Chapter 1 : Exam Essentials

Auditor

An auditor is responsible for reviewing and verifying that the security policy is properly implemented and the derived security solutions are adequate. The auditor role may be assigned to a security professional or a trained user. The auditor produces compliance and effectiveness reports that are reviewed by the senior manager. Issues discovered through these reports are transformed into new directives assigned by the senior manager to security professionals or data custodians. However, the auditor is listed as the final role because the auditor needs a source of activity (that is, users or operators working in an environment) to audit or monitor.

Commercial Business / Private Sector Classifications

Confidential Private Sensitive Public

Threat Modeling: Focused on Software

If an organization develops software, it can consider potential threats against the software. Although organizations didn't commonly develop their own software years ago, it's common to do so today. Specifically, most organizations have a web presence, and many create their own web pages. Fancy web pages drive more traffic, but they also require more sophisticated programming and present additional threats.

Encryption

Encryption is the art and science of hiding the meaning or intent of a communication from unintended recipients. Encryption can take many forms and be applied to every type of electronic communication, including text, audio, and video files as well as applications themselves. Encryption is an important element in security controls, especially in regard to the transmission of data between systems. There are various strengths of encryption, each of which is designed and/or appropriate for a specific use or purpose. Weak or poor encryption can be considered as nothing more than obfuscation or potentially even security through obscurity.

STRIDE

Although STRIDE is typically used to focus on application threats, it is applicable to other situations, such as network threats and host threats. Other attacks may be more specific to network and host concerns, such as sniffing and hijacking for networks and malware and arbitrary code execution for hosts, but the six threat concepts of STRIDE are fairly broadly applicable. STRIDE is an acronym standing for the following: - Spoofing: An attack with the goal of gaining access to a target system through the use of a falsified identity. Spoofing can be used against Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, MAC addresses, usernames, system names, wireless network service set identifiers (SSIDs), email addresses, and many other types of logical identification. When an attacker spoofs their identity as a valid or authorized entity, they are often able to bypass filters and blockades against unauthorized access. Once a spoofing attack has successfully granted an attacker access to a target system, subsequent attacks of abuse, data theft, or privilege escalation can be initiated. - Tampering: Any action resulting in unauthorized changes or manipulation of data, whether in transit or in storage. Tampering is used to falsify communications or alter static information. Such attacks are a violation of integrity as well as availability. - Repudiation: The ability of a user or attacker to deny having performed an action or activity. Often attackers engage in repudiation attacks in order to maintain plausible deniability so as not to be held accountable for their actions. Repudiation attacks can also result in innocent third parties being blamed for security violations. - Information disclosure: The revelation or distribution of private, confidential, or controlled information to external or unauthorized entities. This could include customer identity information, financial information, or proprietary business operation details. Information disclosure can take advantage of system design and implementation mistakes, such as failing to remove debugging code, leaving sample applications and accounts, not sanitizing programming notes from client-visible content (such as comments in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents), using hidden form fields, or allowing overly detailed error messages to be shown to users. - Denial of service (DoS): An attack that attempts to prevent authorized use of a resource. This can be done through flaw exploitation, connection overloading, or traffic flooding. A DoS attack does not necessarily result in full interruption to a resource; it could instead reduce throughput or introduce latency in order to hamper productive use of a resource. Although most DoS attacks are temporary and last only as long as the attacker maintains the onslaught, there are some permanent DoS attacks. A permanent DoS attack might involve the destruction of a dataset, the replacement of software with malicious alternatives, or forcing a firmware flash operation that could be interrupted or that installs faulty firmware. Any of these DoS attacks would render a permanently damaged system that is not able to be restored to normal operation with a simple reboot or by waiting out the attackers. A full system repair and backup restoration would be required to recover from a permanent DoS attack. - Elevation of privilege: An attack where a limited user account is transformed into an account with greater privileges, powers, and access. This might be accomplished through theft or exploitation of the credentials of a higher-level account, such as that of an administrator or root. It also might be accomplished through a system or application exploit that temporarily or permanently grants additional powers to an otherwise limited account.

COBIT 5 is based on five key principles for governance and management of enterprise IT:

Principle 1: Meeting Stakeholder Needs Principle 2: Covering the Enterprise End-to-End Principle 3: Applying a Single, Integrated Framework Principle 4: Enabling a Holistic Approach Principle 5: Separating Governance From Management

Identification and authentication are often used together as a single two-step process.

Providing an identity is the first step, and providing the authentication factors is the second step. Without both, a subject cannot gain access to a system—neither element alone is useful in terms of security. In some systems, it may seem as if you are providing only one element but gaining access, such as when keying in an ID code or a PIN. However, in these cases either the identification is handled by another means, such as physical location, or authentication is assumed by your ability to access the system physically.

Public

Public is the lowest level of classification. This is used for all data that does not fit in one of the higher classifications. Its disclosure does not have a serious negative impact on the organization.

Governement / Military Classification

Top Secret Secret Confidential Sensitive but unclassified Unclassified

Top Secret

Top secret is the highest level of classification. The unauthorized disclosure of top-secret data will have drastic effects and cause grave damage to national security. Top-secret data is compartmentalized on a need-to-know basis such that a user could have top-secret clearance and have access to no data until the user has a need to know.

Unclassified

Unclassified is used for data that is neither sensitive nor classified. The disclosure of unclassified data does not compromise confidentiality or cause any noticeable damage. This is not technically a classification label; instead, it is a marking or label used to indicate use or management.

