Information & Network Security: Developments, Applications & Plan

This report delves into the critical aspects of information and network security, focusing on a small-scale software firm in Melbourne aiming for expansion. It begins by defining information and network security, highlighting potential risks such as data breaches, denial-of-service attacks, and malware. The report then discusses the latest technological advancements in the field, emphasizing the role of Big Data and Business Intelligence in enhancing security measures. It also examines specific applications like VeraCrypt for encryption, Comodo Advanced Endpoint for integrated security, and Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for malware protection, outlining their features, benefits, and limitations. The report concludes with an expansion plan and recommendations for the firm, stressing the importance of staying updated with technological changes and implementing robust security measures to safeguard organizational assets.

Information/Network Security
September 19
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Information and Network Security
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Information and Network Security – Meaning & Definition.......................................................................4
Information and Network Security Risks – A Few Examples......................................................................5
Latest Developments and Advancements....................................................................................................5
Application Developed for Information/Network Security......................................................................6
VeraCrypt............................................................................................................................................6
Comodo Advanced Endpoint...............................................................................................................7
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus..................................................................................................................8
Expansion Plan............................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations & Findings..................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................12
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Information and Network Security
Executive Summary
Information is one of the most significant assets for the organizations. There is varied and huge
volume of information sets that are being used in various organizations and it differs on the basis
of organization type, organization size and other factors. The increase in the use of information
has also led to the emergence of security issues. The same has given rise to the information
security and network security domains for safeguarding the organizational assets. The report has
been written for a small scale software firm of Melbourne to assist the management of the
organization with its expansion phase. The firm provides security services and solutions to its
clients and is now looking to expand. The report discusses the latest development in the field of
security and elaborates the applications that have been developed in this area. The expansion
plan and set of recommendations are also included.
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Introduction
Every business organization works with an objective of earning better revenues and experiencing
enhanced growth. These objectives can be met only with the clientele that trusts the organization
and there is a good customer engagement that is maintained. The case study talks about a
company that deals in the area of software and technology. It is located in Melbourne, Australia
and had set its foot in the industry 51 months back. Information and network security solutions
are the products that the company develops and deploys for its clients. There are various
processes through which the development of such solutions can be done; however, the company
currently restricts to two methods as in-house development of the customization process. There
is various small scale and medium sized firms that outsource the company for development of
the security solutions for them.
The company has now decided to step into the area of online security services and packages and
the overall expansion of the organization are also targeted. There are several new clients that the
company aspires to work with and there is a lot of change in the current strategy, set of
operations and decision making processes that is being happening.
Technology is an area that experiences a constant change. There are new technologies and
concepts that are being created every day and there are chances that the current technological
ideas and methods may soon become obsolete and be replaced by newer and advanced processes.
The use, application and implementation of technology has led to several benefits for the
organizations but has also brought in many of the security threats and occurrences. These threats
make use of any of the technological component as a threat agent to cause damage and therefore,
a lot of work is being in the area of security of information and network security (Mohammed
Salim, 2016).
The report lists out the meaning of information and network security with latest enhancements in
the field. Examples of the security applications, their utility for the organization and expansion
plan have been covered in the report.
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Information and Network Security
Information and Network Security – Meaning & Definition
An organization may manage, process and store information sets with varying degree of
information, such as, private, public, confidential, sensitive and so on. Each of the information
categories has some of the common properties viz. availability, privacy, integrity and
confidentiality that must be maintained and protected. However, occurrence of any of the
security risks and attacks violate these properties and attributes of the information. There is a
discipline called Information Security then came into the picture to apply and implement
methods to avoid, prevent and control these risks and attacks.
The specific controls and process that are adapted to stop and check the network based security
attacks come under the domain of Network Security (Gnanasankaran, Natarajan, Alagarsamy &
Iyakutti, 2013).
Information and Network Security Risks – A Few Examples
 Information sets that are stored in the database or the information that is transmitted via
internal or external network may be breached.
 The information sets may experience some form of loss is association with its properties,
attributes or contents and may also go through leakages (Nazareth & Choi, 2015).
 Denial of service attacks, distributed denial of service attacks and other forms of flooding
attacks to damage information availability.
 Attack of malware on the information and networks.
 Eavesdropping and man in the middle attacks which include the unauthorized access to
the networks (Lippmann & Riordan, 2016).
 Impersonation attacks, such as, spoofing and phishing attacks (Bajwa, 2014).
