The current/previous coronavirus pandemic has had a severe impact on how business is conducted. It has led to an increase in working from home and this has led to severe challenges and increased opportunities for those with malicious intent. Write a report on how the following five aspects can help to minimize the risks of this new working arrangement. • Authentication as an access control mechanism. • Virtual Private Network (VPN). • Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems. • Cryptology. • Secure Wi-Fi communication. Document current practices/norms and make and motivate recommendations where needed. Also highlight specific aspects that users need to be extra aware of. Use chapters 8, 9 and 10 of Whitman and Mattord as a guide. The report will be evaluated out of 50, and will also have to be submitted on e-Fundi, along with going through Turnitin.

Investigate the use of a VPN. Find out whatsecurity benefits it may have.

Given the constant evolution of malware threats, maintaining cybersecurity within an organization requires a comprehensive strategy encompassing various countermeasures. Which of the following options best represents a holistic approach to combating malware?Group of answer choicesLimiting internet access to only a few pre-approved websites and disabling email attachments for all users.Conducting regular employee training sessions on security best practices, installing reputable antivirus software on all devices, using firewalls, and performing frequent backups of critical data.Implementing a single, highly-rated antivirus software solution and ensuring it is updated regularly.Relying solely on a state-of-the-art firewall to monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.

Carla has been asked by her company to set up a virtual private network (VPN) for their remote employees. What is the main benefit that Carla wants to achieve for employees with the implementation of the VPN?Implement restrictions on employees' access to cloud resources.Provide a secure, encrypted tunnel for seamless data transmission.Enable continuous monitoring of network traffic for any potential threats.Improve efficiency in alerting administrators about malicious activities.

2.Hacking the Home to Hack the Office By Suhail Ansari, Dattatraya Kulkarni and Steve Povolny  The increasingly dense overlay of numerous connected devices, apps and web services used in our professional and private lives will grow the connected home’s attack surface to the point that it raises significant new risks for individuals and their employers.  While the threat to connected homes is not new, what is new is the emergence of increased functionality in both home and business devices, and the fact that these devices connect to each other more than ever before. Compounding this is the increase in remote work – meaning many of us are using these connected devices more than ever. In 2020,the global pandemic shifted employees from the office to the home, making the home environment a work environment. In fact, since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, McAfee Secure Home Platform device monitoring shows a 22% increase in the number of connected home devices globally and a 60% increase in the U.S. Over 70% of the traffic from these devices originated from smart phones, laptops, other PCs and TVs, and over 29% originated from IoT devices such as streaming devices, gaming consoles, wearables, and smart lights.McAfee saw cybercriminals increase their focus on the home attack surface with a surge in various phishing message schemes across communications channels. The number of malicious phishing links McAfee blocked grew over 21% from March to November, at an average of over 400 links per home.   This increase is significant and suggests a flood of phishing messages with malicious links entered home networks through devices with weaker security measures.   Millions of individual employees have become responsible for their employer’s IT security in a home office filled with “soft” targets, unprotected devices from the kitchen, to the family room, to the bedroom. Many of these home devices are “orphaned” in that their manufacturers fail to properly support them with security updates addressing new threats or vulnerabilities.  This contrasts with a corporate office environment filled with devices “hardened” by enterprise-grade security measures. We now work with consumer-grade networking equipment configured by “us” and lacking the central management, regular software updates and security monitoring of the enterprise.   Because of this, we believe cybercriminals will advance the home as an attack surface for campaigns targeting not only our families but also corporations. The hackers will take advantage of the home’s lack of regular firmware updates, lack of security mitigation features, weak privacy policies, vulnerability exploits, and user susceptibility to social engineering.  By compromising the home environment, these malicious actors will launch a variety of attacks on corporate as well as consumer devices in 2021.

c) Prepare a list of 4 recommended solutions/controls that would reduce the risk of security breach to Octal Info Solutions. 1.Conduct Regular Employee Training Malicious hackers gain access to your database by using phishing emails sent to the employees. Phishing emails are very difficult to detect because they seem like a legitimate one. Having regular cybersecurity training can prevent or reduce threats. 2. Encrypt Your Data and Create Backups The organization must make sure to encrypt all sensitive data and save encrypted data can make attacker difficult to access. It can ensure that even when unauthorized parties gain access to the system data, they can't read it. When cybersecurity breaches can result in data loss. And if you don’t have any secure or reliable data backup, it can cause your organization to lose a lot of revenue. 3.Create A Secure Cybersecurity Policy Create cybersecurity in the organization such as restricted data or information can be accessed and available only authorized people. So, it can reduce the insider threats in the organization. 4.Using strong password If the employees use strong or not sharing password, it can reduce the threats. If one computer is under attacked, the other will be secure. The password should be implemented such as at least 8 characters, alphanumeric characters, no personal information, unique and never used before. d) Prepare an implementation plan (for each solution) in a procedurally organized manner to ensure minimum risk of security breach in line with organizational guidelines.