Visual, Agile, and Simple Threat (VAST)

VAST is a threat modeling concept based on Agile project management and programming principles. The goal of VAST is to integrate threat and risk management into an Agile programming environment on a scalable basis.

Confidentiality Security Controls

A wide range of security controls can provide protection for confidentiality, including, but not limited to, encryption, access controls, and steganography.

Availability

Availability means authorized subjects are granted timely and uninterrupted access to objects. Often, availability protection controls support sufficient bandwidth and timeliness of processing as deemed necessary by the organization or situation. If a security mechanism offers availability, it offers a high level of assurance that the data, objects, and resources are accessible to authorized subjects. Availability includes efficient uninterrupted access to objects and prevention of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Availability also implies that the supporting infrastructure—including network services, communications, and access control mechanisms—is functional and allows authorized users to gain authorized access. For availability to be maintained on a system, controls must be in place to ensure authorized access and an acceptable level of performance, to quickly handle interruptions, to provide for redundancy, to maintain reliable backups, and to prevent data loss or destruction.

Reduction Analysis

Reduction analysis is also known as decomposing the application, system, or environment. The purpose of this task is to gain a greater understanding of the logic of the product as well as its interactions with external elements. Whether an application, a system, or an entire environment, it needs to be divided into smaller containers or compartments. Those might be subroutines, modules, or objects if you're focusing on software, computers, or operating systems; they might be protocols if you're focusing on systems or networks; or they might be departments, tasks, and networks if you're focusing on an entire business infrastructure. Each identified sub-element should be evaluated in order to understand inputs, processing, security, data management, storage, and outputs.

Threat Modeling: Focused on Assets

This method uses asset valuation results and attempts to identify threats to the valuable assets. For example, a specific asset can be evaluated to determine if it is susceptible to an attack. If the asset hosts data, access controls can be evaluated to identify threats that can bypass authentication or authorization mechanisms.

Sensitive

Sensitive is used for data that is more classified than public data. A negative impact could occur for the company if sensitive data is disclosed.

Strategic Plan

strategic plan is a long-term plan that is fairly stable. It defines the organization's security purpose. It also helps to understand security function and align it to the goals, mission, and objectives of the organization. It's useful for about five years if it is maintained and updated annually. The strategic plan also serves as the planning horizon. Long-term goals and visions for the future are discussed in a strategic plan. A strategic plan should include a risk assessment.

These five elements represent the following processes of security:

- Identification: Claiming to be an identity when attempting to access a secured area or system - Authentication: Proving that you are that identity - Authorization: Defining the permissions (i.e., allow/grant and/or deny) of a resource and object access for a specific identity - Auditing: Recording a log of the events and activities related to the system and subjects - Accounting (aka accountability): Reviewing log files to check for compliance and violations in order to hold subjects accountable for their actions

The change control process of configuration or change management has several goals or requirements:

- Implement changes in a monitored and orderly manner. Changes are always controlled. - A formalized testing process is included to verify that a change produces expected results. - All changes can be reversed (also known as backout or rollback plans/procedures). - Users are informed of changes before they occur to prevent loss of productivity. - The effects of changes are systematically analyzed to determine whether security or business processes are negatively affected. - The negative impact of changes on capabilities, functionality, and performance is minimized. - Changes are reviewed and approved by a Change Advisory Board (CAB).

The following are benefits of using a data classification scheme:

- It demonstrates an organization's commitment to protecting valuable resources and assets. - It assists in identifying those assets that are most critical or valuable to the organization. - It lends credence to the selection of protection mechanisms. - It is often required for regulatory compliance or legal restrictions. - It helps to define access levels, types of authorized uses, and parameters for declassification and/or destruction of resources that are no longer valuable. - It helps with data lifecycle management which in part is the storage length (retention), usage, and destruction of the data.

Threat Modeling: Proactive Approach

A proactive approach to threat modeling takes place during the early stages of systems development, specifically during initial design and specifications establishment. This type of threat modeling is also known as a defensive approach. This method is based on predicting threats and designing in specific defenses during the coding and crafting process, rather than relying on post-deployment updates and patches. In most cases, integrated security solutions are more cost effective and more successful than those shoehorned in later. Unfortunately, not all threats can be predicted during the design phase, so reactive approach threat modeling is still needed to address unforeseen issues.

Procedures

A procedure or standard operating procedure (SOP) is a detailed, step-by-step how-to document that describes the exact actions necessary to implement a specific security mechanism, control, or solution. A procedure could discuss the entire system deployment operation or focus on a single product or aspect, such as deploying a firewall or updating virus definitions. In most cases, procedures are system and software specific. They must be updated as the hardware and software of a system evolve. The purpose of a procedure is to ensure the integrity of business processes. If everything is accomplished by following a detailed procedure, then all activities should be in compliance with policies, standards, and guidelines. Procedures help ensure standardization of security across all systems.

Threat Modeling: Reactive Approach

A reactive approach to threat modeling takes place after a product has been created and deployed. This deployment could be in a test or laboratory environment or to the general marketplace. This type of threat modeling is also known as the adversarial approach. This technique of threat modeling is the core concept behind ethical hacking, penetration testing, source code review, and fuzz testing. Although these processes are often useful in finding flaws and threats that need to be addressed, they unfortunately result in additional effort in coding to add in new countermeasures. Returning back to the design phase might produce better products in the long run, but starting over from scratch is massively expensive and causes significant time delays to product release. Thus, the shortcut is to craft updates or patches to be added to the product after deployment. This results in less effective security improvements (over-proactive threat modeling) at the cost of potentially reducing functionality and user-friendliness.

