Kudler Fine Foods IT Security Report and Presentation †Top Threats

Kudler Fine Foods IT Security Report and Presentation – Top Threats Team B has been commissioned to examine the Kudler Fine Foods’ (KFF), frequent shopper, Customer Loyalty Program that is currently in development. The team has also been asked to direct the system development team to ensure the system is established securely so that it properly protects company data and customer information throughout all stages of the system development process. In week 2, the team will examine the Customer Loyalty Program for vulnerabilities in different areas of the system. The study will define the possible threats that exist to the security of the organization’s and the customers’ data and information, the potential vulnerabilities each threat may exploit, and area of the system affected by the threats. Additionally, a summary of the most critical threats to Kudler’s Customer Loyalty Program will be provided. The following table presents the possible threats, t he potential vulnerabilities each threat may exploit, and area of the system effected by the threats: Area of SystemsThreat Potential Vulnerability Networks Unauthorized access Unsecured equipment roomConfidentiality breach E-mail that doesn't employ scanning of messagesDenial of Service Lack of inside firewall can lead to worm spreadNatural Disaster Potential issues from lack of redundancySniffing Network infiltration via wireless access point Workstations Unauthorized access Patches not currentSniffing Old software versionsNatural Disaster Firewall not active Servers Unauthorized access Patches not currentSniffing Old software versionsNatural Disaster Firewall not active Employees Social Engineering Training not currentCorruption UnhappyMalicious behavior poor work ethic Data Corruption Non securedDeletion Unencrypted data Software Corruption Non-securedDeletion Software that does not employee authorized user access Building Tailgating Front door that doesn't have employee securit y guardUnauthorized access Compromised key card accessOf the possible threats to Kudler Fine Foods’ Customer Loyalty Program there are two critical threats discovered during our assessment that warrents Kudler’s immediate attention. The first of these threats is Social Engineering. Social Engineering according to Social-Engineer.org (2013), is â€Å"the act of influencing a person to accomplish goals that may or may not be in the ‘target’s’ best interest. This may include obtaining information, gaining access, or getting the target to take certain action.† The employees themselves are the area of the system affected by this threat. Social Engineering exploits their naivety. General lack of experience in recognizing this type of attack is a major reason for its success. Education on what Social Engineering is and how to recognize attacks coupled with company policies written, put into place, and enforced to prevent individuals from divulging o r even having access to certain information no matter the scenario is the recommended course of action.Next is Denial of Service. According to Conklin, White, Williams, Davis, and Cothren (2012), a Denial of Service (DoS) attack is an attack intended to disrupt a system or service from operating normally. The attacker will attempt, through means of crashing the system, closing out a logged on session, or overwhelming a machine with multiple requests that causes the machine to freeze up or as  stated crash. Kudler’s Customer Loyalty Program information could be affected because the program that accesses customer information could be made unavailable by such a DoS attack.This could cause events such as slow terminal responses, systems going offline while updating customer files, and causing system reboots to return to normal operation. This type of attack exploits the weakness of either not having a firewall running in the terminal or server background or a poorly set up fire wall allowing too many network requests to be handled by the system. Kudler’s IT department should be aware of this and conduct a system check to ensure that the firewall allows requests from only internal or authorized external sources.As requested by Kudler Fine Foods, Team B has conducted an examination of the Customer Loyalty Program concerning the possible threats and vulnerabilities to their system. A table presenting these threats and vulnerabilities as well as the areas of the system affected has been made available for review. In addition, a summary of the top two critical threats that must be addressed by Kudler Fine Foods has been provided.