not allowing the users to access the
data or information by simply denying them access to the users which can lead to the problem
even if the user is called to be authorized. The DOS attack is done by attacking the network
infrastructure that is directly affecting the VPN. The application of DOS is lowering down the
performance of VPN, there is difficulty in connecting with the VPN, and the exposures of attacks
are also increased with the application of DOS in VPN (Morrison et al., 2018).
2. Threats emerging from the cloud storage
The ABCT Company is storing all of its data or information in the cloud technology which is
also prone to security threats and attacks which are leading to some serious problems like the
data privacy is affected because of the cloud storage because the data stored in the cloud can be
extruded which allows giving the unauthorized access to the sensitive and private data by
entering certain technical codes. This attack will damage the organization information and data
leak. The techniques used for the attacking involves data breaches, unauthorized data access.
3. Threats coming from offering free WLAN: As ABCT Company is offering is free access to
WIFI to anybody who is entering into the office is creating the threats issues which are required
to be controlled as it is leading the hackers and attackers to enter into the system and stealing out
some private and confidential information from the system related to company which can be
used with the wrong means. The techniques being used for the same involves plantation of
infecting software which will infect all other components and extract the information (Rashid et
al., 2018).
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4. Threats of implementing BYOD policy: Following the policy of BYOD is coming along
with the threats and attacks which involves no protection is provided to the passwords, breaches
of the application or the software, non-encryption of the data and multiple connections. These are
some of the threats which are being faced by using the policy of BYOD which will create a
problem for the organization because these devices can get access to some private and
confidential information that company is not willing to share. The technique being used for the
same can be the installation of sketchy application which will sketch out everything (Yang et al.,
2019).
5. Adware and Spyware: This is the threat which is quite common and it is designed for the
purpose of tracking the data by following the browsing functions and the advertisements placed
on the websites along with the pop-ups which appear on the website. This type of threat is quite
common these days and it will also affect the ABCT organization also. The technique being used
for the adware and spyware involves advertisements and pop-ups which contains coded and
these codes will be capable of extracting the information and spread viruses across (Herbert-
Lowe & Simone, 2018).
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Recommendation for protecting home and offices from Cyber Attack
 Implementing Firewall System: It is important in order to ensure the security of the
devices and software with the growing cyber threats. One of the ways involves
implementing firewalls that will act as a barrier between cybercriminals and the data. It
stops cybercriminals from any kind of threats and attacks by providing additional
protection (Ratchford & Wang, 2019).
 Education for employees in the offices: It is important for organizations to educate their
employees about cybersecurity. As ABCT company is allowing the employees to work
from home and use the VPN network so it is important for the employees to act
responsibly and protect the organization image by being well aware of the security threats
and attacks which might enter the devices or the software (Teoh, et al., 2018).
 Ensuring regular data back-ups: It is important to have the regular data backups so that
just in case if any data get leaks or stolen the backed up data can be used effectively. The
entire data backup must be stored in the cloud from where the data can be extracted
anytime and anywhere. Also, the data stored in the data must also be protected because
with the growing threats and attacks even cloud is not considered to be safe.
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Conclusion
After discussing in detail about the ABCT Company and its operations in the multiple countries
it can be observed that the company is facing the multiple cyber threats and it is important for the
company to take the corrective measures to keep the security and protection of the system by
properly implementing the policies and implementing cybersecurity based software and system
that will be capable of providing the protection and safety to the business operations. It is really
important for the ABCT Company to maintain the loyalty and trust of the clients by managing
the security issues because if any security pitfall is observed it will lead to harm the reputation of
the company and the company will have to face some consequences. So, it is better for the
organization to plan in advance about the security threats and be prepared for the coming
security issues.
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