Case Study: The Ethical Hacker
Imagine for a moment that you are a hacker - an ethical one. You are called upon by law enforcement to hack into a business network known to be engaged in criminal activity for financial gain as its primary activity. Assume you are not to be concerned with any politics of the job and that your actions are legal and ethically justified. This nefarious business takes its own security seriously and therefore has implemented several forms of network security. These include firewalls, Web proxies for its Web gateways, and VPNs for remote users. You also know that this business exists much like any normal corporation, renting several floors of office space to accommodate between 100-200 employees. Also imagine that the business's entire network topology is located in that same location. Your goal is to infiltrate the security sufficiently to find evidence included in the local MSQL database. You need to remain anonymous and operate within the reasonable parameters of the law.
Write a paper in which you:
1. Explain your method of attack and operation within reasonable parameters of the law.
2. Discuss specific malware, social engineering, or any other type of attacks you would deploy to achieve your desired goals.
3. Assess the hurdles you expect and how you plan to overcome them.
4. Determine how you would remain anonymous and avoid detection.
5. Use at least four quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not qualify as quality resources.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
• Explain the essentials of Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) behavior and applications used in IP networking.
• Explain the concepts of network security and associated ethical issues in addressing exploits.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in network security design.
• Write clearly and concisely about Advanced Network Security Design topics using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions.
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.