Abstraction

Abstraction is used for efficiency. Similar elements are put into groups, classes, or roles that are assigned security controls, restrictions, or permissions as a collective. Thus, the concept of abstraction is used when classifying objects or assigning roles to subjects. The concept of abstraction also includes the definition of object and subject types or of objects themselves (that is, a data structure used to define a template for a class of entities). Abstraction is used to define what types of data an object can contain, what types of functions can be performed on or by that object, and what capabilities that object has. Abstraction simplifies security by enabling you to assign security controls to a group of objects collected by type or function.

Integrity is dependent on confidentiality. Other concepts, conditions, and aspects of integrity include the following:

Accuracy: Being correct and precise Truthfulness: Being a true reflection of reality Authenticity: Being authentic or genuine Validity: Being factually or logically sound Nonrepudiation: Not being able to deny having performed an action or activity or being able to verify the origin of a communication or event Accountability: Being responsible or obligated for actions and results Responsibility: Being in charge or having control over something or someone Completeness: Having all needed and necessary components or parts Comprehensiveness: Being complete in scope; the full inclusion of all needed elements

Operational Plan

An operational plan is a short-term, highly detailed plan based on the strategic and tactical plans. It is valid or useful only for a short time. Operational plans must be updated often (such as monthly or quarterly) to retain compliance with tactical plans. Operational plans spell out how to accomplish the various goals of the organization. They include resource allotments, budgetary requirements, staffing assignments, scheduling, and step-by-step or implementation procedures. Operational plans include details on how the implementation processes are in compliance with the organization's security policy. Examples of operational plans are training plans, system deployment plans, and product design plans.

Risk-Based Management Concepts to the Supply Chain

Applying risk-based management concepts to the supply chain is a means to ensure a more robust and successful security strategy in organizations of all sizes. When purchases and acquisitions are made without security considerations, the risks inherent in those products remain throughout their deployment life span. A secure supply chain is one in which all of the vendors or links in the chain are reliable, trustworthy, reputable organizations that disclose their practices and security requirements to their business partners (although not necessarily to the public). Each link in the chain is responsible and accountable to the next link in the chain. Each hand-off from raw materials to refined products to electronics parts to computer components to the finished product is properly organized, documented, managed, and audited. The goal of a secure supply chain is to ensure that the finished product is of sufficient quality, meets performance and operational goals, and provides stated security mechanisms, and that at no point in the process was any element counterfeited or subjected to unauthorized or malicious manipulation or sabotage. It is important to evaluate the risks associated with hardware, software, and services. Products and solutions that have resilient integrated security are often more expensive than those that fail to have a security foundation. However, this additional initial expense is often a much more cost-effective expenditure than addressing security needs over the life of a poorly designed product. Thus, when considering the cost of a merger/acquisition, it is important to consider the total cost of ownership over the life of the product's deployment rather than just initial purchase and implementation. Acquisition does not relate exclusively to hardware and software. Outsourcing, contracting with suppliers, and engaging consultants are also elements of acquisition. Integrating security assessments when working with external entities is just as important as ensuring a product was designed with security in mind.

Security Awareness Training

Before actual training can take place, awareness of security as a recognized entity must be created for users. Once this is accomplished, training, or teaching employees to perform their work tasks and to comply with the security policy, can begin. All new employees require some level of training so they will be able to comply with all standards, guidelines, and procedures mandated by the security policy. Education is a more detailed endeavor in which students/users learn much more than they actually need to know to perform their work tasks. Education is most often associated with users pursuing certification or seeking job promotion.

Change Control/Management

Change in a secure environment can introduce loopholes, overlaps, missing objects, and oversights that can lead to new vulnerabilities. The only way to maintain security in the face of change is to systematically manage change. This usually involves extensive planning, testing, logging, auditing, and monitoring of activities related to security controls and mechanisms. The records of changes to an environment are then used to identify agents of change, whether those agents are objects, subjects, programs, communication pathways, or even the network itself. The goal of change management is to ensure that any change does not lead to reduced or compromised security. Change management is also responsible for making it possible to roll back any change to a previous secured state. Change management can be implemented on any system despite the level of security. Ultimately, change management improves the security of an environment by protecting implemented security from unintentional, tangential, or affected reductions in security. Although an important goal of change management is to prevent unwanted reductions in security, its primary purpose is to make all changes subject to detailed documentation and auditing and thus able to be reviewed and scrutinized by management. Change management should be used to oversee alterations to every aspect of a system, including hardware configuration and operating system (OS) and application software. Change management should be included in design, development, testing, evaluation, implementation, distribution, evolution, growth, ongoing operation, and modification. It requires a detailed inventory of every component and configuration. It also requires the collection and maintenance of complete documentation for every system component, from hardware to software and from configuration settings to security features.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is the concept of the measures used to ensure the protection of the secrecy of data, objects, or resources. The goal of confidentiality protection is to prevent or minimize unauthorized access to data. Confidentiality protection provides a means for authorized users to access and interact with resources, but it actively prevents unauthorized users from doing so. If a security mechanism offers confidentiality, it offers a high level of assurance that data, objects, or resources are restricted from unauthorized subjects. If a threat exists against confidentiality, unauthorized disclosure could take place. In general, for confidentiality to be maintained on a network, data must be protected from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure while in storage, in process, and in transit. Confidentiality and integrity depend on each other. Without object integrity (in other words, the inability of an object to be modified without permission), confidentiality cannot be maintained.

