Project One - Bolinsky 1 CYB 310 Project One Network Evaluation Report Michael Bolinsky Southern New Hampshire University Professor Ostering May 16, 2024
Network Evaluation - Bolinsky 2 Network Evaluation Report Scenario You are interviewing for a cybersecurity analyst position. As part of the interview process, the company tests all candidates' troubleshooting capabilities. The company provides you with a GNS3 virtual network and asks you to demonstrate your troubleshooting skills. Open the CYB 310 Sandbox environment and click on the GNS3 icon. Open the Project One file to complete the assignment. Select two challenges from the list below and provide recommendations for how you would address them. Challenges: 1. The PC used for remote access should be designated to the internal file server PC and currently has all access to the entire internal network. 2. There are no password policy best practices in use, and the users in the network have passwords that never expire. 3. Users in individual departments can access and log into computers in other departments within the network. Prompt You must address the following rubric criteria: I. Network Evaluation Report A. Challenge One - There are no password policy best practices in use, and the users in the network have passwords that never expire. I. Identify the potential cause of the selected challenge.
Network Evaluation - Bolinsky 3 This issue occurs as a result of improper configuration of the settings in Active Directory default user settings. II. Explain your approach to resolving the challenge. Justify your response. Resolving this concern requires a reconfiguration to Active Director password rules settings to reflect normal password best practices such as minimum length: Require passwords to be at least 8 characters long, minimum and maximum age: Require passwords to be at least 3 days old and require them to be changed frequently (30 days maximum), password history: use a policy to check the last 10 passwords used by a user, password strength: use passwords that contain numbers, symbols, uppercase and lowercase letters, and don't contain the user's name or parts of their name in common with two consecutive characters. By having a password policy a company can help prevent unauthorized access and protect against attacks like brute force and dictionary attacks. In addressing this concern I was able to resolve the issue by logging into the Active Directory server, opening the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), expand domains tree, clicking on the domain and Group Policy Objects, right-click on the default domain policy and click edit, navigate to computer configuration, click policies, then Windows settings, then Security settings, then Account Policies and then Password Policy. This got me to the location to apply the password settings identified above and make the changes.