Assessing Information System Vulnerabilities RAR

Previously you wrote the SAR. The paper was nicely and professionally done. Now for on the RAR-Risk Assessment Re[ort. In-text citations are very important in this research. Please be on time for the project
You are an Information Assurance Management Officer, IAMO, at an organization of your
choosing. One morning, as you're getting ready for work, you see an email from Karen, your
manager. She asks you to come to her office as soon as you get in.
When you arrive at your work, you head straight to Karen's office. “Sorry for the impromptu
meeting,” she says, “but we have a bit of an emergency. There's been a security breach at the
Office of Personnel Management.”
We don't know how this happened, but we need to make sure it doesn't happen again, says
Karen. You'll be receiving an email with more information on the security breach. Use this info to
assess the information system vulnerabilities of the Office of Personnel Management.
At your desk, you open Karen's email. She's given you an OPM report from the Office of the
Inspector General, or OIG. You have studied the OPM OIG report and found that the hackers
were able to gain access through compromised credentials. The security breach could have
been prevented, if the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, had abided by previous
auditing reports and security findings. In addition, access to the databases could have been
prevented by implementing various encryption schemas and could have been identified after
running regularly scheduled scans of the systems.
Karen and the rest of the leadership team want you to compile your findings. You will create a Risk Assessment Report, or RAR, in which you identify threats, vulnerabilities, risks, and the likelihood of exploitation and suggested.
The security posture of the information systems infrastructure of an organization should be regularly monitored and assessed (including software, hardware, firmware components, governance policies, and implementation of security controls). The monitoring and assessment of the infrastructure and its components, policies, and processes should also account for changes and new procurements that are sure to follow in order to stay in step with ever-changing information system technologies.
The data breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is one of the largest in US government history. It provides a series of lessons learned for other organizations in industry and the public sector. Some critical security practices, such as lack of diligence to security controls and management of changes to the information systems infrastructure were cited as contributors to the massive data breach in the OPM Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) Final Audit Report, which can be found in open source searches. Some of the findings in the report include: weak authentication mechanisms; lack of a plan for life-cycle management of the information systems; lack of a configuration management and change management plan; lack of inventory of systems, servers, databases, and network devices; lack of mature vulnerability scanning tools; lack of valid authorizations for many systems, and lack of plans of action to remedy the findings of previous audits.
The breach ultimately resulted in the removal of OPM's top leadership. The impact of the breach on the livelihoods of millions of people is ongoing and may never be fully known. There is a critical need for security programs that can assess vulnerabilities and provide mitigations.
You will propose a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) for the organization, define the systems environment, and incorporate this information in a network diagram. Discuss the security benefits of your chosen network design.
During Project One, you researched a hypothetical or actual organization of your choice. You had to understand the goals of the organization and the types of systems that would fulfill those goals. You will now research and learn about types of networks and their secure constructs that may be used in organizations to accomplish the functions of the organization’s mission. You will propose a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) for the organization, define the systems environment, and incorporate this information in a network diagram. Discuss the security benefits of your chosen network design.
Read about the following computing platforms available for networks and discuss how these platforms could be implemented in your organization. Include the rationale for all platforms you choose to include in your network design.
common computing platforms
cloud computing
distributed computing
centralized computing
secure programming fundamentals
Review the OIG report on the OPM breach that you were asked to research and read about at the beginning of the project. The OIG report included numerous security deficiencies that likely left OPM networks vulnerable to being breached. In addition to those external threats, the report also describes the ways OPM was vulnerable to insider threats. The information about the breach could be classified as threat intelligence. Define threat intelligence and explain what kind of threat intelligence is known about the OPM breach.
You just provided detailed background information on your organization. Next, you’ll describe threats to your organization’s system. Before you get started, select and explore the contents of the following link: insider threats (also known as internal threats). As you’re reading, take note of which insider threats are a risk to your organization.
Now, differentiate between the external threats to the system and insider threats. Identify where these threats can occur in the previously created diagrams. Relate the OPM threat intelligence to your organization. How likely is it that a similar attack will occur at your organization?

