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Although this technology enables us to be more productive and allows us to access a host of information with only a click of the mouse, it also carries with it a host of security issues.
If the information on the systems used by our employers or our banks becomes exposed to an attacker, the consequences can be dire indeed. We could suddenly find ourselves bereft of funds, as the contents of our bank account are transferred to a bank in another country in the middle of the night. Our company could lose millions of dollars, face legal prosecution, and suffer damage to its reputa- tion because of a system configuration issue allowing an attacker to gain access to a database containing personally identifiable information PII or proprietary infor- mation.
We see such examples appear in the media with disturbing regularity. If we look back 30 years, such issues related to computer systems were nearly nonexistent, largely due to the low level of technology implementation and the few people who were using what was in place. If we can gain a good understanding of the basics of information security, we are on a strong footing to cope with changes as they come along.
What is security? In essence, it means we want to protect our data whereever it is and systems assets from those who would seek to misuse it. In a general sense, security means protecting our assets. Ultimately, we will attempt to secure ourselves against the most likely forms of attack, to the best extent we reasonably can, given our environment. When we look at what exactly it is that we secure, we may have a broad range of potential assets. We can consider physical items that we might want to secure, such as those of inherent value e.
We may also have items of a more ethereal nature, such as software, source code, or data. Additionally, we must also protect the people who are involved in our operations. People are our single most valuable asset, as we cannot generally conduct business without them. We duplicate our physical and logical assets and keep backup copies of them elsewhere against catastrophe occurring, but without the skilled people to operate and maintain our environments, we will swiftly fail.
In our efforts to secure our assets, we must also consider the consequences of the security we choose to implement. Although we could certainly say that a system in such a state could be considered reasonably secure, it is surely not usable or productive. As we increase the level of security, we usually decrease the level of productivity. With the system mentioned in our quote, the level of security would be very high, but the level of productivity would be very near zero.
The goal of a security plan is to find the balance between protection, usability, and cost. Additionally, when securing an asset, system, or environment, we must also consider how the level of security relates to the value of the item being secured.
We can, if we are willing to accommodate the decrease in performance, apply very high levels of security to every asset for which we are responsible. In some environments, however, such security measures might not be enough. In any environment where we plan to put heightened levels of security in place, we also need to take into account the cost of replacing our assets if we do happen to lose them and make sure we establish reasonable levels of protection for their value.
The cost of the security we put in place should never outstrip the value of what it is protecting. When are we secure? Defining the exact point at which we can be considered secure presents a bit of a challenge. Are we secure if our systems are properly patched? Are we secure if we use strong passwords? Are we secure if we are disconnected from the Internet entirely? Even if our systems are properly patched, there will always be new attacks to which we are vulnerable.
When strong passwords are in use, there will be other avenues that an attacker can exploit. When we are disconnected from the Internet, our systems can be physically accessed or stolen. In short, it is very difficult to define when we are truly secure. We can, however, turn the question around. The good thing is that once we are able to point out the areas in an environment that can cause it to be insecure, we can take steps to mitigate these issues.
This problem is akin to cutting something in half over and over; there will always be some small portion left to cut again. Compliance is a key aspect of any security program and should be coordinated across the organization.
The bodies of law that define standards for security vary quite a bit from one industry to another and wildly from one country to another. Organizations that operate globally are very common at present, and we need to take care that we are not violating any such laws in the course of conducting business. When in doubt, consult legal counsel before acting. Whether these standards are effective or not is the source of much discus- sion, but following the security standards defined for the industry in which we are operating is generally considered to be advisable, if not mandated.
Models for discussing security When we discuss security issues, it is often helpful to have a model or framework that we can use as a foundation or a baseline. This gives us a consistent set of terminology and concepts that we, as security professionals, can refer to when security issues arise. The confidentiality, integrity, and availability triad Three of the primary concepts in information security are confidentiality, integrity, and availability, commonly known as the confidentiality, integrity, and availability CIA triad, as shown in Figure 1.
The CIA triad gives us a model by which we can think about and discuss security concepts, and tends to be very focused on security, as it pertains to data.
More advanced The common notation for confidentiality, integrity, and availability is CIA. No change to the concepts is implied in this rearrangement, but it can be confusing for those who do not know about it in advance. Confidentiality Confidentiality is a concept similar to, but not the same as, privacy.
Confidentiality is a necessary component of privacy and refers to our ability to protect our data from those who are not authorized to view it. Confidentiality is a concept that may be implemented at many levels of a process. As an example, if we consider the case of a person withdrawing money from an ATM, the person in question will likely seek to maintain the confidentiality of the personal identification number PIN that allows him, in combination with his ATM card, to draw funds from the ATM.
Additionally, the owner of the ATM will hopefully maintain the confidentiality of the account number, bal- ance, and any other information needed to communicate to the bank from which the funds are being drawn.
