Assignment - Information Security Mapping Case Study
Purpose of this assignment: The purpose of this assignment is to support the following unit Learning Outcomes for this unit:
1: Identify the importance of information to organisations and society in general;
2: Describe and apply concepts, principles and techniques relating to the security of information; and
3: Demonstrate an understanding of the advantages, disadvantages, threats, and vulnerabilities associated with various IT environments.
Background:
John Smith is the Community Liaison Officer for Kleen Communication & Media Ltd based in Perth, Western Australia. Kleen Communication & Media Ltd is an inventive company developing and selling social media marketing to small businesses. The design and production of all products is handled electronically, directly with each business. Kleen Communication & Media Ltd currently has 40% of the market in WA, with the remaining 50% held by much larger advertising agencies, and the final 10% by those developing mobile apps for social media marketing. John spends half of his day on the road in the Perth metro area visiting small businesses who may wish to purchase and social media marketing into their existing marketing activities. Consequently, John carries a laptop, smart phone and Surface Pro 4 with him everywhere he goes. The laptop encompasses an Intel i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, and is running Windows 10 Professional with the last Windows update applied towards the end of January, 2015. When in the office John connects his laptop and Surface Pro to the company network.
John predominantly uses Microsoft Office Professional 2013 for all his business needs. Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel contain the information for all clients within Western Australia, as well as client confidential business and financial information. John is not well informed about information security although he uses computing technology to support his job. As a result John does not use third party firewalls, anti-virus software, encryption, or authentication mechanisms.
While on the road, John occasionally leaves his laptop in the car. He also frequently visits Internet cafes for lunch where he utilises the Internet for up to an hour each day. The confidentiality of information is important as any disclosure could cause significant embarrassment to him and the company, as well as impact client privacy and confidence. Also, John must provide correct, factual information to all clients hence ensuring the integrity of information is vital. Lastly, should any information not be available when needed, this may result in clients taking their business to the new to market competitor.
Task: Utilising the background information, draw a concept map or annotated attack tree which represents the context of John Kleen Communication & Media Ltd's work environment and also demonstrates:
- the links the data John uses and keeps, and the aims of security (CIA) -i.e. what information needs protecting, why and what aspect of CIA does this related to?;
- the associated attacks which could breach each of these aims in this scenario;
- the likelihood (risk) that any attack in this scenario poses;
- the impact each attack may have;
- the resultant countermeasures which could be applied in this scenario;
- the relative cost of each countermeasure; and
- the mitigation effect of the countermeasure.
All of the attacks that you present must be feasible, capable of being undertaken by one person, and require limited financial support. An in-text reference supporting the attack and countermeasure should be included within each of the concepts.