Integrative Network Design Essay Example for Free

Integrative Network Design Essay Riordan Manufacturing is a global plastics manufacturer. Their products include plastic beverage containers produced in Albany, Georgia, custom plastic parts produced in Pontiac, Michigan, and plastic fan parts produced in Hang Zhou, China (UOPX, 2013, p. 1). Riordan’s research and development is in San Jose, California (Corporate Headquarters). Riordans main customers are automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliance manufacturers (UOPX, 2013, p. 1). Team B and associates were task by Riordan to analysis Riordan’s WAN and add a wireless Network to Riordan Manufacturing, also to analyze and update Riordan’s Internet security in each of the locations and provide documentation for security policies and procedures. What is a wireless network and what are the benefits of going wireless. With the current wireless technology, Wi-Fi is everywhere; one can connect to the Internet by going to coffee houses, airports, hospitals, hotels, and homes. Businesses can stay connected to their coworkers and customers without being tied to their office desk by using wireless networks and Wi-Fi hotspots. Wireless local-area network (WLAN) allows personnel to connect to their computers without wires or cables. A wireless network uses radio waves to connect and communicate within a certain area to mobile devices. If someone needs a document while attending a meeting in the conference room or one needs to access the inventory list from the warehouse. A wireless network allows one to access the company’s Internet and retrieve documents on their mobile devises without leaving the meeting or going back to their office. Benefits of Wireless Networking The benefits of company’s going wireless include convenience, mobility productivity, and ease of set up, scalability, security, and cost. Mobile devices in today’s society are equipped with Wi-Fi technology and able to connect to a WLAN. Convenience: employees can access securely to their company’s network resources from any location within their coverage area. The coverage area normally is the office building but is able to expand to other company facilities. Mobility: employees are connected to the network when they are not at their office desk. People in meetings can access documents and applications with their mobile devices. Salespeople can access the company’s network from any location. Productivity: employees accessing their documents and applications are the key to get the job done, and it encourages teamwork. Customers also have access to the company’s Internet using a secure guest access to view their business data. Ease of setup: business do not have to run cables through the facilities, installation is quick and cost-effective. WLAN’s make it easier to for hard to reach locations to have connectivity to the network. Scalability: with businesses expand, company’s need to expand quickly along with their network. Wireless network expands with the current existing equipment. Security: the success in controlling and managing secure access to a business’s wireless network is very important. Security managers must be knowledgeable with the advanced Wi-Fi technology and needs to provide vigorous security protections to protect their data, but only giving permission to who need access. Cost: businesses that operate with and WLAN, reduces wiring costs during office upgrades. How Riordan Manufacturing can use a wireless Networking Company’s using a wireless networks are boosting productivity and encourage data information sharing. Employees can wander throughout the building using mobile devices and still have constant access to documents, e-mails, applications, and other network resources required to do their jobs. Employees using wireless LAN can travel throughout the office building without losing Internet connectivity. Employees having a team meeting or in conference can have the most updated communications, including all documents and applications on the network. Voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology; also have roaming capabilities in their voice communications. Improved responsiveness Customers require rapid replies to questions and concerns. A WLAN improves customer service or relationships by connecting employees to the data information. Better access to information WLAN’s allow business’s access to all areas in the building without any connectivity issues. WLAN’s are very effective in warehouses, manufacturing plants, and distribution centers. Employees can access inventories and providing accurate figures in real time to management. Easier network expansion Businesses expanding and hiring new employees are easily added the network by the network administrator. Office furniture is easily moved and employees are added or removed to/from the network without issues. Enhanced guest access WLAN’s allow businesses to provide secure wireless access to the Internet for guests or visitors. Hospitals, restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, and other public businesses provide WI-FI to all mobile devices. The IT administrator will need to verify that all the desktop PCs already have the integrated Wi-Fi hardware installed or the PC’s will need to upgraded. Switching to a WLAN does not mean switching changing from ones existing wired network. It is common for businesses to have a wired-wireless network that provides wireless capabilities to conference rooms or in new expanded office spaces. WLAN’s also supports VOIP for the conference rooms. IT managers should be aware of some of the technical aspects of WLAN’s. The WLAN network covers approximately about 3,000 square feet. The range of a wireless router could be affected by walls and cubicles, and the signals are hard to be received in elevators. Other issues IT managers should be made aware of include: †¢Wireless router is shared between 15-20 users per each access point for data, 8-12 for VOIP †¢VOIP quality, wireless routers need to be installed closer together †¢Routers have enhanced coverage when they are installed on the ceiling. Security policies and procedures in a WLAN are very important to consider when establishing a wireless network. Security policies that need to be considered: †¢Data encryption †¢User authentication †¢Secure access for visitors †¢Control systems. To prove that the design meets the data rate requirements, you need to calculate the required data transfer rate for all your networks. Backups over the network must move the data from all your clients, to your media servers fast enough to finish backups within your backup window. To calculate the data transfer rate, use this formula: Required network data transfer rate = (amount of data to back up) / (backup window) the chart below shows the typical transfer rates of some of the more resent network technologies. Table: Network data transfer rates (PowerTech. com, 2010, p. 1) Network TechnologyTheoretical gigabytes per hourTypical gigabytes per hour 100BaseT (switched)3625 1000BaseT (switched)360250 10000BaseT (switched)360025 Here is an example of how to calculate the required data transfer rate for your network: (Symantec Corp, 2013, p. 1) Use the following assumptions: †¢Amount of data to back up = 500 gigabytes †¢Backup window = 8 hours †¢Required network transfer rate = 500 gigabytes/8hr = 62. 