Declassification

Declassification is required once an asset no longer warrants or needs the protection of its currently assigned classification or sensitivity level. In other words, if the asset were new, it would be assigned a lower sensitivity label than it currently is assigned. When assets fail to be declassified as needed, security resources are wasted, and the value and protection of the higher sensitivity levels is degraded.

Identification

Identification is the process by which a subject professes an identity and accountability is initiated. A subject must provide an identity to a system to start the process of authentication, authorization, and accountability (AAA). Providing an identity can involve typing in a username; swiping a smart card; waving a proximity device; speaking a phrase; or positioning your face, hand, or finger for a camera or scanning device. Providing a process ID number also represents the identification process. Without an identity, a system has no way to correlate an authentication factor with the subject. Once a subject has been identified, the identity is accountable for any further actions by that subject. Simply claiming an identity does not imply access or authority. The identity must be proven (authentication) or verified (ensuring nonrepudiation) before access to controlled resources is allowed (verifying authorization). That process is authentication.

Integrity

Integrity is the concept of protecting the reliability and correctness of data. Integrity protection prevents unauthorized alterations of data. It ensures that data remains correct, unaltered, and preserved. Properly implemented integrity protection provides a means for authorized changes while protecting against intended and malicious unauthorized activities (such as viruses and intrusions) as well as mistakes made by authorized users (such as mistakes or oversights). For integrity to be maintained, objects must retain their veracity and be intentionally modified by only authorized subjects. If a security mechanism offers integrity, it offers a high level of assurance that the data, objects, and resources are unaltered from their original protected state. Alterations should not occur while the object is in storage, in transit, or in process. For integrity to be maintained on a system, controls must be in place to restrict access to data, objects, and resources. Additionally, activity logging should be employed to ensure that only authorized users are able to access their respective resources. Maintaining and validating object integrity across storage, transport, and processing requires numerous variations of controls and oversight.

Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis (PASTA)

Is a seven-stage threat modeling methodology. PASTA is a risk-centric approach that aims at selecting or developing countermeasures in relation to the value of the assets to be protected. Each stage of PASTA has a specific list of objectives to achieve and deliverables to produce in order to complete the stage. The following are the seven steps of PASTA: Stage I: Definition of the Objectives (DO) for the Analysis of Risks Stage II: Definition of the Technical Scope (DTS) Stage III: Application Decomposition and Analysis (ADA) Stage IV: Threat Analysis (TA) Stage V: Weakness and Vulnerability Analysis (WVA) Stage VI: Attack Modeling & Simulation (AMS) Stage VII: Risk Analysis & Management (RAM)

Layering

Layering, also known as defense in depth, is simply the use of multiple controls in a series. Using a multilayered solution allows for numerous, different controls to guard against whatever threats come to pass. When security solutions are designed in layers, a failed control should not result in exposure of systems or data. Only through a series configuration will each attack be scanned, evaluated, or mitigated by every security control. In a series configuration, failure of a single security control does not render the entire solution ineffective. If security controls were implemented in parallel, a threat could pass through a single checkpoint that did not address its particular malicious activity. Serial configurations are very narrow but very deep, whereas parallel configurations are very wide but very shallow. Parallel systems are useful in distributed computing applications, but parallelism is not often a useful concept in the realm of security. Layering also includes the concept that networks comprise numerous separate entities, each with its own unique security controls and vulnerabilities. In an effective security solution, there is a synergy between all networked systems that creates a single security front. Using separate security systems creates a layered security solution.

Nonrepudiation

Nonrepudiation ensures that the subject of an activity or who caused an event cannot deny that the event occurred. Nonrepudiation prevents a subject from claiming not to have sent a message, not to have performed an action, or not to have been the cause of an event. It is made possible through identification, authentication, authorization, accountability, and auditing. Nonrepudiation can be established using digital certificates, session identifiers, transaction logs, and numerous other transactional and access control mechanisms. A system built without proper enforcement of nonrepudiation does not provide verification that a specific entity performed a certain action. Nonrepudiation is an essential part of accountability. A suspect cannot be held accountable if they can repudiate the claim against them.

Confidentiality Attacks / Violations

Numerous attacks focus on the violation of confidentiality. These include capturing network traffic and stealing password files as well as social engineering, port scanning, shoulder surfing, eavesdropping, sniffing, escalation of privileges, and so on. Violations of confidentiality are not limited to directed intentional attacks. Many instances of unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential information are the result of human error, oversight, or ineptitude. Events that lead to confidentiality breaches include failing to properly encrypt a transmission, failing to fully authenticate a remote system before transferring data, leaving open otherwise secured access points, accessing malicious code that opens a back door, misrouted faxes, documents left on printers, or even walking away from an access terminal while data is displayed on the monitor. Confidentiality violations can result from the actions of an end user or a system administrator. They can also occur because of an oversight in a security policy or a misconfigured security control.

Authorization

Once a subject is authenticated, access must be authorized. The process of authorization ensures that the requested activity or access to an object is possible given the rights and privileges assigned to the authenticated identity. In most cases, the system evaluates an access control matrix that compares the subject, the object, and the intended activity. If the specific action is allowed, the subject is authorized. If the specific action is not allowed, the subject is not authorized. Keep in mind that just because a subject has been identified and authenticated does not mean they have been authorized to perform any function or access all resources within the controlled environment. It is possible for a subject to be logged onto a network (that is, identified and authenticated) but to be blocked from accessing a file or printing to a printer (that is, by not being authorized to perform that activity). Most network users are authorized to perform only a limited number of activities on a specific collection of resources. Identification and authentication are all-or-nothing aspects of access control. Authorization has a wide range of variations between all or nothing for each object within the environment. A user may be able to read a file but not delete it, print a document but not alter the print queue, or log on to a system but not access any resources. Authorization is usually defined using one of the models of access control, such as Discretionary Access Control (DAC), Mandatory Access Control (MAC), or Role Based Access Control (RBAC or role-BAC)

Secret

Secret is used for data of a restricted nature. The unauthorized disclosure of data classified as secret will have significant effects and cause critical damage to national security.

