COIT20249: Cyber Security Vulnerabilities and Threats at ABCT

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the cyber security challenges faced by ABC Technology, an Australian technology company. It discusses the importance of cyber security for organizations, particularly in protecting against online and offline threats. The report identifies security vulnerabilities within ABC Technology's system, such as data leakage, denial of service, data breach, and data loss issues. It also explores five emerging cyber security threats: cryptojacking, cross-site scripting, geopolitical risks, mobile malware, and IoT device threats. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of implementing proper cyber security measures for ABC Technology and offers recommendations for protection against cyber-attacks, including strategies for both home and office environments. This document explains the importance of cyber security measures for protecting organizations from external threats and enhancing overall business performance.

iRunning head: ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
ICT Professional Skills
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

iiICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Executive Summary:
The main aim of this report is to explain and analyse the current cyber security challenges in
an organizational context specifically the ABC Technology Company. The Concept of cyber
security is very much important for the organizations as this help to protect them from
various kind of online and offline threats.
First in this document a brief discussion regarding the cyber security has been done and the
importance of it to the ABCT has been discussed. Security vulnerabilities present within the
ABC Technology has been also discussed in this context. Cyber security threats are
increasing with the time and in this report five types of cyber security threats has been
discussed and explained.
From the conclusion it has been assessed that implementation of proper cyber security
measures is very much important for the ABC Technology organization. This security
measures is not only important for this organization but also other organization also need
proper cyber security measures for protecting themselves from various of external threats.
Also, recommendation has been provided the protection against the cyber-attack in this
document. In brief how cyber security related attacks can be stopped against home and office
has been discussed.

iiiICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Table of Contents
Executive Summary:..................................................................................................................ii
1.0 Introduction:.........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background:.....................................................................................................................1
1.2 Aim:..................................................................................................................................1
1.3 Scope:...............................................................................................................................1
2.0 Cyber Security and its Importance to ABCT:......................................................................1
2.1 Increased Productivity:.....................................................................................................2
2.2 Data Confidentiality:........................................................................................................3
2.3 Customer Protection:........................................................................................................3
3.0 Security Vulnerabilities within the System of ABCT:.........................................................3
3.1 Leakage of Data:..............................................................................................................3
3.2 Denial of Service:.............................................................................................................4
3.3 Data Breach Issue:............................................................................................................4
3.4 Data Loss Issue:...............................................................................................................4
4.0 Five Types of Emerging Threats:.........................................................................................4
4.1 Cryptojacking:..................................................................................................................5
4.2 Cross Site Scripting:.........................................................................................................5
4.3 Geopolitical Risks:...........................................................................................................5
4.4 Mobile Malware:..............................................................................................................5
4.5 IoT Device Threats:..........................................................................................................6
5.0 Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................6
6.0 Recommendations:...............................................................................................................7
7.0 References:...........................................................................................................................8

1ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
1.0 Introduction:
1.1 Background:
In the aspects of computer systems the cyber security refers to protecting the
computer systems from different types of external thefts which can damage electronic data
that is stored within the computer system (Cherdantseva et al., 2016). This type of theft not
only damages manipulate the stored data but also due to this type of attack data can be stolen
from the from the computer system. With that due to this type of attack software and the
hardware of the system can be also damaged. With that a particular type of services can be
also stopped due this type of cyber-attacks. Thus in this case it is very much important to
ensure a proper cyber security for the systems.
1.2 Aim:
This report is aiming to discuss about the cyber security facts and its importance to
the organizations. In this document a particular organization has been selected for analysing
the cyber security and various of factor of it. In this aspect the organization is the ABCT
organization which is an Australian technology company and they are having different of
high-tech products in both of the hardware and software. Recently this organisation has faced
various of cyber-attack and due to that the organizational data has been compromised. For
this reason the ABCT Company has a fear of losing the trust of the customers. For this the
ABCT is improving their security systems and policies regarding it.
1.3 Scope:
In this report some important aspects of cyber security will be elaborated in the
aspects of ABCT Company. Thus in this aspects the concept of cyber security will be
discussed and various of emerging threats will be discusses in this case. Some
recommendation will be provided for protection against the cyber-attacks.
2.0 Cyber Security and its Importance to ABCT:
Cyber Security has become very much important for the organizations considering the
current aspects of security measures. The cyber security actually refers to body of
technologies, practices and processes are designed in the aspects of protecting the devices,
networks, data and programs from various of attacks, unauthorised accesses and damages
(Fielder et al., 2016). In many of the aspects the cyber security is also considered as the
information technology security. This concept is also considered as some set of techniques

2ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
which are used for protecting the integrity of the networks. As this can help the ABCT
company from various of external types of threat this cyber security is very much important
for them. The cyber security is capable of providing various of advantages to the business
organizations which includes the ABCT. The main aim of the cyber security is providing a
better operating environment to the organizations so that it can remain safe from various of
external threats (Ben-Asher & Gonzalez, 2015). The cyber security can ensure that the
systems will remain safe from the attackers and for that data integrity will be remained. In
large organizations cyber security is important as this assists the organization to secure their
and any type of further data loss.
In this case the cyber security is very much important for the ABC Technology
company. A proper type of cyber security measures is required by the ABCT Company as
they have already faced various of cyber related attacks from the past scenario. Here the
implications of cyber security can help the organization significantly to reduce their chances
of getting hacked by some attacker or any type of data loss (Graham, Olson & Howard,
2016). With that ABCT organization will also be able to protect the hardware and software
from the external type of threats. For this reason implementation of the cyber security
measures within the ABCT organization is very much important. Through this ABCT will be
able to properly manage its business performance. In the aspects of cyber security the main
factors which impacts the performance of the organization are the spyware attacks, rootkits
and the ransom ware attacks. Through proper implementation of the cyber security these type
of attacks can be resisted easily for the ABCT organization (Knowles et al., 2015). There are
various of protection mechanism which is offered by the cyber security measures. One of the
important security measures that is provided by the cyber security are the proper
authentication. The safety measures of the cyber security only allows specific authorised
peoples to use the system and through this way cyber security can help the ACBT to restrict
unauthorised access to the system (Anwar et al., 2017). With disabling the unauthorized
access to the system the cyber security measures is also capable of implementing firewall
which can filter the data packets for the organization for a better network security. This also
provides various of encryption methods which are utilised for properly saving the data from
hacking. This is important for the ABCT organization due to the following reasons.
2.1 Increased Productivity:
Through the implementation of cyber security measures organizational productivity
can be increased easily. The main reason behind the increased productivity is the improved

3ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
business efficiency (Pacheco & Hariri, 2016). By the implementation of cyber security
measures disruption in the business processes can be reduced heavily and through this
business efficiency will be increased, which is the main reason of increased productivity.
2.2 Data Confidentiality:
Data confidentiality is also achieved through the implementation of cyber security
measures. Through the implementation of cyber security measures various of data encryption
method can be implemented. This data encryption methods can be utilised for encrypting the
stored data efficiently and through this hackers will not be able to access those encrypted
data. Thus data confidentiality is achieved through the implementation of cyber security.
2.3 Customer Protection:
Protection of the customers is very much important aspects for all of the organization
thus it is also important for the ABCT organization. Information that are collected from the
customers contains many of sensitive information thus organization must take responsibility
of this collected data so that it does not get breached by any hackers or attackers. Thus it has
been assessed that by the implementation of the cyber security measures better protection of
the customers can be achieved.
3.0 Security Vulnerabilities within the System of ABCT:
Considering current security measures of the ABCT is has been assessed that there are
various of flaws in the current security system. Due to this security flaws in the ABCT the
main problems that are faced by them are the data leakage issue and the denial of service
related issue. With that the other issues are the data breach issue and the data loss issue.
3.1 Leakage of Data:
From the case study of ABCT organization it has been assessed that the organization
uses the practice of BYOD or the Bring Your Own Device. This BYOD has some of the
unique features due to which it popular among various of organization including the ACBT
organization. Though it has various of potential advantages for the organization still has some
major security vulnerability which can be problematic for the organization. Data leakage is
one of the important issue in this case which is related with the BYOD practice. Data leakage
occurs due to this practice as employees of the organization becomes more reliant on the
mobile devices of them (Alneyadi, Sithirasenan & Muthukkumarasamy, 2016). Within a
property secured IT environment still the personal mobiles and tablets remain the weakest

4ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
point in terms of security aspects. Thus in case, most of the times this gadgets which are used
for the organizational purpose is targeted by the attackers and due to this fact data leakage
issue occurs. For securing this type of mobile devices regular patch updates are required
which are quite difficult to provide.
3.2 Denial of Service:
Denial of service attack is also an important issue in this case. The ABCT
organization faces this kind of issues as they utilises Wireless LAN services for their
customers (Zhang et al., 2015). This type of open wireless LAN services are extremely
vulnerable to denial of service attack as the attacker gains an easy access to the LAN service
point and can perform a denial of service attack through which the whole organization will be
affected. The denial of service attack is performed by the attackers by sending a huge amount
of traffic to the targeted system. Due to this the system faces difficulty to process all the
requests and becomes vulnerable to attacks.
3.3 Data Breach Issue:
The data beach issue is another security vulnerability that is present within the ABCT
organization. This type of security vulnerability issue occurs as currently the organization is
dealing with the online cloud service provides for storing their important information. Here
important information is stored to the cloud storage and directly accessed from there (Sen &
Borle, 2015). From many of the scenarios it has been assessed that these cloud service
providers has faced data breach issues several of times. Thus there remains always a
possibility that ABCT organization will also face data breach related issues.
3.4 Data Loss Issue:
With the data breach issue it has been also assessed that in many times due to internal
fault of the cloud service providers, data got deleted from the server. As the data got deleted
from the actual server this becomes impossible to recover the whole data. Due to this reason
organization faces many problem as the whole organizations functions improperly without
this data. Thus the data loss can create a huge problem within the organization. Thus this
issue can potentially occur within the ABCT organization.
4.0 Five Types of Emerging Threats:
Considering the current situation, there are various of emerging threats which can
occur within the ABCT organization. Here five types of emerging threats will be discussed

5ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
which can occur in this context. These emerging threats are discussed in the following
section.
4.1 Cryptojacking:
The Cryptojacking is one of the rising argument within the context of organizational
threats. The cryptojacking is one of the most emerging threats which is used by the hackers
for secretly using the computing resources of other, for mining the cryptocurrency (Eskandari
et al., 2018). As crypto currency mining has become one of the most emerging trends, it is
very much possible that the hackers will use the computing resources of ABCT for
cryptocurrency.
4.2 Cross Site Scripting:
The cross site scripting is one of the most emerging computer security vulnerability
which mainly occurs within the web applications. Through this attack, hackers will be
capable of injecting client side scripting into the web pages which is viewed by the others
(Gupta & Gupta, 2017). This type of security vulnerability is used by the attackers for
bypassing the access controls which have same origin policy. There is a potential opportunity
that this issue can occur within the ABCT organization.
4.3 Geopolitical Risks:
The geopolitical type of risk can occur within the ABCT organization as they utilises
the cloud computing environment. The geopolitical risks defines that it is a risk regarding one
country’s foreign policy is influencing is another countries policy. Due to this factor the data
stored on the cloud platform can be influenced by other country’s regulation. Thus data can
be manipulated in this case which a huge risk factor for the organization.
4.4 Mobile Malware:
The mobile malware is another emerging threats in this case which can affect the
ABCT organization (Narudin et al., 2016). As this organization practices the BYOD mobile
malware can be destructive for the organization as data can be leaked due to this factor. The
BYOD practice enables the users to use their personal devices for their organizational works
and many of the employees uses their mobile phone to store important data regarding the
organizations. Thus, this type of mobile malware can attack those employees and can breach
important data regarding the organization from the mobile phones of the employees.

6ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
4.5 IoT Device Threats:
Threats related with the IoT devices has also become an emerging threats (Abomhara,
2015). In this aspect this is actually problematic for the ABCT organization as they also uses
the IoT devices in their organizations. In this case mainly two types of threats occurs with the
system. One is the human threat and other is the natural threat. The human factors are
becoming threats for the ABCT organization as there can be hacking of the devices by the
human attackers. Due to this reason the IoT device can work against the organization which
is a huge threat for the organization. Considering the natural factors there can be hurricanes,
earthquakes, flood and fires which can create problem within this IoT devices. Due to this the
IoT devices may work within the organization improperly which is a big threat for the ABCT
organization.
5.0 Conclusion:
Thus from the above report it can be concluded that the concept of cyber security
plays a major role in enhancing the performance of the organisation. This becomes essential
for the ABCT organisation to identify the errors effectively so that proper solutions can be
offered towards the organisation.In this report the concept of cyber security associated with
the ABCT organisation has been discussed effectively so that it can ensure better
understanding the process. In addition to this the possible threats that are likely to generate
with cyber security are also described within the report. With the growing demand among the
population among the people it becomes essential to understand the effects that will come
along with the system. The organisation functionality has the ability to get impacted by the
threats. Thus it becomes essential to implement proper measures that can enhance the
performance of the system. The report has also described the main issues that are faced by the
ABCT organisation so that it becomes easy to enhance the performance. In addition to this
the report has also described the vulnerabilities associated with the organisation and the
issues that has the potential to impact the performance of the system. Apart from this the
report has also describe the importance of implementing cyber security within the
organisation. The emerging cyber security vulnerabilities are also described within the report.
Lastly the report has provided a recommendation for the purpose of enhancing the activities
taking place within the system. Thus it can be stated that with the implementation of these
strategy it will become easy to manage the activities within the organisation.

7ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
6.0 Recommendations:
In order to improve the performance of the system within the organisation it becomes
essential to implement proper measures for the purpose of enhancing the performance. It is
expected that with proper measurements within the organisation it becomes easy to manage
the system. The recommendations that are provided for the purpose of enhancing the
organisational activities are as follows:
 Performing proper data backup for the purpose of ensuring better safety and control
towards the organisation.
 Using firewall for the purpose of protecting the system.
 Planning proper mobile devices for enhancing the performance.
 Implementing effective security architecture
 Building process for having proper tools for the purpose of enhancing the
organisation’s performance.
 The organisation needs to implement proper cybersecurity policies within the system
so that proper data safety can be maintained throughout the system.
 Ensuring that every employee is maintaining proper safety password throughout their
working hours.
 The data needs to be encrypted effectively so that it does not cause any harm towards
the organisation.
 Installing malware within the organisation will help in managing the activities that is
taking place maliciously.

8ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
7.0 References:
Abomhara, M. (2015). Cyber security and the internet of things: vulnerabilities, threats,
intruders and attacks. Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility, 4(1), 65-88.
doi:10.13052/jcsm2245-1439.414
Alneyadi, S., Sithirasenan, E., & Muthukkumarasamy, V. (2016). A survey on data leakage
prevention systems. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 62, 137-152.
doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2016.01.008
Anwar, M., He, W., Ash, I., Yuan, X., Li, L., & Xu, L. (2017). Gender difference and
employees' cybersecurity behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 437-443.
Ben-Asher, N., & Gonzalez, C. (2015). Effects of cyber security knowledge on attack
detection. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 51-61. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.040
Cherdantseva, Y., Burnap, P., Blyth, A., Eden, P., Jones, K., Soulsby, H., & Stoddart, K.
(2016). A review of cyber security risk assessment methods for SCADA
systems. Computers & security, 56, 1-27. doi:10.1016/j.cose.2015.09.009
Eskandari, S., Leoutsarakos, A., Mursch, T., & Clark, J. (2018, April). A first look at
browser-based Cryptojacking. In 2018 IEEE European Symposium on Security and
Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (pp. 58-66). IEEE.
doi:10.1109/eurospw.2018.00014
Fielder, A., Panaousis, E., Malacaria, P., Hankin, C., & Smeraldi, F. (2016). Decision support
approaches for cyber security investment. Decision Support Systems, 86, 13-23.
doi:10.1016/j.dss.2016.02.012
Graham, J., Olson, R., & Howard, R. (2016). Cyber security essentials. Auerbach
Publications.
Gupta, S., & Gupta, B. B. (2017). Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks and defense
mechanisms: classification and state-of-the-art. International Journal of System
Assurance Engineering and Management, 8(1), 512-530. doi:10.1007/s13198-015-
0376-0

9ICT PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Knowles, W., Prince, D., Hutchison, D., Disso, J. F. P., & Jones, K. (2015). A survey of
cyber security management in industrial control systems. International journal of
critical infrastructure protection, 9, 52-80.
Narudin, F. A., Feizollah, A., Anuar, N. B., & Gani, A. (2016). Evaluation of machine
learning classifiers for mobile malware detection. Soft Computing, 20(1), 343-357.
doi:10.1016/j.ijcip.2015.02.002
Pacheco, J., & Hariri, S. (2016, September). IoT security framework for smart cyber
infrastructures. In 2016 IEEE 1st International Workshops on Foundations and
Applications of Self* Systems (FAS* W) (pp. 242-247). IEEE. doi:10.1109/fas-
w.2016.58
Sen, R., & Borle, S. (2015). Estimating the contextual risk of data breach: An empirical
approach. Journal of Management Information Systems, 32(2), 314-341.
doi:10.1080/07421222.2015.1063315
Zhang, H., Cheng, P., Shi, L., & Chen, J. (2015). Optimal denial-of-service attack scheduling
with energy constraint. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 60(11), 3023-3028.
doi:10.1109/tac.2015.2409905