11 Sep IT 313 Module Two Activity Guidelines and Rubric

In this module’s reading, you read information pertaining to threats, vulnerabilities, and threat/vulnerability pairs. Understanding the similarities between a threat and a vulnerability is important as you embark on an IT/Cybersecurity role. Management of risk is not solely the responsibility of the cybersecurity staff; it is a whole-of-the-group effort. As you look at the pairing of a threat and vulnerability into a threat/vulnerability pair, you must be especially mindful of the impacts on the organization or business. Organizations need to look at the inevitable as a threat/vulnerability pair could potentially impact their business. How they handle the threat/vulnerability pair could be the difference between keeping data safe and secure or having it exposed and on sale on the dark web. It is important to note that IT professionals do not make risk decisions but provide recommendations to business leaders, who are ultimately responsible for the decision-making process. This decision-making process can include the reallocation of resources, specifically money and employees, to prepare for and respond to identified threats and vulnerabilities appropriately.

For this week’s activity:

You will fulfill the role of IT professionals in a small business.
You will analyze the short scenario provided below.
You will identify threats, vulnerabilities, and threat/vulnerability pairs.
You will also estimate the likelihood of these threats occurring and present this information to IT management.
Directions
Fertilizer Plus is a small agricultural company that produces and sells fertilizer products. The company headquarters is in a small town in Indiana. In addition to its headquarters, there are two large production facilities—one in Nebraska and the other in Oklahoma. Furthermore, Fertilizer Plus employs salespersons in every state in the United States to serve its customers locally.

The company has three servers located at its headquarters—an Active Directory server, a Linux application server, and an Oracle database server. The application server hosts Fertilizer Plus’s primary software application, which is a proprietary program managing inventory, sales, supply chain, and customer information. The database server manages all data stored locally with direct-attached storage.

All three sites use Ethernet-cabled local area networks (LANs) to connect the users’ Windows 7 workstations via industry-standard managed switches.

The remote production facilities connect to headquarters via routers with T-1 LAN connections provided by an external internet service provider (ISP); and share an internet connection through a firewall at headquarters.

Individual salespersons throughout the country connect to the Fertilizer Plus network via virtual private network (VPN) software through their individual internet connections, typically in a home office.

Assume the role of IT professionals assigned by Fertilizer Plus’s IT management to conduct the following risk management tasks:

Identify threats to the seven domains of IT within the organization.
Identify vulnerabilities in the seven domains of IT within the organization.
Identify threat/vulnerability pairs to determine threat actions that could pose risks to the organization.
Estimate the likelihood of each threat action identified (high, medium, low).
Prepare a brief report or presentation of your findings for IT management to review.
What to Submit
Produce a brief report of 1–2 pages and submit it as either a Microsoft Word document or a PDF file. Your paper must follow the most recent APA formatting guidelines. Resources are not required, but any resources used must be appropriately cited using APA style. The short report must completely address all of the requirements in the Directions section.