ICT348 Tutor-Marked Assignment 01

This assignment is worth 18% of the final mark for ICT348 – Information Security Offence Defence and Incident Management.

Learning Outcome:

● Use information gathering and vulnerability identification
● Apply ethical hacking
● Improve defence strategy
● Implement incident investigation
● Demonstrate penetration testing
● Assess vulnerabilities and threats
● Design incident response

What the ICT348 Tutor-Marked Assignment 01 asks you to do

ICT348 Information Security Offence Defence and Incident Management looks at security from both sides: how attackers find and exploit weaknesses, and how defenders detect, investigate and respond to incidents. The course combines practical ethical hacking skills with structured defensive thinking.

This TMA is worth 18% of the final mark for ICT348. It tests whether you can gather information, identify and assess vulnerabilities, carry out or describe penetration testing ethically, and then turn your findings into better defences and a sound incident response plan. Markers value a clear methodology, evidence of your work and practical recommendations.

ICT348 learning outcomes explained

Check that your report shows evidence for each of these outcomes.

How to structure your ICT348 TMA01

1. Scope and methodology – state the target environment, rules of engagement and the framework you follow.
2. Reconnaissance and scanning – document tools, commands and key findings.
3. Exploitation and testing – explain each test, its result and the evidence captured.
4. Risk assessment – rank vulnerabilities by severity and business impact.
5. Defence and incident response – propose controls and an incident handling process tied to your findings.
6. Conclusion and references – summarise priorities and cite standards and tool documentation.

Key concepts to revise for ICT348

• Cyber Kill Chain and MITRE ATT&CK – help you describe attacker behaviour in a structured way.
• Active vs passive reconnaissance – explain how tools such as Nmap or OSINT sources gather information.
• Vulnerability scoring (CVSS) – gives your risk ratings a consistent, defensible basis.
• Penetration testing methodologies – such as PTES or the OWASP Testing Guide for structured testing.
• Defence in depth – layered controls across network, host, application and people.
• NIST SP 800-61 incident response lifecycle – the standard model for designing response plans.
• Digital forensics basics – chain of custody, evidence integrity and log analysis.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Listing tool output without explaining what it means or why it matters.
• Giving defence recommendations that do not match the vulnerabilities you actually found.
• Leaving out evidence such as screenshots, commands or timestamps.
• Ignoring ethics, authorisation and scope when describing testing.
• Writing an incident response plan that skips post-incident review and lessons learned.

ICT348 TMA01 FAQs

What is the ICT348 TMA01 about?

It covers information gathering, vulnerability assessment, ethical hacking and penetration testing, defence improvement and incident investigation and response. It is worth 18% of your final mark.

How should I structure my penetration testing report?

Start with scope and methodology, then findings with evidence, a risk assessment and finally recommendations and incident response. Clear headings make your work easier to mark.

Which frameworks should I reference?

NIST SP 800-61, MITRE ATT&CK, the OWASP Testing Guide and CVSS are commonly used and well recognised.

Can I get help with my ICT348 assignment?

Yes. Our Singapore-based subject tutors can guide you through the brief, help you organise your report and check your referencing so you can submit with confidence.