1. Information Security Governance and Risk

Management

Objective Information Security Management

The Big Three - CIA

Security Governance

• Policies, Procedures, Standards & Guidelines

• Organizational Structures

• Roles and Responsibilities

Information Classification

Risk Management

Security Awareness training

Information Security Management To protect an organization’s valuable resources,

such as information, hardware, and software

Identification of an organization’s information

assets

The development, documentation, and

implementation of policies, standards,

procedures, and guidelines

Ensure Availability, Integrity and Confidentiality

CIA - ConfidentialityConfidentiality

Protection of information within systems so that unauthorized people, resources, and processes cannot access that information

The Threat Hackers, Masqueraders, Unauthorized user activity Unprotected downloaded files, networks, and

unauthorized programs (e.g., Trojan horses and viruses) Social Engineering

The Action Granting access on a need-to-know (least privilege) basis Well-Formed Transaction Awareness

CIA - IntegrityIntegrity

Protection of Information System or Processes from intentional or accidental unauthorized changes

The Threat Hackers, Masqueraders, Unauthorized user activity Unprotected downloaded files, networks, and

unauthorized programs (e.g., Trojan horses and viruses) Authorized users can corrupt data and programs

accidentally or intentionally

The Action Granting access on a need-to-know (least privilege) basis Separation of duties Rotation of duties

CIA – Integrity Cont…The Action

Granting access on a need-to-know (least privilege) basis Separation of duties Rotation of duties

Separation of Duties No single employee has control of a transaction from

beginning to endRotation of Duties

Change Job assignments periodically Works well when used in conjunction with a separation of

duties Helps organization when losing a key employee

“The security program must employ a careful balance between ideal security and practical

productivity”

CIA - AvailabilityAvailability

Availability is the assurance that a computer system is accessible by authorized users whenever needed.

The Threat Denial of Service & Distributed Denial of Service Natural disasters (e.g., fires, floods, storms, or earthquakes) Human actions (e.g., bombs or strikes)

The Action Contingency planning — which may involve business

resumption planning, alternative-site processing, or simply disaster recovery planning — provides an alternative means of processing, thereby ensuring availability.

Physical, Technical, and Administrative controls are important aspects of security initiatives

CIA – Availability Cont…The Physical controls

Restrict unauthorized persons from coming into contact with computing resources and Facilities

The Technical controls Fault-tolerance mechanisms (e.g., hardware

redundancy, disk mirroring, and application checkpoint restart)

Electronic vaulting (i.e., automatic backup to a secure, off-site location)

Access control software to prevent unauthorized users

The Administrative controls access control policies, operating procedures,

contingency planning, and user training

Ensuring CIA

• Think in terms of the core information

security principles

• How does this threat impact the CIA?

• What controls can be used to reduce

the risk to CIA?

• If we increase confidentiality, will we

decrease availability? And Vice versa

Security Governance

• Security Governance is the

organizational processes and

relationships for managing risk−Policies, Procedures, Standards,

Guidelines, Baselines−Organizational Structures−Roles and Responsibilities

Security Governance - Reference Policy - An information security policy contains senior

management’s directives to create an information

security program, establish its goals, measures, and

target and assign responsibilities

Standards - Standards are mandatory activities,

actions, rules, or regulations designed to provide

policies with the support structure and specific

direction they require to be meaningful and effective

Procedures - Procedures spell out the step-by-step

specifics of how the policy and the supporting

standards and guidelines will actually be implemented

in an operating environment

Security Governance - Reference Guidelines - Guidelines are more general statements

designed to achieve the policy’s objectives by

providing a framework within which to implement

controls not covered by procedures

Baselines - Baselines are similar to standards but

account for differences in technologies and versions

from different vendors

Security Governance - Reference

Organizational Structure

• Audit should be separate from

implementation and operations

• Responsibilities for security should be

defined in job descriptions

• Senior management has ultimate

responsibility for security

• Security officers/managers have

functional responsibility

Organizational Structure

Directors

IT Security

CIO

President

Auditor AnalystArchitect

Compliance

Roles & Responsibilities Information owner - A business executive or

business manager who is responsible for a company business information asset

Information custodian - The information custodian, usually an information technology or operations person, is the system administrator or operator for the Information Owner, with primary responsibilities dealing with running the program for the owner and backup and recovery of the business information

Application owner - Manager of the business unit who is fully accountable for the performance of the business function served by the application

User manager - The immediate manager or supervisor of an employee

Roles & Responsibilities Security administrator - Any company employee who

owns an “administrative” user ID that has been assigned attributes or privileges that are associated with any type of access control system

