Addressing Cyber Security Threats: A Report for JL Company

This report examines the cyber security vulnerabilities of JL Company, a small accounting firm in Perth, Australia, that is transitioning to the online market. The company faces several threats, including phishing, brute force attacks, virus attacks, hacking, and ransomware. The report identifies these is...Read More

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
Cyber Security Issues Identified in JL Company.......................................................................3
i. Phishing...............................................................................................................................3
How to address the Issue..........................................................................................................3
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches................................................4
Cost Implications......................................................................................................................4
ii. Brute force attacks..............................................................................................................4
How to address the Issue..........................................................................................................5
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches................................................5
Cost Implications......................................................................................................................5
iii. Virus Attacks...................................................................................................................5
How to address the Issue..........................................................................................................5
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches................................................6
Cost Implications......................................................................................................................6
iv. Hacking.................................................................................................................................6
How to address the Issue..........................................................................................................6
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches................................................6
Cost Implications......................................................................................................................7
v. Ransomware........................................................................................................................7
How to address the Issue..........................................................................................................7
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches................................................7
Cost Implications......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................8
References.......................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Cyber security has become a growing concern especially with beginner companies being
the target of cyber security attackers (Ning, Liu & Yang 2013). Cyber security is so important in
business that Indeed it is now viewed as a business issue. Security management in any business
becomes doubly difficult especially for companies involved in transacting in the online market.
The internet poses important security issues that would require business organizations to make
critical precautionary measures to secure themselves against cyber security issues. Small and
midsize businesses (SMBs) are often targeted by cyber security attackers, and a recent study
shows that almost half of the beginner companies that have undergone cyber-attack opt out of
business within a period of six months (Ericsson, 2010) .
In the given case study, there are a number of security breaches that need to be fixed for
JL Company to be safe against cyber security attacks. There are a number of cyber security
issues that JL Company is vulnerable to, due to a number of cyber security issues that this report
is going to address. Hence, this report is going to address the challenges cyber security
challenges that JL Company is currently facing, and considering the fact that the company is
shifting to online marketing, this report will suggest solutions that will enable the company to
fulfill its current and future client requests.
Cyber Security Issues Identified in JL Company
i. Phishing
Phishing is a type of cyber security attack whereby the attackers take advantage of the
ignorance of individuals rather than the system itself (Khurana, Hadley, Lu & Frincke 2010).
This issue need to be dealt with as early as possible because the company has now to
more cautious against cyber security especially now that the company is shifting to online
marketing. JL Company has five employees who have no expertise on IT. It is very easy for
them to fall victims to phishing attacks, and so to compromise the business activities of the
company.
How to address the Issue

To address the phishing issue, the employees need an intensive briefing on cyber security
issues, and probably get to know mitigate some of the risks, for example by avoiding plugging in
questionable flash disks into the computers in the offices. In the briefing, the employees would
need to know what cyber security is and how it is related to JL Company. Secondly, the
employees need to understand the risks of cyber security attacks in the company and then be
briefed on the necessary precautions to take. Employee training is a basic security practice that
will enable the JL Company employees to beware of cyber security attacks and take security
precautions.
The company should hire an experienced networking expert to help the company in
networking, as the 17 year old employee is obviously not experienced enough.
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches
Furthermore, training the employees would be the best solution because the training will
instill a sense of personal responsibility in taking precautions against cyber security attacks, as
opposed to other alternatives that would employ external security experts. This would be less
effective since external experts are not always dependable, as they are normally outsourced.
Cost Implications
The cost implications of this procedure will be an approximate of A$70 (Modi, Patel,
Borisaniya, Patel & Rajarajan 2013).
ii. Brute force attacks
A brute force attack is a scenario whereby an attack uses all means possible to crack user
account passwords in order to access it (Wang & Lu 2013). A brute force attack is one of the
most dreaded cyber security attacks that is often conducted against web attacks. The aim of this
type of attack is to access user accounts either by repeatedly guessing passwords or by taking
over an open session of a user’s account (Gupta, Agrawal & Yamaguchi 2016).
Since the company is moving into the online market and has started communicating and
sending confidential documents to its clients, it is imperative that they encrypt their data.

Currently, in JL Company, all confidential information is emailed and stored without being
encrypted. This is very dangerous for the company, as the data can be accessed anytime by
attackers.
Another security risk is that each of the employers can easily access another’s laptop
which is a dangerous situation since attackers can compromise all the computers should they get
access to just one of the laptops. To protect each laptop should be secured with a strong
password. Furthermore, the company should opt to implementing full – disk encryption tools that
come bundled in novel operating systems.
How to address the Issue
To reduce the chances of brute force attackers unlocking a password through multiple
attempts, the user accounts should be initiated to close after three failed attempts to log in
(Fatima 2011) The user accounts should be locked until the administrator unlocks them. Another
more complicated technique to protect company data is to set out a lock out time for user
accounts to close after a certain number of attempts to log in, whereby the waiting time will be
set to increase with each unsuccessful attempt to log in.
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches
I would chose these protective alternative because it will make it impossible to project
automatic login attempts impossible against any user account.
Cost Implications
The company would spend no more than A$120 to protect company itself against brute
force attacks.
iii. Virus Attacks
A virus is a malicious program that is designed to copy itself into the target node in the
network to compromise it or get some data (Shariff 2008). The company needs to protect its IT
system from virus infection especially as they are moving to online marketing.

