FIT1047 Introduction to computer systems, networks and
security - S1 2022
Assignment 4 – Cybersecurity
Purpose In Part 1 of this assignment, students will analyse and discuss a recent
vulnerability or cybersecurity attack. The report will demonstrate an understanding
of related cybersecurity topics and demonstrate the ability to research information
on cybersecurity incidents.
For part 2, students prepare a video presentation with slides that shows how a
given set of security controls are used in a medium-sized enterprise scenario. This
demonstrates an understanding of the different security controls and the ability to
assess and explain their use.
The assignment relates to Unit Learning Outcomes 5, 6, and 7
Your task You need to choose one option and submit a report with your findings regarding
the analysis tasks for Part 1. For Part 2, you need to prepare a video presentation.
The instructions below contain concrete questions you should answer in your
report and presentation. All files (a pdf file for Part 1 and a video file along with
slides in pdf for Part 2) have to be submitted via Moodle.
Value 30% of your total marks for the unit
Parts 1 and 2 are 15% of the total marks for the unit each.
Word Limit Part 1: A report with between 500 and 700 words
Part 2: A presentation video not longer than 5 minutes
Due Date Friday, June 10, 11:55 pm
Submission ● Via Moodle Assignment Submission.
● Turnitin will be used for similarity checking of all submissions.
Assessment
Criteria
See rubric
Late Penalties ● 10% deduction per calendar day or part thereof for up to one week
● Submissions more than 7 calendar days after the due date will receive a
mark of zero (0) and no assessment feedback will be provided.
Support
Resources
See Moodle Assessment page
Feedback Feedback will be provided on student work via:
general cohort performance
specific student feedback ten working days post submission
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INSTRUCTIONS
PART 1 - Analyse a cybersecurity vulnerability or incident (upload 1 pdf file with the report to Moodle)
Information on security problems, weaknesses and attacks can be found in many places (blogs, newsletters,
experts' pages, etc.). Your task is to pick one item only from the following list (additional other sources can be
added, but need to cover the same vulnerability/incident), read the news item, look up and read the referenced
sources, and finally write a report on the findings.
● https://threatpost.com/samsung-shattered-encryption-on-100m-phones/178606/
● https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/22/apple_airtags_protections_bypass/
● https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/03/lapsus-and-solar-winds-hackers-both-u
se-the-same-old-trick-to-bypass-mfa/
● https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/03/researcher-uses-600-year-old-algorithm-
to-crack-crypto-keys-found-in-the-wild/
● https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2022/04/20/critical-cryptographic-java-security-blunder-patche
d-update-now/
● https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/18/23030754/beanstalk-cryptocurrency-hack-182-million-dao-v
oting
● https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/05/researchers-devise-iphone-malware-that
-runs-even-when-device-is-turned-off/
● https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/zyxel-releases-patch-for-critical.html
Follow the following steps to write your report
1. Choose one of the 8 news items above, read the text.
2. Look up and read the articles and information referenced in the news item.
3. Write a short summary of the news item in your own words (max 200 words).
4. Identify which software, hardware or system is affected (max 50 words). The identification should be as
precise as possible. Include exact product names, distribution of the product, version numbers, etc.
5. Describe how the problem was discovered and how it was initially published. Try to find this information
in the referenced articles. The problem might have been found by researchers at a university, by a
professional security company, by some hacker, published in a scientific conference/journal, in a
newspaper on a blog, etc. Was it the result of targeted research, found by chance, were any tools used,
etc? (write 50-100 words)
6. Discuss how serious the issue/weakness/attack is, describe what is necessary to exploit the weakness,
evaluate what the consequences might be if it is exploited, and what reactions you think are
necessary/useful on (i) a technical level, (ii) in terms of human behaviour, and (iii) on a policy level
(between 200 and 350 words).
7. Create a pdf file and upload it to Moodle
Part 2 - Security controls in a medium sized company scenario (upload 1 pdf file with the slides and 1
video with your presentation to Moodle)
For this part you take on the role of a security architect (as defined in the NIST NICE workforce framework) for a
medium sized company. You have a list of security controls to be used and a number of entities that need to be
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connected in the internal network. Depending on the role of the entity, you need to decide how they need to be
protected from internal and external adversaries.
Entities to be connected:
● Employee PCs used in the office
● Employee laptops used from home or while travelling
● Company web server running a web shop (a physical server)
● 1st Data-base server for finance
● 2nd Data-base server as back-end for the web shop
● Mail server
● Printer and scanner
● Research and development team computers
● WiFi access point for guests in the office
Security controls and appliances (can be used in several places)
● Firewalls (provide port numbers to be open for traffic from the outside)
● VPN gateway
● VPN clients
● TLS (provide information between which computers TLS is used)
● Authentication server
● Secure seeded storage of passwords
● Disk encryption
● WPA2 encryption
To prepare for your presentation video, follow these steps:
1. Create a diagram of your network (using any diagram creation tool such as LucidChart or similar) with
all entities
2. Place security controls on the diagram
3. For each security control explain what it is used for and why
4. Create slides for the diagrams and the explanation for security controls. Prepare a maximum of 10
presentation slides, excluding the title page, references, and Appendix. Any page beyond the page limit
will not be marked.
5. Record a video presentation (using Panopto, Zoom, Teams or any software of your choice) showing the
slides and you talking to the slides (length maximum 5 minutes)
6. At the start of the video, introduce yourself and show your ID (Monash or others) while introducing
yourself.
7. The video needs to be in a common format (AVI, MOV, MP4, M4V, etc) and should be of high enough
quality to be clearly understood and viewed. The video should be no more than 500Mb in size
8. Upload the slides in pdf and the video to Moodle.