Task A - Activity 1 Template: Risk assessment of the networked system
Risk severity matrix
Very likely Medium High Extreme
Probability of Likely Low Medium High
threat occurring Unlikely Low Low Medium
Minor Moderate Major
Size of the loss
Assessment
Threat number. 1
Threat title. Attack via remote administration tool
Probability. Very Likely
Potential size of Major
loss / impact
level.
Risk severity. Extreme
Explanation of RATs often use port scanning to identify vulnerable data, exploit
the threat in vulnerabilities and gain access to take control of computers. If a
context. port is discovered to be open (via pings) for a website to be
accessed and data exchanged, then a hacker can disguise as that
website (phishing) and gain access via the open port. This could
lead the hacker to have full control of the system which will put
the company in jeopardy as the hacker may be able to access
“highly confidential information” where the company may have
broken the The Data Protection Act of 1998 if the protection
measures in place were not deemed protective enough.
Remote administration tools are usually initiated via a .exe, so as
a countermeasure to this issue, the firewall group policy within
windows can prohibit all foreign executables that are not within
the whitelist from being initiated.
Threat number. 2
Threat title. Attack via infected links
Probability. Very likely
Potential size of Major
loss / impact
level.
Risk severity. Extreme
Explanation of The staff and guests using the network are susceptible to phishing
the threat in via suspicious links, or those disguised as legitimate links. These
context. could be delivered to them via spam emails or by clicking
advertisements.
By opening these suspicious links, files may be downloaded or
they may unknowingly provide the website with personal data.
A file being downloaded would put the system at serious risk as it
could infect the system or hold it ransom if they had downloaded
ransomware which would render the system useless until it was
removed.
, Threat number. 3
Threat title. Address Resolution Protocol Poisoning
Probability. Unlikely
Potential size of Extreme
loss / impact
level.
Risk severity. High
Explanation of ARP poisoning is a form of man-in-the-middle attack where the
the threat in attacker changes the Media Access Control address and attacks a
context. local area network by changing the target computer's ARP cache
with a counterfeit ARP request and reply packets. This changes
the MAC address into the hacker's known MAC address so they
can monitor their victim. Because the ARP replies are forged, the
victim’s packets are sent to the hacker first instead of its intended
destination. As a result, both the user's data and privacy are
compromised.
By conducting an ARP poisoning attack, hackers can gain
sensitive data from the targeted computer or cause a denial of
service. Also, if the hacker copies the targets MAC address and
internet configurations, they may gain access to the network on a
level of access which would be prohibited, thus gaining access to
files that are classified.
For smaller networks, using static ARP tables and static IP addresses is an effective solution against ARP poisoning. Another effective method for all kinds of networks is implementing an ARP monitoring tool.
Threat number. 4
Threat title. NFC card cloning
Probability. Very Likely
Potential size of Extreme
loss / impact
level.
Risk severity. High
Explanation of NFC is a vulnerable technology as card data can be copied within
the threat in seconds which will allow unauthorised access to the main office
context. space. If there are no safeguards in place for server access, then
it could lead to the servers being compromised as the attacker
has gotten past the electronic door control system. This would put
the company in a dangerous position as their classified
documents concerning the clients will be in possession of a
hacker.
Instead of using NFC, a biometrics scanner would be safer due to
biometrics being more difficult to clone and the hacker would
have to go to far greater lengths to compromise this heightened
level of security.
Threat number. 5
Threat title. Misconfigured firewall within router
Probability. Likely
Potential size of Medium
loss / impact
level.
Risk severity. High
Explanation of The firewall settings may still be on default so no blacklisting or
the threat in whitelisting of ports/websites have been specified. This could
context. leave the network vulnerable to attack where the network could
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