5 gigabytes per hour Solution 1: Network Technology = 100BaseT (switched) Typical transfer rate = 25 gigabytes per hour A single 100BaseT network has a transfer rate of 25 gigabytes per hour. This network cannot handle your required data transfer rate of 62. 5 gigabytes per hour. In this case, you would have to explore other options, such as the following; backing up your data over a faster network (1000BaseT), large servers to dedicated tape drives (SAN media servers), SAN connections by means of SAN Client. Performing off-host backups using Snapshot Client to present a snapshot directly to a media server that backups during a longer time window, performs your backups over faster dedicated networks such as solution 2: Network Technology = 1000BaseT (switched) and Typical transfer rate = 250 gigabytes per hour Based on the above network table; a single 1000BaseT network has a transfer rate of 250 gigabytes per hour. This network has much more capacity to handle the backups for this system. To build a backup system for you network; you complete the following. The data transfer rates for your networks must be calculated in order to identify your various problems and potential bottlenecks. (The latest breaking technological solutions for dealing with multiple networks problems and potential bottlenecks are readily available for installation. ) Once the data transfer rates required for your backups are calculated, the rate of transfer must be able to achieve a complete backup of all your data within the allotted time. Then you must determine the most efficient type of tape or disk technology is available to meet your company’s specific needs. Determine the specific number of tape drives needed and the required data transfer rate is going to be for your network. To set the backups needed for your network, (as before) you must move the data from all your clients, to your media servers fast enough to finish backups within your backup window. Then determine the size of your systems ‘Netback up’ image database, exactly how much disk space will be needed to store your entire Netback up image database, the size of the ‘Netback up relational database’ (NBDB), and the required space that will be needed to handle the NBDB. Then calculate how much media will be needed to handle both full and incremental backups, plus you must determine how many tapes will be needed not only to store, but also to be able to retrieve and keep your backups. The next step will be to estimate the size of the tape library your network needs to store your backups and if you need to use robotic library tape slots in order to store your backups. General Threats to Network and Information Security is the primary concern in e-business. The assets of the e-business services and other electronic services should be protected in order to preserve the  authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the service. Administrators normally find that putting together a security policy that restricts both users and attacks is time consuming and costly. Many users in companies also become disgruntled at the heavy security policies making their work difficult for no discernible reason, causing bad politics within the company. A common attitude among users is that if no secret is being performed, and then why bother implementing security. Malicious attackers can gain access or deny services in numerous ways, for example with Viruses, Trojan horses, worms, password cracking, denial of service attacks, E- mail hacking, impersonation, Eavesdropping, Packet replay, packet modification, social engineering, intrusion attacks, and Network spoofing. Attackers are not the only ones who can harm an organization. The primary threat to data integrity comes from authorized users who are not aware of the actions they are performing. Errors and omissions can lose, damage, or alter valuable data. Users, data entry clerks, system operators, and programmers frequently make unintentional errors that contribute to security problems, directly and indirectly. Sometimes the error is the threat, such as a data entry error or a programming error that crashes a system. In other cases, errors create vulnerabilities. Errors can occur in all phases of the system life cycle. Programming and development errors, often called bugs, range in severity from irritating to catastrophic. Improved software quality has reduced but not eliminated this threat. Installation and maintenance errors also cause security problems. There are ways to keeping Riordan Manufacturing safe from all these problems. One way to protect the company is by having Common Access Cards for all employees. With these cards it will have all the employees personal Information and will also protect the employee from identity theft of employees personal information. By having these cards the IT personal will know exactly who the one that used certain computer was and be able to know when they did it. By keeping track of when and where every employee logs in. It is known for human errors to be number one risk for security side. Most of the hacking done by people has to do also because of a mistake of a worker. To reduce all of these things Training will have to be programmed to reduce human mistakes will on the job and after the job. Mobile phones are another threat to Riordan Manufacturing, because there are people that log on to the companies using their phones and many times they forget to close the account. By leaving this account open the company is vulnerable to hackers getting to the companies account and doing a great deal of damage. To