 Integrity attacks, such as message alteration and media alteration (Shameli-Sendi, 2017).
Latest Developments and Advancements
Technology is an area that experiences a constant change. There are new technologies and
concepts that are being created every day and there are chances that the current technological
ideas and methods may soon become obsolete and be replaced by newer and advanced processes.
The use, application and implementation of technology has led to several benefits for the
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organizations but has also brought in many of the security threats and occurrences. These threats
make use of any of the technological component as a threat agent to cause damage and therefore,
a lot of work is being in the area of security of information and network security (Haider,
Samdani, Ali & Kamran, 2016).
There are many new technologies that have been developed and there are many improvements
that have been done to the existing technological concepts. Some of the buzzwords in the area of
technology are Big Data and Business Intelligence. Application of these in the security measures
amalgamated with Cryptography, intrusion detection and access control can lead to improved
state of security in the organization (Roozbahani & Azad, 2015).
Application Developed for Information/Network Security
VeraCrypt
In spite of the security controls and measures, the frequency of security attacks is on an all time
rise. In such cases, the information properties are negatively affected and the attackers misuse the
information sets that they succeed in capturing. There is a measure that needs to be taken to
violate the attempts of the attackers for misuse of the information even if they succeed in
breaking through the access and capture the same. One such measure is encryption of the
information.
Encryption is a process in which there are encryption algorithms and protocols that are applied
on the information sets which transforms the information to a secure form called as cipher text.
This information can be retrieved to its original form only when the user enters a security key to
decrypt it. There are various automated applications that have been developed to carry out this
task and IDRIX came up with its creation called VeraCrypt. The application has attracted
hundreds and thousands of users and has a good market share and recognition as well. It
implements disk encryption for the security of the information and data sets (Fearn, 2017).
The application has managed to establish a name in the market and it is because of the interesting
set of features and benefits that it provides to its users.
 Eavesdropping, man in the middle and cold boot attacks can be prevented (PCMag,
2017).
 Tokens and smart cards can be safely used with the aid of this tool.
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 Information security attacks such as breaching, loss and leakage can be avoided.
 Backdoor access attacks can be checked and avoided.
With the set of benefits, there are also some of the weak points that are associated with the
application that need to be understood before deciding to purchase or implement it in the
organization.
 The tool demands the user to receive a training prior to the practical use of the
application.
 Many operational errors have been reported (Veracrypt, 2017).
Comodo Advanced Endpoint
Organization in the present times makes use of numerous technological components and tools.
Some of these tools and concepts include hardware, software, networks, databases etc. With all
of these components, there are certain security risks that can be curbed by the application of
security controls. The use of separate applications for every component may have a bad impact
on the budget of the organizations which promotes the demand for a single and integrated
security package.
Comodo Advanced Equipment is being extensively used by the business organizations and other
users to experience an integrated approach to security. This application can also prove to be of
great utility for the software company in the case study (Strom, 2016).
The platform on which this application has been built is the major strength of the application. It
is due to the reason that the platform of the application only allows the secure files to have the
access while the unsecure and suspicious ones are blocked. There are various security solutions
that are integrated in this application, such as, malware protection, Internet Security, intrusion
detection and prevention, SSL certificates, firewalls, proxy servers and many more.
With the changing nature of the threat landscape, mere identification of the threats and
application of a response strategy is not enough. It is necessary to work on the root cause of the
same and remove it from the organizational architecture so that the attacker does not attempt the
same and similar attacks again. It is essential to analyze the behavior of the attack and the
attacker for this purpose which is offered by the application. There is good use and application of
Business Intelligence and Big Data techniques that has been done for threat analysis and
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prevention. The application and its features will have a high degree of usability for the
organization.
The application has managed to establish a name in the market and it is because of the interesting
set of features and benefits that it provides to its users.
 The application prevents and detects the security threats for each of the technological
component and provides an integrated solution.
 Patch management (Comodo, 2016).
 The application would prove to be compatible for the other systems and tools used in the
organization.
 Remote monitoring and control can be executed by the administrators and senior
management.
 The latest technologies are also used for security the organizational assets.
 Cost-effective in nature.
With the set of benefits, there are also some of the weak points that are associated with the
application that need to be understood before deciding to purchase or implement it in the
organization.
 Deployment may become complicated if the correct model is not selected for the task.