Next, examine these resources on firewalls and auditing–RDBMS related to the use of the Relational Database Management System (i.e., the database system and data) RDBMS. Also review these resources related to access control.
Determine the role of firewalls and encryption, and auditing – RDBMS that could assist in protecting information and monitoring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information in the information systems.
Reflect any weaknesses found in the network and information system diagrams
You know of the weaknesses in your organization's network and information system. Now you will determine various known threats to the organization's network architecture and IT assets.
Get acquainted with the following types of threats and attack techniques. Which are a risk to your organization?
IP address spoofing/cache poisoning attacks
denial of service attacks (DoS)
packet analysis/sniffing
session hijacking attacks
distributed denial of service attacks
In identifying the different threats, complete the following tasks:
Identify the potential hacking actors of these threat attacks on vulnerabilities in networks and information systems and the types of remediation and mitigation techniques available in your industry, and for your organization.
Identify the purpose and function of firewalls for organization network systems, and how they address the threats and vulnerabilities you have identified.
Also discuss the value of using access control, database transaction and firewall log files.
Identify the purpose and function of encryption, as it relates to files and databases and other information assets on the organization's networks.
You know of the weaknesses in your organization's network and information system. Now you will determine various known threats to the organization's network architecture and IT assets.
Get acquainted with the following types of threats and attack techniques. Which are a risk to your organization?
IP address spoofing/cache poisoning attacks
denial of service attacks (DoS)
packet analysis/sniffing
session hijacking attacks
distributed denial of service attacks
In identifying the different threats, complete the following tasks:
Identify the potential hacking actors of these threat attacks on vulnerabilities in networks and information systems and the types of remediation and mitigation techniques available in your industry, and for your organization.
Identify the purpose and function of firewalls for organization network systems, and how they address the threats and vulnerabilities you have identified.
Also discuss the value of using access control, database transaction and firewall log files.
Identify the purpose and function of encryption, as it relates to files and databases and other information assets on the organization's networks.
Step 9: Creating the SAR and RAR
Your research and Workspace exercise have led you to this moment: creating your SAR and RAR. Consider what you have learned in the previous steps as you create your reports for leadership.
Prepare a Security Assessment Report (SAR) with the following sections:
Purpose
Organization
Scope
Methodology
Data
Results
Findings
The final SAR does not have to stay within this framework and can be designed to fulfill the goal of the security assessment.
Prepare a Risk Assessment Report (RAR) with information on the threats, vulnerabilities, the likelihood of exploitation of security weaknesses, impact assessments for the exploitation of security weaknesses, remediation, and cost/benefit analyses of remediation. Devise a high-level plan of action with interim milestones (POAM), in a system methodology, to remedy your findings. Include this high-level plan in the RAR. Summarize the results you obtained from the vulnerability assessment tools (i.e., MBSA and OpenVas) in your report.
The deliverables for this project are as follows:
Security Assessment Report (SAR): This should be an 8-10 page double-spaced Word document with citations in APA format. The page count does not include figures, diagrams, tables, or citations.
Risk Assessment Report (RAR): This report should be a 5-6 page double-spaced Word document with citations in APA format. The page count does not include figures, diagrams, tables, or citations.
In a Word document, share your lab experience and provide screen prints to demonstrate that you performed the lab.
Submit your deliverables to the assignment folder.
Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.
1.1: Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.
1.2: Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is internally unified and so that each functions as part of the whole document or presentation.
1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.
1.4: Tailor communications to the audience.
1.5: Use sentence structure appropriate to the task, message and audience.
1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
5.2: Knowledge of architectural methodologies used in the design and development of information systems and knowledge of standards that either are compliant with or derived from established standards or guidelines.
5.6: Explore and address cybersecurity concerns, promote awareness, best practice, and emerging technology.
7.3: Knowledge of methods and tools used for risk management and mitigation of risk.
8.1: Demonstrate the abilities to detect, identify, and resolve host and network intrusion incidents.
8.2: Possess knowledge and skills to categorize, characterize, and prioritize an incident as well as to handle relevant digital evidence appropriately.