COCS60717 Advanced Cyber Security Page 1 of 6

ASIA PACIFIC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

COCS60717 (Advanced Cyber Security)
Group Assignment

Intake: APT3F2108CYB
Assigned date: Week 2
Mid Semester Progress: Week 7 (4th October 2021)
Presentation: Week 13 (22nd November 2021)
Submission: Week 14 (29th November 2021)

Assignment Question

This assignment will contribute 100% towards the incoure marks and consists of a list of tasks as
follows: Work in a team of 4. Find 1 recent data breach or cyber-attack related case study (2015 –
2021). Generate a comprehensive technical report with necessary evidences by completing the
below tasks:

SECTION A (GROUP COMPONENT: 50%)

Critically analyze the important contexts in the selected case study and gather the following cyber
threat intelligence on them:
a) Overview of the case study
b) Threat targets and potential impacts
c) Cybercrime profiling
d) Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (type of attack, attack vector(s) and
vulnerability(s) exploited
e) Summary and conclusion (combining Section A and B)

SECTION B (INDIVIDUAL COMPONENT: 50%)

1. Devise a plan on simulating the attack - mimicking the likely attack paths and techniques
used by malicious actors (with tool based demonstration as proof of concept and
screenshots as evidence) – Breach and Attack Simulation Plan

2. Devise a plan on detecting these type of attacks (with tool based demonstration as proof of
concept and screenshots as evidence) – Detection Action Plan

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3. Find 1 memory dump/hard disk image/pcap files/live data gathering relevant/similar to

your case study to look for any evidence of malicious activities and can be used as the
forensics evidence. Critically analyse and present the findings with evidences containing
traces of malicious activity (step by step screenshots and explanations) – Forensics
Analysis

4. Devise a plan on responding to incidents and capturing forensic evidence on these type of
attacks. Suggest suitable prevention plan using any security technologies and propose
suitable approaches to prevent these type of incidents happen in the future (Discussion
might include Data Access Rights, Ethical Responsibility of IT Pros, Policies & Standards,
etc.) - Incident Response Plan + Prevention Action Plan

WARNING: DO NOT try the chosen tools or techniques on real systems! You should test and create your
simulations by using Isolated/Testbed environments such as VMWare, Metasploitable, DVWA, and etc.

Guidelines for the Report

Each group is required to conduct a research and provide a report on the afformentioned areas. The
report must be typed with Times New Roman font and size 12 with approximate length of 8000
words (excluding diagrams, appendixes and references)

Document the results of your work in a professional and systematic manner and submit one soft
copy per group. Your completed documentation should meet the following requirements:

1. Table of contents (for every section)

2. Introduction
3. Sections (with detailed findings and critical analysis)
4. Conclusion
5. References
6. Appendices (if any)
7. Workload matrix

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Submission requirements

1. All report is to be submitted through the Moodle Online Submission.

2. Your report must be typed using Microsoft Word with Times New Roman font with 1.5 spaces.
3. The report has to be well presented and should be typed.
4. The report should have a one (1”) margin all around the page as illustrated below:

1 inch 1 inch

1 inch

1 inch
1 inch The Typed Text

1 inch
1 inch 1 inch

5. Every report must have a front cover. The front cover should have the following details:-

a) Name
b) Intake code.
c) Subject.
d) Project Title.
e) Date Assigned (the date the report was handed out).
f) Date Completed (the date the report is due to be handed in).

6. All information, figures and diagrams obtained from external sources must be referenced using
the APA referencing system accordingly.

7. Contents:

You must use enough of your own words to convince that you understand your own
assignment. Evidence of originality in your writing reflected by the effort of paraphrasing and
use of own personal expression in your individual analysis and evaluation.

You should not submit a “copy and paste” work as you may only be awarded at most a PASS
even though a proper citations and referencing are given.

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You must ensure that your writing is clear and concise as quantity does not always guarantee
quality. Therefore, you should not expect by writing more will enable to get a high mark unless
the information is presented with clarity and relevance with high degree of analysis and
evaluation.

