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Instructions Your boss wants you to draft a two- to three-page vulnerability process and assessment memorandum addressing the main points of a VM process for Mercury USA. You will cover the main elements of a vulnerability management process, tailored to Mercury USA's business in the transportation sector, evaluate the OpenVAS scanning tool, and provide recommendations for mitigating the vulnerabilities found within the OpenVAS report. The third-party pen tester used the free tool Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner (OpenVAS) to scan Mercury USA’s network. Review the report from the OpenVAS Scan. As you review the scan, consider some important points from Lesson 5.6, Remediation: · Priority · Difficulty of implementation · Communication/change control · Inhibitors to remediation · MOUs · SLAs · Business process interruption · Degrading functionality You will use this report to write a two- to three-page memorandum for your manager, Judy. Follow the instructions in the VM Process Overview Template to record your work. · · Degrading functionality How Will My Work Be Evaluated? An important part of your duties as a cybersecurity analyst will involve analyzing data from multiple sources and sensors such as antivirus/antimalware scanners, firewalls, insider threat monitoring systems, intrusion detection/prevention systems, SIEMs, vulnerability scanners, web application scanners, and other tools. You will also process logs from applications, auditing, network infrastructure devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, mobile communications devices, printers, servers, security appliances, and generalized logging collectors like syslog and Windows Event Logs. As a cybersecurity analyst, you will be considered the subject matter and technical expert. A large part of your work will focus on identifying, analyzing, and mitigating vulnerabilities. For this assignment, you are asked to provide your supervisor with a technical evaluation of the organization’s vulnerabilities and propose a vulnerability management process. By summarizing your results in a short memorandum, you are showing how you use your technical knowledge to convey your ideas to others in a professional setting. Your ability to express your findings using the right mix of technical detail in a business context using an accepted format is an important workplace skill. The following evaluation criteria aligned to the competencies will be used to grade your assignment: · 1.1.1: Articulate the main idea and purpose of a communication. · 1.3.1: Identify potential sources of information that can be used to develop and support ideas. · 1.4.1: Produce grammatically correct material in standard academic English that supports the communication. · 10.1.1: Identify the problem to be solved. · 10.1.2: Gather project requirements to meet stakeholder needs. · 12.1.2: Formulate policies, processes, and procedures based upon identified business needs. · 12.2.1: Identify systems for the risk assessment. You will use this report to write a two- to three-page memorandum for your manager, Judy. Follow the instructions in the VM Process Overview Template to record your work. Delete the instruction text before you submit your project. When you are finished, click “add a file” to upload your work, then click the Submit button. Hide Rubrics Rubric Name: Project 1: Vulnerability Process and Assessment Memo This table lists criteria and criteria group name in the first column. The first row lists level names and includes scores if the rubric uses a numeric scoring method.Criteria Exceeds Performance Requirements 100% Meets Performance Requirements 85% Approaches Performance Requirements 75% Does Not Meet Performance Requirements 0% Criterion Score 1.1.1: Articulate the main idea and purpose of a communication. 12 points Articulates fully and clearly the main idea and purpose of the communication. 10.2 points Articulates the main idea and purpose of a communication. 9 points Attempts to articulate the main idea and or purpose of the communication, but one or both is not clear. 0 points Does not attempt to articulate the main idea and purpose of communication. / 12 1.3.1: Identify potential sources of information that can be used to develop and support ideas. 12 points Identifies potential sources of information in a thorough and accurate manner to develop and support ideas. 10.2 points Identifies potential sources of information to develop and support ideas. 9 points Attempts to identify potential sources of information to develop and support ideas. 0 points Does not identify potential sources of information to develop and support ideas / 12 1.4.1: Produce grammatically correct material in standard academic English that supports the communication. 12 points Produces grammatically correct material in flawless standard academic English that fully supports the communication. 10.2 points Produces grammatically correct material in standard academic English that supports the communication. 9 points Attempts to produce grammatically correct material in standard academic English, but mistakes in some areas affect the credibility of the communication. 0 points Does not produce grammatically correct material, and the mistakes hamper the communication. / 12 10.1.1: Identify the problem to be solved. 16 points Presents a relevant IT problem clearly and specifically. 13.6 points Presents an IT problem that requires a solution. 12 points Identifies an IT problem but may lack clarity and/or specificity regarding the need to be addressed. 0 points Does not identify an IT problem to be solved. / 16 10.1.2: Gather project requirements to meet stakeholder needs. 16 points Identifies IT project requirements in a thorough and clear manner to meet all stated stakeholder needs 13.6 points Identifies IT project requirements to meet stated stakeholder needs. 