prevent these types of things these part will have to be covered in Training through the company and the company will have to have all of their employees with a certain access to have a company phone and have them use only that phone to access the account if necessary. The phones will be protected at all times to make sure that no hacker is getting in to the account through these phones. Also if for some reason the employee wants to take action against the company and give secret information through the phone this should also be known through the company. A replay attack occurs when a valid media transmission between two parties is intercepted and retransmitted for malicious purposes. SRTP used in connection with a secure signaling protocol protects transmissions from replay attacks by enabling the receiver to maintain an index of already received RTP packets and compare each new packet with those already listed in the index. Many hackers like to do Spoofing, and this occurs when the attacker determines and uses an IP address of a network, computer, or network component when not authorized to do so. A successful attack allows the attacker to operate as if the attacker is the entity normally identified by the IP address. The largest threat in the Promises study was undocumented or unsecured USB devices. About 13 percent of the surveyed endpoints had them. This isnt just a theoretical concern. A 2005 Yankee Group survey found that 37 percent of the companies surveyed believed USB devices were used to compromise corporate information. Another way the company will be protected from is from unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs that are often forbidden by company policy, 4 percent of the surveyed computers had such applications installed. This problem is getting worse. Not only are more peer-to-peer networks making their way onto corporate networks, but computer criminals have started using them to compromise and take over computers wholesale. Also cyber-attacks are costing the U. S. economy an estimated $8 billion a year. How much money is going from Riordan Manufacturing? This is a problem that has to be taken care of by reducing Human Errors since this is the largest threat to IT Security. Since Most breaches in critical corporate data are not the result of malicious intent. They are the result of mistakes made in the way security is managed and configured across the business especially at the network level. All of these problems are not only costing the company also nearly nine million U. S. residents are victims of identity theft each year. The â€Å"SOX requires publicly traded companies to secure information systems to the extent necessary to ensure the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. † (PowerTech. com, 2010, p. 1) Companies must now take into consideration that IT well trained and educated security support teams must be brought into the process to provide protection any leaks or intrusion in order to meet the compliance deadlines. â€Å"Section: 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have had the highest impact on Information Technology and Security. The IT related issues that cause problems for SOX compliance in the context of Section 404 are generally related to access control of system users. † (PowerTech. com, 2010, p. 1) Without adequate access controls in place, users can perform functions/activities that are in conflict with their job responsibilities are to modify/corrupt financial data. Controls to initiate/record unauthorized transactions commit fraud and cover their tracks. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act in some ways comes off very vague and open to interpretation leaving companies unsure how to handle compliance. The best way to start is to identify significant and potential high risk problems when going through the process, identifying specific systems, data processors, and control links whose integrity could be compromised. Once these problems within the network have been identified, effective controls must be implemented to address these deficiencies, to record their regularity and frequency, and to evaluate them to ensure that the proper set of controls is kept in place protecting system integrity. The Bill was introduced (and named for) sponsors; Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and U. S. Representative Michael G. Oxley (R-OH), as a reaction to a large number of various scandals that had exposed excessive wrong doing in the corporate world, costing investors billions of dollars and many companies to collapse. â€Å"The act contains 11 titles, or sections, ranging from additional corporate board responsibilities to criminal penalties, and requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to implement rulings on requirements to comply with the law. † (SOX-online, 2012, p. 1). The Constructing new data base network for Riordan Manufacturing will have to take all SOX rules, regulations and requirements  into consideration at each step along the way in order to stay within the guidelines of the law. General Threats to Network and Information Security is the primary concern in e-business. The assets of the e-business services and other electronic services should be protected in order to preserve the authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the service. Administrators normally find that putting together a security policy that restricts both users and attacks is time consuming and costly. Many users in companies also become disgruntled at the heavy security policies making their work difficult for no discernible reason, causing bad politics within the company. A common attitude among users is that if no secret is being performed, and then why bother implementing security. Malicious attackers can gain access or deny services in numerous ways, for example with Viruses, Trojan horses, worms, password cracking, denial of service attacks, E- mail hacking, impersonation, Eavesdropping, Packet replay, packet modification, social engineering, intrusion attacks, and Network spoofing. Attackers are not the only ones who can harm an organization. The primary threat to data integrity comes from authorized users who are not aware of the actions they are performing. Errors and omissions can lose, damage, or alter valuable data. Users, data entry clerks, system operators, and programmers frequently make unintentional errors that contribute to security problems, directly and indirectly. Sometimes the