Module

Week Commencing

Topic

1

27 Feb

Introduction to Information Warfare and Cyber Terrorism

An introduction to the unit and a discussion on some of the key  elements that transgress from a crime through to full on cyber terrorism.

·         What is a crime?

·         What is cyber crime?

·         What is war?

·         What is information warfare?

·         What is terrorism?

·         What is cyber terrorism?

·         Why are these different to “hacktivism”?

·         Does cyber crime lead to cyber terrorism?

2

6 Mar

Characteristics of Cyber Crime

This week reviews cyber crime and how it can fit within the ambient of most other crimes. This week will examine the following:

·         Computer Crime Technology

·         Computer Crime on the Internet

·         Financial Computer Crime

·         White-Collar Computer Crime

·         Crime Offender or Victim

·         Fake Websites

·         Money Laundering

·         Bank Fraud

·         Advance Fee Fraud

3

13 Mar

Characteristics of Information Warfare

Information warfare is something that has been in existence for a long time, even since the World Wars. It can now be a war fought on its own.

·         The concepts of Information warfare

·     Deny, disrupt & steal

·         Motivation for attacks

·         Short term versus long term implications

·         Defensive acts can disclose intelligence

·         The impact of the ever changing face of technology

·         Information warfare in an insurgent war

·         Internal and external contributing factors

4

20 Mar

Characteristics of Cyber Terrorism I

Review cyber terrorism and its definition, public perception and “real world” occurrences.

·         Does cyber terrorism exist?

·         What are the characteristics of cyber terrorism?

·         Does there need to be loss of life for it to exist?

·         Direct and indirect attacks.

·         What are the key components of a cyber terror attack?

5

27 Mar

Characteristics of Cyber Terrorism II

·         The perpetrator

·         Place

·         Action

·         Tool

·         Target

·         Affiliation

·         Motivation

·         Known real world incidents

6

3 Apr

Information Security

Security is a need and not a want and comes at a cost. Some entities take the risk and run with as little security as  they are able to get by with. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

·         What is C.I.A.

·         What are the key components of information security?

·         Can we really be secure?

·         What must be done to be secure?

·         Physical v virtual security.

·         Who, what or where are the weakest links?

7

10 Apr

Preventative Planning

Review of the critical need to have accurate and updated contingency plans

·         If you fail to plan you plan to fail

·         Types of contingency plans

·         Types of organisations that must have one

·         What is needed in a Cyber Terrorism ready reaction plan

·         Who is responsible to manage the plan

·         Levels of criticality

·         Plan authentication and validation

8

1 May

Critical Infrastructure

Review who and what really are elements that make up the critical infrastructure

·         Utilities

·         Technology

·         Transport

·         Finance

·         Sustenance

·         Government

·         The domino effect, should one fall the others will follow

9

8 May

SCADA Systems

Most critical infrastructure is now managed by SCADA systems, the link between internal and external systems. Should you control the SCADA, you control the infrastructure.

·         What is SCADA

·         Why is it so important

·         What are the risks

·         Can we bypass and ring fence critical infrastructure

·         Who's who in the zoo

10

15 May

The Dark Net

Review of the emerging internet underworld, where drugs, human trafficking, murders and terrorist acts can all be obtained.

·         What is the dark net?

·         How can we control it?

·         Given it now has its own currency, have we already lost control?

·         Can our total dependence on information technology be our generations biggest downfall?

·         The dark net could mutate and the underworld generate insurgent cyber attacks, causing an economic impact on the developed world

11

22 May

Behaviour: Social Engineering

Humans are often the weakest link in information security, as the assumptions underlying security models routinely prove to be infeasible in the real world. For example, users often scribble down their passwords, or use the same password for every service. This session will examine the most common human factors weaknesses in secure systems and strategies to overcome them.

·         Social engineering in security attacks

·         Human factors in security

·         Internal versus external threats

·         Password control

·         Social psychological aspects of computer security

·         Social networking

12

29 May

Recovery post attack is critical in any disaster recovery, but if the attack is still resident, systems will only fail again.  

·         Follow the plan

·         Locate the source of the attack

·         Fail safe switch over

·         Monitor recovery traffic

·         Post incident reflection

·         Why did it happed

·         Who is to blame

·         Change not blame

13

5 Jun

The arena of information warfare and cyber terrorism has been characterised as an arms race, with both sides gaining a temporary advantage but then losing it to the other side.  We will investigate concepts and review developments on both sides.

·         Security is expensive and often a need and not a want, should we stop and rebuild with a security mindset?

·         The new threat, mobility of technology

·         With even greater bandwidth on the horizon, will our further reliance be our demise?

·         With international boundaries being nonexistent with internet traffic, who will take control?

·         What impact is the cloud going to have, should they become a cyber terror attack?

·         Could Australia be sustainable without external communications?

·         How real is a future cyber terror attack?