How Can Digital Forensic Tools Provide A Benefit In Risk Management

Week 8
Student’s Name
Institution
Week 8
1 Think of a footprint as a potential target. What is a better risk management strategy from a corporate information security perspective - several small footprints or a few large footprints? Which is easier to manage? Which is easier to defend?
With several small footprints, the attack surface is increased and the organization’s vulnerability to attacks increases. The attack surface is the sum of entry points into a system that can be exploited by an attacker (Ruan, 2013). Thus, with several small footprints, the attack surface is bound to be larger and consequently difficult to defend. On the other hand, a few large footprints mean that there are few entry points and thus, the attack surface is smaller. Therefore, it is deducible that managing and defending a few large footprints is easier due to the smaller attack surface.
2 In general, it is easier to defend a network or defend the software systems in an organization? What are the chief challenges in defending each?
Defending a network involves putting in place configurations and rules designed to protect the accessibility, integrity, and confidentiality of computer networks through the use of hardware and software systems (ForcePoint, n.d.). Therefore, it is easier to defend software systems because they are smaller in scope compared to a network. In order to defend a network, an organization may employ various tools including encryption, access control, and firewalls. As one of the tools employed in defending a network, firewalls can be either hardware or software and several of them can be used by an organization as part of its security configuration (Bourgeois, 2016). Therefore, given the difference in scope, it is easier to defend software systems in a...