Q7 — Network security threats and mitigations (8 marks)

Question: A secondary school's network has been targeted by a phishing email and a brute-force login attempt within the same week.

Discuss the threats faced by the school and evaluate the measures the school could put in place to defend against them. (8)

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Mark scheme — Levels of response (8 marks):

Level 3 (7–8): Detailed discussion of both threats with accurate technical detail (phishing = social engineering email impersonating a trusted source to extract credentials; brute-force = automated guessing of password combinations). Evaluates at least three mitigations with reasoned trade-offs (e.g. user training reduces phishing success but cannot eliminate it; MFA blocks brute-force even when password leaks; account lockout policy stops brute-force but enables denial-of-service against staff accounts; firewall + email filtering quarantines suspect mail). Reaches a justified conclusion on the most cost-effective combination for a school.

Level 2 (4–6): Identifies and explains both threats with some accuracy. Describes 2–3 mitigations (anti-malware, firewall, strong password policy, user access levels, penetration testing, encryption) but evaluation is limited.

Level 1 (1–3): Lists threats and/or mitigations with little explanation. May confuse phishing with malware.

0 marks: No relevant content.

Indicative content includes: phishing, brute-force, MFA, password policy, account lockout, user access levels, anti-malware, firewall, penetration testing, staff training, email filtering, encryption of stored credentials.