Analyzing Business Systems and Infrastructure Risks

This iteration is aimed at identifying and classifying the critical systems that are used in funning business operations in the different sectors like banking services, electronic insurance trading, online marketing, and payment systems among others. The researcher will also research and define the risks related to the various systems and cite the cybersecurity risks, attacks, and vulnerabilities. The researcher will carry out own research on the Web to achieve the research objectives for this iteration using various scholarly articles, books, and magazines. The research that is intended to take one week will be arranged in such a way that specific things will be done at each section as the researcher has planned. The search will take place from the school library because it provides free Wi-Fi and that will also help to avoid expenses on purchasing Internet bundles and a lot of traveling.

In the first day of research, the researcher plans to ensure that he sets out the objectives that will guide him through the entire iteration. These objectives will be guided by the time available to conduct the search as well as the items that should be covered within that short time. In the second day, the researcher plans to identify, examine, and classify the critical systems for the business that should be protected from cyber attack.  The third day through to the fourth day the researcher plans to search to determine and define the different types of cybersecurity risks, attacks, and vulnerabilities for the identified business critical systems. In the last day of the search, the researcher will compile what he had learned in the iteration to identify the next course of action.

Action

The research work for this first iteration began on September 4, 2017, with the definition of the objectives for the iteration based on the schedule and the research task at hand. The specific objectives and milestones were identified after which the researcher was ready to go. The second day the researcher visited the school library ready to begin the actual search to identify the mission-critical systems upon which a business depends on its functionality. He stated that by identifying the sources of reference. These critical business systems were identified, defined, and classified accordingly based on valid sources including magazines, peer-reviewed articles, and books. The researcher also searched to understand how to differentiate these critical systems. The classification identified the business critical systems were identified as safety-critical, mission critical, business critical, and security crises.

On the third and fourth day, the researcher searched Web and used the gathered sources to identify the types of security risks, attacks, and vulnerabilities to which the critical systems are exposed. These are also the things that threaten the three objectives of system security including reliability, availability, and integrity. The researcher conducted the search and identified and understood the cybersecurity attacks and risks including malware, phishing, SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting, denial of service, session hijacking and man-in-the-middle attacks, rogue software, advertising, and drive-by downloads. The researcher then searched to determine the vulnerabilities to the business systems and the identified vulnerabilities fall into the following groups: physical vulnerabilities, natural vulnerabilities, hardware/software vulnerabilities, media vulnerabilities, communication vulnerabilities, emanation vulnerabilities, and application vulnerabilities. The search was concluded by compiling all that had been learned to identify the next course of action.

Observation

Through this search on the business systems and infrastructure risks, several things were observed about the critical systems, cybersecurity risks, information technology risks, threats, and vulnerabilities. The researcher observed that the business systems are critical to the business’ livelihood and should be safeguarded from the cyber attacks by all means possible. The researcher observed that a critical system must be highly reliable and retain that reliability as it evolves without experiencing costs. The maintenance of that reliability and other security objectives that include integrity and availability is not possible without proper security measures. It was observed that business first must identify its critical systems to be able to decide how to safeguard them from the cyber attacks, risks, and seal any vulnerability. As observed, the four types of critical systems include business critical, safety critical, mission-critical, and security crises.

It was observed that the critical systems are prone to cybersecurity risks, attacks, and vulnerabilities. A threat is a possible cause of an event or incident that may lead to harm of a system. The risk is a possibility for failure, damage, or destruction of a system or asset due to a threat exploiting the vulnerability. On the other hand, vulnerability is a weakness in the system that can be exploited by a threat. The common arsenal of cyber security attacks as identified included malware, phishing, denial-of-service attacks, cross-site scripting, malvertising, man-in-the-middle and session hijacking, credential reuse, and SQL injection among others. These cyber attacks pose risks to an information system such as business disruption, loss of privacy, financial losses, legal penalties, damage to reputation, loss of confidence, and impaired growth. The common vulnerabilities as identified include but not limited to software bugs, hardware/software flaws, application flaws, ineffective controls, broken processes, and human error.

Reflection

This first iteration was aimed at understanding the business critical systems and the infrastructure security risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to which these systems are exposed. It went on well in most areas as the researcher had anticipated. For one, the researcher completed the search within the specified time, and this was as a result of proper time management.  Also, had not been of the objectives that had been highlighted then it would have been impossible to go by the schedule and timeline. The research was a good start off to the research as this iteration set the foundation and the pace for the rest of the research work. All the information that the researcher was investigating acquired it and this was a very good signal for the success of the research. All the sources used for reference provided useful information required by the researcher.

As the researcher continued with the research work and used various sources of reference, it gave him a good opportunity to learn about information as he also compared and contrasted it for a comprehensive understanding. Using scholarly and peer-reviewed references ensured that the information acquired was reliable and valid and thus would be used for making informed decisions in the future. Also, doing a single-handed search helped the researcher to get firsthand information and to acquire problem-solving skills. However, involving other researchers would have also helped to clarify some other things and to enhance the researcher’s insight of the materials. In the future, the researcher, therefore, plans to liaise with other experts in the cybersecurity arena to get to understand more this area and accomplish the remaining iterations with much ease and more expertise than before.

 

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in Top Cheap Essay Writing Services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from cheap reliable essay writing service services.