Marking Rubrics: (Group Component 50%)

Full Mark (100%) Distinction Merit 60%) Pass (40%) Fail (20%) Zero (0%)
(80%)
Critical Exceptional critical A high level Good critical Minimal critical None or poor Zero critical
Analysis and evaluation on the critical evaluation evaluation amount of evaluation
Justification selected topics with evaluation on the presented on the presented on the critical
(20 marks) outstanding selected topics selected topics selected topics evaluation
presentation of with outstanding with good with satisfactory presented on the
justification and presentation of demonstration of demonstration of selected topics
validation justification and justification and justification and with poor or
presented on the validation validation validation none
discussed scenario presented on the presented on the presented on the demonstration
and all other discussed discussed discussed of justification
components scenario and all scenario and scenario and all and validation
other components other components other presented on the
components discussed
scenario
Summary Exceptional Excellent Good summary Average Poor summary Zero or no
and summary and summary and and conclusion summary and and conclusion summary and
Conclusion conclusion which conclusion which which contains conclusion done done which conclusion
(20 marks) contains all of the contains all of the the following: which contains contains one or done
following: following: assumption based some of the limited of the
assumption based assumption based on case study, following: following:
on case study, on case study, limitation, assumption limitation,
limitation, limitation, challenges, based on the case challenges,
challenges, challenges, recommendations study, limitation, recommendation
recommendations recommendations and further challenges, s and further
and further and further enhancement recommendation enhancement
enhancement with enhancement with some s and further
no missing details. with no missing missing details. enhancement
details.
Coherence, Exceptional quality Good quality of Satisfactory Adequate quality Poor quality of Zero or no
Integration of forming a forming a unified quality of of forming a forming a quality of
and unified documentation forming a unified unified unified unified
Documentati documentation and and integration of documentation documentation documentation documentation
on (5 marks) integration of the the sections are and integration of and integration and integration None, or
sections are professional and the sections are of the sections of the sections wrong
professional and natural. professional and are professional are professional documentation
natural. Good document natural. and natural. and natural. standards
Exceptional standards, good Satisfactory Overall average Mostly poor
document in organization of documentation documentation documentation
standards, each sections. standards in most standards in table standards with
Outstanding in Overall areas such as of contents, missing
organization of documentation table of contents, referencing, page components
each sections. has a professional referencing, page numbering, such as table of
Overall outlook. numbering, captioning, contents,
documentation has captioning, command of the referencing,
a professional command of language, etc. page numbering,
outlook. language. captioning, poor
command of
the language,
etc.

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Referencing An almost A very good A good An acceptable A poor Zero

(5 marks) professional documentation documentation documentation documentation referencing
documentation with with exceptional with satisfactory with acceptable with poor
exceptional format format in format in format in format in
in documentation documentation documentation documentation documentation
structure and structure and structure and structure and structure and
referencing. referencing. referencing. referencing. referencing. The
The report follows The report The report The report report did not
a referencing style follows a follows a follows a follows any
that complies with referencing style referencing style minimum referencing style
the format, and the that complies that complies referencing style that complies
in text citations are with the format, with the format, that complies with the format,
made purposefully. and the in text and the in text with the format, and the in text
All resources were citations are citations are and the in text citations are
cited and no made made citations are missing. The
plagiarism. purposefully. All persistently. made clumsily. resources were
resources were Resources were Some resources not cited and
cited and no cited with some were cited but details were not
plagiarism. missing citation with missing or provided.
and details limited details.