The bank will maintain the confidentiality of the transaction with the ATM and the balance change in the account after the funds have been withdrawn. If at any point in the transaction confidentiality is com- promised, the results could be bad for the individual, the owner of the ATM, and the bank, potentially resulting in what is known in the information security field as a breach. Confidentiality can be compromised by the loss of a laptop containing data, a person looking over our shoulder while we type a password, an e-mail attachment being sent to the wrong person, an attacker penetrating our systems, or similar issues.
Integrity Integrity refers to the ability to prevent our data from being changed in an unautho- rized or undesirable manner. This could mean the unauthorized change or deletion of our data or portions of our data, or it could mean an authorized, but undesirable, change or deletion of our data. To maintain integrity, we not only need to have the means to prevent unauthorized changes to our data but also need the ability to reverse authorized changes that need to be undone.
We can see a good example of mechanisms that allow us to control integrity in the file systems of many modern operating systems such as Windows and Linux.
Additionally, some such systems, and many applications, such as databases, can allow us to undo or roll back changes that are undesirable. Integrity is particularly important when we are discussing the data that provides the foundation for other decisions. If an attacker were to alter the data that con- tained the results of medical tests, we might see the wrong treatment prescribed, potentially resulting in the death of the patient.
Availability The final leg of the CIA triad is availability. Availability refers to the ability to access our data when we need it. Loss of availability can refer to a wide variety of breaks anywhere in the chain that allows us access to our data. Such issues can result from power loss, operating system or application problems, network attacks, compromise of a system, or other problems. When such issues are caused by an outside party, such as an attacker, they are commonly referred to as a denial of service DoS attack.
Relating the CIA triad to security Given the elements of the CIA triad, we can begin to discuss security issues in a very specific fashion. As an example, we can look at a shipment of backup tapes on which we have the only existing, but unencrypted, copy of some of our sensitive data stored. If we were to lose the shipment in transit, we will have a security issue.
From a confidentiality standpoint, we are likely to have a prob- lem since our files were not encrypted. From an integrity standpoint, presuming that we were able to recover the tapes, we again have an issue due to the lack of encryption used on our files. If we recover the tapes and the unencrypted files were altered, this would not be immediately apparent to us. As for avail- ability, we have an issue unless the tapes are recovered since we do not have a backup copy of the files.
Although we can describe the situation in this example with relative accuracy using the CIA triad, we might find that the model is more restrictive than what we need in order to describe the entire situation. An alternative model does exist that is somewhat more extensive.
Where the CIA triad consists of confidentiality, integrity, and availability, the Parkerian hexad consists of these three principles, as well as possession or control, authenticity, and utility [3], for a total of six principles, as shown in Figure 1. Although it is considered by some to be a more complete model, the Parkerian hexad is not as widely known as the CIA triad. If we decide to use this model in discussion of a security situation, we should be prepared to explain both the difference and benefits.
Confidentiality, integrity, and availability As we mentioned, the Parkerian hexad encompasses the three principles of the CIA triad with the same definitions we just discussed. There is some variance in how Parker describes integrity, as he does not account for authorized, but incor- rect, modification of data and instead focuses on the state of the data itself in the sense of completeness. Possession or control Possession or control refers to the physical disposition of the media on which the data is stored.
This enables us, without involving other factors such as availabil- ity, to discuss our loss of the data in its physical medium.
In our lost shipment of backup tapes, let us say that some of them were encrypted and some of them were not. The principle of possession would enable us to more accurately describe the scope of the incident; the encrypted tapes in the lot are a possession problem but not a confidentiality problem, and the unencrypted tapes are a problem on both counts. Authenticity Authenticity allows us to talk about the proper attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in question. Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures, which we will discuss further in Chapter 5.
A very similar, but reversed, concept to this is nonre- pudiation. Nonrepudiation prevents someone from taking an action, such as sending an e-mail, and then later denying that he or she has done so.
This is critical to e-commerce and is defined by the laws governing the transactions. We will discuss nonrepudiation at greater length in Chapter 5 as well. Utility Utility refers to how useful the data is to us. Utility is also the only principle of the Parkerian hexad that is not necessarily binary in nature; we can have a variety of degrees of utility, depending on the data and its format.
This is a somewhat abstract concept, but it does prove useful in discussing certain situations in the security world.
For instance, in one of our earlier examples, we had a shipment of backup tapes, some of which were encrypted and some of which were not. For an attacker, or other unauthorized person, the encrypted tapes would likely be of very little utility, as the data would not be readable.
The unencrypted tapes would be of much greater utility, as the attacker or unauthorized person would be able to access the data. Attacks We may face attacks from a wide variety of approaches and vectors. When we look at what exactly makes up an attack, we can break it down according to the type of attack that it represents, the risk the attack represents, and the controls we might use to mitigate it.
Types of attack payloads When we look at the types of attacks we might face, we can generally place them into one of four categories: interception, interruption, modification, and fabrication. Each category can affect one or more of the principles of the CIA triad, as shown in Figure 1.
