Assignment Description:

Objective:

The purpose of this assignment is to review existing literatures on important VPN technologies and issues and write a report. The report must be specific to the given topics, use appropriate examples and detail of the topic given to develop a review paper. In addition, students expected to investigate the use of VPN technology by installing a demo on virtual box or laptop to demonstrate the concept. In preparing the assignment, students should acquire not only the knowledge of current technical aspects of VPN but also research, data collection, analysis and writing skills.

Task:

Your tasks are to analyse and to write a report about the processes and the security technologies being used when you access any website (which uses HTTPS) online via a web browser, as well as having the ability to remotely accessing your company network online securely. It is a wellknown fact that the Internet is a public network and every single message you exchange with the server can potentially be intercepted by attackers. You need to analyse in detail to address the technologies and techniques that can be used to prevent attackers from modifying the communication between you and web server in addition to keeping your passwords and other details safe. 

The Assignment 1 is divided into two parts.

Assignment 1A (Literature Review):

Research about the different methods for securing the transfer of information across internet service provider. This should include the following:

1. You need to explain the significance of VPN for a Health care provider in Australia. This should cover the different encryption protocols for VPN implementation, including a comparison of SSL/VPN and IPSEC/VPN.

2. IPsec uses the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol to negotiate and establish secured siteto-site or remote-access VPN tunnels. Investigate how Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA 5500 Series) would support IPsec and IKE.

3. Discuss the role of VPN in supporting the security of businesses, and describe the advantages of SSL/VPN over IPSEC/VPN

4. The rapid proliferation of mobile devices increases on a daily basis, investigate how Cisco AnyConnect is designed to secure the connections from these mobile devices.

5. Search for free VPN client solution and explain the process of setup by comparing at least three different solutions.

Assignment 1B:

In this part of the assignment the student will reflect on the feedback for Part A and discuss how did it help him/her to accomplish the tasks for the assignment Part B. In this part student will write report discussing following sections in details.

B. VPN, Authentication and Access Control

You need to visit any e-commerce web site and discuss the following points:

1. Analyse and write report on how the browser ensures that it is communicating to the right server. Please visit a website and add screenshots also highlighting the related part. How SSL and TLS provide authentication?

2. Describe how digital signatures work and what role pays in the authentication process, add the relevant screenshot from your web browser showing the details of signature. What happens during certificate verification?

3. Analyse and comment on how the server make sure that it is communicating to the right client, discuss several methods; e.g. if you are using MIT Moodle, how the server verifies that it’s actually YOU?

C. Confidentiality and Integrity

1. Analyse and write a report on how the confidentiality and integrity is achieved in SSL communication, and how server & client agree on one cipher suit?

2. Explain what is the role of symmetric encryption and hash algorithms in SSL communication. Add/take screenshots from your browser showing symmetric encryption and hash details.

3. Describe the VPN client software options

D. Anti-Replay

1. Analyse and write a report on how the anti-replay attacks are mitigated in SSL communication.

2. How to protect your organization against SSL attacks?

E. VPN client installation

1. Download a free VPN (eg. Hide me) and install in on virtual box or on your Laptop.

2. Check and note down your terminal IP address before enabling the VPN. Use traceroute youtube.com and note down the result including the gateways. (take snapshot of the result)

3. Enable the VPN, check and note down the terminal IP address. Use traceroute youtube.com and note down the result including the gateways. (take snapshot of the result)

4. Compare the result of steps 2 and 3 and explain the impact of using VPN. 

Instructions for Assignment 1B

1. To enhance your understanding of the technology in this report you are required to describe how the technology works theoretically, as well as you need to perform some small practical activities and include the screenshots and the descriptions of them. The questions are organized in the logical order, however to make them easy to distinguish, the analytical questions are to be presented in blue and the practical questions are to be presented in green.

2. Include cover page with the subject name, the assignment name, the student name and ID.

3. Include table of contents.

4. Include tables and figures.

5. Ensure that all the figures are numbered and names based on figure’s caption. You have to refer to the figures you add in the contexts.

6. Strictly follow the IEEE reference format for in-body citations and the references section.

7. You can use trustable online resources and documentations from well-known technology companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper and etc.

8. It is expected that your report must use the correct format in clear way, hence you should write to the point and using the right technical terminologies.