Security governance

Security governance is the collection of practices related to supporting, defining, and directing the security efforts of an organization. Security governance principles are often closely related to and often intertwined with corporate and IT governance. The common goal of governance is to maintain business processes while striving toward growth and resiliency. All forms of governance, including security governance, must be assessed and verified from time to time. Various requirements for auditing and validation may be present due to government regulations or industry best practices. Ultimately, security governance is the implementation of a security solution and a management method that are tightly interconnected. Security governance directly oversees and gets involved in all levels of security. Security is not and should not be treated as an IT issue only. Instead, security affects every aspect of an organization. It is no longer just something the IT staff can handle on their own. Security is a business operations issue. Security is an organizational process, not just something the IT geeks do behind the scenes. Security governance is commonly managed by a governance committee or at least a board of directors. This is the group of influential knowledge experts whose primary task is to oversee and guide the actions of security and operations for an organization.

Sensitive But Unclassified

Sensitive but unclassified (SBU) is used for data that is for internal use or for office use only (FOUO). Often SBU is used to protect information that could violate the privacy rights of individuals. This is not technically a classification label; instead, it is a marking or label used to indicate use or management.

Threat Modeling: Focused on Attackers

Some organizations are able to identify potential attackers and can identify the threats they represent based on the attacker's goals. For example, a government is often able to identify potential attackers and recognize what the attackers want to achieve. They can then use this knowledge to identify and protect their relevant assets. A challenge with this approach is that new attackers can appear that weren't previously considered a threat.

Standards

Standards define compulsory requirements for the homogenous use of hardware, software, technology, and security controls. They provide a course of action by which technology and procedures are uniformly implemented throughout an organization. Standards are tactical documents that define steps or methods to accomplish the goals and overall direction defined by security policies.

Service Organization Control (SOC)

Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) is a regulation that defines how service organizations report on their compliance using the various SOC reports. The SOC1 audit focuses on a description of security mechanisms to assess their suitability. SOC2 audit focuses on implemented security controls in relation to availability, security, integrity, privacy, and confidentiality.

Data Owner

The data owner role is assigned to the person who is responsible for classifying information for placement and protection within the security solution. The data owner is typically a high-level manager who is ultimately responsible for data protection. However, the data owner usually delegates the responsibility of the actual data management tasks to a data custodian.

Senior Manager (Organizational Owner)

The organizational owner (senior manager) role is assigned to the person who is ultimately responsible for the security maintained by an organization and who should be most concerned about the protection of its assets. The senior manager must sign off on all policy issues. In fact, all activities must be approved by and signed off on by the senior manager before they can be carried out. There is no effective security policy if the senior manager does not authorize and support it. The senior manager's endorsement of the security policy indicates the accepted ownership of the implemented security within the organization. The senior manager is the person who will be held liable for the overall success or failure of a security solution and is responsible for exercising due care and due diligence in establishing security for an organization. Even though senior managers are ultimately responsible for security, they rarely implement security solutions. In most cases, that responsibility is delegated to security professionals within the organization.

Authentication

The process of verifying or testing that the claimed identity is valid is authentication. Authentication requires the subject to provide additional information that corresponds to the identity they are claiming. The most common form of authentication is using a password (this includes the password variations of personal identification numbers (PINs) and passphrases). Authentication verifies the identity of the subject by comparing one or more factors against the database of valid identities (that is, user accounts). The authentication factor used to verify identity is typically labeled as, or considered to be, private information. The capability of the subject and system to maintain the secrecy of the authentication factors for identities directly reflects the level of security of that system. If the process of illegitimately obtaining and using the authentication factor of a target user is relatively easy, then the authentication system is insecure. If that process is relatively difficult, then the authentication system is reasonably secure.

Security Professional

The security professional, information security (InfoSec) officer, or computer incident response team (CIRT) role is assigned to a trained and experienced network, systems, and security engineer who is responsible for following the directives mandated by senior management. The security professional has the functional responsibility for security, including writing the security policy and implementing it. The role of security professional can be labeled as an IS/IT function role. The security professional role is often filled by a team that is responsible for designing and implementing security solutions based on the approved security policy. Security professionals are not decision makers; they are implementers. All decisions must be left to the senior manager.

AAA services

The three A's in this abbreviation refer to authentication, authorization, and accounting (or sometimes auditing). However, it actually refers to five elements: identification, authentication, authorization, auditing, and accounting.

User

The user (end user or operator) role is assigned to any person who has access to the secured system. A user's access is tied to their work tasks and is limited so they have only enough access to perform the tasks necessary for their job position (the principle of least privilege). Users are responsible for understanding and upholding the security policy of an organization by following prescribed operational procedures and operating within defined security parameters.

Integrity Countermeasures

These include strict access control, rigorous authentication procedures, intrusion detection systems, object/data encryption, hash total verifications, interface restrictions, input/function checks, and extensive personnel training.