Additionally, the lines between the categories of attack and the particular effects they can have are somewhat blurry.
Depending on the attack in question, we might argue for it to be included in more than one category or have more than one type of effect. Interception Interception attacks allow unauthorized users to access our data, applications, or environments, and are primarily an attack against confidentiality.
Interception might take the form of unauthorized file viewing or copying, eavesdropping on phone conversations, or reading e-mail, and can be conducted against data at rest or in motion. Properly executed, interception attacks can be very difficult to detect. Interruption Interruption attacks cause our assets to become unusable or unavailable for our use, on a temporary or permanent basis. Interruption attacks often affect availabil- ity but can be an attack on integrity as well.
In the case of a DoS attack on a mail server, we would classify this as an availability attack. In the case of an attacker manipulating the processes on which a database runs in order to prevent access to the data it contains, we might consider this an integrity attack, due to the possible loss or corruption of data, or we might consider it a combination of the two.
We might also consider such a database attack to be a modification attack rather than an interruption attack. Modification Modification attacks involve tampering with our asset. Such attacks might primarily be considered an integrity attack but could also represent an availability attack. If we access a file in an unauthorized manner and alter the data it contains, we have affected the integrity of the data contained in the file.
However, if we consider the case where the file in question is a configuration file that manages how a particular service behaves, perhaps one that is acting as a Web server, we might affect the availability of that service by changing the contents of the file. If we continue with this concept and say the configuration we altered in the file for our Web server is one that alters how the server deals with encrypted connections, we could even make this a confidentiality attack.
Fabrication Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes, communications, or other similar activities with a system. Fabrication attacks primarily affect integrity but could be considered an availability attack as well. We could also generate e-mail, which is commonly called spoofing. This can be used as a method for propagating malware, such as we might find being used to spread a worm. In the sense of an availability attack, if we generate enough additional processes, network traffic, e-mail, Web traffic, or nearly anything else that consumes resources, we can potentially render the service that handles such traffic unavailable to legitimate users of the system.
Threats, vulnerabilities, and risk In order to be able to speak more specifically on attacks, we need to introduce a few new items of terminology. When we look at the potential for a particular attack to affect us, we can speak of it in terms of threats, vulnerabilities, and the associated risk that might accompany them.
Ultimately, this is what a threat is�something that has the potential to cause us harm. Threats tend to be specific to certain environments, particularly in the world of information security. For example, although a virus might pose a threat to a Windows operating system, the same virus will be unlikely to have any effect on a Linux operating system.
Vulnerabilities Vulnerabilities are weaknesses that can be used to harm us. In essence, they are holes that can be exploited by threats in order to cause us harm. A vulnerability might be a specific operating system or application that we are running, a physi- cal location where we have chosen to place our office building, a data center that is populated over the capacity of its air-conditioning system, a lack of backup generators, or other factors.
Risk Risk is the likelihood that something bad will happen. In order for us to have a risk in a particular environment, we need to have both a threat and a vulnerability that the specific threat can exploit. For example, if we have a structure that is made from wood and we set it on fire, we have both a threat the fire and a vulnerability that matches it the wood structure.
In this case, we most definitely have a risk. Likewise, if we have the same threat of fire, but our structure is made of concrete, we no longer have a credible risk, because our threat does not have a vulnerability to exploit. We can argue that a sufficiently hot flame could damage the concrete, but this is a much less likely event.
We will often have similar discussions regarding potential risk in computing environments, and potential, but unlikely, attacks that could happen. In such cases, the best strategy is to spend our time mitigating the most likely attacks. If we sink our resources in trying to plan for every possible attack, however unlikely, we will spread ourselves thin and will be lacking in protection where we actually need it the most.
If we consider the value of the asset being threatened to be a factor, this may change whether we see a risk as being present or not. If we revisit our example of lost backup tape and stipulate that the unencrypted backup tapes contain only our collection of chocolate chip cookie recipes, we may not actually have a risk. The data being exposed would not cause us a problem, as there was nothing sensitive in it, and we can make additional backups from the source data.
In this particular case, we might safely say that we have no risk. Risk management In order to compensate for risks that occur in our environment, the risk manage- ment process is very important to implement and follow.
This program must be managed at the senior leader level of the organization and implemented by every- one not just the technical staff. At a high level, we need to identify our important assets, identify the potential threats against them, assess the vulnerabilities that we have present, and then take steps to mitigate these risks, as shown in Figure 1. Identify assets One of the first and, arguably, one of the most important parts of the risk manage- ment process is identifying and categorizing the assets that we are protecting.
If we cannot enumerate the assets that we have and evaluate the importance of each of them, protecting them can become a very difficult task indeed. Although this may sound like an exceedingly simple task, in actuality in can be somewhat more complex a problem than it might seem to be on the surface. Particularly in larger enterprises, merely producing a list of all of the assets with which we are concerned may be troublesome.
