Network Security Systems for Accounting Firm Vulnerabilities Assessment

In the contemporary IT environment, the implementation of the IT tools has become an effective strategy that organizations employ to achieve competitive market advantages. In other words, the IT tools have become an effective strategy that organizations can employ to be ahead of competitors, and be first in the market. One of the crucial features of the information systems is the network connectivity that involves connecting global computer resources, which assist in enhancing effective communication systems. Thus, the network connectivity will improve the communication system for our accounting firm assisting our organization to serve the customer better.

Despite benefits that network connectivity will provide to our organization, the network connectivity is associated with inherent risks and vulnerabilities. Typically, the network systems face different vulnerabilities that include virus attacks, electronic fraud, attacks from malware, Dos attacks and electronic eavesdropping. Since our organization will depend on the network system to transfer sensitive data across the network systems, the attackers can take the advantage of the network connectivity to steal the data creating the problems for our company. Moreover, the attacker can use the malicious software to get access into our system and cause immense damage. Malicious software refers to software inserted to the system to carry out the harmful purpose. A virus is an example of malicious software that can be used to infect the systems and having the ability to modify themselves. A worm is another example of malicious software having ability to perform unwanted functions. (Oliveira, Laranjeiro, & Vieira, 2015).

Our system also faces the risks of the Dos (denial of service) and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks with the goal of making the network resources non-available to the legitimate users. (Soryal, & Saadawi, 2014).The attackers will be able to achieve their goals by sending the useless packets to overload the machine thus preventing the users from achieving their legitimate objectives. The malware is one of the strategies that the attackers use to flood the network system with useless packets. After the malware is installed in the system, the attackers will use the malware to scan the system to identify the vulnerabilities before launching the attacks. (Black, Fong, Okun, et al.2007).

The attackers can also gain access to our system if the firewall is misconfigured. The attackers can penetrate into our network systems through this loophole. Additional methods that can cause vulnerabilities in our systems are through:

• Misconfigured software or hardware

• Inherent...

For example, we could lose a lot of financial resources if we fail to secure our systems. For example, an attacker can take the advantage of the vulnerabilities to steal sensitive data from our system. An attacker can steal our IT (intellectual property) and sell it on the open market making our company lose a large amount of money put in the investment. A reputation loss is another problem that we can face if we fail to secure our system. This issue can lead to a market loss consequently leading to a loss of competitive market disadvantages. We can also face legal problem from the clients if we fail to secure their data.
Attackers can also modify some of our data making them non-useful to the legitimate users. If we allow our data to be modified because of lack of protection, we will face a risk of making wrong business decisions that can lower our profitability. Another security threat against our system is the natural disaster that includes tornado, fire, flood, earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, and other natural disasters. These type of threats cannot be stopped because they are natural occurrences. If we fail to implement a plan to protect our business from natural disasters, our business can stand still due to the loss of data. Given different types of vulnerabilities that our company can face with the network system, it is critical to secure our network systems to prevent our company becoming a victim of attackers. The next section discusses different strategies that can be employed to protect our network systems.

Network System Security Recommendations

The network security is essential to enhance confidentiality, integrity and…