The course contains ten cybersecurity laboratory assignments and a research paper. Please include the research paper and a few of the laboratory reports you generated for the class. The laboratory reports should contain the required artifacts illustrating the successful completion of cybersecurity-related activities. They should be formatted and written in a professional manner as if you were submitting them to executives in an organization.<\/p>\n
The cybersecurity laboratories include the following:<\/p>\n
Below is a research paper that I wrote in this course.<\/p>\n
COLONIAL PIPELINE CYBER ATTACK
\nJosiah Marshall
\nCYSE 300: Introduction to Cybersecurity
\nDr. Joseph Kovacic
\nJanuary 24th, 2023<\/p>\n
In May of 2021, the Colonial Pipeline was the victim of one of the biggest ransomware
\nattacks in the last decade. A ransomware attack is where a hacker or hackers break into a system
\nsuch as a network or system files and demand an account of money in return for them. This
\nransomware attack shut down the main pipeline that runs along the East coast for several days
\nand was even declared a state of emergency by President Joe Biden. In this attack were many
\ndifferent cybersecurity vulnerabilities, threats, and overall low security that led to this attack
\nhappening.<\/p>\n
The threat in this ransomware was a leaked password. However, there were multiple
\ncybersecurity vulnerabilities that led to this ransomware. Hackers of group that calls themselves
\n\u201cDarkSide\u201d accessed the colonial pipeline network system through an exposed password from a
\nVPN account. Like many other big organizations, the colonial pipeline uses a VPN to provide
\nextra security and encrypted remote access into the corporates network. The VPN account that
\nthe colonial pipeline company had was inactive and very poor. Combining an inactive VPN
\naccount with not having a multifactor authentication, it made it very easy for DarkSide to hack
\ninto the network system.<\/p>\n
This incident led to a lot in the short time that it happened. As stated above in the
\nintroduction, the pipeline was shut down for the week to reduce the risk of exposure to the
\noperational network. Also, the colonial pipeline had to pay about approximately $4.4 million in
\nBitcoin to the DarkSide. This all could have been stopped if the colonial pipeline just had a
\ncybersecurity team with the right security measures. If the company didn\u2019t have an inactive VPN
\naccount and had a multifactor authentication tool, the DarkSide could not have been able to
\naccess their network. This just shows that every big company needs a cybersecurity team to
\nimplement the right security measures and test them every so often. If the inactive VPN account
\nwas tested, then the colonial pipeline would have known that it was inactive and not working.
\nThen something could have been done about that. It is important to investment into a
\ncybersecurity team to help build your security instead of taking massive amounts of money loss
\nlike the colonial pipeline did.<\/p>\n
References
\n\u201cColonial Pipeline hack explained: Everything you need to know\u201d
\nhttps:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/whatis\/feature\/Colonial-Pipeline-hack-explained-Everything-you
\nneed-to-know
\n\u201cBack to Basics: A Deeper Look at the Colonial Pipeline Hack\u201d
\nhttps:\/\/www.govtech.com\/sponsored\/back-to-basics-a-deeper-look-at-the-colonial-pipeline-hack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Cybersecurity The course contains ten cybersecurity laboratory assignments and a research paper. Please include the research paper and a few of the laboratory reports you generated for the class. The laboratory reports should contain the required artifacts illustrating the successful completion of cybersecurity-related activities. They should be formatted and written in a professional… <\/p>\n