Threat Modeling

Threat modeling is the security process where potential threats are identified, categorized, and analyzed. Threat modeling can be performed as a proactive measure during design and development or as a reactive measure once a product has been deployed. In either case, the process identifies the potential harm, the probability of occurrence, the priority of concern, and the means to eradicate or reduce the threat. It's common for an organization to begin threat modeling early in the design process of a system and continue throughout its lifecycle. For example, Microsoft uses a Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) process to consider and implement security at each stage of a product's development. This supports the motto of "Secure by Design, Secure by Default, Secure in Deployment and Communication" (also known as SD3+C). It has two goals in mind with this process: - To reduce the number of security-related design and coding defects - To reduce the severity of any remaining defects

Trike

Trike is another threat modeling methodology that focuses on a risk-based approach instead of depending upon the aggregated threat model used in STRIDE and Disaster, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected Users, and Discoverability (DREAD) Trike provides a method of performing a security audit in a reliable and repeatable procedure. It also provides a consistent framework for communication and collaboration among security workers. Trike is used to craft an assessment of an acceptable level of risk for each class of asset that is then used to determine appropriate risk response actions.

Availability depends on both integrity and confidentiality

Without integrity and confidentiality, availability cannot be maintained. Other concepts, conditions, and aspects of availability include the following: - Usability: The state of being easy to use or learn or being able to be understood and controlled by a subject - Accessibility: The assurance that the widest range of subjects can interact with a resource regardless of their capabilities or limitations - Timeliness: Being prompt, on time, within a reasonable time frame, or providing low-latency response

Integrity can be examined from three perspectives:

- Preventing unauthorized subjects from making modifications - Preventing authorized subjects from making unauthorized modifications, such as mistakes - Maintaining the internal and external consistency of objects so that their data is a correct and true reflection of the real world and any relationship with any child, peer, or parent object is valid, consistent, and verifiable

Baseline

A baseline defines a minimum level of security that every system throughout the organization must meet. A baseline is a more operationally focused form of a standard. It takes the goals of a security policy and the requirements of the standards and defines them specifically in the baseline as a rule against which to implement and compare IT systems. All systems not complying with the baseline should be taken out of production until they can be brought up to the baseline. The baseline establishes a common foundational secure state on which all additional and more stringent security measures can be built. Baselines are usually system specific and often refer to an industry or government standard, like the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) or Information Technology Security Evaluation and Criteria (ITSEC) or NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) standards.

Guidelines

A guideline offers recommendations on how standards and baselines are implemented and serves as an operational guide for both security professionals and users. Guidelines are flexible so they can be customized for each unique system or condition and can be used in the creation of new procedures. They state which security mechanisms should be deployed instead of prescribing a specific product or control and detailing configuration settings. They outline methodologies, include suggested actions, and are not compulsory.

Security Policies

A security policy is a document that defines the scope of security needed by the organization and discusses the assets that require protection and the extent to which security solutions should go to provide the necessary protection. The security policy is an overview or generalization of an organization's security needs. It defines the main security objectives and outlines the security framework of an organization. It also identifies the major functional areas of data processing and clarifies and defines all relevant terminology. It should clearly define why security is important and what assets are valuable. It is a strategic plan for implementing security. It should broadly outline the security goals and practices that should be employed to protect the organization's vital interests. The document discusses the importance of security to every aspect of daily business operation and the importance of the support of the senior staff for the implementation of security. The security policy is used to assign responsibilities, define roles, specify audit requirements, outline enforcement processes, indicate compliance requirements, and define acceptable risk levels. This document is often used as the proof that senior management has exercised due care in protecting itself against intrusion, attack, and disaster. Security policies are compulsory.

Accountability

An organization's security policy can be properly enforced only if accountability is maintained. In other words, you can maintain security only if subjects are held accountable for their actions. Effective accountability relies on the capability to prove a subject's identity and track their activities. Accountability is established by linking a human to the activities of an online identity through the security services and mechanisms of auditing, authorization, authentication, and identification. Thus, human accountability is ultimately dependent on the strength of the authentication process. Without a strong authentication process, there is doubt that the human associated with a specific user account was the actual entity controlling that user account when the undesired action took place. To have viable accountability, you may need to be able to support your security decisions and their implementation in a court of law. If you are unable to legally support your security efforts, then you will be unlikely to be able to hold a human accountable for actions linked to a user account. With only a password as authentication, there is significant room for doubt. Passwords are the least secure form of authentication, with dozens of different methods available to compromise them. However, with the use of multifactor authentication, such as a password, smartcard, and fingerprint scan in combination, there is very little possibility that any other human could have compromised the authentication process in order to impersonate the human responsible for the user account.

Many organizations employ several types of security policies to define or outline their overall security strategy.

An organizational security policy focuses on issues relevant to every aspect of an organization. An issue-specific security policy focuses on a specific network service, department, function, or other aspect that is distinct from the organization as a whole. A system-specific security policy focuses on individual systems or types of systems and prescribes approved hardware and software, outlines methods for locking down a system, and even mandates firewall or other specific security controls. In addition to these focused types of security policies, there are three overall categories of security policies: regulatory, advisory, and informative. A regulatory policy is required whenever industry or legal standards are applicable to your organization. This policy discusses the regulations that must be followed and outlines the procedures that should be used to elicit compliance. An advisory policy discusses behaviors and activities that are acceptable and defines consequences of violations. It explains senior management's desires for security and compliance within an organization. Most policies are advisory. An informative policy is designed to provide information or knowledge about a specific subject, such as company goals, mission statements, or how the organization interacts with partners and customers. An informative policy provides support, research, or background information relevant to the specific elements of the overall policy. From the security policies flow many other documents or sub-elements necessary for a complete security solution. Policies are broad overviews, whereas standards, baselines, guidelines, and procedures include more specific, detailed information on the actual security solution. Standards are the next level below security policies.