error is the threat, such as a data entry error or a programming error that crashes a system. In other cases, errors create vulnerabilities. Errors can occur in all phases of the system life cycle. Programming and development errors, often called bugs, range in severity from irritating to catastrophic. Improved software quality has reduced but not eliminated this threat. Installation and maintenance errors also cause security problems. There are ways to keeping Riordan Manufacturing safe from all these problems. One way to protect the company is by having Common Access Cards for all employees. With these cards it will have all the employees personal Information and will also protect the employee from identity theft of employees personal information. By having these cards the IT personal will know exactly who the one that used certain computer was and be able to know when they did it. By keeping track of when and where every employee logs in. It is known for human errors to be number one risk for security side. Most of the hacking done by people has to do also because of a mistake of a worker. To reduce all of these things Training will have to be programmed to reduce human mistakes will on the job and after the job. A replay attack occurs when a valid media transmission between two parties is intercepted and retransmitted for malicious purposes. SRTP used in connection with a secure signaling protocol protects transmissions from replay attacks by enabling the receiver to maintain an index of already received RTP packets and compare each new packet with those already listed in the index. Many hackers like to do Spoofing, and this occurs when the attacker determines and uses an IP address of a network, computer, or network component when not authorized to do so. A successful attack allows the attacker to operate as if the attacker is the entity normally identified by the IP address. The largest threat in the Promises study was undocumented or unsecured USB devices. About 13 percent of the surveyed endpoints had them. This isnt just a theoretical concern. A 2005 Yankee Group survey found that 37 percent of the companies surveyed believed USB devices were used to compromise corporate information. Another way the company will be protected from is from unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs that are often forbidden by company policy, 4 percent of the surveyed computers had such applications installed. This problem is getting worse. Not only are more peer-to-peer networks making their way onto corporate networks, but computer criminals have started using them to compromise and take over computers wholesale. Also cyber-attacks are costing the U. S. economy an estimated $8 billion a year. How much money is going from Riordan Manufacturing? This is a problem that has to be taken care of by reducing Human Errors since this is the largest threat to IT Security. Since Most breaches in critical corporate data are not the result of malicious intent. They are the result of mistakes made in the way security is managed and configured across the business especially at the network level. All of these problems are not only costing the company also nearly nine million U. S. residents are victims of identity theft each year. The importance of explicit enterprise security policies and procedures are necessary in a structured network as we currently have in Riordan Manufacturing Inc. and in any other establishment whereas you depend on sending and receiving data over the internet. If no security policy boundaries would be taken seriously, each and one of us would be leaving ourselves vulnerable to malicious computer hackers, corrupted information sent on emails such as; Trojan horses, viruses etc.. As a growing company, we want to protect and ensure that personal information is not compromised and that company policy security awareness procedures are taken. Once a year all employees at Riordan will be required to complete an online assessment of standard procedures for computer use at the facility. If there are any suspicious cyber crime activities occurring, it shall always be reported immediately to the corresponded employee’s supervisor. Mobile work stations have been limited to company issued wireless devices inside the premises, excluding personal cell phones, smart phones, Mp3 players, portable media players, Laptops, tablets, USB drives or external hard drives. All data is classified and is set into four different categories; restricted/proprietary, confidential, sensitive and public. Employees must act appropriately, to prevent unauthorized disclosure of information unless if you have been authorized to access it, if it is utilized as a legitimate business need or shared with other company employees, then it is considered acceptable to the Riordan security policy. Our proposal of upgrading the current switches to the 24 port Meraki Cisco switch and the addition of MR24 Cisco access points will benefit the security policy of networking operations. The Network Security options, Firewalls (2013) website, both pieces of hardware’s have built in firewall management which will assist the network from intruders degrading our system. The purpose of a firewall is to secure the in house network and from non-trusted networks, by blocking content off the internet. Also knows as a choke point, a firewall provides a particular point of contact, enabling users to browse the internet from approved resources located internally or outside the network. It appears as a solitary address to the open public, providing the user access to the non-trusted network through SOCKS, proxy servers and from network address translation (NAT), while keeping the internal networks address private. This technique minimizes impersonating or cyber attack less likely because the firewall maintains the privacy of your internal networks (Network Security Options, Firewalls, 2013). Although firewalls can be limited to what it can protect, such as files that contain file transfer protocol (FTP), telnet amongst the other possible ways of data corruption but it will not necessarily protect them depending on specific destination of the information being transmitted and if the user decides to encrypt the data. When using wireless technology, this can bring several risks to the Network, because hackers can access any unencrypted wireless devices or access points. Having a Wi-Fi protected network will minimize the chances of anyone breaking into the system.