Building the Knowledge Base This week for your capstone portfolio project, you will develop a two page summary discussing the development processes in your project. Whether this be the utilization of

Hardware and Software

Sarah Ray

CSU Global

Cybersecurity Capstone

Ofori Boateng

08/14/2022

Hardware and Software

Summary of Hardware

The hardware components will include proxy servers, firewalls, network access control, and email security gateways. The proxy servers will prevent cyber attackers from gaining access to private networks by allowing the clients to make indirect connections when accessing network services. Intrusion detection and prevention systems will be used to identify and thwart identified threats to the network (Sadqi & Mekkaoui, 2020). The firewall will permit only specific types of traffic while the default settings will block all other forms of traffic. This will help to proactively monitor and prevent malicious traffic from entering the network by thwarting both denials of service (DoS) attacks to malware on end-point devices. Web application firewalls block or allows traffic based on suspicious activity or predefined criteria (Sadqi & Mekkaoui, 2020). On the other hand, the network access control will link the state on the endpoint devices with network authentication to secure the devices connected to the network. The email security gateways monitor the incoming and outgoing email traffic from viruses, spam, compromised accounts, and phishing attempts by detecting anomalies with the network and connected devices.

Summary of Software

There are several software tools that will be deployed. For instance, SolarWinds Security Event Manager can help during log correlation and analysis as well as both network and host intrusion detection (Hale, 2016). This is an important cloud-based software tool to use for threat intelligence. It also offers an event log archive and a comprehensive set of integrated reporting tools. The online password protection feature of the System Mechanic Ultimate Defense software makes it unique and important in the setting. Antivirus software such as Avast software and Bitdefender Total Security software would also be suitable for network threat protection and multi-layer ransomware protection. Finally, ESET Encryption software will help to safely encrypt hard drives, files, media, and emails, increasing security against cybercrimes.

Potential Vulnerabilities

Some of the potential vulnerabilities will include operating system vulnerabilities, network vulnerabilities, and human vulnerabilities (Abomhara & Køien, 2015). Operating system vulnerabilities are the vulnerabilities that hackers identify and exploit in an operating system in order to gain access to the assets on the operating system. For example, having superuser accounts from the software could be used by hackers to gain access to network resources. Network vulnerabilities include issues with both the hardware and software such as poorly configured passwords which expose the network to intrusion by outside parties (Abomhara & Køien, 2015). On the other hand, human vulnerabilities include user errors that may create exploitable access points or expose sensitive data.

The areas that will require additional security and attention will thus include ensuring the network is secure and reliable, ensuring the data stored is safeguarded, as well as identifying and mitigating potential threats to the computing devices on the network. This will help to provide a safe and reliable network for the local company during the project.

References

Abomhara, M., & Køien, G. M. (2015). Cyber security and the internet of things: vulnerabilities, threats, intruders, and attacks. Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility, 65-88.

Hale, B. (2016). Estimating log generation for security information events and log management. Retrieved September, 15.

Sadqi, Y., & Mekkaoui, M. (2020). Design Challenges and Assessment of Modern Web Applications Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS). In The Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Smart City Applications (pp. 1087-1104). Springer, Cham.