Week 2 Assignment – The Ethical Hacker Introduction


In this assignment, you will assume the  role of an ethical hacker tasked by law enforcement to infiltrate the  network of a business known to engage in illegal activities. The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is: 

  • Conduct activities to protect IT assets and infrastructure from threats and improve incident response strategies.

Scenario

Imagine for a moment that you are a  hacker, an ethical one. You are called upon by law enforcement to hack  into the network of a business known to be engaged in criminal activity  for financial gain as its primary activity. Assume you are not to be  concerned with any political aspects 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, including firewalls, web proxies for its web gateways,  and VPNs for remote users. You also know that this business, much like  any normal corporation, rents several floors of office space to  accommodate between 100 and 200 employees. Also, imagine that the  business’s entire network topology is located on-site. Your goal is to  infiltrate their security to find evidence of illegal activities in the  local MSQL database. You must remain anonymous and operate within the  parameters of the law. 

Instructions

Write a 6–10 page paper in which you: 

  • Explain your method of attack and operation within the reasonable  parameters of the law, citing specific, credible sources that support  the method of attack and operation.
  • Describe a specific malware, social engineering, or other type of  attack you would deploy to achieve your desired goals, citing specific,  credible sources that support deployment of the attack.     
    • Identify effective techniques for concealing executables and specific tools used for each stage of the attack.
  • Develop a plan to overcome expected hurdles your attack must  overcome to be successful, citing specific, credible sources that  support the plan.
  • Develop an anonymizing strategy, supported by specific, credible  sources, that creates a false trail and minimizes the risk of detection.
  • Support your main points, assertions, arguments, or conclusions  with at least four specific and credible academic sources synthesized  into a coherent analysis of the evidence.     
    • Cite each source listed on your source page at least one time within your assignment