Lab Assignment: Developing a Risk-Mitigation Plan Outline for an IT Infrastructure
Introduction
Identifying and assessing risks is challenging, but treating them is another matter entirely. Treating risks means making changes based on a risk assessment and probably a few hard decisions. When treating even the most straightforward of risks, practice due diligence by documenting what steps you are taking to mitigate the risk. If you don't document the change and the reasoning behind it, it's possible that your organization could reverse the mitigation and reintroduce the risk based on the notion of "but that's how we always did it before."
After you've addressed a risk, appoint someone to make certain that the risk treatment is being regularly applied. If a security incident arises even with the change in place, having a single person in charge will ensure that any corrective action aligns with the risk-mitigation plan.
You're not appointing someone so you can blame that person if things go wrong; you are instead investing that individual with the autonomy to manage the incident effectively. The purpose of a risk-mitigation plan is to define and document procedures and processes to establish a baseline for ongoing mitigation of risks in the seven domains of an IT infrastructure.
In this lab, you will identify the scope for an IT risk-mitigation plan, you will align the plan's major parts with the seven domains of an IT infrastructure, you will define the risk-mitigation steps, you will define procedures and processes needed to maintain a security baseline for ongoing mitigation, and you will create an outline for an IT risk-mitigation plan.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this lab, you will be able to:
Identify the scope for an IT risk-mitigation plan focusing on the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Align the major parts of an IT risk-mitigation plan in each of the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Define the tactical risk-mitigation steps needed to remediate the identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities commonly found in the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Define procedures and processes needed to maintain a security baseline definition for ongoing risk mitigation in the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Create an outline for an IT risk-mitigation plan encompassing the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Hands-On Steps
1. On your local computer, create the lab deliverable files.
2. Review the Lab Assessment Worksheet. You will find answers to these questions as you proceed through the lab steps.
3. Review the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure (see Figure 1).
4. Using the following table, review the results of your assessments in the Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure lab in this lab manual. In addition, review the results of how you categorized and prioritized the risks for the IT infrastructure in that lab:
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Risks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
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Primary Domain Impacted
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Risk Impact/ Factor
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Unauthorized access from public Internet
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User destroys data in application and deletes all files
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Hacker penetrates your IT infrastructure and gains access to your internal network
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Intraoffice employee romance gone bad
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Fire destroys primary data center
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Service provider service level agreement (SLA) is not achieved
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Workstation operating system (OS) has a known software vulnerability
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Unauthorized access to organization- owned workstations
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Loss of production data
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Denial of service attack on organization Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and e-mail server
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Remote communications from home office
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Local Area Network (LAN) server OS has a known software vulnerability
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User downloads and clicks on an unknown e-mail attachment
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Workstation browser has a software vulnerability
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Mobile employee needs secure browser access to sales-order entry system
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Service provider has a major network outage
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Weak ingress/egress traffic-filtering degrades performance
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User inserts CDs and USB hard drives with personal photos, music, and videos on organization-owned computers
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Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunneling between remote computer and ingress/egress router is needed
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Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access points are needed for LAN connectivity within a warehouse
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Need to prevent eavesdropping on WLAN due to customer privacy data access
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Denial of service (DoS)/distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack from the Wide Area Network (WAN)/Internet
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5. In your Lab Report file, organize the qualitative risk assessment data according to the following:
• Review the executive summary from the Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure lab in this lab manual.
• Organize all of the critical "1" risks, threats, and vulnerabilities identified throughout the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.
Fighting Fear
In the real world, some managers will accept risk rather than make changes to mitigate it. If they offer up only vague reasons for sticking with the status quo, then their decision is likely based on fear of change. Don't let their fear stop you from treating the risk.
Here are two tips to fight a manager's fear:
Prepare for your manager's "What if?" questions. Example of a manager's question: "What if we apply the firewall but it also stops network traffic we want, such as from our applications?" Your answer: "We've tested nearly all applications with the chosen firewall. And we're prepared to minimize unforeseen outages."
Know, in concrete terms, what will happen if the risk is not treated. Example of a manager's question: "What is supposed to happen that hasn't happened already?" Your answer will come from the risk assessment you've performed, which will calculate the risk's likelihood and consequences.
6. On your local computer, open a new Internet browser window.
7. In the address box of your Internet browser, type the URL https://www.mitre.org/publications/systems-engineering-guide/acquisition-systems- engineering/risk-management/risk-impact-assessment-and-prioritization and press Enter to open the Web site.
8. Read the article titled "Risk Impact Assessment and Prioritization."
9. In your Lab Report file, describe the purpose of prioritizing the risks prior to creating a risk-mitigation plan.
10. In your Lab Report file, describe the elements of an IT risk-mitigation plan outline by covering the following major topics:
• Executive summary
• Prioritization of identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities organized into the seven domains
• Critical "1" risks, threats, and vulnerabilities identified throughout the IT infrastructure
• Short-term remediation steps for critical "1" risks, threats, and vulnerabilities
• Long-term remediation steps for major "2" and minor "3" risks, threats, and vulnerabilities
• Ongoing IT risk-mitigation steps for the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure
• Cost magnitude estimates for work effort and security solutions
• Implementation plans for remediation
11. In your Lab Report file, create a detailed IT risk-mitigation plan outline by inserting appropriate subtopics and sub-bullets.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
Attachment:- Lab-SLMx-Risk.rar