In many cases, various generations of hardware and devices may be present, assets from acquisitions of other companies may be lurking in unknown areas, and scores of unrecorded virtual hosts may be in use, any of which may be critical to the continued functionality of certain aspects of a business.
Once we have been able to identify the assets in use, deciding which of them is a critical business asset is another question entirely. Making an accurate determination of which assets are truly critical to conducting business will generally require the input of functions that make use of the asset, those that support the asset itself, and potentially other involved parties as well.
Not all assets need to be protected equally, by determin- ing where resources should be focused and cost can be reduced while security increased. Identify threats Once we have enumerated our critical assets, we can then begin to identify the threats that might affect them.
It is often useful to have a framework within which to discuss the nature of a given threat, and the CIA triad or Parkerian hexad that we discussed earlier in this chapter serve nicely for this purpose. Authenticity�If we do not have authentic customer information, we may process a fraudulent transaction Utility�If we collect invalid or incorrect data, it has limited utility to us While this is clearly a high level pass at assessing threats for this system, it does point out a few problem areas immediately.
We need to be concerned with losing control of data, maintaining accurate data, and keeping the system up and run- ning. Given this information, we can begin to look at areas of vulnerability and potential risk. Assess vulnerabilities When we look at assess vulnerabilities, we need to do so in the context of potential threats. Any given asset may have thousands or millions of threats that could impact it, but only a small fraction of these will actually be relevant. The issue of identifying these is narrowed considerably by looking at potential threats first, as we discussed in the previous section.
In our example, we looked at potential threats against a system processing credit card transactions. Although this is at a high level, we can look at the issues that we identified and attempt to determine whether vulnerabilities exist in any of these areas as well: Confidentiality�If we expose data inappropriately, we have a potential breach Our sensitive data is encrypted at rest and in motion.
Our systems are regularly tested by an external penetration testing company. Integrity�If data becomes corrupt, we may incorrectly process payments We carefully validate that payment data is correct as part of the processing workflow. Invalid data results in a rejected transaction. Availability�If the system or application goes down, we cannot process payments We do not have redundancy for the database on the back-end of our payment processing system.
Possession�If we lose backup media, we have a potential breach Our backup media is encrypted and hand carried by a courier. Authenticity�If we do not have authentic customer information, we may process a fraudulent transaction Ensuring that valid payment and customer information actually belong to the individual conducting the transaction is difficult, we do not have a good way of doing this.
Utility�If we collect invalid or incorrect data, it has limited utility to us To protect the utility of our data, we might checksum credit card numbers, ensure that the billing address and e-mail address are valid and perform other measures to ensure that our data is correct. These examples are a very high level view of the process that we need to under- take but serve to illustrate the task. From here, we can again see a few areas of concern and can begin to evaluate the areas in which we may have risks.
Attacks 15 Assess risks Once we have identified the threats and vulnerabilities for a given asset, we can assess the overall risk. As we discussed earlier in this chapter, risk is the conjunc- tion of a threat and a vulnerability.
A vulnerability with no matching threat or a threat with no matching vulnerability do not constitute a risk. For example, we looked at the following item as both a potential threat and an area of vulnerability: Availability�If the system or application goes down, we cannot process payments We do not have redundancy for the database on the back-end of our payment processing system.
In this case, we do have both a threat and a vulnerability that coincide, with the resulting risk being the loss of ability to process credit card payments due to a single point of failure on our database back-end. Once we work through our threats and vulnerabilities in this manner, we can then proceed toward mitigating these risks. Mitigating risks In order to help us mitigate risk, we can put measures in place to help ensure that a given type of threat is accounted for.
These measures are referred to as controls. Controls are divided into three categories: physical, logical, and administrative. Physical Physical controls are those controls that protect the physical environment in which our systems sit, or where our data is stored.
Such controls also control access in and out of such environments. Physical controls logically include items such as fences, gates, locks, bollards, guards, and cameras, but also include systems that maintain the physical environment such as heating and air-conditioning systems, fire suppression systems, and backup power generators.
Although at first glance, physical controls may not seem like they would be inte- gral to information security, they are actually one of the more critical controls with which we need to be concerned. If we are not able to physically protect our systems and data, any other controls that we can put in place become irrelevant. If an attacker is able to physically access our systems, he can, at the very least, steal or destroy the system, rendering it unavailable for our use in the best case.
In the worst case, he will have access directly to our applications and data and will be able to steal our information and resources, or subvert them for his own use. Logical and technical controls Logical controls, sometimes called technical con- trols, are those that protect the systems, networks, and environments that process, transmit, and store our data.
Logical controls can include items such as passwords, encryption, logical access controls, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems. Logical controls enable us, in a logical sense, to prevent unauthorized activities from taking place. If our logical controls are implemented properly and are success- ful, an attacker or unauthorized user cannot access our applications and data without subverting the controls that we have in place.
