The topic for my capstone project was to gain introductory knowledge for penetration testing. I had little knowledge on the subject itself, but I was interested in it enough to base this project around it. What I knew before hand was very basic information and I would need to learn a lot more before I could consider myself fully introduced to penetration testing. The goal of my capstone was to learn how to safely practice penetration testing, set up a virtual machine penetration lab, learn why a lab would need to be set up, and lastly to find out why penetration testing is important.
Penetration testing is when a company pays a specialist to try and break into their network and relay back to them any vulnerabilities they may find. Now
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Using these labels and their definitions explains the purpose of penetration testing a bit better. White-hats use the same methods and tools to break into networks as a black-hat would, but they disclose the security issue with the network owner. In a sense, a white-hat imitates a malicious attack but there would be no harm done to the network.
What are the vulnerabilities in which a penetration test would look for? Most penetration tests would go through an information gathering state in which they look for as many different possible vulnerable targets, and they may also capture the network traffic and investigate that as well. One example of an attack could be infiltrating the file server and uploading a payload to that server. If an attacker can find their way to accessing the file server, depending on what is kept on it, they could also have access to secure files and any other sensitive information kept on it, possibly any of the configuration files to that file server holding hashes for user passwords. Attackers may also look for any vulnerable programs on network computers for more ways into the system. Depending on how much effort a hacker wants to go through there is an endless amount of areas that they can check for vulnerabilities. Anything from scanning port numbers to bypassing the firewall without being detected, networks can be well secured but not to a point of being 100% safe from any
The project has some constraints that may affect to the successful of the finalization resultant. Therefore, the responsible of the team has to be seeking for the way out of those limitations. These restraints include:
In a classic definition, falls are untoward events which result in the person coming to rest unintentionally on the ground or another lower surface (Bok, et al., 2015). Falls, can be a devastating source of morbidity and mortality for the older adult. According to a Center for Disease Control (CDC) Report, “Falls Among the Older Adult,” more than one third of adults aged 65 and older fall each year in the United States and falls are the leading cause of injury deaths. Falls are also the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma in the older adult population (CDC Report). Unfortunately, the rate of fall-related deaths
Our company is looking for security threats inside and outside their network. The best way to see what our network is vulnerable to is to use penetration testing (pen-testing) to find the leaks in and out of our network. Penetration testing is a network security approach that simulates an attack from an intruder trying to get unauthorized access to the infrastructure. With this type of testing the intent is to discover flaws in the security settings of the system before they can be exploited. Information Assurance Research Corporation (IARC) should conduct penetration testing on a regular basis, so we have the ability to locate weaknesses in the hardware and software, check the security controls currently established and determine if the
Penetration testing is the attempt to identify security weaknesses within the IT infrastructure of an
What are the differences and what are the similarities? Outline the steps for a penetration test.
The penetration tools provided in this document allow us to review our network from a security standpoint. This paper focused predominantly on phase two of a penetration test, the exploitation phase; however, a successful penetration test typically starts with the reconnaissance phase. In this phase, the tester attempts to gain as much information about the target company and its network as possible. He or she will test the physical infrastructure (how do people gain access to the building?) and other organizational aspects of the company to find a weakness and a way to get in. Also during this portion of the test, the penetration tester will use tools such as NMAP, whois.com, and other resources to obtain information regarding the network
10. There are four phases of penetration testing, according to NIST. They are planning, discovery, attack, and reporting. In the planning phase, rules are identified, management approval is finalized, and testing goals are set. The discovery phase starts the actual testing. Techniques commonly used in the discovery phase include port scanning, DNS interrogation, whois queries, search of the target organizations web servers, search of the LDAP, packet capture, NetBIOS enumeration, and Banner grabbing. While vulnerability scanners only check that a vulnerability may exist, the attack phase of a penetration test exploits the vulnerability, confirming its existence. The reporting phase occurs simultaneously with the other three phases of the penetration test.
At SNHU, I have acquired a lot of skills that allowed me to complete my capstone project. I have learned many concepts that help me to successfully finish with my entire program. To prepare such a capstone project, it is indispensable to have some skills and knowledge. I received that knowledge from the course I had at SNHU. I got the project management skills. I now have knowledge of the healthcare informatics. My communication skills have been ameliorated. Since the project is about the healthcare system, I used my knowledge of healthcare studies to prepare my report. Those studies included, but not limited to: Health Policy and Financing; Leadership in Clinical Microsystems; Global Health and Diversity; and Health Policy, Law, Ethics and Regulations. In Addition to that knowledge, the marketing skills have been helpful for preparing the report. In sum; the courses I took at SNHU have considerably helped me to appropriately prepare the capstone project.
Company XYZ, a mid-sized corporation, is in the middle of satisfying their regulatory compliance needs. The manager of security at the company has been tasked by the CIO (Chief Information Officer) to report on the company’s current security posture. You are called upon as a 3rd party penetration tester, based on your industry reputation of being both careful and thorough to report on company XYZ’s security posture. The only information available about the company is the generalized information found on its company Website which includes a contact page, home page, customer login portal, copyright and acceptable use
A pen tester is someone who attempts to exploit security vulnerabilities in web-based applications, networks, as well as systems. Pen testers must conduct physical assessments of servers and network devices, design and make new penetration tools and tests, and work on improvements and find new ways to improve security services, including numerous enhancements to different systems.
Essentially, performing a penetration test on a web application or web server, prior to implementation, is critical to exposing and/or correcting any existing security flaws. In fact, such penetration testing is critical to ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of a given web application or service. Also, penetration testing should be performed on a regular basis, or whenever a given web application or service is modified, in order to detect any possible security vulnerabilities and/or flaws.
Company XYZ, a mid-sized corporation, is in the middle of satisfying their regulatory compliance needs. The manager of security at the company has been tasked by the CIO (Chief Information Officer) to report on the company’s current security posture. You are called upon as a 3rd party penetration tester, based on your industry reputation of being both careful and thorough to report on company XYZ’s security posture. The only information available about the company is the generalized information found on its company Website which includes a contact page, home page, customer login portal,
Network-Based Scanner helps detect critical vulnerabilities for example mis-configured firewalls, risks associated with vendor-supplied software, vulnerable web servers, and risks associated with systems administration and network.
Reconnaissance is the act of collecting background research necessary to identify and select targets. (1) Cyber reconnaissance is an important stage of a well-organized cyber-attack, and is also one of the most time-consuming activities. This phase can exploit the information gathered about the target’s weaknesses. The type of information the hacker is looking for is how to actually get in: firewall ports that are open, network hosts, services that are running. Critical information that should be obtained during the reconnaissance phase include network information, host information, security policies, and human information.
First, some background. And by some, I mean a few sentences...Since my first blog post is all about that anyway.