 Not enough documentation is provided at the time of dleivery (Stephenson, 2017).
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus
There are many incidences of malware attacks that have been witnessed in the recent times.
Recently, WannaCry, a ransomware was triggered which had an adverse impact on the systems
and applications across 150 countries. The severity of the malware attacks can therefore be
significantly high and it is necessary to implement measures to detect and prevent these
malicious programs.
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is an anti-malware tool that makes sure that malware attacks are
violated and security is ensured (Pcmag, 2016).
The application has managed to establish a name in the market and it is because of the interesting
set of features and benefits that it provides to its users.
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 Phishing protection without the need of browser plug-ins.
 High level of user interaction as the user is made aware of the activities carried out by the
tool with the use of messages, alerts and also reports with utmost clarity.
 Security scans are automatically carried out and can also be scheduled.
 Wi-Fi scans to avoid the network based attacks.
 Ransomware protection and controls.
 Safety of financial transaction by implementing a security control called Safepay
specifically for this category of transactions.
With the set of benefits, there are also some of the weak points that are associated with the
application that need to be understood before deciding to purchase or implement it in the
organization.
 Security issues with the Password Manager in the application.
 Addition costs that are hidden at the time of purchase.
Expansion Plan
In the process of expansion by any organization, it is necessary to have enhanced level of
planning so that the results that are achieved at the end are positive in nature. The same applied
to the software company mentioned in the case study. The company must plan out the activities
and tasks that it will cover to attain the goals of expansion. There are certain technological
concepts that also be analyzed clearly.
 As a first step, the target set of customers and users shall be identified.
 A gap analysis must be performed on the existing solutions and required solutions.
 The latest developments and advancements in the field of security shall be researched.
 The findings shall be mapped with the requirements for the organization.
 The expansion process must include the phases as initiation and planning, analysis,
execution, implementation and control.
 Marketing of the new services shall be done.
The management shall also take initiatives to realize the goals and objectives of the expansion
process. There must be correct allocation of roles and responsibilities along with regular
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inspections and reviews. There must also be specific teams set up in the areas of security,
management and administration. This will ensure that the expansion process is successful.
Conclusion
There is a lot of work and research that is being executed in the areas of information and network
security (Allen, 2012).
There are various automated applications that have been developed to carry out encryption and
IDRIX came up with its creation called VeraCrypt. The application has attracted hundreds and
thousands of users and has a good market share and recognition as well. It implements disk
encryption for the security of the information and data sets. Comodo Advanced Equipment is
being extensively used by the business organizations and other users to experience an integrated
approach to security. This application can also prove to be of great utility for the software
company in the case study. There are various security solutions that are integrated in this
application, such as, malware protection, Internet Security, intrusion detection and prevention,
SSL certificates, firewalls, proxy servers and many more. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is an anti-
malware tool that makes sure that malware attacks are violated and security is ensured. All of
these applications have managed to establish a name in the market and it is because of the
interesting set of features and benefits that these provide to its users. With the changing nature of
the threat landscape, mere identification of the threats and application of a response strategy is
not enough. It is necessary to work on the root cause of the same and remove it from the
organizational architecture so that the attacker does not attempt the same and similar attacks
again.
The application involve latest technologies and concepts that may be useful for the organization
in its expansion process and these may be used in both of the modes that the organization uses
for providing security solutions. There shall also be adequate planning and control that must be
carried out for making sure that the goals and objectives are achieved.
Recommendations & Findings
Technology is witnessing many changes and transformation at an extremely rapid rate. The lack
of updates and the use of obsolete technology can enhance the probability of the security risks
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and attacks. It is, therefore, required that technological tools that are used are as per the latest
advancements. The organization shall research on the use on advanced technologies like
Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Business Intelligence etc to improve the quality and usability of
its security solutions. The existing services shall also be improved by applying these
technological concepts (Brecht, 2012).
The client requirements will not be same for every client and will depend upon a number of
factors like industry type, likelihood of the security attacks, types of information sets etc. The
method of implementing and developing the security solution shall be determined by analyzing
all of these factors.
The success or failure of the organization expansion will be highly dependent upon the
management and leadership of the organization. The correct set of managerial and technical
skills along with adequate monitoring and control will provide the desired results. There will also
be many modifications and changes that will come up during this phase of expansion which shall
be handled with the aid of a change management plan covering the steps as planning,
management and reinforcement of the changes.
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References
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