If one is compromised they are not all compromised. In essence, administrative controls set out the rules for how we expect the users of our environment to behave. Depending on the environment and control in question, administrative controls can represent differing levels of authority.
We may also have a more stringent administrative control, such as one that requires us to change our password every 90 days. One important concept when we discuss administrative controls is the ability to enforce compliance with them. If we do not have the authority or the ability to ensure that our controls are being complied with, they are worse than useless, because they create a false sense of security.
For example, if we create a policy that says our business resources cannot, in any fashion, be used for personal use, we need to be able to enforce this. Outside of a highly secure environment, this can be a difficult task.
We will need to monitor telephone and mobile phone usage, Web access, e-mail use, instant message conversations, installed software, and other potential areas for abuse. Unless we were willing to devote a great deal of resources for monitoring these and other areas, and dealing with violations of our policy, we would quickly have a policy that we would not be able to enforce. Once it is understood that we do not enforce our policies, we set ourselves up for misuse and even malicious activities.
Incident response In the event that our risk management efforts fail, incident response exists to react to such events. Incident response should be primarily oriented to the items that we feel are likely to cause us pain as an organization, which we should now know based on our risk management efforts.
Reaction to such incidents should be based, as much as is possible or practical, on documented incident response plans, which are regularly reviewed, tested, and practiced by those who will be expected to enact them in the case of an actual incident. The actual occurrence of such an emergency is not the time to attempt to follow documentation that has been languishing on a shelf, is outdated, and refers to processes or systems that have changed heavily or no longer exists.
This typically involves having the policies and procedures that govern incident response and handling in place, conducting training and education for both incident handlers and those who are expected to report incidents, con- ducting incident response exercises, developing and maintaining documentation, and numerous other such activities. The importance of this phase of incident response should not be underestimated.
The time determines what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and how to do it, is not when we are faced with a burning emergency. Detection and analysis The detection and analysis phase is where the action begins to happen in our incident response process. In this phase, we will detect the occurrence of an issue and decide whether or not it is actually an incident so that we can respond to it appropriately.
The detection portion of this phase will often be the result of monitoring of or alerting based on the output of a security tool or service.
The analysis portion of this phase is often a combination of automation from a tool or service, usually an SIEM, and human judgment. While we can often use some sort of thresholding to say that X number of events in a given amount of time is normal or that a certain combination of events is not normal two failed logins followed by a success, followed by a password change, followed by the creation of a new account, for instance , we will often want human intervention at a certain point when discussing incident response.
Such human intervention will often involve review of logs output by various security, network, and infrastructure devices, contact with the party that reported the incident, and general evaluation of the situa- tion. When the incident handler evaluates the situation, they will make a determination regarding whether the issue constitutes an incident or not, an initial evaluation as to the criticality of the incident if any , and contact any additional resources needed to proceed to the next phase.
Containment, eradication, and recovery The containment, eradication, and recovery phase is where the majority of the work takes place to actually solve the incident, at least in the short term. Containment involves taking steps to ensure that the situation does not cause any more damage than it already has, or to at least lessen any ongoing harm.
If the problem involves a malware infected server actively being controlled by a remote attacker, this might mean disconnecting the server from the network, putting firewall rules in place to block the attacker, and updating signatures or rules on an Intrusion Prevention System IPS in order to halt the traffic from the malware.
During eradication, we will attempt to remove the effects of the issue from our environment. In the case of our malware infected server, we have already isolated the system and cut it off from its command and control network. Now we will need to remove the malware from the server and ensure that it does not exist elsewhere in our environment.
This might involve additional scanning of other hosts in the environment to ensure that the malware is not present, and examination of logs on the server and activities from the attacking devices on the network in order to determine what other systems the infected server had been in communication with. With malware, particularly very new malware or variants, this can be a tricky task to ensure that we have properly completed.
The adversary is constantly developing countermeasures to the most current security tools and methodologies. Whenever doubt exists as to whether malware or attackers have been truly evicted from our environment, we should err to the side of caution while balancing the impact to operations. Each event requires a risk assessment.
Lastly, we need to recover to a better state that were in which we were prior to the incident, or perhaps prior to the issue started if we did not detect the problem immediately. This would potentially involve restoring devices or data from backup media, rebuilding systems, reloading applications, or any of a number of similar activities. Additionally we need to mitigate the attack vector that was used. Again, this can be a more painful task than it initially sounds to be, based on potentially incomplete or unclear knowledge of the situation surrounding the incident and what exactly did take place.
We may find that we are unable to verify that backup media is actually clean and free or infection, backup media may be bad entirely, application install bits may be missing, configuration files may not be available, and any of a number of similar issues. Post incident activity Post incident activity, as with preparation, is a phase we can easily overlook, but should ensure that we do not. In the post incident activity phase, often referred to as a postmortem latin for after death , we attempt to determine specifically what happened, why it happened, and what we can do to keep it from happening again.
