COIT20249 Report: Cyber Security Threats for ABC Technologies

This report delves into the cyber security vulnerabilities of ABC Technologies, a company utilizing VPN services and allowing employees to use personal devices, creating significant security risks. The report identifies several key threats, including Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, Syn Flood attacks, buffer overflow attacks, phishing attacks, and snooping attacks. It justifies these threats based on the company's practices and the lack of robust security measures. The report also highlights emerging threats such as the use of personal devices, insufficient network security, and the absence of strong cryptography mechanisms. Furthermore, the report details the potential consequences of cyber-attacks, including data damage, data misuse, and failure to meet company expectations. To mitigate these risks, the report recommends implementing encryption technology, conducting comprehensive training sessions, and establishing a robust firewall. The report emphasizes the importance of proactive security measures to protect ABC Technologies from cyber threats.

Running head: CYBER SECURITY: ABC TECHNOLOGIES
Cyber Security: ABC Technologies
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the Organization]
[Author Note]

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Cyber security:.................................................................................................................................3
Cyber Security Importance in ABCT:.............................................................................................4
Explanation of the Identified Security vulnerabilities:....................................................................5
Denial of Service attacks:................................................................................................6
Syn Flood Attacks:......................................................................................................6
Buffer overflow attack:................................................................................................6
Phishing attack:................................................................................................................7
Snooping attack:..............................................................................................................7
Justification of the Cyber threats:....................................................................................................7
Emerging threats:.............................................................................................................8
Usage of Personal devices:..........................................................................................8
Lack of Security in the network channels and security polices:..................................9
Lack of cryptography mechanisms:.............................................................................9
Consequences of the Attack:...........................................................................................9
Data damage:.............................................................................................................10
Misuse of data and information:................................................................................10
Failure in meeting the company expectations:..........................................................10

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Attacking techniques and person responsible for the attack:.........................................10
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................11
Usage of the Encryption Technology:...........................................................................11
Training sessions:..........................................................................................................11
Firewall Implementation:...............................................................................................12
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction:
The cyber security issues and challenges are seen to be increasing at a rapid rate with the
evolution of the computing network (Zhang et al., 2015). This challenges are in turn associated
with having a huge impact upon the commercial revenue as well as upon the competitive
advantages of a business. In this report we would be describing about the cyber security
requirements of the ABC technologies. The organization is associated with making offering their
services by means of VPN. However, while conducting the business operations various kind of
emerging threats might be associated with interrupting the company’s security along with having
a negative impact upon the emerging threats which have been presented in this report.
Discussion:
Cyber security:
Cyber Security generally refers to the technique which is seen to be utilized by organizations of
different sizes for protecting their computers along with the programs and the data along with
being associated with providing of authorized access or prevention of any kind of attacks (Syed
et al., 2016). Some of the major areas which are seen to be covered by the cyber security is
associated with including the following:
 Application security,
 Information security, and
 Network and disaster security;
Application security is associated with including the counter measures along with the
measures which are to be implemented throughout the entire life cycle of a project development.

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This type of security is aimed at providing security to the applications from different kind of
cyber threats which might arise because of the flaws in maintenance, deployments, developments
and designs. The techniques which are included in the application security are validating the
input parameters, authorization and authentication of the users, and manipulation of the
parameters management of sessions and auditing and logging (Dua & Du, 2016). Application
security implemented properly helps in providing protection against any kind of unauthentic
access and some of the major processes adopted by application security includes the
identification, cryptography, authorization and authentication.
Contrarily the disaster recovery process is mainly associated with including the risk
assessment of performance, concerns related to privacy and strategies related to recovery
(Narayanan et al., 2018). For the purpose of continuing with the operations of a business in a
quick manner there is a need that the organization is associated with holding and designing of a
precise as well as concrete plan.
Network security is mainly associated with involving the various kind of activities which
are generally used for the purpose of protecting the use abilities along with the reliability,
integrity and the safety of the networks (Hubbard & Seiersen, 2016). For protecting the network
completely different security measures are used which can be implemented and this mainly
includes the snit-spyware, anti-virus, VPN and many more.
Cyber Security Importance in ABCT:
The organization ABCT is associated with usage of VPN for the purpose of providing
computer services and this is based in Canberra. The organization is associated with allowing the
employees in using their personal devices who are working in the onsite or are working in other

