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Prepared by: Dr Ghassan Kbar Moderated by: Dr Noor-U-Zaman Laghari July, 2019
Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Unit Code BN305 – T2 2019
Unit Title Virtual Private Networks
Assessment Type Individual Assignment
Assessment Title Assignment 1 – SSL/TLS VPN Technologies
Purpose of the
assessment (with
ULO Mapping)
The purpose of this assignment is to review existing literatures on important
VPN technologies and issues and write a report. The report must be specific
to the given topics, use appropriate examples and detail of the topic given to
develop a review paper. In preparing the assignment, students should acquire
not only the knowledge of current technical aspects of VPN but also research,
data collection, analysis and writing skills. Students should be able to
demonstrate their achievements in the following unit learning outcomes:
a. Explain the significance of VPN for contemporary organisations
b. Discuss the role of VPN to support the security of businesses
Weight 15% of the total assessments
Total Marks 100
Word limit 1800 words max
Due Date 26 August 2019, 11:55 PM. (Week 7)
Submission
Guidelines
 All work must be submitted on Moodle by the due date along with a
completed Assignment Cover Page.
 The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 11-pt Calibri
(Body) font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate
section headings.
 Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report and listed
appropriately at the end in a reference list using IEEE referencing style.
Extension If an extension of time to submit work is required, a Special Consideration
Application must be submitted directly through AMS. You must submit this
application within three working days of the assessment due date. Further
information is available at:
http://www.mit.edu.au/about-mit/institute-publications/policiesprocedures-and-guidelines/specialconsiderationdeferment
Academic
Misconduct
Academic Misconduct is a serious offence. Depending on the seriousness
of the case, penalties can vary from a written warning or zero marks to
exclusion from the course or rescinding the degree. Students should make
themselves familiar with the full policy and procedure available at:
http://www.mit.edu.au/about-mit/institute-publications/policiesprocedures-and-guidelines/Plagiarism-Academic-Misconduct-PolicyProcedure. For further information, please refer to the Academic Integrity
Section in your Unit Description.
BN305 Virtual Private Networks Page 2 of 5

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Assignment Questions:
Objective: Your tasks are to analyse and to write a report about the processes and the security
technologies being used when you access any website (which uses HTTPS) online via a web browser,
as well as having the ability to remotely accessing your company network online securely. It is a wellknown fact that the Internet is a public network and every single message you exchange with the
server can potentially be intercepted by attackers. You need to analyse in detail to address the
technologies and techniques that can be used to prevent attackers from modifying the
communication between you and web server in addition to keeping your passwords and other details
safe.
A. Literature Review:
Research about the different methods for securing the transfer of information across internet
service provider. This should include the following:
1. You need to explain the significance of VPN for contemporary organisations. This should
cover the different encryption protocols for VPN implementation, including a comparison
of SSL/VPN and IPSEC/VPN.
2. IPsec uses the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol to negotiate and establish secured siteto-site or remote-access VPN tunnels. Investigate how Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances
(ASA 5500 Series) would support IPsec and IKE.
3. Discuss the role of VPN in supporting the security of businesses, and describe the
advantages of SSL/VPN over IPSEC/VPN
4. The rapid proliferation of mobile devices increases on a daily basis, investigate how Cisco
AnyConnect is designed to secure the connections from these mobile devices.
You are also required to address the following topics and task in details:
B. Authentication and Access Control
You need to visit a particular web site and discuss the following points:
1. Analyse and write report on how the browser ensures that it is communicating to the right
server. Please visit a website and add screenshots also highlighting the related part. How SSL
and TLS provide authentication?
2. Describe how digital signatures work and what role pays in the authentication process, add
the relevant screenshot from your web browser showing the details of signature. What
happens during certificate verification?
3. Analyse and comment on how the server make sure that it is communicating to the right
client, discuss several methods; e.g. if you are using MIT Moodle, how the server verifies that
it’s actually YOU?
