Phase II: The Course Project (Comprised Of Phases I And II) ✓ Solved

Phase II: the Course Project (comprised of Phase I and II)

Phase II: the Course Project (comprised of Phase I and II) — Recommend solutions to the potential weaknesses from either the Aircraft Solutions or Quality Web Design Company. Include Part I (improved as needed based upon feedback) and recommend solutions for the security weaknesses identified in Phase I.

Definition of the solution: Hardware solutions must include vendor, major specifications with emphasis on security features, and location of placement with diagram. Software solutions must include vendor and major specifications with emphasis on security features. Policy solutions must include the complete portion of the policy that addresses the weakness identified. Any outsourced solution must include the above details and the critical elements of the service level agreement.

Justification: Address the efficacy of the solution in terms of the identified threats and vulnerabilities; the cost of the solution, including its purchase (if applicable); and its implementation, including training and maintenance.

Impact on business processes: Discuss potential positive or negative effects of the solution on business processes and discuss the need for a trade-off between security and business requirements using quantitative rather than simply qualitative statements.

Other required elements: Cover sheet APA-style; In-text citations and Reference section; Minimum 5 references; Minimum length: 6 pages, maximum length 10 pages (not counting cover sheet, diagram(s), references).

Paper For Above Instructions

Cover Sheet (APA-style)

Title: Phase II — Security Remediation Plan for Quality Web Design Company

Student: [Student Name]

Course: [Course Number and Title]

Instructor: [Instructor Name]

Date: [Submission Date]

Executive Summary

This Phase II submission builds on Part I to recommend a layered, pragmatic security posture for Quality Web Design Company. Primary weaknesses identified in Phase I included weak authentication, absence of a web application firewall (WAF), inconsistent secure development lifecycle (SDLC) practices, insufficient logging and monitoring, and inadequate backup and incident response procedures. Recommended solutions span hardware, software, policy, and outsourced services with vendor specifics, placement guidance, cost/benefit justification, implementation considerations, and quantified business impact projections.

Hardware Solutions

1) Edge Firewall / UTM: Fortinet FortiGate 100F (vendor: Fortinet). Key specs: 10 Gbps firewall throughput, integrated IPS, SSL inspection, application control, VPN, and centralized management (Fortinet, 2020). Security features: high-throughput SSL/TLS inspection to block obfuscated attacks, integrated threat intelligence. Placement: at the network perimeter between ISP and internal switch; it will terminate VPNs and protect the DMZ. Diagram: Edge -> FortiGate -> Load Balancer -> DMZ Web Servers -> App Servers -> DB Servers (internal).

2) Network Intrusion Detection/Prevention: Cisco Firepower 1000 series (vendor: Cisco). Specs: dedicated IPS engine, advanced malware protection, integration with firewall logs for correlation (Cisco, 2019). Placement: in-line or tap upstream of web servers in DMZ to detect exploitation attempts.

Estimated hardware cost: FortiGate 100F approx. $8,000–$12,000 one-time; Cisco Firepower appliance $10,000–$15,000 (vendor list pricing). Annual maintenance/subscriptions (threat feeds/updates): $2,000–$6,000 (Ponemon/Gartner estimates adjusted) (Ponemon Institute, 2021).

Software Solutions

1) Web Application Firewall (WAF): Cloudflare Enterprise or F5 BIG‑IP ASM. Specs: OWASP rulesets, bot management, virtual patching, DDoS mitigation (Cloudflare, 2022). Deployment: in front of web servers (cloud WAF or appliance) to block SQLi, XSS, and known vulnerability exploitation.

2) SAST/DAST: Veracode for SAST and Acunetix or OWASP ZAP for DAST. Specs: automated scanning integrated into CI pipeline, prioritized vulnerability reporting, fix-as-code guidance (Veracode, 2020).

3) SIEM / Log Management: Splunk Cloud or Elastic Stack. Specs: centralized log ingestion, alerting, retention, and correlation rules for anomalous login and exploitation indicators (Splunk, 2019).

Estimated software cost: WAF cloud subscription $2,000–$5,000/month for mid-size company; Veracode SAST $10,000–$25,000/year; Splunk Cloud tiered pricing $1,500–$5,000/month depending on volume.