Auditing

Auditing, or monitoring, is the programmatic means by which a subject's actions are tracked and recorded for the purpose of holding the subject accountable for their actions while authenticated on a system. It is also the process by which unauthorized or abnormal activities are detected on a system. Auditing is recording activities of a subject and its objects as well as recording the activities of core system functions that maintain the operating environment and the security mechanisms. The audit trails created by recording system events to logs can be used to evaluate the health and performance of a system. System crashes may indicate faulty programs, corrupt drivers, or intrusion attempts. The event logs leading up to a crash can often be used to discover the reason a system failed. Log files provide an audit trail for re-creating the history of an event, intrusion, or system failure. Auditing is needed to detect malicious actions by subjects, attempted intrusions, and system failures and to reconstruct events, provide evidence for prosecution, and produce problem reports and analysis.

Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT)

COBIT is a documented set of best IT security practices crafted by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). It prescribes goals and requirements for security controls and encourages the mapping of IT security ideals to business objectives. COBIT is used not only to plan the IT security of an organization but also as a guideline for auditors. COBIT is a widely recognized and respected security control framework.

Confidential

Confidential is the highest level of classification. This is used for data that is extremely sensitive and for internal use only. A significant negative impact could occur for a company if confidential data is disclosed. Sometimes the label proprietary is substituted for confidential. Sometimes proprietary data is considered a specific form of confidential information. If proprietary data is disclosed, it can have drastic effects on the competitive edge of an organization.

Confidential

Confidential is used for data of a sensitive, proprietary, or highly valuable nature. The unauthorized disclosure of data classified as confidential will have noticeable effects and cause serious damage to national security. This classification is used for all data between secret and sensitive but unclassified classifications.

Data Classification

Data classification, or categorization, is the primary means by which data is protected based on its need for secrecy, sensitivity, or confidentiality. It is inefficient to treat all data the same way when designing and implementing a security system because some data items need more security than others. Securing everything at a low security level means sensitive data is easily accessible. Securing everything at a high security level is too expensive and restricts access to unclassified, noncritical data. Data classification is used to determine how much effort, money, and resources are allocated to protect the data and control access to it. Data classification, or categorization, is the process of organizing items, objects, subjects, and so on into groups, categories, or collections with similarities. These similarities could include value, cost, sensitivity, risk, vulnerability, power, privilege, possible levels of loss or damage, or need to know. The primary objective of data classification schemes is to formalize and stratify the process of securing data based on assigned labels of importance and sensitivity. Data classification is used to provide security mechanisms for storing, processing, and transferring data. It also addresses how data is removed from a system and destroyed.

Data Hiding

Data hiding is preventing data from being discovered or accessed by a subject by positioning the data in a logical storage compartment that is not accessible or seen by the subject. Forms of data hiding include keeping a database from being accessed by unauthorized visitors and restricting a subject at a lower classification level from accessing data at a higher classification level. Preventing an application from accessing hardware directly is also a form of data hiding. Data hiding is often a key element in security controls as well as in programming.

Decomposition Process

In the decomposition process, you must identify five key concepts: Trust Boundaries - Any location where the level of trust or security changes Data Flow Paths - The movement of data between locations Input Points - Locations where external input is received Privileged Operations - Any activity that requires greater privileges than of a standard user account or process, typically required to make system changes or alter security Details about Security Stance and Approach - The declaration of the security policy, security foundations, and security assumptions Breaking down a system into its constituent parts makes it much easier to identity the essential components of each element as well as take notice of vulnerabilities and points of attack. The more you understand exactly how a program, system, or environment operates, the easier it is to identity threats to it.

Integrity Attacks / Violations

Numerous attacks focus on the violation of integrity. These include viruses, logic bombs, unauthorized access, errors in coding and applications, malicious modification, intentional replacement, and system back doors. As with confidentiality, integrity violations are not limited to intentional attacks. Human error, oversight, or ineptitude accounts for many instances of unauthorized alteration of sensitive information. Events that lead to integrity breaches include modifying or deleting files; entering invalid data; altering configurations, including errors in commands, codes, and scripts; introducing a virus; and executing malicious code such as a Trojan horse. Integrity violations can occur because of the actions of any user, including administrators. They can also occur because of an oversight in a security policy or a misconfigured security control.

Private

Private is used for data that is of a private or personal nature and intended for internal use only. A significant negative impact could occur for the company or individuals if private data is disclosed.

Security Management Planning Continued

Security management is a responsibility of upper management, not of the IT staff, and is considered an issue of business operations rather than IT administration. The team or department responsible for security within an organization should be autonomous. The information security (InfoSec) team should be led by a designated chief information security officer (CISO) who must report directly to senior management. Placing the autonomy of the CISO and the CISO's team outside the typical hierarchical structure in an organization can improve security management across the entire organization. It also helps to avoid cross-department and internal political issues. The term chief security officer (CSO) is sometimes used as an alternative to CISO, but in many organizations the CSO position is a subposition under the CISO that focuses on physical security. Another potential term for the CISO is information security officer (ISO), but this also can be used as a subposition under the CISO. Elements of security management planning include defining security roles; prescribing how security will be managed, who will be responsible for security, and how security will be tested for effectiveness; developing security policies; performing risk analysis; and requiring security education for employees. These efforts are guided through the development of management plans. The best security plan is useless without one key factor: approval by senior management. Without senior management's approval of and commitment to the security policy, the policy will not succeed. It is the responsibility of the policy development team to educate senior management sufficiently so it understands the risks, liabilities, and exposures that remain even after security measures prescribed in the policy are deployed. Developing and implementing a security policy is evidence of due care and due diligence on the part of senior management. If a company does not practice due care and due diligence, managers can be held liable for negligence and held accountable for both asset and financial losses.

Security Management Planning

Security management planning ensures proper creation, implementation, and enforcement of a security policy. Security management planning aligns the security functions to the strategy, goals, mission, and objectives of the organization. This includes designing and implementing security based on business cases, budget restrictions, or scarcity of resources. A business case is usually a documented argument or stated position in order to define a need to make a decision or take some form of action. To make a business case is to demonstrate a business-specific need to alter an existing process or choose an approach to a business task. A business case is often made to justify the start of a new project, especially a project related to security. It is also important to consider the budget that can be allocated to a business need-based security project. In most organizations, money and resources, such as people, technology, and space, are limited. Due to resource limitations like these, the maximum benefit needs to be obtained from any endeavor. One of the most effective ways to tackle security management planning is to use a top-down approach. Upper, or senior, management is responsible for initiating and defining policies for the organization. Security policies provide direction for all levels of the organization's hierarchy. It is the responsibility of middle management to flesh out the security policy into standards, baselines, guidelines, and procedures. The operational managers or security professionals must then implement the configurations prescribed in the security management documentation. Finally, the end users must comply with all the security policies of the organization.

DREAD

The DREAD rating system is designed to provide a flexible rating solution that is based on the answers to five main questions about each threat: Damage potential: How severe is the damage likely to be if the threat is realized? Reproducibility: How complicated is it for attackers to reproduce the exploit? Exploitability: How hard is it to perform the attack? Affected users: How many users are likely to be affected by the attack (as a percentage)? Discoverability: How hard is it for an attacker to discover the weakness? By asking these and potentially additional customized questions, along with assigning H/M/L or 3/2/1 values to the answers, you can establish a detailed threat prioritization.

Tactical Plan

The tactical plan is a midterm plan developed to provide more details on accomplishing the goals set forth in the strategic plan or can be crafted ad hoc based upon unpredicted events. A tactical plan is typically useful for about a year and often prescribes and schedules the tasks necessary to accomplish organizational goals. Some examples of tactical plans are project plans, acquisition plans, hiring plans, budget plans, maintenance plans, support plans, and system development plans.

Data Custodian

The data custodian role is assigned to the user who is responsible for the tasks of implementing the prescribed protection defined by the security policy and senior management. The data custodian performs all activities necessary to provide adequate protection for the CIA Triad (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) of data and to fulfill the requirements and responsibilities delegated from upper management. These activities can include performing and testing backups, validating data integrity, deploying security solutions, and managing data storage based on classification.

Diagramming Potential Attacks

The next step in threat modeling is to determine the potential attack concepts that could be realized. This is often accomplished through the creation of a diagram of the elements involved in a transaction along with indications of data flow and privilege boundaries This process of diagramming is also known as crafting an architecture diagram. The creation of the diagram helps to detail the functions and purpose of each element of a business task, development process, or work activity. It is important to include users, processors, applications, data-stores, and all other essential elements needed to perform the specific task or operation. This is a high-level overview and not a detailed evaluation of the coding logic. However, for more complex systems, multiple diagrams may need to be created at various focus points and at varying levels of detail magnification. Once a diagram has been crafted, identify all of the technologies involved. This would include operating systems, applications (network service and client based), and protocols. Be specific as to the version numbers and update/patch level in use. Next, identify attacks that could be targeted at each element of the diagram. Keep in mind that all forms of attacks should be considered, including logical/technical, physical, and social. For example, be sure to include spoofing, tampering, and social engineering. This process will quickly lead you into the next phase of threat modeling: reduction analysis.

Availability Threats / Attacks / Violations

There are numerous threats to availability. These include device failure, software errors, and environmental issues (heat, static, flooding, power loss, and so on). There are also some forms of attacks that focus on the violation of availability, including DoS attacks, object destruction, and communication interruptions. As with confidentiality and integrity, violations of availability are not limited to intentional attacks. Many instances of unauthorized alteration of sensitive information are caused by human error, oversight, or ineptitude. Some events that lead to availability breaches include accidentally deleting files, overutilizing a hardware or software component, under-allocating resources, and mislabeling or incorrectly classifying objects. Availability violations can occur because of the actions of any user, including administrators. They can also occur because of an oversight in a security policy or a misconfigured security control.

Availability Countermeasures

These include designing intermediary delivery systems properly, using access controls effectively, monitoring performance and network traffic, using firewalls and routers to prevent DoS attacks, implementing redundancy for critical systems, and maintaining and testing backup systems. Most security policies, as well as business continuity planning (BCP), focus on the use of fault tolerance features at the various levels of access/storage/security (that is, disk, server, or site) with the goal of eliminating single points of failure to maintain availability of critical systems.

Confidentiality Countermeasures

These include encryption, network traffic padding, strict access control, rigorous authentication procedures, data classification, and extensive personnel training.

Types of Authentication

for example, something you know (e.g., passwords, PINs), something you have (e.g., keys, tokens, smart cards), something you are (e.g., biometrics, such as fingerprints, iris, or voice recognition), and so on. Each authentication technique or factor has its unique benefits and drawbacks.