NTC/362 Wk 5 – Network Security Assignment

You are in networking at a large international company. Your company recently decided to implement a cross-training initiative, and you have been selected to give a presentation to an audience of non-networking professionals working at various departments in your company. Your presentation must be clear and concise enough to convey technical information to professionals who have a limited understanding of how networking actually works. However, it must also be accurate enough that your audience can understand how their company roles (such as scheduling resource-hogging reports, allowing contractors access to the system, and setting the hours international customers can place orders on your company’s system) can impact the company’s network, particularly in terms of security.

You decide to answer the following questions before handing off the material to an assistant to turn into a graphic-rich presentation. Each of your answers should be about 150 to 250 words long.

Note: Your assignment is just to answer the following questions. You will not create a presentation for this assignment.

1. You decide to begin your presentation by providing your audience an overview of networking, with an emphasis on security and why it is important for all company roles to assist in securing the company’s network. You decide to use the OSI model to explain the fundamental characteristics and components of networks because it is visual and presents the complexity of network communication in just 7 steps. 

Include a discussion of each of the following in your response, being sure to emphasize the point(s) in the seven-layer OSI model where security is an issue, and listing specific security risks associated with each pain point: 

· Distributed vs. centralized computer systems and why your department chose to be distributed/centralized

· Different network topologies and why your department chose the topology it did

· Why standards bodies are essential in networking and how your department complies with standards

· The importance of communication protocols and which one(s) your department chose

· The differences between LAN, WAN, and wireless technologies, and how your department incorporated each

· The responsibilities associated with providing telecommunications services such as security, privacy, reliability, and performance

2. Next, you plan to describe basic routing and switching in the context of the OSI model (i.e., in which layer routing, switching, and cabling occur). To underscore your department’s commitment to achieving 24/7 availability, you describe some strategies your department follows to ensure the availability of network access in switched and routed networks.

3. Then, you describe at least three characteristics of an effective security policy, emphasizing the ways in which all departments in the company are responsible for helping secure the company network.

4. To reassure your audience of your network’s security, you list some strategies your department used to build security directly into the design of your company network. 

5. Finally, malware has been in the news a lot lately, and you know you will be asked some questions about it. To answer them, you come up with a layperson-friendly definition of malware and identify at least two strategies your department has put into place for protecting your company’s network against malware.