Security analyst - Person responsible for determining the data security directions (strategies, procedures, guidelines) to ensure information is controlled and secured based on its value, risk of loss or compromise, and ease of recoverability

Change control analyst - Person responsible for analyzing requested changes to the Information Technology infrastructure and determining the impact on applications

Data analyst - This person analyzes the business requirements to design the data structures and recommends data definition standards and physical platforms

Roles & Responsibilities Solution provider - Person who participates in the

solution (application) development and delivery processes in deploying business solutions

End user - Any employee, contractor, or vendor of the company who uses information systems resources as part of their job

Process owner - This person is responsible for the management, implementation, and continuous improvement of a process that has been defined to meet a business need

Product line manager - Person responsible for understanding business requirements and translating them into product requirements, working with the vendor/user area

Information ClassificationInformation Protection Requirements

Data confidentiality, integrity, and availability are improved

because appropriate controls are used for all data across the

enterprise

The organization gets the most for its information protection

dollar because protection mechanisms are designed and

implemented where they are needed most, and less costly

controls can be put in place for non-critical information

The quality of decisions is improved because the data upon

which the decisions are made can be trusted

The company is provided with a process to review all

business functions and informational requirements on a

periodic basis to determine appropriate data classifications

Information Classification Getting started: questions to ask

• Is there an executive sponsor for this project?• What are you trying to protect, and from what?• Are there any regulatory requirements to consider?• Has the business accepted ownership responsibilities for the

data?

Policy• An essential tool in establishing a data classification scheme• Define information as an asset of the business unit• Declare local business managers as the owners of information• Establish IT as the custodians of corporate information• Clearly define roles and responsibilities of those involved in

the ownership and classification of information• Define the classifications and criteria that must be met for

each• Determine the minimum range of controls to be established

for each classification

Data Classification Classification is part of a mandatory access control

model to ensure that sensitive data is properly

controlled and secured

DoD multi-level security policy has 4 classifications: Top Secret Secret Confidential Unclassified

Other levels in use are: Eyes only Officers only Company confidential Public

Data Classification• Criteria

− Value− Age− Useful Life− Personal Association

• Government classifications− Top Secret− Secret− Confidential− Sensitive but Unclassified− Unclassified

• Private Sector

classifications− Confidential− Private− Sensitive− Public

Data Classification Top Secret - applies to the most sensitive business information

which is intended strictly for use within the organization.

Unauthorized disclosure could seriously and adversely impact the

company, stockholders, business partners, and/or its customers

Secret - Applies to less sensitive business information which is

intended for use within a company. Unauthorized disclosure could

adversely impact the company, its stockholders, its business

partners, and/or its customers

Confidential - Applies to personal information which is intended for

use within the company. Unauthorized disclosure could adversely

impact the company and/or its employees

Unclassified - Applies to all other information which does not clearly

fit into any of the above three classifications. Unauthorized

disclosure isn’t expected to seriously or adversely impact the

company

Risk Management The processes of identifying, analyzing and

assessing, mitigating, or transferring risk are generally characterized as Risk Management

Risk Management Process What could happen (threat event)? If it happened, how bad could it be (threat

impact)? How often could it happen (threat frequency,

annualized)? How certain are the answers to the first three

questions (recognition of uncertainty)? What can be done (risk mitigation)? How much will it cost (annualized)? Is it cost-effective (cost/benefit analysis)?

Risk ManagementRisk Analysis

This term represents the process of analyzing a target environment and the relationships of its risk-related attributes

Qualitative / Quantitative Quantitative risk analysis attempts to assign

independently objective numeric numbers (i.e., monetary values) to all elements of the risk analysis

Qualitative risk analysis, on the other hand, does not attempt to assign numeric values at all, but rather is scenario oriented

Risk ManagementRisk Assessment

This term represents the assignment of value to assets, threat frequency (annualized), consequence (i.e., exposure factors), and other elements of chance

Information Asset Information is regarded as an intangible asset

separate from the media on which it resides Simple cost of replacing the information The cost of replacing supporting software Costs associated with loss of the information’s

confidentiality, availability, and integrity Supporting hardware and network

Risk ManagementExposure Factor (EF)

A measure of the magnitude of loss or impact on the value of an asset

A percent, ranging from 0 to 100%, of asset value loss arising from a threat event

Single Loss ExpectancySingle Loss Expectancy = Asset Value X Exposure Factor

Annualized Rate of Occurrence (ARO) The frequency with which a threat is expected to occur For example, a threat occurring once in ten years has an

