Comp427, Spring 2018, Homework 1

Rational Paranoia

The homework specifications, as well as the corresponding course slide decks, can be found on the Comp427 Piazza. This assignment is due Thursday, January 17 at 6 p.m.

You will do this homework by editing the README.md file. It's in MarkDown format and will be rendered to beautiful HTML when you visit your GitHub repo.

Student Information

Please also edit README.md and replace your instructor's name and NetID with your own:

Student name: Rishu Harpavat

Student NetID: rh34

Your NetID is typically your initials and a numeric digit. That's what we need here.

If you contacted us in advance and we approved a late submission, please cut-and-paste the text from that email here.

Problem 1

• Scenario: Stadium
• Assumptions:
  • Since we're the overseer(s) of the stadium, we have full control over all aspects of said stadium, including:
    • Access to restricted areas (locker rooms, VIP boxes, etc.)
    • Electronic hardware and data storing information about the team
  • We need to protect the stadium from physical damage as well as the team and/or any university officials from harm (while they are inside the stadium)
• Assets:
  • Restricted areas (locker rooms, VIP boxes, etc.): We need to protect the team as well as any visiting university officials from harm.
  • Confidential data: The stadium's systems might contain confidential data about things such as:
    • Player information (health, contact, etc.)
    • Team information (itineraries, play analysis, playbooks, etc.)
  • Stadium property: The stadium might be storing expensive training equipment, players' belongings, and other valuables; we'd want to protect these from theft.
  • The people involved - players, coaches, and university officials
• Threats:
  • Spies from competing schools: Rival schools may send spies in to infiltrate the stadium in order to:
    • obtain valuable team/player information that would allow them to anticipate their play strategy
    • sabotage the team in some manner (physically harm a player and render them unable to play subsequent games)
  • Overzealous fans: They might try and find players in locker rooms to get autographs and accidentally walk away with personal belongings
• Countermeasures:
  • Biometric scanners controlling access to restricted areas
    • Given that this is one of the top football teams in the nation, they probably generate enough revenue that we can afford this investment
    • Restricting access to certain areas is a solid first line of defense against an unauthorized accessor
  • Strong encryption on any confidential data, as well as strong login credentials for accessing the machine the data is stored on to begin with
    • Should not be super costly
    • Benefits of good encryption are very clear - without the key, it's very hard to break, so even if someone manages to obtain the data, it's useless

Problem 2

• Scenario: Grading
• Assumptions:
  • We have complete control of the grading system.
  • Grading system is online (submissions are done through an online portal) and are routed to and stored on a secure server.
  • Access to student submissions and the scoring portal is online as well, done through some web app.
• Assets:
  • Student submissions: Each student submission is their own intellectual property. We don't want either:
    • a student getting a hold of someone else's submission so they can cheat off of it, or
    • some external third party getting a hold of student submissions for a project that could potentially have real-world applications
  • Student grades: Each student has some online gradebook, which we only want instructors and that particular student to have access to.
    • Instructors need to have both read + write access.
    • Student only should have read access.
• Threats:
  • A student trying to alter their grades to be better.
  • A student trying to intercept/access other students' submissions in order to improve their own submission.
  • Some external third party trying to gain access to confidential student data without authorization.
• Countermeasures:
  • Ensure the secure server storing all the data is physically located somewhere that students (and external third parties) cannot access it - this prevents them from copying all the data onto a drive and brute-forcing it elsewhere.
    • Might be somewhat expensive
    • But is an excellent start towards securing data - network access can be restricted to a much greater degree than hardware access can
  • Strong permissions on the server/mechanism used to access this data - a student's login should only allow them to access their own file storage.
  • Strong read/write permissions on the gradebook - students should only have read access, while instructors need both read and write access.
  • Strong authentication - a central authentication service that requires a strong password on the user end
  • A system that monitors login attempts
    • If more than a certain number of attempts are made within a certain time limit, lock the account
    • Prevents anyone from attempting to brute-force a password

Problem 3

• Scenario: As head TA for a class, you create a grading assignment spreadsheet for a class and send it to all the TAs involved in the class.
• Assumptions:
  • The spreadsheet is being shared via a link, so potentially anyone with the link might have access.
  • TAs only have access to grade students they were assigned to.
• Assets:
  • The contents of the spreadsheet - each TA is assigned to grade a few students.
• Threats:
  • TAs who might want to reassign some of their students to other TAs to lessen their workload.
  • Students who might want to reassign themselves to TAs known for being 'easy' graders.
• Countermeasures:
  • Restrict edit access on the sheet to just yourself
    • Easy to do
    • Makes it a little more inconvenient for TAs to mark when they're done grading, but they can live with that
  • Create an online form where a TA can submit their name + the name of the student they've finished grading
    • Fairly easy to do
    • Bogus submissions are easy to check - the only thing an attacker could potentially do is put the wrong information in the form. However, this information is easy to verify - if a form submission marks a student as graded but the student doesn't actually have a grade, it can be discarded. Similarly, if a TA's name is submitted along with the name of a student they were not assigned, that submission can be discarded since they only have access to grade the students they were assigned.