Introduction
Corporate Network Security is essential as it prevents hacker or intruder from gaining unauthorized access to the company's infrastructure for the purpose of stealing sensitive information. Penetration testing is done to achieve network security. The purpose of the software testing is to find out weaknesses in the security setting of the network system before any person with bad intentions exploit them. Advanced Research Corporation should also do penetration testing to ensure network security and to find out various weaknesses that are present in the system software and hardware. Thus, it would be easier to identify the vulnerability of the system to various bugs that would be present in the software due to breaches, intrusions or human errors. Security testing also helps in identifying whether the security controls are properly established? The purpose of this proposal is to provide details about Nessus as an important security testing software tool that would be ideal for Advanced Research Corporation's network security and identifying vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. The proposal needs approval from the Executive Team so that Advanced Research Corporation can purchase it.
Nessus as a good Security Testing Software Tool
A number of security testing software tools are available for evaluating the organization's system with a number of malicious techniques in order to secure company's information from hackers and attackers. Nessus scanner is also one of the good security testing software tools for Advanced Research Corporation as it determine the weaknesses in the security system and helps in closing any gaps that may exist in the security of the system before attackers can take any advantage of them. Nessus identifies and detects software bugs in computers. It helps in determining security threats. The chances of system crash are minimized with Nessus as it contains some specific measures. Nessus as a tool contains two parts; client (Nessus) and Server (Nessusd).
Description and Advantages of Nessus
Nessus as a security testing tool has two parts; client and server. The whole network is managed and controlled by the central client which controls all the servers at remote locations. The Nessus scanning takes place through following steps:
Gathering of data
Identification of Host
Scanning of ports
Selection of Plug-ins
Data reporting
The UNIX system is used for the Nessud server, which keeps track of all the vulnerabilities tests and then the actual scan is performed. Nessus uses its own database and authentication methods for security so that remote users can log in to the Nessus client, configure a scan for the vulnerability in its own way. For writing own security tests, Nessus attack security language (NASL), is also available in the Nessus software package. Web applications and patches(software updates) can also be configured with the Nessus scanner. Around 50,000 vulnerabilities can be scanned with the Nessus scanner. The plug-in-updates are provided on the daily basis and this scanning tool helps in eliminating the security gaps between scans thereby ensuring robust protection against attacks.
Advanced Research Corporation can also take the advantage of using HTML 5 interface as it can use any web browser like Mac OS 10, Linux and Windows. New policies can be created and scans can be viewed from any device on the system with the help of new updated version. The Nessus scanner provides compliance and configuration auditing, as it reviews and compares the system to SCAP, Security Content Automation Protocol to ensure the configuration of the system as per Linux, Windows and Mac OS applications. Nessus also has the capability to check the vulnerabilities for mobile devices, data fetching and reports writing for Windows, Android and iOS phone operating systems. The denial-of-service attack is most commonly tested by the Nessus scanner.
The botnets and malware can also be detected with the Nessus scan. Cross-referencing with a large database report for the recognition of the malware is also provided with Nessus scan that helps in the classification of the threats. Reports can be collected in PDF or HTMP format. Various kinds of reports for the vulnerability scanning process like compliance reports, executive summaries and creating chapters are created with the help of Nessus vulnerability scanner.
Looking into all these above advantages, it can be safely said that Nessus is one of the most important vulnerability scanners for both the private and public sectors. Since Advanced Research Corporation's network is already vulnerable to outside threats and it has experienced attacks in the past also, it is essential for the company to detect the vulnerabilities and other kinds of cyber-attacks with the help of Nessus tool.
Reviews, Case-studies, and Customer Recommendations
A number of clients like financial services, information technology corporations, educational institutions, defense department, government agencies etc. have rated the Nessus vulnerability scanner as positive. Clemson University which has been recognized as the 25th best public university in the United States with 1200 faculty and staff and 20,000 students has a complex and large network having around tens-of-thousands of IPs registered. The institution's network security was targeted by attackers every day and the Nessus scanner has positively improved the institution's network security. According to the Director of the Security infrastructure, with the addition of Nessus tool, they were able to identify the threats better and in time and were able to respond accordingly.
The State Government of the Victoria has a complex, large-scale network that has around 3000 devices across multiple locations. A vulnerability scanning solution was needed by the agency for the network security. The agency used the Nessus vulnerability scanner which fulfilled all its expectations. It provided an easy-to-use interface and robust vulnerability scanner.
Other sources like PC world and SC magazine have also rated the Nessus scanner as an essential part of the tool kit for any organization. Nessus network security tool has been given five star rating by the SC magazine. PC world also recommended Nessus as one of the most important tools for maintaining network security.
Personal Experience with the Nessus Tool
Based on my hands-on experience with the tool, I also found it very useful tool for security testing which is very user-friendly. It has several policies that are already built-in and a new template for scanning can also be created depending on the user's need ranging from detecting botnet and malware, external scan, internal scan, patch management, local path etc. The tools also have several tabs which are easily understandable and straight forward. Thus, I strongly recommend the Nessus tool for the identification of weakness in the network security of the Advanced Research Corporation as it will help in preventing the future attacks to the network of the organization.
Cost of Product
The initial cost of purchase of Nessus tool is $1500 and license needs to be renewed every year. The cost of renewal every year is $1200. Training of each team member on the Nessus certification includes $590 per person. Thus, the certification exam needs to be completed by each participant and they need to engage in 16 hours of training.
Nessus Scan's impact on the Production Environment
The Nessus scanning software places competing demands on the system. Executive team should consider this advantage of the Nessus software when vulnerabilities scanning is being performed. A very less memory on the network is utilized by the Nessus tool, and also have separate plug-ins for scheduling the activities so that various activities and scans can be streamlined properly on the system. Nessus tool also ensures that the system usage is very less. During the scanning process, the CPU utilization and the network resources usage is very less as ensured by the developers. Thus, any ongoing test like Denial-of-service attack has no impact on the production environment and business operations.
Thus, the very minimum use of the system resources by the Nessus scanner helps the Advanced Research Corporation's users to have continued operations while the Information system team can also run the vulnerability scan through Nessus. Thus, Advanced Research Corporation gets maximum advantages and robust security protection through the usage of the Nessus tool.
References
Bradley, T. (2013, Sep 5). Secure your small-business network without spending a dime. Retrieved from PC World. Work, Life, Prodcutivity: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2048137/secure-your-small-business-network-without-spending-a-dime.html
EC-Council. (2011). Penetration Testing: Procedures & Methodologies. New York: Cengage Learning.
nist.gov. (2016, Jan 29). Security Content Automation Protocol . Retrieved from National Institute of Standards and Technology Information technology laboratory: http://scap.nist.gov/
Stephenson, P. (2015, March 02). SC MAGAZINE For IT Security Professionals. Retrieved from www.scmagazine.com: http://www.scmagazine.com/tenable-network-security-nessus/review/4344/
tenable.com. (2015). Clemson University. Retrieved from Tenable Network Security: https://www.tenable.com/case-studies/clemson-university
tenable.com. (2015). Using Nessus 5 to Raise the Value of Penetration Testing. Retrieved from Tenable Network Security: https://www.tenable.com/blog/using-nessus-5-to-raise-the-value-of-penetration-testing
tenable.com. (2016). Nessus FAQs. Retrieved from Tenable Network Software: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/nessus-faq
tenable.com. (2016). State Government, Victoria story. Retrieved from Tenable Network Security: https://www.tenable.com/case-studies/state-government-victoria-story
