Part 1: Current Security Threats
Overall Scenario
Aim Higher College is a fictitious institution located in the United States. The college offers undergraduate and graduate courses in domains, such as business management, information security, and nursing. Imagine that you have a new job at Aim Higher College as an information security analyst. Throughout this course, you will analyze the threats and vulnerabilities of Aim Higher College and recommend controls to secure the college’s information systems.
Scenario
It is your first day at the job in the information security department, and you are called for a meeting. In the meeting the need for strengthening the information security for the college is discussed, and everyone agrees that the first step in this direction is to identify the top five threats that are a potential risk to Aim Higher College.
The college’s administrative staff and faculty run the latest version of Microsoft Windows on their primary workstations, whereas students’ laptops may run Windows or macOS. The college’s web servers run on Linux; however, all other servers are Windows Server-based. Student, staff, and faculty mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, run on iOS or Android; all mobile devices can connect to the campus network.
Tasks
You have been given the responsibility to determine the top five threats that Aim Higher College faces. You asked your supervisor for support in this task and he gave you the following resources that might be useful in your research and analysis:
Microsoft Security Advisories and Bulletins (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/)
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) database search (http://cve.mitre.org/find/index.html)
Security organizations, such as Secunia (http://secunia.com/)
Your supervisor has also asked you to consider the following questions as you shortlist the threats:
What threats are new this year, and which have become more prevalent?
Why are these threats more common and why are they important?
What threats remain constant from year to year? Why?
What threats do you believe will become more critical in the next 12 months? Why?
What is the likelihood of an exploit affecting Aim Higher College, and which operating system(s) does it target?
With these considerations in mind, write a summary report of the top five threats to Aim Higher College. Briefly explain why you have selected them and what effect they might have on the institution or its students, employees, graduates, or other communities on campus.
Part 2: Identify Vulnerabilities in IT Security
Overall Scenario
Aim Higher College is a fictitious institution located in the United States. The college offers undergraduate and graduate courses in domains, such as business management, information security, and nursing. Imagine that you have a new job at Aim Higher College as an information security analyst. Throughout this course, you will analyze the threats and vulnerabilities of Aim Higher College and recommend controls to secure the college’s information systems.
Scenario
Aim Higher College has been the target of focused attacks from a variety of attackers. Your manager has assigned you the task to review the port and vulnerability scan data recently gathered from a typical system to determine what ports and services are exposed to attackers, and what vulnerabilities exist on that system.
Required Resources
Access to the Internet
Text sheet: Zenmap Intense Scan Results pdf file (hacking_ts_zenmapscan.pdf Download hacking_ts_zenmapscan.pdf)
Tasks
1. Analyze the results of the Zenmap scan. Your report must answer the following questions:
What are the first five open ports as identified by the Zenmap scan?
Include the port number
Include the service name
Include a brief description of how each is used
2. The Nessus scan identified two critical vulnerabilities, identified as ID 32314 and ID 33850.
Research the vulnerabilities against the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) database .
Include the name and a brief description of each vulnerability.
3. Determine what can be done to protect the system and defend the campus network against attempts to gather data, and to resolve vulnerabilities. Also determine which ports and services likely need to remain open.
4. Write a report targeted at IT management and systems administration staff explaining the vulnerabilities and protection mechanisms that Aim Higher College should adopt, which will be applied to all similar systems at the college.
Submission Requirements for both parts of the project:
Format: Microsoft Word
Font: Arial, 12-Point, Double-Space
Citation Style: APA
Length: Each part should have a minimum of 3 pages. So overall report size should be a minimum of 6 pages (excluding title page and bibliography
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Part 1: Current Threats to Security
Scenario Overview
Aim Higher College is a made-up college set in the United States. Business management, information security, and nursing are among the topics covered by the college’s undergraduate and graduate programs. Assume you’ve started a new job as an information security analyst at Aim Higher College. You will assess Aim Higher College’s risks and vulnerabilities throughout this course and recommend controls to secure the college’s information systems.
Scenario
It’s your first day in the information security department, and you’ve been summoned to a meeting. The necessity for the college’s information security to be strengthened is discussed at the meeting, and everyone agrees that the first move in that direction is to identify the threats.