12 points Attempts to identify project requirements to meet stakeholder needs, but there are gaps and/or lack of clarity. 0 points Does not identify IT project requirements to meet stated stakeholder needs. / 16 12.1.2: Formulate policies, processes, and procedures based upon identified business needs. 16 points Thoroughly delineates the policies, processes, and/or procedures based upon identified business needs. 13.6 points Defines the policies, processes, and procedures based upon identified business needs. 12 points Lists the policies, processes, and procedures but does not meet the business needs. 0 points Does not address the policies, processes, and procedures. / 16 12.2.1: Identify systems for the risk assessment. 16 points Clearly identifies the most critical vulnerabilities with the system and accurately describes the security issues that need to be addressed. 13.6 points Identifies most of the vulnerabilities with the system and describes most of the security issues that need to be addressed. 12 points Identifies some of the vulnerabilities with the system and describes some of the security issues that need to be addressed. 0 points Does not address the vulnerabilities with the system and does not describe the security issues that need to be addressed. / 16 Rubric Total ScoreTotal / 100 Overall Score Overall Score Level 490 points minimum Level 380 points minimum Level 270 points minimum Level 10 points minimum Vulnerability Management Process Memo MEMO [date] [Your name and course number/section] [Opening Salutation]: Overview In this section, provide a brief overview to establish the purpose of your memorandum. You should introduce the topics in Parts 1, 2, and 3, below. Remember that you are writing to your immediate boss to help her address the CEO’s concerns over recent cybersecurity attacks against the transportation sector. Additionally, your boss has provided you with the results of a recent pen testing engagement performed by a third party on behalf of Mercury USA. Part 1: Vulnerability Management (VM) Process Recommendation In this section, present a recommended VM process for Mercury USA. Highlight the major VM process components as you learned in your studies. Explain how your recommendation meets the business needs of Mercury USA. Consider the transportation sector and the overall scenario in context. The text and questions below represent specifics to focus on while writing the memorandum. Do not include the specific text of the questions in your final submission. · What are the main elements of a VM process, tailored to Mercury USA and the transportation sector? · How will you plan for and define the scope of a VM process? · How will you identify the assets involved? · How will you scan and assess vulnerabilities? · What is/are the industry standard scanning tools? Support your findings. · What frequency of scanning do you recommend and why? · How will you report the results of scanning and recommended countermeasures? Part 2: Vulnerability Scanning Tool Evaluation and Recommendations After performing an analysis of the vulnerability report provided by the third-party penetration testers, present your evaluation of the tool and your recommendations here. The text and questions below represent the specifics to focus on while writing your memorandum. Do not include the specific text of the questions in your final submission. · Identify the scanner used to produce the report. Is the tool open source or commercial? Do you consider the tool to be industry standard? · What are some advantages to using the tool? Disadvantages? · What is your overall impression of the tool’s output? · Does the tool provide enough reporting detail for you as the analyst to focus on the correct vulnerabilities? Can you appropriately discern the most critical vulnerabilities? · Do you think mitigations for the vulnerabilities are adequately covered in the report? · Do you think the reports are suitable for management? Explain why or why not. · Would you distribute the report automatically? Explain why or why not. · Would you recommend that Mercury USA use the tool? Explain why or why not. Part 3: Business Case Example In this section, provide an example of what could happen if Mercury USA does not implement your recommendations for a VM process (e.g., data exfiltration, hacker intrusions, ransomware, etc.). The text and questions below represent the specifics to focus on while writing your memorandum. Do not include the specific text of the questions in your final submission. · What are some of the outcomes to the business if your example occurred? · How does your recommended VM process address the example you used? · For the tool you evaluated in Part 2 above, do you think the tool will be adequate? Why or why not? Closing In this section, summarize the main points of your argument for a VM process, tool evaluation, and use the case example to support your recommendations. Keep in mind that you are addressing the CEO’s concerns over recent cybersecurity attacks against the transportation sector and how you can help increase Mercury USA’s overall security posture to protect the organization against attacks, breaches, and data loss.
Cybersecurity Threat Analyst Mercury USA References Use in-text citations in the body of your memorandum as appropriate. Add all sources you used here. This example citation uses IEEE style. Use a style of your choice or ask your instructor for clarification. When using the associated course content, ensure that you cite to the chapter level. [1] "Chapter 5: Implementing an Information Security Vulnerability Management Process", Pearson CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+), 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.ucertify.com/. [Accessed: 28- Apr- 2020]. Vulnerability Management Process Memo | [Document subtitle]