SAS821S - SECURITY ANALYTICS - 1ST OPP - NOV 2022


SAS821S - SECURITY ANALYTICS - 1ST OPP - NOV 2022



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nAm I BI A u n IVE RS ITV
OF SCIEn CE Ano TECHn OLOGY
FACULTYOF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
QUALIFICATION:BACHELOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE(HONS DIGITAL FORENSICS)
QUALIFICATIONCODE: 08 BHDF
LEVEL: 8
COURSE: SECURITYANALYTICS
COURSECODE: SAS821S
DATE: NOVEMBER 2022
SESSION: THEORY
DURATION: 3 HOURS
MARKS: 90
EXAMINER(S)
MODERATOR:
FIRSTOPPORTUNITYEXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
DR ATTLEE M. GAMUNDANI
MR MBAUNGURAIJE TJIKUZU
THIS QUESTION PAPERCONSISTSOF 3 PAGES
(Excluding this front page)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Answer ALL the questions.
2. Write clearly and neatly.
3. In answering questions, be guided by the allocated marks.
4. Number your answers clearly following the numbering used in this
question paper.
1. None
PERMISSIBLEMATERIALS

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Question 1 [10 Marks]
(a) How does security analytics move beyond data gathering to its visualization? [2 marks]
(b) Why are tools and methods for security analytics never adequate to provide complete
visualisation?
[2 Marks]
(c) Identify and explain any two (2) key drivers of security analytics in today's business
environment.
[4 marks]
(d) What would you present as an argument for the increased hype in big data in the context
of the business world today?
[2 marks]
Question 2 [ 10 Marks]
(a) What does it mean to say Python is an interpreted programming language? [2 marks]
(b) The high-le·vel overview of the steps for setting up and running a simulation in Arena are as
follows:
1. Design and create the model,
2. Add data and parameters to the model,
3. Run the simulation, and
4. Analyse the simulation.
Explain what steps 1 and 3 entails in more detail.
[8 marks]
Question 3 {10 marks]
(a) The dataset M consists of all possible email messages and the label is binary variable. Let
the label 0 indicate a legitimate mail and the label 1 indicate a spam mail. A target
function f (.) is required to tell us whether a particular email message m is a spam 1 or a
legitimate mail 0. We search for a function/: M {0, 1}, by training one of the machine
learning algorithms on a set of n labelled messages {(m1,/1),(m2,/2), ...,(mn,/n)},
where mi EM and Ii E{0,1} for 1SiSn.
i. What machine learning model is described here and why?
[2 marks]
ii. Why is the model you indicated in (a) suitable for this typical cybersecurity
application compared to its alternative?
[2 marks]
iii. Which cybersecurity dataset example will not be applicable to use the model in
(i) and why?
[3 marks]
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(b) SVM is a very popular machine learning model and is used for classification of both small-
and medium-sized datasets. Identify at least three applications of SVM in cybersecurity
[3 marks]
Question 4 {10 marks]
Machine learning (ML) techniques can analyse threats and respond to attacks and security
incidents quickly in an automated way. Give and explain any five cybersecurity problems where
ML techniques could be applied.
[10 marks]
Question 5 {10 marks]
(a) Explain the meaning of an SQL injection attempt.
[2 mark]
(b) Text mining techniques are particularly useful for unstructured data. Why are e-mail
messages more ideal for text mining compared with network sniffers data?
[4 marks]
(c) Explain any two methods of analysis you can apply for the client browser log data. [4 marks]
Question 6 {10 marks]
(a) There are a lot of interesting uses for simulations in security. One of them is evaluating the
effect of security controls or mechanisms in your enterprise that otherwise would be
difficult to recreate. As an Information Security Officer, who needs to evaluate different
antivirus (AV) e-mail security gateway offerings. What will be the main thing you will be
concerned about and in what ways will simulations help you?
[6 marks]
(b) If it is possible to use simulations in security for recreating virus propagation within a
network to see how fast, it will affect your enterprise. How else would you use simulations
further in the same context?
[4 marks]
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Question 7 {10 marks]
(a) There could be scenarios whereby an attacker gains access to VPN credentials and
subsequently have access to your internal resources. Give any four examples of such
scenarios assuming there is no two-factor authentication.
[8 marks]
(b) What is VPN?
[2 marks]
Question 8 {10 marks]
(a) Explain any three Applications of Text Mining in Cybersecurity.
[ 6 marks]
(b) What are the two key distinguishing features between Data mining and Text mining?
[4 Marks]
Question 9 {10 marks]
(a) Why is Security intelligence being especially relevant in today's business world? [4 marks]
(b) Once you have your security intelligence, you have two options. Which are these two
options?
[2 marks]
(c) Think about how security intelligence can increase organisation XYZ's overall effectiveness
and productivity. Present two arguments to organisation XYZ's management for them to
take security intelligence seriously.
[4 marks]
*****END OF EXAMINATION PAPER*****
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