Web Server Malware And Security Assessment Answer

les until the entire disk is empty and the computer is not able to operate any more. The worst part of the attack from worm affected organizational servers when an infected drive was connected to the system through a dedicated terminal. After gaining access to the system, it spread through local area network until it had access to the server which had weak ant-malware (Takabi, Joshi & Ahn, 2010). Important to note is that, there are some worms which can be termed to be friendly since they traverse through the documents without harming them. Such worms are commonly known to cause traffic on the system which in turn affect some processes such as data querying. Similarly, leasing system have been fighting attacker from Trojan horses which mainly looks like genuine applications which can be installed on PCs. Due to employees online activities and download of some programs, Trojan horse infection has been a problem to the organization. Though they have no impact on their own, they can allow other malicious software and attackers in to the system (Peltier, 2010). Trojan are quite dangerous because some of them try to steal confidential information from the systems.   

Networking devices

In the organization, network is one of the most vulnerable tool used by hackers to access organizational data. Network is supported by variety of devices such as; router which is used to forward data packets from one network segment to another. Router can be set to operate like intelligence hub by keeping record of both sending and receiving machine. It is mainly prone to destruction when exposed to higher electricity voltage as well as temperatures. Next, routers are vulnerable to errors when higher rate of data packet collision takes place or when there is wrong cabling to router (Sequeira, 2013). Similarly, routers are usually abused when required security parameters are not configured once set to provide networking services. The setting need to follow very advanced security recommendations in order to protect them from being compromised by hackers. The next device applicable in networking is firewall which is used to screen all incoming and outgoing signals. Firewall is vulnerable to destruction when exposed to high power voltage than recommended or humid weather conditions. Next, with poor configuration, it can be prone to errors such that it cannot differentiate either incoming or outgoing signals. When poorly configured, it is still prone to abuse by either employees or external entities (Tang & Musa, 2011). Finally, firewall can face quality problems if recommended instructions are not followed as required when it being configured for use.  

Reliability and availability of web services

The leasing information system company can use the following ways to make sure its services are reliable and available to its customers. First, data replication in a distributed system is very essential way of making sure system is reliable. When system is available for use when needed, system reliability is automatically met (Ciccarelli, 2013). Secondly, preventing organizational system attacker through unauthorized users from either within or outside the organization eliminates Denial of Services (DoS). Without DoS, system would be always available for use by the target customers whenever they need it. DoS can be used to prevent system access or make it very slow by imposing undesirable traffic such that its important users are unable to execute routine duties. Consequently, web services can be made reliable by making sure in case of upgrade or updates that might render system working inefficient, its users being customers or internal users are aware in order to schedule their web access services (Siponen & Vance, 2010). Finally, organization can make its web services readily available by making sure system is easy and simple to use. This makes it understandable to users such that no errors during operations that might compromise the system.             

Email confidentiality and integrity

These two factors are key when it comes to any online data services. Confidentiality works to make email communication personal rather than public. Any organizational email communication should be made private and cannot be subject to external use. All email sent in to the or outside the organization should conform to operational policies as outlined to make sure privacy is achieved. To make sure there is privacy in email communication, all outgoing mails from the company should be monitored to make sure privacy is given the highest priority (Clemm & Wolter, 2013). On the same note, it is important to note internal privacy is also required and where possible no exposure of data to unauthorized employees is permitted. Similarly, integrity of email should be adhered to by making sure all email accounts have strong passwords. If mail accounts are not well protected, they can be used by other people to send unauthorized messages. Integrity can be achieved by securing mails with strong passwords as well as avoiding setting mail accounts to be default. Emails setting should allow timeout after a short period of time. Finally, email account passwords should be changed frequently to avoid being monitored by other people.

Web mail and web server malware and security issues

The discussion of web mails and web server security would be done in the order of their priority. Mails and web servers are prone to hacking with aim of retrieving organizational communication. Both web mail and server can be used by hackers to get sensitive organizational communication. Next, there is widespread DoS on web mails and servers once they are compromised by unauthorized persons which result to data leaks (Dubois et al., 2010). Additionally, spam mails are a common phenomenon in the organization. They are mainly used to collect some information that can be used to gain access to organizational network. Consequently, web mails and server are all prone to malware attacker because malware spreads faster on networks. Finally, being ignorant to recommended security practices puts both web mail and web server at risk.   

Approaches to improve email and web servers availability

Availability of both mail and web server is very critical as it facilities organizational communication. To make sure they are stable, it is important to make sure there is load balancing on web servers. This is achieved by distributing all workloads on various servers (Siponen & Vance, 2010). Failing of one server does not affect the performance of the system because processing is picked by the other servers.

Figure 1: Load balancing- https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/5-ways-to-improve-your-production-web-application-server-setup

Similarly, monitoring of system performance can help to detect any malicious activities. Normally, increase in traffic results to reduced system access capability and this minimizes system availability (Siponen & Vance, 2010). When monitoring is done, it is easy to control some activities as they occur such that availability is improved. 