Policy Solutions

Include the following complete policy excerpts to address identified weaknesses:

Authentication & Access Control Policy (excerpt): "All user accounts must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) for access to development, production, and administrative systems. Passwords shall meet a minimum complexity of 12 characters, include upper/lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, and be rotated every 180 days. Role-based access control (RBAC) will be enforced; privileged accounts audited weekly. Default accounts must be disabled." (NIST 800-63B; ISO/IEC 27001 guidance) (NIST, 2018; ISO/IEC, 2013).

Secure SDLC Policy (excerpt): "All code changes must pass SAST via Veracode and DAST scans prior to merge. Critical and high vulnerabilities must be remediated within 30 days for production-bound releases; medium within 90 days."

Incident Response Policy (excerpt): "MSSP or internal IR team must respond to high-severity incidents within 1 hour, containment initiated within 4 hours, full post-incident report within 14 days."

Outsourced Solutions and SLA Elements

Propose a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) such as Trustwave or a managed Cloudflare/Splunk service. Critical SLA elements: 99.95% service availability, mean time to detection (MTTD)

Justification: Efficacy, Cost, Implementation

Efficacy: WAF plus FortiGate + IPS addresses the most likely web-layer threats (SQLi, XSS, credential stuffing) and reduces exploitation probability by an estimated 70–85% based on industry breach studies (Ponemon, 2021). SIEM plus IDS provides detection and reduces dwell time by ~60% (Splunk, 2019).

Cost and ROI: Combined first-year cost estimate (hardware, software subscriptions, MSSP onboarding, training) is approximately $60,000–$120,000. Using Ponemon average breach cost for SME web incidents (~$3.5M median for enterprise scaled down), even a 10% reduction in breach likelihood yields expected loss reduction exceeding the cost within 1–3 years for the company’s asset profile (Ponemon Institute, 2021).

Implementation: 3-month phased rollout—month 1: procure and deploy firewall and WAF (edge testing); month 2: integrate SAST/DAST into CI/CD and deploy SIEM; month 3: MSSP onboarding, IR runbooks, staff training. Training budget: 3 days per admin at $1,200/person; developer training for secure coding $2,500 cohort.

Impact on Business Processes and Quantitative Trade-offs

Positive impacts: Reduced incident frequency and faster recovery increase customer trust and reduce downtime. Estimated reduction in successful attacks: 70%–85%. Expected decrease in average outage time per year: from 12 hours to 3–5 hours—saving billable hours and reputational cost (quantified at $10,000–$50,000 per major outage).

Negative impacts: Added latency from WAF and inspection (~10–25 ms typical) and additional operational cost (~$5,000–$10,000/month). Trade-off analysis: payback time = initial investment / annual loss reduction. If baseline annual expected loss = $120,000 and mitigation reduces loss by 60% ($72,000), a $90,000 initial spend pays back in ~1.25 years. These quantitative metrics support investment versus continuing risk exposure.

Conclusion

Deploying an integrated set of hardware, software, policy, and MSSP controls will materially reduce Quality Web Design Company’s exposure to web-based attacks while enabling measurable business continuity. The proposed solutions are vendor-specific, include placement guidance, and provide clear SLA expectations. The quantified trade-offs show acceptable latency and cost increases relative to expected loss reduction and improved operational resilience.

References

  • Cloudflare. (2022). Cloudflare WAF product documentation. Retrieved from https://www.cloudflare.com/
  • Cisco. (2019). Cisco Firepower 1000 Series Data Sheet. Cisco Systems.
  • Fortinet. (2020). FortiGate 100F Datasheet. Fortinet Inc.
  • Gartner. (2020). Market Guide for Managed Security Services. Gartner Research.
  • ISO/IEC. (2013). ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Information security management systems. International Organization for Standardization.
  • NIST. (2018). Digital Identity Guidelines (NIST Special Publication 800-63B). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
  • Ponemon Institute. (2021). Cost of a Data Breach Report. IBM Security / Ponemon Institute.
  • Splunk. (2019). Splunk Security Solution Brief. Splunk Inc.
  • Veracode. (2020). Application Security and DevSecOps Solutions. Veracode Inc.
  • OWASP. (2021). OWASP Top Ten 2021 Web Application Security Risks. OWASP Foundation.

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