Explain what is cybersecurity and why it is important for ABCT? Identify and explain at least…

Objectives
Please refer to the Unit Profile to see how this assessment item relates to the Unit Learning Outcomes.
This assignment is designed to stimulate critical thinking outside of the classroom by requiring students
to write a formal academic report. You will need to follow the ARE process described in chapters 2 and
3 of Your Business Degree 2 (prescribed textbook for COIT20249) to analyse the assessment task,
research relevant information and evaluate the information you find. This information should be used to
write an academic report in which you present your findings or outcomes and make recommendations
for future practice. Professional writing and writing reports are described in chapters 4 and 5 of Your
Business Degree 2. This assessment task will assess your skills in critical thinking, researching
information, forming an opinion, academic writing, logical ordering of ideas and your ability to support
your arguments with quotes from literature. These objectives will be measured by the ‘closeness of fit’
to meeting the assessment task, assessment requirements and marking criteria.
Please note that there is a wealth of material available on the Moodle Unit website that you should
use to help you through the process of searching for and gathering relevant information, evaluating
that information and writing your report.
General Assessment Criteria
Assessments provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills to achieve
the required standard. To do this, assessment responses need to be both clear and easy to understand. If
not, the University cannot determine that students have demonstrated their knowledge and skills.
Assessments will, therefore, be marked accordingly including the potential for 0 (zero) marks where
relevant.
The report must focus on the case study scenario given in the Assessment Task section. Any assessment
items that do not address the case study scenario may be awarded 0 (zero) marks.
If you use Track Changes when writing your report you must ensure that the submitted document is the
final and correct version of the document. That is, if your submitted report contains Track Changes or
Comments or any other editing marks it may be awarded 0 (zero) marks. It is your responsibility to
submit the final and correct version of your report.
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The length of the report must be within the recommended range. If the report exceeds the maximum
word count the marker will stop marking after 2750 words.
Moodle auto-submits draft files that are in Moodle at the originally set deadlines. Files that are autosubmitted
will not be reverted to draft status except in extenuating circumstances (evidence required). It
is your responsibility not to leave draft assessments in Moodle at the due date and time if the files are
not ready to be submitted for marking. However, late submissions may attract penalties.
Assessment Task
Students are required to write an academic report as per the format outlined in chapter 5 of the
textbook. The report must follow the CQU APA referencing style. See the American Psychological
Association (APA) abridged guide updated Term 2 2018 available from:
https://www.cqu.edu.au/student-life/services-and-facilities/referencing/cquniversity-referencingguides.
Please note that the prescribed textbook uses APA referencing guidelines. See also the
Referencing Style subsection below.
The report is to be based on the following cybersecurity use case for office and home systems.
With the recent progress of computer networks, growth of interconnected devices through Internet, cloud
computing, big data and web services, the number of cyber threat/attack has grown exponentially.
Malware attack, phishing, man-in-the middle attack, denial-of-service are some of the common types of
cyberattacks that hits businesses every day. Therefore, cybersecurity is an essential practice for the
digital age to protect systems, networks, applications, data/information and hardware from cyberattacks
or unauthorised access, and to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information. The
goal is to prevent the risks to individuals and organisations such as, damage or loss of sensitive data,
stolen money, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, disruption to business.
The major challenges to cybersecurity efforts are mobile connectivity, online payment, the ever
increasing use of cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, remote access and third-party outsourcing.
These days almost every business has a website and externally exposed systems that make it easier for
the attackers to enter the internal networks. Moreover, most smart devices (both at home and at work)
are connected to the Internet which makes the system prone to attack. Hence, ensuring cybersecurity is
an absolute must for every business and also for individuals. Common types of cybersecurity are
application security, hardware security, network security, cloud security, Data Loss Prevention (DLP),
Cryptography, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Identity and
Access Management (IAM), and Antivirus/anti-malware.
You are a Security Consultant of a famous security consulting company that provides security consulting
services to a wide range of business, individual, education institutes and companies. Recently one of your
clients, ABC Technologies (ABCT) has contacted your organisation to prepare a document on
Cybersecurity as it was the recent victim of several cyberattacks.
Here are the details of your client company:
ABCT is an Australian technology company whose line of business ranges from different types hightech
products which include both software and hardware. ABCT has multiple offices nationwide, and
two overseas offices. All computer services are provided by virtual private network (VPN), which is
maintained in Canberra (the head office). ABCT allows their employees to work from home (using VPN
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connections) and also have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for their employees who work
onsite. Each location also provides free wireless LAN access to visitors/guests. ABCT currently have
10,000 regular customers. All their customer and product information are stored in the cloud. Because
the company was the victim of several recent cyberattacks, they are concerned that company’s data might
have been compromised and hackers might have gotten hold of customers’ information. They are also
worried that they would lose the trust of their loyal customers, which could potentially result in a loss of
revenue. So ABCT wants to improve their security system and security related policies. As a first step,
they want your organisation to prepare a document on cybersecurity to train their staff on the basics of
cybersecurity. As part of that, your team leader asked you to research and write a report that should
cover the following tasks:
1. Explain what is cybersecurity and why it is important for ABCT?
2. Identify and explain at least 3 security vulnerabilities in ABCT’s system (you need to consider
ABCT’s case as presented above). You need to justify your answer with evidence from research.
3. Do some research, and find and list 5 different types of emerging threats (that might affect ABCT)
and describe each of them in detail. In your discussion include what damage the attack might
cause, who is responsible for these attacks and their attack techniques.
4. Do some research, analyse the information and give your recommendations (at least 3) how to
protect home and office from cyberattack.
You have to complete this investigation and write a report for your team leader in the next three weeks.
Since this is an initial investigation, moreover, some of the staff do not have IT background, the report
does not require in-depth technical details.