7034 Network Security

Read me first: This is an individual piece of coursework. Whilst producing this piece
of work you are expected to perform research – all sources must be acknowledged and
cited using the Harvard referencing notation. Note that the scenario provided does not
provide a complete definition of the problem. You are required to fill in the gaps
whenever you feel necessary by making assumptions – please keep those reasonable.
Try not to exceed the given word count by more than 10%, excluding appendices,
otherwise you might be penalised.

Megadodo Publications

Megadodo Publications is a company located in the outskirts of Warwick. After a period of rapid
expansion, they now occupy two buildings (Ursa Major Alpha and Ursa Minor Beta) located around
80 meters apart in a piece of land owned by the organisation. Despite investing in new and powerful
networking equipment their computer network is currently performing poorly. In addition, during
the last year they have experienced multiple security related incidents resulting in sensitive
information leaking in the public domain. Resolving this situation is becoming rather urgent as
currently Megadodo Publications is negotiating a rather important government contract. As such,
the president of the company has contacted you asking for a proposal regarding how the problems
they are currently experiencing could be resolved. Amongst other documents he has provided, there
are a network topology diagram (see figure 1), their addressing scheme (see Table 1), a list of
equipment and a copy of the existing security policy (not included, but imagine this document was
provided and you went through it). In addition to the information provided you have been invited to
visit the company and study/investigate the problems they are having.

Figure 1
From the documentation provided you can derive that a stack of switches (3 x 128 port switches)
provides connectivity for all departments located in first 3 floors of the Alpha building (about 120
desks per floor). The fourth floor of the alpha building is employing two switches (2 x 24 port
switches), one for the management department and one of for a hotdesking area for contractors
and guests. The Beta Building has only two floors, only one of which is used by the company (3x24
port switches). The second floor is rented to a small start-up company with around 20 employees.
The company departments and addressing scheme is as follows:
Table 1
Department/Purpose Location Employees/ Subnet
Devices
Management Alpha Building, Floor 4 22 10.1.0.0 /16

Sales Alpha Building, Floor 1 100 10.2.0.0 /16

Marketing Alpha Building, Floors 1 and 2 40 10.2.0.0 /16

Legal Alpha Building, Floor 2 23 10.2.0.0 /16

Finance Alpha Building, Floor 2 37 10.2.0.0 /16

Software Development Alpha Building, Floor 2 and 3 70 10.2.0.0 /16

Product Testing Alpha Building, Floor 3 30 10.2.0.0 /16

Hotdesking Area Alpha Building, Floor 4 20 10.1.0.0 /16

Servers Alpha Building, Floor 4 6 10.3.0.0 /16

Distribution Beta Building, Floor 1 10 10.4.0.0 /16

Admin Beta Building, Floor 1 20 10.4.0.0 /16

IT Support Beta Building, Floor 1 10 10.4.0.0 /16

Rented floor Beta Building, Floor 2 20 10.255.0.0 /16

Other information is available on request. Upon completing your investigation, the company
president expects you to make a series of recommendations as to how their current network
infrastructure could be improved. He has also informed you that IT has a small amount (about 10000
pounds) leftover in their budget, which you could possibly use if you deem necessary.
Submission
You are required to submit an individual report of 1500 words, not including appendices and
diagrams. The submission will be online, and all your work should be presented in a single document
(doc, docx or pdf).

Marking Scheme
This shows a breakdown of marks per section. You could use the tasks identified as titles to structure
your report. Feedback will be provided as a file, which will be attached alongside your mark.
Task Description Marks

Introduction Keep this sort, mainly a placeholder for writing style, 10%
presentation of report, and spelling and grammar.

Assumptions/requirements The information given is incomplete, as some details 10%

Improving Performance
Policy Amendments
Securing the network
have been omitted (i.e. speeds and features of
devices). State any findings of your (presumed)
requirement gathering process, defining unspecified
problem parameters.
Recommendations/suggestions as to how network 20%
performance issues could be addressed
Recommendations/suggestions as to how the 20%
existing security policy could be improved
Suggestions as to how security measures could be 20%
implemented – no need for configurations but a few
examples/snippets would be appreciated.

Conclusion/Summary Summarise the key finding of your investigation and 10%

(if you need to) suggest how the leftover IT support
budget could be used.
References References (Harvard style) and how well they have 10%
been used to support the text.