This is not just a technical review as policies or infrastructure may need to be changed. The purpose of this phase is not to point fingers or place blame although this does sometimes happen , but to ultimately prevent or lessen the impact of future such incidents. Defense in depth 19 Defense in depth Defense in depth is a strategy common to both military maneuvers and information security. In both senses, the basic concept of defense in depth is to formulate a multilayered defense that will allow us to still achieve a successful defense should one or more of our defensive measures fail.
In Figure 1. Given well-implemented defenses at each layer, we will make it very difficult to successfully penetrate deeply into our network and attack our assets directly. One important concept to note when planning a defensive strategy using defense in depth is that it is not a magic bullet.
No matter how many layers we put in place, or how many defensive measures we place at each layer, we will not be able to keep every attacker out for an indefinite period of time, nor is this the ultimate goal of defense in depth in an information security setting.
The goal is to place enough defensive measures between our truly important assets and the attacker so that we will both notice that an attack is in progress and also buy ourselves enough time to take more active measures to prevent the attack from succeeding.
We can see exactly such a strategy in the theater release of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight, in The production company for the movie, Warner Bros. Even with all the time and resources spent to prevent piracy of the movie, it was found on a file-sharing network 38 h after it was released [4]. For Warner Bros. Layers When we look at the layers we might place in our defense in depth strategy, we will likely find that they vary given the particular situation and environment we are defending.
As we discussed, from a strictly logical information security perspective, we would want to look at the external network, network perimeter, internal network, host, application, and data layers as areas to place our defenses.
We could add complexity to our defensive model by including other vital layers such as physical defenses, policies, user awareness and training, and a multitude of others, but we will stay with a simpler example for the time being. As we progress through the book, we will return to the concept of defense in depth as we discuss security for more specific areas.
As we can see in Figure 1. In some cases, we see a defensive measure listed in multiple layers, as it applies in more than one area. Summary 21 around the headquarters. As we move through the book, we will discuss each of these areas in greater detail, and the specific defenses we might want to use for each. Information security in the real world The concepts we discussed in this chapter are foundational to information security and are used on a regular basis in the course of normal information security tasks in many organizations.
We will often find that security incidents are described in terms of their effects, such as breaches of confidentiality, or the authenticity of a given e-mail message. Information security is a daily concern for organizations of any size, particularly those that handle any type of personal information, financial data, health-care data, educational data, or other types of data that are regulated by the laws of the country in which they operate.
In the case of an organization that does not take the time to properly put itself on a good footing as relates to information security, the reper- cussions can be severe in the sense of reputational impact, fines, lawsuits, or even the inability to continue conducting business if critical data is irretrievably lost.
In short, information security is a key component of the modern business world. SUMMARY Information security is a vital component to the era in which data regarding countless individuals and organizations is stored in a variety of computer systems, often not under our direct control. When discussing information security in a general sense, it is important to remember that security and productivity are often diametrically opposing concepts, and that being able to point out exactly when we are secure is a difficult task.
When discussing information security issues or situations, it is helpful to have a model by which to do so. Two potential models are the CIA triad, composed of confidentiality, integrity, and availability, and the Parkerian hexad, composed of confidentiality, integrity, availability, possession or control, authenticity, and utility.
When we look at the threats we might face, it is important to understand the concept of risk. We only face risk from an attack when a threat is present and we have a vulnerability which that particular threat can exploit. In order to mitigate risk, we use three main types of controls: physical, logical, and administrative. Defense in depth is a particularly important concept in the world of information security. To build defensive measures using this concept, we put in place multiple layers of defense, each giving us an additional layer of protection.
The idea behind defense in depth is not to keep an attacker out permanently but to delay him long enough to alert us to the attack and to allow us to mount a more active defense. Explain the difference between a vulnerability and a threat. List six items that might be considered logical controls. What term might we use to describe the usefulness of data? Which category of attack is an attack against confidentiality? How do we know at what point we can consider our environment to be secure?
Using the concept of defense in depth, what layers might we use to secure ourselves against someone removing confidential data from our office on a USB flash drive? Based on the Parkerian hexad, what principles are affected if we lose a shipment of encrypted backup tapes that contain personal and payment information for our customers?
If we develop a new policy for our environment that requires us to use complex and automatically generated passwords that are unique to each system and are a minimum of 30 characters in length, such as! Considering the CIA triad and the Parkerian hexad, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each model? Fighting computer crime.
Wiley; , ISBN: In short, identification is the claim of what someone or some- thing is, and authentication establishes whether this claim is true. We can see such processes taking place on a daily basis in a wide variety of ways. One very common example of an identification and authentication transaction can be found in the use of payment cards that require a personal identification num- ber PIN.
When we swipe the magnetic strip on the card, we are asserting that we are the person indicated on the card. At this point, we have given the identification but nothing more. When we are prompted to enter the PIN associated with the card, we are completing the authentication portion of the transaction. Some of the identification and authentication methods that we use in daily life are particularly fragile and depend largely on the honesty and diligence of those involved in the transaction.
