Evaluating the cyber security skills gap relating to penetration testing
- Authors: Beukes, Dirk Johannes
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Computer networks -- Security measures , Computer networks -- Monitoring , Computer networks -- Management , Data protection , Information technology -- Security measures , Professionals -- Supply and demand , Electronic data personnel -- Supply and demand
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/171120 , vital:42021
- Description: Information Technology (IT) is growing rapidly and has become an integral part of daily life. It provides a boundless list of services and opportunities, generating boundless sources of information, which could be abused or exploited. Due to this growth, there are thousands of new users added to the grid using computer systems in a static and mobile environment; this fact alone creates endless volumes of data to be exploited and hardware devices to be abused by the wrong people. The growth in the IT environment adds challenges that may affect users in their personal, professional, and business lives. There are constant threats on corporate and private computer networks and computer systems. In the corporate environment companies try to eliminate the threat by testing networks making use of penetration tests and by implementing cyber awareness programs to make employees more aware of the cyber threat. Penetration tests and vulnerability assessments are undervalued; are seen as a formality and are not used to increase system security. If used regularly the computer system will be more secure and attacks minimized. With the growth in technology, industries all over the globe become fully dependent on information systems in doing their day-to-day business. As technology evolves and new technology becomes available, the bigger the risk becomes to protect against the dangers which come with this new technology. For industry to protect itself against this growth in technology, personnel with a certain skill set is needed. This is where cyber security plays a very important role in the protection of information systems to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information system itself and the data on the system. Due to this drive to secure information systems, the need for cyber security by professionals is on the rise as well. It is estimated that there is a shortage of one million cyber security professionals globally. What is the reason for this skills shortage? Will it be possible to close this skills shortage gap? This study is about identifying the skills gap and identifying possible ways to close this skills gap. In this study, research was conducted on the cyber security international standards, cyber security training at universities and international certification focusing specifically on penetration testing, the evaluation of the need of industry while recruiting new penetration testers, finishing with suggestions on how to fill possible gaps in the skills market with a conclusion.
- Full Text:
Targeted attack detection by means of free and open source solutions
- Authors: Bernardo, Louis F
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Computer networks -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Computer security -- Management , Data protection
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92269 , vital:30703
- Description: Compliance requirements are part of everyday business requirements for various areas, such as retail and medical services. As part of compliance it may be required to have infrastructure in place to monitor the activities in the environment to ensure that the relevant data and environment is sufficiently protected. At the core of such monitoring solutions one would find some type of data repository, or database, to store and ultimately correlate the captured events. Such solutions are commonly called Security Information and Event Management, or SIEM for short. Larger companies have been known to use commercial solutions such as IBM's Qradar, Logrythm, or Splunk. However, these come at significant cost and arent suitable for smaller businesses with limited budgets. These solutions require manual configuration of event correlation for detection of activities that place the environment in danger. This usually requires vendor implementation assistance that also would come at a cost. Alternatively, there are open source solutions that provide the required functionality. This research will demonstrate building an open source solution, with minimal to no cost for hardware or software, while still maintaining the capability of detecting targeted attacks. The solution presented in this research includes Wazuh, which is a combination of OSSEC and the ELK stack, integrated with an Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS). The success of the integration, is determined by measuring postive attack detection based on each different configuration options. To perform the testing, a deliberately vulnerable platform named Metasploitable will be used as a victim host. The victim host vulnerabilities were created specifically to serve as target for Metasploit. The attacks were generated by utilising Metasploit Framework on a prebuilt Kali Linux host.
- Full Text:
De-identification of personal information for use in software testing to ensure compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act
- Authors: Mark, Stephen John
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Data processing , Information technology -- Security measures , Computer security -- South Africa , Data protection -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Data encryption (Computer science) , Python (Computer program language) , SQL (Computer program language) , Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63888 , vital:28503
- Description: Encryption of Personally Identifiable Information stored in a Structured Query Language Database has been difficult for a long time. This is owing to block-cipher encryption algorithms changing the length and type of the input data when encrypted, which cannot subsequently be stored in the database without altering its structure. As the enactment of the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, No 4 of 2013 (POPI), was set in motion with the appointment of the Information Regulators Office in December 2016, South African companies are intensely focused on implementing compliance strategies and processes. The legislation, promulgated in 2013, encompasses the processing and storage of personally identifiable information (PII), ensuring that corporations act responsibly when collecting, storing and using individuals’ personal data. The Act comprises eight broad conditions that will become legislation once the new Information Regulator’s office is fully equipped to carry out their duties. POPI requires that individuals’ data should be kept confidential from all but those who specifically have permission to access the data. This means that not all members of IT teams should have access to the data unless it has been de-identified. This study tests an implementation of the Fixed Feistel 1 algorithm from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) “Special Publication 800-38G: Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation : Methods for Format-Preserving Encryption” using the LibFFX Python library. The Python scripting language was used for the experiments. The research shows that it is indeed possible to encrypt data in a Structured Query Language Database without changing the database schema using the new Format-Preserving encryption technique from NIST800-38G. Quality Assurance software testers can then run their full set of tests on the encrypted database. There is no reduction of encryption strength when using the FF1 encryption technique, compared to the underlying AES-128 encryption algorithm. It further shows that the utility of the data is not lost once it is encrypted.