ARO of 1/10 or 0.1

Annualized Loss Expectancy (ALE)Annualized Loss Expectancy = Single Loss Expectancy X

Annualized Rate of Occurrence

Risk ManagementProbability

The chance or likelihood that an event will occur For example, the probability of getting a 6 on a single roll of a

die is 1/6, or 0.16667 The Probability can between 0 to 1

Safeguard Risk Analysis and Assessment Cont… occurrence of a specified

threat or category of threats

Safeguard Effectiveness The degree, expressed as a percent, from 0 to 100%, to which

a safeguard can be characterized as effectively mitigating a vulnerability and reducing associated loss risks

Uncertainty The degree, expressed as a percent, from 0.0% to 100%, to

which there is less than complete confidence in the value of any element of the risk assessment

Risk ManagementEstablish Information Risk Management Policy

IRM policy should begin with a high-level policy statement and supporting objectives, scope, constraints, responsibilities, and approach

Communicate and Enforce

Establish an IRM Team Top Down Approach will work well

Establish IRM Methodology and Tools Determine current status of Information Security Plan Strategic risk assessment

Identify and Measure Risk Perform Risk Assessment based on the IRM policy and

IRM methodology & tools

Risk Management Asset Identification and Valuation

Threat Analysis

Vulnerability Analysis

Risk Evaluation

Interim Reports and Recommendations

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Establish Risk Acceptance Criteria Example : do not accept more than a 1 in 100 chance of

losing $1,000,000

Risk Treatment (Mitigate Risk / Transfer the Risk)

Safeguard Selection and Risk Mitigation Analysis

Final Report

Monitor Information Risk Management Performance

Risk ManagementQualitative versus Quantitative Approach

The Qualitative Approach is much more subjective approach to the valuation of information assets and the scaling of risk

In General the risks are described as “low,” “medium,” or “high”

The Quantitative is talks about real numbers Uses Algorithms ALE=ARO X (Asset Value X Exposure Factor = SLE)

Assume the asset value is $1M, the exposure factor is 50%, and the annualized rate of occurrence is 1/10 (once in ten years)

($1M X 50% = $500K) X 1/10 = $50K

Risk ManagementPros

Calculations, if any, are simple Usually not necessary to determine the monetary value of

Information (CIA) Not necessary to determine quantitative threat frequency

and impact data Not necessary to estimate the cost of recommended risk

mitigation measures and calculate cost/benefit because the process is not quantitative.

A general indication of significant areas of riskCons

The risk assessment and results are essentially subjective in both process and metrics

The perception of value may not realistically reflect actual value at risk

Only subjective indication of a problem It is not possible to track risk management performance

objectively when all measures are subjective

Risk ManagementPros

Meaningful statistical analysis is supported The value of information (CIA), as expressed in monetary terms

with supporting rationale, is better understood. Thus, the basis for expected loss is better understood

Information security budget decision making is supported Risk management performance can be tracked and evaluated. Risk assessment results are derived and expressed in

management’s language, monetary value, percentages, and probability annualized. Thus, risk is better understood.

Cons Calculations are complex. Not practical to execute a quantitative risk assessment without

using a recognized automated tool and associated knowledge bases,

A substantial amount of information gathering is required Standard, independent Threat population and threat frequency

knowledgebase not yet developed and maintained, so vendor dependent

Awareness Training Security policies, standards, procedures, baselines, and

guidelines Threats to physical assets and stored information Threats to open network environments Laws and regulations they are required to follow Specific organization or department policies they are

required to follow How to identify and protect sensitive (or classified)

information How to store, label, and transport information Who they should report security incidents to, regardless

of whether it is just a suspected or an actual incident Email/Internet policies and procedures Social engineering

Implementation (Delivery) Options

Posters Posting motivational and catchy slogans Videotapes Classroom instruction Computer-based delivery, such as CD-ROM, DVD,

intranet access, Web-based access, etc. Brochures/flyers Pens/pencils/key-chains (any type of trinket) with

motivational slogans Post-it notes with a message on protecting the

Information Technology system Stickers for doors and bulletin boards

Implementation (Delivery) Options

Cartoons/articles published monthly or quarterly in an in-house newsletter or specific department notices

Special topical bulletins (security alerts in this instance)

Monthly email notices related to security issues or email broadcasts of security advisories

Security banners or pre-logon messages that appear on the computer monitor

Distribution of items as an incentive

Questions & Feedback

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