How to address the Issue
As a solution to this issue, all the working laptops in JL Company should be installed
with anti-virus security software. On the same note, the employees should be strictly instructed
never to insert unknown portable devices into their laptops as they would be potential sources of
viruses from attackers. Furthermore, to reduce chances of activating virus programs, spam filters
should be installed on each laptop so as to block spam messages that JL Company employees
receive, (Stojmenovic & Wen 2014). JL Company employees each receive s 40 spam emails a
day. This shows that there could be a potential spam attacker targeting the company. Spam
messages are often very deceitful because they often contain offers that are appealing in nature,
and unsuspecting people will often fall victims to this kind of cyber-attack. When clicked spam
messages often install a virus software that tends to compromise the security system of the
particular node and take control of it (Wang et al 2010). Implementing spam filters will reduce
the chances of the employees opening the messages even by accident and hence avoid activating
the viruses that come with them.
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches
I deem that using spam filters and installation of anti-virus software into the individual
laptops would be the best solution to this issue because it is practically impossible to think of any
other protective action as senders of the spam messages cannot be controlled in normal
circumstances, and virus programs will always be on the internet. Beyond securing the individual
laptops, other alternatives would ultimately be vague.
Cost Implications
The cost implications of securing the five employee laptops with antivirus software
would be not more than A$90.95.
iv. Hacking
Hacking is the act of unknown attackers taking control of a computer from remote (Liu,
Xiao, Li, Liang & Chen 2012). Moving to the online marketing will most likely expose JL
Company to hackers. The company should therefore take necessary precautions to prevent online

hacking attempts. Currently, the employees are receiving pop ups in their laptops, a sign of a
potential hacking attacks.
How to address the Issue
As a solution to this issue, the employees should be trained to identify the enchanted
grounds of hackers, for example they should be instructed that they should only install trusted
software into the laptops and never open unknown or strange emails or popups in their machines
while they are transacting online. Another solution to hacking issue would be to protect data by
encrypting it in case of a hacking attack. The company should further strengthen its network
system by repairing the server urgently and installing it with a firewall to prevent it from
unknown or suspicious requests. The Windows 200 server has robust security features that will
most surely secure the work laptops against hacking attempts (Singh, Jeong & Park 2016). For
example, the Windows 2000 server has the latest version of NTFS support that can encrypt both
file and directories using DESX (Singhal et al 2013).
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches
Furthermore, the company should implement the habit of regular backing up of data.
Backing of data is an important and basic security practice in any business organization. Backing
of business data or personal data, as opposed to any other alternatives will be the best solution
since it assures safety of data incase by all means, their IT system gets hacked. Backing up of
data will help in recovering it in case of a hacking attack. In JL Company, employees are only
required to back up data at their own discretion, which is a very dangerous position to take. Since
they are dealing with company assets, it means any information that they are handling is
confidential and so it should be properly safe guarded.
Cost Implications
The surest way to protect oneself from data loss is to back it up. An approximate of
A$150 would be needed to protect the company against hacking.
v. Ransomware

Ransomware is one of the most dreaded malware attacks (Siddiqui, Zeadally, Alcaraz &
Galvao, 2012). Ransomware gets into a computer network and encrypts all files with a public
key encryption whereby the attackers alone can decrypt them after they are paid their ransom.
Ransom ware can come into a computer either on its own or by attaching itself to email as a
downloaded component. Like a malicious virus, ransom wares often go undetected by a good
number of antiviruses (Jokar, Arianpoo & Leung 2016).
The fact that JL Company has fallen a victim to ransomware just recently (July 2017)
should put the company on toes to mitigate this vulnerability so as to avoid future attacks.
How to address the Issue
As one of the means to protect the work laptops from infection by ransom wares, the
computers’ security software should be regularly updated. Outdated versions of any security
features have been known to have vulnerabilities that attackers have always exploited to gain
access to the computer environment (Shariff, 2008). Furthermore, regular backing up of a data
will also help in case a computer gets compromised
Why the chosen solution is better than alternative approaches
Regular backing up of a data and updating the IT systems will help in case a computer
gets attacked by ransomware. Updating and backing up of data will be a robust solution as
compared to conventional approaches because it is a double protection safety approach. It should
therefore be made a policy in JL Company that data should always be baked up mandatorily and
no by employee discretion. The employees could be further briefed on the precaution measures
while transacting online as precaution against ransomware attacks. For example, they would be
instructed to avoid clicking on unknown links or downloading suspicious attachments in their
emails.
Cost Implications
The cost of protecting JL Company against ransomware attack would be approximated at
A$200.95.

Conclusion
Security gaps in cyber security can render business organizations seriously imprecated,
and in worst cases they can affect bring business organizations to a close. The most appropriate
solution to the growing trend of cyber-attacks is to implement a robust security approach that
will tackle all aspects of information security in a business organization. JL Company will need
to implement the various solutions that have been suggested for each issue identified in order to
be declared safe from cyber security attacks. From training the employees to securing all the
security loop holes as has been dealt with in this report, the business operations of the company
can be kept safe can securely and satisfactorily fulfil it’s the requests of its clients.

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