Many companies and agencies conduct IT audits to test and assess the rigor of IT security controls in order to mitigate risks to IT networks. Such audits meet compliance mandates by regulatory organizations.
Federal IT systems follow Federal Information System Management Act (FISMA) guidelines and report security compliance to US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which handles defense and response to cyberattacks as part of the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, the Control Objective for Information Technology (COBIT) is a set of IT security guidelines that provides a framework for IT system security in the commercial sector.
These audits are comprehensive and rigorous, and negative findings can lead to significant fines and other penalties. Therefore, industry and federal entities conduct internal self-audits in preparation for actual external IT audits, and compile security assessment reports.
In this project, you will develop a 12-page written security assessment report and lab report for a company and submit both reports to the leadership of that company.
There are six steps to complete the project. Most steps in this project should take no more than two hours to complete, and the project as a whole should take no more than two weeks. Begin with the workplace scenario and then continue to Step 1.
Deliverables
- Security assessment report (SAR): Your report should be 12 pages minimum, double-spaced with citations in APA format. The page count does not include figures, diagrams, tables, or citations.
- Lab report: A document sharing your lab experience and providing screenshots to demonstrate that you performed the lab. Attach it to the SAR as an artifact.
Competencies
Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below.
- 2.4: Consider and analyze information in context to the issue or problem.
- 5.2: Knowledge of architectural methodologies used in the design and development of information systems, including the physical structure of a system’s internal operations and interactions with other systems and knowledge of standards that either are compliant with or derived from established standards or guidelines.
- 5.3: Uses defensive measures and information collected from a variety of sources to identify, analyze, and report events that occur or might occur within the network in order to protect information, information systems, and networks from threats.
- 7.2: Includes the process of identifying, quantifying, and prioritizing the vulnerabilities in a system. Vulnerability from the perspective of disaster management includes assessing the threats from potential hazards to the population & to infrastructure.
Project 1: Risk Management
Step 1: Conduct a Security Analysis Baseline
In the first step of the project, you will conduct a security analysis baseline of the IT systems, which will include a data-flow diagram of connections and endpoints, and all types of access points, including wireless. The baseline report will be part of the overall security assessment report (SAR).
You will get your information from this data-flow diagram and report, which is generated by the Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool 2016. The scope should include network IT security for the whole organization.
Include the following areas in this portion of the SAR:
- Security requirements and goals for the preliminary security baseline activity.
- Typical attacks to enterprise networks and their descriptions. Include Trojans, viruses, worms, denial of service, session hijacking, and social engineering. Include the impacts these attacks have on an organization.
- Network infrastructure and diagram, including configuration and connections. Describe the security posture with respect to these components and the security employed: local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), wide area network (WAN), enterprise. Use these questions to guide you:
- What are the security risks and concerns?
- What are ways to get real-time understanding of the security posture at any time?
- How regularly should the security of the enterprise network be tested, and what type of tests should be used?
- What are the processes in play, or to be established to respond to an incident?
- Workforce skill is a critical success factor in any security program, and any security assessment must also review this component. Lack of a skilled workforce could also be a security vulnerability. Does the security workforce have the requisite technical skills and command of the necessary toolsets to do the job required?
- Is there an adequate professional development roadmap in place to maintain and/or improve the skill set as needed?
- Describe the ways to detect these malicious codes and what tactics bad actors use for evading detection.
- Public and private access areas, web access points. Include in the network diagram the delineation between open and closed networks, where they coexist, and show the connections to the internet.
- Physical hardware components. Include routers and switches. What security weaknesses or vulnerabilities are within these devices?
- Operating systems, servers, network management systems as they relate to data in transit vulnerabilities:
- endpoint access vulnerabilities
- external storage vulnerabilities
- media access control and Ethernet vulnerabilities
- virtual private network vulnerabilities
- Possible applications. This network will incorporate a BYOD (bring your own device) policy in the future. The IT auditing team and leadership need to understand current mobile applications and possible future applications and other wireless integrations. You will use some of this information in Project 2 and also in Project 5.
The overall SAR should detail the security measures needed, or implementation status of those in progress, to address the identified vulnerabilities. Include:
Through your research, provide the methods used to provide the protections and defenses.