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C. Confidentiality and Integrity
1. Analyse and write a report on how the confidentiality and integrity is achieved in SSL
communication, and how server & client agree on one cipher suit?
2. Explain what is the role of symmetric encryption and hash algorithms in SSL communication.
Add/take screenshots from your browser showing symmetric encryption and hash details.
3. Describe the VPN client software options
D. Anti-Replay
1. Analyse and write a report on how the anti-replay attacks are mitigated in SSL
communication.
2. How to protect your organization against SSL attacks?
E. Remote Access to database server
1. Analyse and comment on how to remotely access your content at you your company database
server.
2. Explain what possible attacks you might face.
Instructions
1. To enhance your understanding of the technology in this report you are required to describe
how the technology works theoretically, as well as you need to perform some small practical
activities and include the screenshots and the descriptions of them. The questions are
organized in the logical order, however to make them easy to distinguish, the analytical
questions are to be presented in blue and the practical questions are to be presented in green.
2. Include cover page with the subject name, the assignment name, the student name and ID,
submission date.
3. Include table of contents.
4. Include tables and figures.
5. Ensure that all the figures are numbered and names based on figure’s caption. You have to
refer to the figures you add in the contexts.
6. Strictly follow the IEEE reference format for in-body citations and the references section.
7. You can use trustable online resources and documentations from well-known technology
companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper and etc.
8. No plagiarism is allowed.
9. It is expected that your report must use the correct format in clear way, hence you should
write to the point and using the right technical terminologies. Also, a good report would
include around 1800 words.
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Marking Criteria: Marking of assignment1 would be done by tutors and then verified
according to individual demonstration by students. The final mark might be reduced to half based
on students’ presentation.
Questions Description Marks
Formatting Cover page, fonts, sizes, spacing, captions, headings. 5
Table of
Contents, Tables
and Figures
Table of Contents and Table of Figures. 5
Introduction &
Literature Review
(part A)
Outline of the report and specify the scope of your report. 35
Authentication &
Access Control
(part B)
Students need to complete theoretical and practical tasks outlined
in the assignment description.
15
Confidentiality
and Integrity
Processes (part C)
Students need to complete theoretical and practical tasks outlined
in the assignment description.
15
Protection
against Replay
Attacks (Part D)
Students need to complete to complete theoretical tasks outlined in
the assignment description.
10
Remote Access
(Part E)
remote access to data base server. 10
Conclusion &
References
Follow IEEE reference style and use references from trustworthy
sources.
5
Total 100
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Marking Rubric
Sections Excellent Good Fair Poor
Formatting Completely
follows the
formatting
instructions
Mostly follows
formatting
Acceptably following
the instructions
Clearly lacks
formatting
instructions
Table of contents Highly appropriate
names for
chapters and
figures
Appropriate
names for
chapters and
figures.
Acceptably
appropriate names for
chapters and figures.
Misses names of
chapters and
figures
Introduction Highly appropriate
and clear
Appropriate and
clear
Appropriate but
contains ambiguities
Not valid and
not appropriate
Authentication All elements are
present and highly
valid
All elements are
present and valid
Either some of the
elements are missed or
a few of the elements
are invalid.
Lacks elements
and generally
invalid
Confidentiality
and Integrity
All elements are
present and highly
valid
All elements are
present and valid
Either some of the
elements are missed or
a few of the elements
are invalid.
Lacks elements
and generally
invalid
Anti-replay
Attacks
All elements are
present and highly
valid
All elements are
present and valid
Either some of the
elements are missed or
a few of the elements
are invalid.
Lacks elements
and generally
invalid
Conclusion Highly appropriate
and clear
Appropriate and
clear
Appropriate but
contains ambiguities
Not valid and
not appropriate
References Clear styles with
excellent source of
references.
Clear referencing/
style
Outdated referencing /
minor styling errors
Lacks
consistency with
many errors