MIS607 Cybersecurity
Assignment
The Business &Communication Insurance (B&C Insurance) began business as a private health insurer, established by Gary RT.L & family in 1965 through the Health Insurance Commission. This company was set up to compete with private "for-profit" funds. The company’s headquarters is located in New York and has offices in various other countries including Spain, Australia and Hong Kong. The CEO of the B&C Insurance recently received a ransom email from an unknown company claiming that they have access to the company strategic plans and personal details of 200,000 clients. A sample of personal details of 200 clients was included in the email as a ‘proof’.
Ransom emails are normally sent through unreliable external networks that are outside the company’s security boundary. The CEO consulted the senior management and they acted promptly to investigate and contain the threat with the aid of forensic computer specialists. The first step was to validate the threat. The management team found a discussion on a hacker site in the dark net that had personal information of 200,000 clients of B&C Insurance for sale. This also included the details of the 200 clients, provided in the ransom email as ‘proof’. The investigation also confirmed that the details of the 200 customers are genuine.
The senior management considered the need to identify threats and give practical guidance on how to manage the risks of identity fraud to be of utmost importance. Therefore, a team of consultants was appointed to prepare a series of reports to identify various threats and to develop cybersecurity crisis management plans in order to respond to potential threats/ risks of sophisticated hackers penetrating into the internal systems of the company and accessing client information.
As the cybersecurity specialist in the team, you have been asked to write a report to identify the threat types and key factors involved. In doing so, you are required to identify the most ‘at-risk’ components, create awareness among the staff of such high-risk components and how to manage them. In addition, this report is to help key stakeholders, including the executive managers, to make decisions on what course of actions must be undertaken to mitigate potential threats.
Requirement
For this assessment, you are required to write a mitigation plan for threat report based on knowledge you gained about threat types and key factors in Assessment 2. You are required to use the Assessment 2 case as context to write a report to address or alleviate problems faced by the business and to protect the customers. In doing so, you are required to demonstrate your ability to mitigate threat/risks identified in Assessment 2 through the strategy you recommend (STRIDE).
1. Read the Assessment 2 Case Scenario again to understand the concepts discussed in the case.
2. Review your subject notes to establish the relevant area of investigation that applies to the case. Reread any relevant readings that have been recommended in the case area in modules. Plan how you will structure your ideas for the mitigation plan for threat report.
3. The mitigation plan for threat report should address the following:
• Setting priorities for risks/threats
• Analyse the case in terms of identified risk categories and scenarios
• Apply standard mitigations
• Discuss specific resolutions for improvement, and justify their significance
• Provide recommendations for mitigating risk based on an assessment of risk appetite, risk tolerance and current risk levels (Choose techniques to mitigate the threats)
• Make recommendations to the CEO on how to conduct risk management, key issues involving your process improvement model, including a road map, the identification of appropriate technologies for the identified techniques, communicating the strategy, and a suggested timeline.