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side. In addition to this the organization is also associated with allowing their employees to work
from home by usage of their VPN (Olmstead & Smith, 2017). In addition to this the onsite
locations are also associated with offering free local wireless communications for their working
employees. ABCT is also associated with storing of all the confidential personal as well as
financial data in the cloud servers. But due to the absence of proper security mechanisms the
company nowadays are associated with facing different kind of major cyber threats.
For the increased security threats the organization has understood the importance of the
cyber security mechanisms along with understanding that the implementation would be helping
in providing of a comprehensive protection against all the information which are stored in the
servers. This in turn would also be helping the employees in avoiding the risks as well as cyber
threats (McLaughlin et al., 2016). It would become possible for the organization to secure all
their personnel information which are stored in the cloud servers by adaptation of the security
mechanisms. The security platforms are also associated with allowing the employees of the
organization to work in an active manner under the secured working platform (Dua & Du, 2016).
This would also be associated with reducing the issues related to overtime along with the
consumption of costs along with providing protection to the websites in a simultaneous manner
so as to prevent it from going down.
Explanation of the Identified Security vulnerabilities:
One of the major weakness of the organization is associated with including the computer
security vulnerabilities which is responsible for allowing the cyber criminals in exploiting the
different resources of the organization. In addition to all this there also exists the malware
attackers and the unauthorized platforms as well (Narayanan et al., 2018). The vulnerabilities are
exploited by the attackers by means of different techniques and from the analysis it can be stated

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that the organization is likely to face three major security vulnerabilities which has been
described below:
Denial of Service attacks:
Denial of service attacks or the DoS attack is one of the most frequently occurring cyber-
attack which are increasingly being faced by different organization. This type of attack is
associated with tying up of the resources of a website so as to make sure of the fact that the
access to that resource is prevented from the users who are associated with using it (Yan & Yu,
2015). The DoS attack is capable of stopping the entire functioning of the network. The DoS
attacks are generally conducted in two different ways which includes the flooding of the
resources and by crashing the services.
Syn Flood Attacks:
This is a particular type of denial of service attack which is associated with involving the
sending of a succession of SYN requests by the attacker to the system which has been targeted so
as to make attempts for consuming enough number of resources from the servers so as to make
the entire system unresponsive to the traffic which are legitimate.
Buffer overflow attack:
Buffer overflow also known as the buffer overrun is seen to be occurring whenever more
amount of data is being put into a buffer of fixed length. This putting of the data makes the
buffer incapable of handing the data which in turn lead to overflow of the extra information in
the adjacent memory spaces initially leading to the corruption and overwriting of the data which
are held in the adjacent place.

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Phishing attack:
This is considered to be a social engineering type of attack which is often seen to be
associated with stealing the data of the users along with the confidential user login credentials
and the credit card number of the user as well (Olmstead & Smith, 2017). This type of attack
generally is seen to be occurring when the attackers are associated with hiding their original
identity and presenting themselves as a trusted entity initially tricking the target so as to make
them open up their email, instant message account or text messages.
Snooping attack:
This is another type of attack which can be faced by the organization ABCT. This type of
attack is generally seen to be associated with including an intruder who would be entirely
associated with listening to the traffics that is seen to be existing between to two machines of a
single network and in case if the traffic is associated with including the passing of passwords
which are entirely unencrypted then that password can be used by an unauthorized individual in
so as to potentially have an access to the network and read all the data which are confidential.
Justification of the Cyber threats:
The security threats which has been identified above are seen to be having a high
probability of occurrence in the organization ABCT and this would be occurring because of the
absence of appropriate security mechanisms. The employees of the organization are seen to be
working onsite and besides this this they are also allowed to bring their personal devices as well
which acts as one of the major threat for the organization. This can also lead to increased risk of
man in middle attacks (Zhang et al., 2015). Besides this there also exists some employees who
are provided with the facility of work from home and they are also provided an access to the