- Full Text:
An investigation of ISO/IEC 27001 adoption in South Africa
- Authors: Coetzer, Christo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: ISO 27001 Standard , Information technology -- Security measures , Computer security , Data protection
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4720 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018669
- Description: The research objective of this study is to investigate the low adoption of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard in South African organisations. This study does not differentiate between the ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 versions, as the focus is on adoption of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard. A survey-based research design was selected as the data collection method. The research instruments used in this study include a web-based questionnaire and in-person interviews with the participants. Based on the findings of this research, the organisations that participated in this study have an understanding of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard; however, fewer than a quarter of these have fully adopted the ISO/IEC 27001 standard. Furthermore, the main business objectives for organisations that have adopted the ISO/IEC 27001 standard were to ensure legal and regulatory compliance, and to fulfil client requirements. An Information Security Management System management guide based on the ISO/IEC 27001 Plan-Do-Check-Act model is developed to help organisations interested in the standard move towards ISO/IEC 27001 compliance.
- Full Text:
Cloud information security : a higher education perspective
- Authors: Van der Schyff, Karl Izak
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Cloud computing -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Data protection , Internet in higher education , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4692 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011607 , Cloud computing -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Data protection , Internet in higher education , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations
- Description: In recent years higher education institutions have come under increasing financial pressure. This has not only prompted universities to investigate more cost effective means of delivering course content and maintaining research output, but also to investigate the administrative functions that accompany them. As such, many South African universities have either adopted or are in the process of adopting some form of cloud computing given the recent drop in bandwidth costs. However, this adoption process has raised concerns about the security of cloud-based information and this has, in some cases, had a negative impact on the adoption process. In an effort to study these concerns many researchers have employed a positivist approach with little, if any, focus on the operational context of these universities. Moreover, there has been very little research, specifically within the South African context. This study addresses some of these concerns by investigating the threats and security incident response life cycle within a higher education cloud. This was done by initially conducting a small scale survey and a detailed thematic analysis of twelve interviews from three South African universities. The identified themes and their corresponding analyses and interpretation contribute on both a practical and theoretical level with the practical contributions relating to a set of security driven criteria for selecting cloud providers as well as recommendations for universities who have or are in the process of adopting cloud computing. Theoretically several conceptual frameworks are offered allowing the researcher to convey his understanding of how the aforementioned practical concepts relate to each other as well as the concepts that constitute the research questions of this study.
- Full Text:
Information technology audits in South African higher education institutions
- Authors: Angus, Lynne
- Date: 2013 , 2013-09-11
- Subjects: Electronic data processing -- Auditing , Delphi method , Education, Higher -- Computer networks -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , COBIT (Information technology management standard) , IT infrastructure library , International Organization for Standardization
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4615 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006023 , Electronic data processing -- Auditing , Delphi method , Education, Higher -- Computer networks -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , COBIT (Information technology management standard) , IT infrastructure library , International Organization for Standardization
- Description: The use of technology for competitive advantage has become a necessity, not only for corporate organisations, but for higher education institutions (HEIs) as well. Consequently, corporate organisations and HEIs alike must be equipped to protect against the pervasive nature of technology. To do this, they implement controls and undergo audits to ensure these controls are implemented correctly. Although HEIs are a different kind of entity to corporate organisations, HEI information technology (IT) audits are based on the same criteria as those for corporate organisations. The primary aim of this research, therefore, was to develop a set of IT control criteria that are relevant to be tested in IT audits for South African HEIs. The research method used was the Delphi technique. Data was collected, analysed, and used as feedback on which to progress to the next round of data collection. Two lists were obtained: a list of the top IT controls relevant to be tested at any organisation, and a list of the top IT controls relevant to be tested at a South African HEI. Comparison of the two lists shows that although there are some differences in the ranking of criteria used to audit corporate organisations as opposed to HEIs, the final two lists of criteria do not differ significantly. Therefore, it was shown that the same broad IT controls are required to be tested in an IT audit for a South African HEI. However, this research suggests that the risk weighting put on particular IT controls should possibly differ for HEIs, as HEIs face differing IT risks. If further studies can be established which cater for more specific controls, then the combined effect of this study and future ones will be a valuable contribution to knowledge for IT audits in a South African higher education context.
- Full Text: