Reference no: EM134040376 , Length: Word Count:1500

Penetration Testing

Assessment - Cyber Attack Analysis and Mitigation Report

Task

This assessment is to be completed individually. In this assessment, you will conduct individual research and produce an incident analysis report for any two cybersecurity incidents that might have happened to an organisation based on a case study scenario below.

Assessment Description

In this assessment: You will research cyber security incidents and document different observable attack techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs), their impact on the organisation, and potential risks associated with these attacks based on the scenario below. You are to provide a critical analysis of each attack phase, detailing vulnerabilities and entry points exploited by attackers for any incident. The objective of this assessment is to help you develop research skills and the ability to assess and analyse various cybersecurity incidents, and threats. You are then required to recommend countermeasures based on the content covered during Weeks 4 to 7 using a real-world scenario focusing on Data Communication And Networking:

Social Engineering Assessment
Analyse the different social engineering methods that could have been used in the recent incident above to gain unauthorised access. Investigate and document how the social engineering tactics used affected the organisation's security posture.

Scanning and Enumeration Analysis
Explore the different ways that the intruders could have used to conduct scanning and enumeration to identify potential vulnerabilities within the organisation network. Identify any weaknesses that the intruders could have exploited through the scanning and enumeration phases.

Network Exploitation and Post-Exploitation Assessment
Investigate the different methods that the intruders may have used to exploit vulnerabilities in the network, gain unauthorised access, and pivot into sensitive areas. Analyse how the post-exploitation activities such as privilege escalation or data exfiltration may have been done.

Active Directory Attack Evaluation
Highlight the impact that may have been witnessed because of Active Directory attacks on the organisation's infrastructure and user accounts. Explain how the attackers may have gained control or manipulated the directory services.

Scenario

As a newly employed cybersecurity consultant, you are presented with an incident involving a medium-sized organisation. The organisation recently experienced a series of cyber incidents, and your task is to conduct a comprehensive incident analysis and propose defence strategies against various cyber-attack techniques that have impacted it. The organisation runs an extensive network infrastructure comprising hospital patient databases, medical records, and administrative systems. The recent cyber incidents have caused disruptions in service, potential data breaches, and concerns about the integrity of patient information.

Assessment Practical Business Purpose

The incident analysis report you will generate in this assessment will equip you with the skills needed to assess, understand, analyse, and mitigate specific cybersecurity threats, which is essential for organisations aiming to strengthen their security posture.

Assessment Targeted Audience

This assessment is useful to different organisations and people including Security analysts, IT administrators, and organisations looking to enhance their security posture. Finishing this assessment will equip you with confidence to contribute knowledge about cybersecurity incidents, threats and countermeasures for different roles in different organisations.

This assessment aims to achieve the following subject learning outcomes:

LO1 Evaluate appropriate countermeasures to mitigate the risk of unauthorised access, hacks and exploits to systems, networks, and applications.
LO2 Investigate cyber-attack techniques on computer systems, networks, and web applications.
LO3 Evaluate existing defensive security measures.

Assessment Instructions

Assessment instructions for this assessment:

Individually, you are required to analyse two cyber security incidents and the threat's potential impact on the organisation's systems, networks, and applications.

Conduct external research that will give you at least five (5) sources of information from various sources. E.g., websites, social media sites, industry reports, census data, journal articles, and newspaper articles

ChatGPT or other generative AI tools may be used for brainstorming purposes, but your conversation must be attached to your report in an appendix to show the brainstorming process. Any copying and pasting of AI text is a form of plagiarism and will be detected by Turnitin.

You can use any referencing style of your choice, but KBS's Academic Success Centre team can support you in using Kaplan Harvard Referencing.

Suggest a range of defensive security measures to prevent exploitation, enhance network monitoring and segmentation, and implement secure Active Directory configurations.

Finally, prepare a detailed and professional incident analysis report outlining the analysis of each incident technique and recommended countermeasures or proposed defensive strategies. Present findings in a structured and clear format suitable for organisational stakeholders.