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VPN of the organization along with the local WAN support. So it is entirely the responsibility of
the organization to ensure that the network is being secured in a proper way from any kind of
external attacks. One of the most important way by which the security of the network can be
ensured is by utilization of an enhance firewall along with the DMZ.
In addition to all this, ABCT is also seen to be having numerous offices all around the
nation along with the overseas offices. So it is entirely the responsibility of the owners of the
company and the information security chief to associate themselves in the process of
implementing proper security measures along with designing them so as to stop any kind of
unauthorized access to their data stored in the clouds (Syed et al., 2016). In case, if the cloud
servers are not provided with the appropriate security mechanism then it would lead to
devastating impacts because of the increased cyber-attacks.
Emerging threats:
Different kind of emerging threats are also having a high probability of having a huge
impact upon the organization ABCT and for that reason there is an essential need of analyzing all
this threats as well. Some of the emerging threats which has been identified has been listed
below:
Usage of Personal devices:
Due to the fact that the organization is associated with operating throughout the nation as
well as in overseas location, it is not at all secure for the organization to provide the facility of
bringing personal devices for working by the onsite employees (Hubbard & Seiersen, 2016). The
reason behind this is that the usage of the personal devices is associated with increasing the
threat related to theft of the confidential data from the cloud servers. For this reason the
organization should restrict eth usage of personal devices for conducting the official works.

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Lack of Security in the network channels and security polices:
As discussed earlier, it can be seen that the network channels which the organization
ABCT is having is not secured enough for stopping any kind of unauthorized access
(McLaughlin et al., 2016). Due to this it becomes very easy for the other competitors of the
organization ABCT to have an easy access to the network of ABCT so as to hijack all the
confidential data from the servers. For this reason lack of appropriate security mechanism might
turn out to be a major and serious emerging threat for the organization (Osanaiye, Choo &
Dlodlo, 2016). In addition to this ABCT has also failed in the process of appropriate security
policies leading to increased risk of data thefts.
Lack of cryptography mechanisms:
Providing protection to the data from the unwanted attackers as well as from
unauthorized users requires the adaptation of proper encryption techniques so as to secure the
data. However it has been seen that the organization ABCT is lacking this major process of
securing the data which in turn makes this another emerging threat which is faced by the
organization.
Consequences of the Attack:
The organization is not associated with following the proper security measures which in
turn makes ABCT face an increased risk related to cyber-attacks. This in turn would be leading
to hacking of all the confidential data stored in the cloud servers by the attackers (Dolk et al.,
2016). Besides this the lack of security measures is also going to have a huge impact upon the
competitive market of the organization and is expected the revenue structure of the organization
would also be affected. Some of the major impacts have been listed below:

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Data damage:
The attacks conducted by the unwanted attackers might be associated with damaging the
confidential data stored in the clouds along with altering them.
Misuse of data and information:
After gaining access to the data and the information which are stored in the cloud servers
the attacker might be associated with leaking those information to the major competitors of
ABCT which in turn would be responsible for having a huge negative impact upon the
organization.
Failure in meeting the company expectations:
The improper following of the security mechanisms by the employees of the organization
as well as by the other security heads of the organization would be initially responsible for the
failure of the entire organization in reaching the objectives as well as in meeting the expectation
of the clients (Wu, Du & Wu, 2015).
Attacking techniques and person responsible for the attack:
The complete analysis of the business along with the operational as well as functional
scenario of the organization helps in defining the fact that the persons who are entire responsible
for the increased tack threats includes the employees of the organization and the security owners
of the major competitors of ABCT (Alsharnouby, Alaca & Chiasson, 2015). The attacker might
be including the employee or the security engineer or the network engineer along with including
the external users.
The major security threats which has been discussed above are conducted by the above
stated entities by usage of different techniques. Besides the DoS, Spoofing, Snooping and the

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phishing attacks there also exists other security threats as well. The major security risk which is
likely to be faced by ABCT is the DoS and this type of attacks are mainly associated with
including the sending an excess amount of traffic to the network so as to make the traffic of the
network overflow initially leading to unauthorized access to the users even those who are
legitimate (Chaudhry, Chaudhry & Rittenhouse, 2016). Besides all this other techniques such as
the spyware or malware can also be used by the attackers for the purpose of gaining access to the
confidential data of the organization.
Recommendations:
Providing protection to the information is very important and the above stated
vulnerabilities are going to have a huge impact upon the organization ABCT and for that reason
there is an essential need of adaptation of certain security mechanisms. Some of the major
recommendations have been listed below:
Usage of the Encryption Technology:
This is one of the major important security precaution which necessarily needs to be
adopted by the organization. This technology is associated with helping in the encryption of the
data which means the plain texts are converted into cipher texts (He, Xiao & Pathan, 2016). This
in turn is associated with helping in stopping any kind of unauthorized access as the
unauthorized users would not be capable of reading the data which is encrypted.
Training sessions:
This is the process which would be associated with including different kind of trainings
for the employees so as to help them in improving their technical skills as well as knowledge
(Malhotra, 2017). Technical trainings would also be helping the employees of the organization in