Figure 2: Monitoring- https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/5-ways-to-improve-your-production-web-application-server-setup

Human and organization factors on IS security

Management of IS security can be greatly impacted by both human and organizational issues such as; human error which contributes to some percentage on risks that are associated with information system. In most cases, security lapses are created by human error either intentionally or unknowingly. Failing to follow required recommendations exposes any information system to risks such as malware attackers or hacking (Dubois et al., 2010). Similarly, technology and training offers some red flag issues on the security of the system. In this regard, implementation of outdated technology exposes system to vulnerabilities. Lastly, lack of adequate training contributes to poor skills on management of available technology which in turn exposes system to vulnerabilities. Organization should offer adequate training to new employees in order make sure all security lapses are known by employees.

Use of logs records

Logs are quite important in any information system because they can be used to evaluate activities within a given range of period. In ideal cases, servers, web servers and other IT devices keep logs which can be used to determine hostile activities within organizational network. Despite its use in detecting hostile activities, it is a source of useful data when troubleshooting device operational issues (Warkentin & Willison, 2009). In this case, they can be used to determine the last good working conditions of a given device. Logs evaluation helps managers make decisions on risk aspects that need to be controlled.

Uses of audit log reports for emails and web servers

First, audit logs are used to perform audit analysis because they keep track of all communications that happened even after deletion. It can keep track of when it happed, who did it and to whom. Secondly, in regard to organizational investigation analysis, audit logs are used to determine the extent of damage that organization suffered as a result of data leak or communication made over the mail (Stallings et al., 2012). Finally, organization makes use of audit logs to determine the extent to which it happened and consequences it has on its operations as well as problems that are associated with occurrence of such events.

Network devices to mitigate web and email server threats

To mitigate both mail and web server threats, organizations can make use of the following devices; firewalls to determine if the mails originates from within the organizations and filter every mail to meet organizational criteria. Next, routers can be used as intelligence hub to determine the originality of packet as well as its destination (Bulgurcu, Cavusoglu & Benbasat, 2010). Additionally, network analyzer can be used to determine the rate of network traffic. Consequently, switch is used to filter and forward related data packet to specific machine. If its origin is not identifiable, the packet is not routed. Finally, Modem provides network capability to a specific machine which is not discoverable to other people. In this case, when used in web servers it cannot be detected by the other machines.

Conclusion and recommendations

It is important to recognize the security issues that are associated with information system. Generally, systems are prone to hacking, malware and catastrophic effects. Similarly, human and organizational factors contribute greatly to information system risks due to human errors and negligence. Organizational factors such as inadequate employees training and failure to either upgrade or update information systems to match with current technology also contribute to system risks. Despite these notable challenges, some networking devices such as; routers, firewalls and switches can be used to mitigate mail and web server communication risks. To solve organizational issues, audit logs server can be used as a tool to evaluate the source of the problem as well as determine the extent of damage from an occurrence of some events. Having analyzed various security and risks related to information systems, I would focus on advising organizational management to align organizations operations to proposed security measures in order to benefit maximally from implementation of information system. Finally, it would be advisable for all information system security officers to make use of log data and make sure they are turned on at all times

References

Bulgurcu, B., Cavusoglu, H., & Benbasat, I. (2010). Information security policy compliance: an  empirical study of rationality-based beliefs and information security awareness. MIS    quarterly, 34(3), 523-548.

Ciccarelli, P. (2013). Networking basics. New York: Wiley.

Clemm, A., & Wolter, R. (2013). Network-embedded management and applications:Understanding programmable networking infrastructure. New York, NY: Springer.

Dubois, E., Heymans, P., Mayer, N., & Matulevicius, R. (2010). A systematic approach to define the domain of information system security risk management. In Intentional Perspectives     on Information Systems Engineering (pp. 289-306). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Peltier, T. R. (2010). Information security risk analysis. Auerbach publications.

Sequeira, A. (2013). Interconnecting Cisco network devices. Indianapolis, Ind: Cisco Press.

Siponen, M., & Vance, A. (2010). Neutralization: new insights into the problem of employee   information systems security policy violations. MIS quarterly, 487-502.

Spears, J. L., & Barki, H. (2010). User participation in information systems security risk  management. MIS quarterly, 503-522.

Stallings, W., Brown, L., Bauer, M. D., & Bhattacharjee, A. K. (2012). Computer security: principles and practice (pp. 978-0). Pearson Education.

Takabi, H., Joshi, J. B., & Ahn, G. J. (2010). Security and privacy challenges in cloud computing environments. IEEE Security & Privacy, 8(6), 24-31.

Tang, O., & Musa, S. N. (2011). Identifying risk issues and research advancements in supply  chain risk management. International journal of production economics, 133(1), 25-34.

Warkentin, M., & Willison, R. (2009). Behavioral and policy issues in information systems   security: the insider threat. European Journal of Information Systems, 18(2), 101-105.