Hello,

I need two responses of at least 150 words each for the below students discussions for this week. Also in the bold below are the questions the students at answering.

Topic: Killing With Keyboards

Please look at the file, “Killing With Keyboards” from the class Course Materials/copied resources (file is 14840keyboard.pps) then answer the following questions:

1. What is at risk here?
2. Identify 5 possible threats, and 5 vulnerabilities in this scenario.
3. Discuss measures that could be taken to reduce the risks.

Student one:

Hello class,

The risks involved with this scenario is that information could be divulged and stored in the hands of a foreign government. Also at risk is the lives of military personnel as they are the true possible victims if the foreign government uses the information to their advantage.

Threats from this scenario include:

1. Chris’ Family being targeted to make Chris comply had he not given information willingly

2. Alice’s Family could also be used against her, though her government promises reward if she were to find information, they could also use them as a threat if she didn’t.

3. The foreign government involved had multiple people searching for information for weeks or even months at a time, so Chris is not the only victim in this scenario meaning mass destruction if they got their hands on the right amount of information.

4. Chris has stated, not only in person to Tom but also posting on the forums, that the military uses a certain product. Even though when probed further he says he cant say or he cannot tell where he got the information, it doesn’t matter because he has already given away the information the foreign government needs.

5. Chris put out the name of a product allowing the foreign government to research into what it is.

Vulnerabilities include:

1. The coffee shop across the street from bright co having free wifi. Employees who have work devices could possibly be under survelliance there and have no idea as they think they are just having a quick coffee break.

2. Chris posting on those information security websites also is a cause for concern because he thinks he is being anonymous but it was obviously easy for Alice to find out who he was, and then who is entire family was. Chris using sayings such as “cant say” is also a big factor into people looking into him. He thinks he deterring people from prodding but he is really making himself more questionable.

3. The coffee shop requiring brightco employees to show their badges. This can be an issue because usually these badges designate what level of security an employee has information too. So someone looking to target the employees would easily be able to see who knows what or better yet who has access.

4. Chris’ thought process that because he has a secret clearance that he doesn’t need an update on InfoSec. Which he pretty clearly shouts having a security clearance in the coffeeshop (an unsecure area) which is a clear break in InfoSec.

5. Chris himself is a vulnerability because of his irresponsible behaviors with company information.

The way to reduce risks would be to keep the employees from brightco from using their badges for discount at the coffeeshop. I would say to fire Chris as he has too many risky behaviors. He posts on the internet thinking its safe if its anonymous. He talks about his security clearance outside of work. He reels people in with little drops of information. He just cant be trusted. More risk reduction would be making the conferences secret and make it known to employees that they cannot discuss details of the conference outside. A lot of the issues from this scenario stem down to a personality of a person, and not the security policies of a company as a whole.

Have a great week class.

Sydney

Student two:

Hi Everybody,

Anything you post online is being watched by someone. I remember when my Netflix password got hacked when I was trying to send my password to my facebook friend via messengers. The Killing with keyboards taught valuable information about being careful about what we share and also be careful while sending emails. On the powerpoint, I see the soldiers are at risk of being killed, at the same time Chris and his family member are also at risk of being kidnapped because of the information he holds.

The possible threats in the scenario are Chris because of the information he had, Alice because she is the one who is responsible to gather information about the Chris, Coffee shop which was providing free internet services which can be used to track the personal information of the person using the internet, Tom who is trying to gather information from the Chris about the military projects, Chris family members are also threats because of the information Chris shared with the family members.

The vulnerability includes Chris not being able to use his best judgment in using the websites makes him vulnerable to different threats. Alice information is making the Chris government vulnerable, and the information gathered can be used against the Chris government. The coffee shop is making all the internet user vulnerable to lose their identity. Chris family is also vulnerable because of the information Chris has and Tom was trying to play that card but didn’t need. The Chris company is vulnerable to other threats because of their poor training facility.

Some of the measures to reduce risks will be

1. The company should educate their employees about the threats and vulnerability of the sharing the information online.

2. Proper measures should be taken while sending email like using the encryption.

3. Employees should only be connected through the VPN, which will help to eliminate the chances of getting companies information.

Dipesh