Many such exchanges that involve the showing of identification cards, such as the purchase of items restricted to those above a cer- tain age, are based on the theory that the identification card being displayed is genuine and accurate. We also depend on the person or system performing the authentication being competent and capable of not only performing the act of authentication but also being able to accurately detect false or fraudulent activity.
We can use a number of methods for identification and authentication, from the simple use of usernames and passwords, to purpose-built hardware tokens that serve to establish our identity in multiple ways. We will discuss several of these methods and how they are used throughout the chapter. Identification Identification, as we mentioned in the preceding section, is simply an assertion of who we are.
This may include who we claim to be as a person, who a computer sys- tem claims to be over the network, who the originating party of an e-mail claims to be, what authority we claim to have, or similar transactions. It is important to note that the process of identification does not extend beyond this claim and does not involve any sort of verification or validation of the identity that we claim. That part of the process is referred to as authentication and is a separate transaction. Who we claim to be Who we claim to be is a tenuous concept, at best.
We can identify ourselves by our full names, shortened versions of our names, images of ourselves, nicknames, account numbers, usernames, ID cards, fingerprints, DNA samples, and an enormous variety of other methods. Who we claim to be can, in many cases, be an item of information that is sub- ject to change. For instance, our names can change, as in the case of women who change their last name upon getting married, people who legally change their name to an entirely different name, or even people who simply elect to use a different name.
In addition, we can generally change logical forms of identification very eas- ily, as in the case of account numbers, usernames, and the like. Even physical iden- tifiers, such as height, weight, skin color, and eye color, can be changed. One of the most crucial factors to realize when we are working with identification is that an invalidated claim of identity is not reliable information on its own.
Identity verification Identity verification is a step beyond identification, but it is still a step short of authentication, which we will discuss in the next section. As an identity verification, this is very superficial, at best. We can take the example a bit further and validate the form of identifica- tion�say, a passport�against a database holding an additional copy of the infor- mation that it contains, and matching the photograph and physical specifications with the person standing in front of us.
This may get us a bit closer, but we are still not at the level of surety we gain from authentication. Identity verification is used not only in our personal interactions but also in computer systems. In many cases, such as when we send an e-mail, the identity we provide is taken to be true, without any additional steps taken to authenticate us. Such gaps in security contribute to the enormous amount of spam traffic that we see, estimated to have accounted for Falsifying identification As we have discussed, methods of identification are subject to change.
As such, they are also subject to falsification. This constant struggle between security measures and criminals is also going on in the virtual world. On a slightly more sinister note, such falsified means of identification are also used by criminals and terrorists for a variety of tasks of a nefarious nature. This type of attack is unfortunately common and easy to execute. Given a minimal amount of information�usually a name, address, and Social Security number are sufficient�it is possible to imperson- ate someone to a sufficient degree to be able to act as that person in many cases.
Victims of identity theft may find that lines of credit, credit cards, vehicle loans, home mortgages, and other transactions have taken place using their stolen identity. Such crimes are made easier due to the lack of authentication requirements for many of the activities in which we engage. In most cases, the only check that takes place is identity verification, as we discussed in the preceding section. This process is a small obstacle, at best, and can easily be circumvented using falsified forms of identification.
To rectify this situation, we need to complete the process of identifying and authenticating the people involved in these transactions, in order to at least more conclusively prove that we are actually interacting with the people we believe we are.
In the case of individuals, this is not an unsolvable technical problem by any extent, but it is more of a people problem. When we look at similar issues for computer systems and environments, we can see many of the same difficulties. It is entirely possible to send an e-mail from an address that is different from the actual sending address, and this tactic is used by spammers and social-engineering-based attacks on a regular basis.
We can see the same problems in many other systems and protocols that are in daily use and are part of the functionality of the Internet. We will discuss such issues at greater length in Chapter Authentication Authentication is, in an information security sense, the set of methods we use to establish a claim of identity as being true. It is important to note that authentica- tion only establishes whether the claim of identity that has been made is correct.
Authentication does not infer or imply anything about what the party being authenticated is allowed to do; this is a separate task known as authorization. We will discuss authorization at greater length in Chapter 3, but the important thing to understand for now is that authentication needs to take place first. Factors In terms of authentication, there are several methods we can use, with each cate- gory referred to as a factor.
Within each factor, there are a number of possible methods we can use. When we are attempting to authenticate a claim of identity, the more factors we use, the more positive our results will be.
Something you know is a very common authentication factor. This can include passwords, PINs, passphrases, or most any item of information that a person can remember. We can see a very common implementation of this in the passwords we use to log in to our accounts on computers.
This is somewhat of a weak factor because if the information the factor depends on is exposed, this can nullify the uniqueness of our authentication method. Something you are is a factor based on the relatively unique physical attributes of an individual, often referred to as biometrics.