From the identification of risk factors in the risk model, identify the appropriate security controls from NIST SP 800-53A and determine their applicability to the risks identified.
The baseline should make up at least three of the 12 pages of the overall report.
When you have completed your security analysis baseline, move on to the next step, in which you will use testing procedures that will help determine the company’s overall network defense strategy.
Project 1: Risk Management
Step 2: Determine a Network Defense Strategy
You’ve completed your initial assessment of the company’s security with your baseline analysis. Now it’s time to determine the best defenses for your network.
Start by reading a publication by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publication 800-115, Technical Guide to Information Security Testing and Assessment, and outline how you would test violations. Identify how you will assess the effectiveness of these controls and write test procedures that could be used to test for effectiveness. Write them in a manner to allow a future information systems security officer to use them in preparing for an IT security audit or IT certification and accreditation. Within this portion of the SAR, explain the different testing types (black, white, and gray box testing).
Include these test plans in the SAR. The strategy should take up at least two of the 12 pages of the overall report.
Click the following link to learn more about cybersecurity for process control systems.
After you’ve completed this step, it’s time to define the process of penetration testing. In the next step, you’ll develop rules of engagement (ROE).
Project 1: Risk Management
Step 3: Plan the Penetration Testing Engagement
Now that you’ve completed your test plans, it’s time to define your penetration testing process. Include all involved processes, people, and time frame. Develop a letter of intent to the organization, and within the letter, include some formal rules of engagement (ROE). The process and any documents can be notional or can refer to actual use cases. If actual use cases are included, cite them using APA format.
This portion should be about two pages of the overall 12-page report.
After you have outlined the steps of a penetration testing process, in the next step you will perform penetration testing. During the testing, you will determine if the security components are updated and if the latest patches are implemented, and if not, determine where the security gaps are.
Professionals in the Field
Get a Secure Network Up, Quick!
A cyber tale about building skills
Transcript
Step 4: Conduct a Network Penetration Test
You’ve defined the penetration testing process, and in this step, you will scan the network for vulnerabilities. Though you have some preliminary information about the network, you will perform a black box test to assess the current security posture. Black box testing is performed with little or no information about the network and organization.
To complete this step, you will use industry tools to carry out simulated attacks to test the weaknesses of the network.
Your assessments within the lab will be reported in the SAR.
Complete This Lab
Resources
- Accessing the Virtual Lab Environment: Navigating UMGC Virtual Labs and Lab Setup
- Self-Help Guide (Workspace): Getting Started and Troubleshooting
- Link to the Virtual Lab Environment: https://vdi.umgc.edu/
Lab Instructions
Getting Help
To obtain lab assistance, fill out the support request form.
Make sure you fill out the fields on the form as shown below:
- Case Type: UMGC Virtual Labs Support
- Customer Type: Student (Note: faculty should choose Staff/Faculty)
- SubType: ELM-Cyber (CST/DFC/CBR/CYB)
- SubType Detail: Pick the category that best fits the issue you are experiencing
- Email: The email that you currently use for classroom communications
In the form’s description box, provide information about the issue. Include details such as steps taken, system responses, and add screenshots or supporting documents.
After finding the security issues within the network, define which control families from NIST SP 800-53A, Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems and Organizations, are violated by these issues. Explain in the SAR why each is a violation, support your arguments with a copy of your evidence, and then provide suggestions on improving the security posture of these violations.
This section should make up at least four of the 12 pages in the overall report.
After you’ve completed the penetration testing, move to the next step, where you will compile a risk management cost benefit analysis.
You’ve completed the penetration testing, and now it’s time to complete your SAR with a risk management cost benefit analysis. Within this analysis, think about the cost of violations and other areas if you do not add the controls. Then add in the cost for implementing your controls.
When you have finished with the cost benefit analysis, which should be at least one page of your overall report, move to the final step, which is the completed SAR.
You have completed comprehensive testing in preparation for this audit, provided recommended remediations, and developed a set of recommendations. Now you are ready to submit your SAR.
The requirements for Project 1 are as follows:
- Security assessment report (SAR): Your report should be 12 pages minimum, double-spaced with citations in APA format. The page count does not include figures, diagrams, tables, or citations.
- Lab report: A document sharing your lab experience and providing screenshots to demonstrate that you performed the lab. Attach it to the SAR as an artifact.