Marking Rubrics: (Individual Component 50%)

Full Mark Distinction Merit 60%) Pass (40%) Fail (20%) Zero (0%)
(100%) (80%)
Technical Exceptional High level of Good Acceptable Poor or Zero or totally
Accuracy (10 accurateness accurateness accurateness accurateness inaccurate inaccurate
marks) on evaluating on evaluating on evaluating on evaluating evaluation on evaluation
the selected the selected the selected the selected the selected
topic with topic with topic with topic with topic with
accurate accurate good solutions acceptable but wrong
solutions solutions provided to weak solutions
provided to provided to solve the solutions provided to
solve the solve the issues related provided to solve the
issues related issues related to the solve the issues related
to the to the scenario. All issues related to the
scenario. All scenario. All investigations, to the scenario. All
investigations, investigations, tests and scenario. investigations,
tests and tests and experiments Investigations, tests and
experiments experiments show good tests and experiments
show high show high level of experiments show poor
level of level of technical show level of
technical technical accuracy. moderate level technical
accuracy. accuracy. of technical accuracy.
accuracy.
Critical Exceptional A high level Good critical Minimal None or poor Zero critical
Analysis and critical critical evaluation critical amount of evaluation
Justification evaluation on evaluation on presented on evaluation critical
(20 marks) the selected the selected the selected presented on evaluation
topic with topic with topic with the selected presented on
outstanding outstanding good topic with the selected
presentation presentation demonstration satisfactory topic with
of justification of justification of justification demonstration poor or none
and validation and validation and validation of justification demonstration
presented on presented on presented on and validation of justification
the discussed the discussed the discussed presented on and validation
scenario and scenario and scenario and the discussed presented on
all other all other other scenario and the discussed
components components components all other scenario and
components all other
components

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Presentation Admirable Good Satisfactory Acceptable but Very poor Zero or No

(10 marks) presentation presentation presentation poor presentation presentation
and demo and demo and demo presentation and demo
being being being and demo being
performed performed performed being performed
covering all covering all covering most performed covering
aspects of the aspects of the aspects of the covering some limited
selected topic. selected topic. selected topic. aspects of the aspects of the
Show Show Show selected topic. selected topic.
distinguished distinguished acceptable Show Show poor or
quality, quality, quality, acceptable non-quality of
demonstrating demonstrating demonstrating quality, presentation,
authoritative authoritative convincing demonstrating demonstrating
grasp of a grasp of a grasp of a minimal grasp poor or
security security security of a security inability to
analyst and analyst and analyst and analyst and grasp of a
has the has the good has the good has the security
excellent ability to ability to minimal analyst and
ability to effectively effectively ability to has no ability
effectively proposing a proposing a effectively to effectively
proposing a solution solution proposing a proposing a
solution model for the model for the solution solution
model for the scenario scenario model for the model for the
scenario scenario scenario
Documentation Exceptional Good Satisfactory Overall Mostly poor None, or wrong
(5 marks) document document documentation average documentation documentation
standards, standards, standards in documentation standards with standards
Outstanding in good in most areas standards in missing
organization organization such as table table of components
of each of each of contents, contents, such as table
sections. sections. referencing, referencing, of contents,
Overall Overall page page referencing,
documentation documentation numbering, numbering, page
has a has a captioning, captioning, numbering,
professional professional command of command of captioning,
outlook. outlook. language. the language, poor
etc. command of
the language,
etc.
Referencing (5 An almost A very good A good An acceptable A poor Zero referencing
marks) professional documentation documentation documentation documentation
documentation with with with with poor
with exceptional satisfactory acceptable format in
exceptional format in format in format in documentation
format in documentation documentation documentation structure and
documentation structure and structure and structure and referencing.
structure and referencing. referencing. referencing. The report did
referencing. The report The report The report not follows
The report follows a follows a follows a any
follows a referencing referencing minimum referencing
referencing style that style that referencing style that
style that complies with complies with style that complies with
complies with the format, the format, complies with the format,
the format, and the in text and the in text the format, and the in text
and the in text citations are citations are and the in text citations are
citations are made made citations are missing. The
made purposefully. persistently. made resources
purposefully. All resources Resources clumsily. were not cited
All resources were cited and were cited Some and details
were cited and no plagiarism. with some resources were not
no plagiarism. missing were cited but provided.
citation and with missing
details or limited
details.

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