This factor can be based on sim- ple attributes, such as height, weight, hair color, or eye color, but these do not tend to be unique enough to make very secure identifiers. More commonly used are more complex identifiers such as fingerprints, iris or retina patterns, or facial characteristics. This factor is a bit stronger, as forging or stealing a copy of a physical identifier is a somewhat more difficult, although not impossible, task. There is some question as to whether biometrics truly is an authentication factor or whether it really only constitutes verification.
We will discuss this again later in the chapter when we cover biometrics in greater depth. Something you have is a factor generally based on the physical possession of an item or a device, although this factor can extend into some logical concepts as well. We can see such factors in general use in the form of ATM cards, state or federally issued identity cards, or software-based security tokens, as shown in Figure 2. This factor can vary in strength depending on the implementation.
In the case of a security token, we would actually need to steal a specific device in order to falsify the authentication method. In the case of access to an e-mail address being used as this type of factor, we have a measure of considerably less strength. Something you do, sometimes considered a variation of something you are, is a factor based on the actions or behaviors of an individual. These factors present a very strong method of authentication and are very difficult to falsify or create false positive.
They do, however, have the potential to create false negative and incorrectly reject legiti- mate users at a higher rate than some of the other factors, resulting in denials for some users that should actually be authenticated.
Where you are is a geographically based authentication factor. This factor operates differently than the other factors, as its method of authentication depends on the person being authenticated as being physically present at a particular loca- tion or locations. The most common implementation of this is for servers to only be accessible from a terminal in the server room.
This factor, although potentially of less utility than some of the other factors, is very difficult to counter without entirely subverting the system performing the authentication or gaining physical access.
Multifactor authentication Multifactor authentication uses one or more of the factors we discussed in the pre- ceding section. This practice is also referred to, in some cases, as two-factor authentication when we are using only two factors, but multifactor authentication encompasses this term as well.
Information systems security and legal compliance are now required to protect critical governmental and corporate infrastructure, intellectual property created by individuals and organizations alike, and information that individuals believe should be protected from unreasonable intrusion.
Organizations must build numerous information security and privacy responses into their daily operations to protect the business itself, fully meet legal requirements, and to meet the expectations of employees and customers.
Increasingly, organisations rely on information for their day-to-day operations, and the loss or unavailability of information �. Revised and updated with the latest data in the field, the Second Edition of Managing Risk �.
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Please try again later. Verified Purchase. Overall a good book, with lots of examples and case studies. This book actually applied in my ERAU class. I love the copy and paste feature that brings and APA formatted citation with it. I just wish they had this semesters eBook. Maybe I'm being too critical, but the volume of misspellings in this textbook is greater than any book I've had to study in 8 years of college. The information is useful and up-to-date but the errors take you out of the moment, especially when they are in multiple choice answers.
Came in a timely manner for my class. Gives relevant information that is important to legal issues concerning Cyber Security. I have to use this book for my class, It has taught me the information I never knew. I love this book great book for school I have no issues with this. One person found this helpful. See all reviews. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. Back to top. Get to Know Us. Make Money with Us. Amazon Payment Products. Let Us Help You.
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Information systems security and legal compliance are now required to protect critical governmental and corporate infrastructure, intellectual property created by individuals and organizations alike, and information that individuals believe should be protected from unreasonable intrusion.
Organizations must build numerous information security and privacy responses into their daily operations to protect the business itself, fully meet legal requirements, and to meet the expectations of employees and customers. Increasingly, organisations rely on information for their day-to-day operations, and the loss or unavailability of information �. Revised and updated with the latest data in the field, the Second Edition of Managing Risk �.
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Hp officejet 4650 download software | You learn in Chapter 5 how complexity can easily get in the way of comprehensive testing of security mechanisms. Start your free issuse. Both B and C 7. If we use multiple com- puters, these times can be reduced. We could also argue that the signature and fingerprint are, in this case, not actually authentication, but rather verification, a much less robust process that we discussed when talking about identity earlier in the chapter. More advanced To further explore the idea, we can look at the specific example of one of the files shown source Figure 3. For instance, in one of our earlier examples, we had a shipment of backup tapes, some of which were encrypted and some of which were not. |
Dbz mugen pc download | Mitigating risks In order to help us mitigate risk, we can put measures in place to help ensure that a given type of threat is accounted for. Continue reading cost of the security we put in place should never outstrip the value of what it is protecting. The downside is that it will make interacting with anyone not familiar with a given architecture difficult. By the time the general public is made aware, the hacker community has already developed a workable exploit and disseminated it far and wide to take advantage of the flaw before it can be patched or closed down. Yet in late Aprilthieves broke into the museum, evaded the layered security system, and made off with the three masterpieces. No matter how many downloxd we put in place, or how many defensive measures we place at each layer, we will not be able dpf keep every attacker out for an indefinite period of time, nor continue reading this the ultimate goal of defense in depth in an information security setting. |
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