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INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT LECTURE 3: PLANNING FOR CONTINGENCIES You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there. – Yogi Berra
INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT
LECTURE 3: PLANNING FOR CONTINGENCIES
You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there. – Yogi Berra
Principles of Information Security Mgmt
Include the following characteristics that will be the focus of the current course (six P’s):
1. Planning2. Policy3. Programs4. Protection5. People6. Project Management
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsTC.html
Chapters 2 & 3
Chapter 4
Introduction
One study found that over 40% of businesses that don't have a disaster plan go out of business
after a major loss
Small Business Approaches
Introduction – 2012 Natural Disaster Map
Contingency Planning
• Contingency planning (CP)– The overall planning for unexpected events– Involves preparing for, detecting, reacting to, and
recovering from events that threaten the security of information resources and assets
Fundamentals of Contingency Planning
Incident Response
Disaster Recovery
Business Continuity
Developing a CP Document
• Develop the contingency planning policy statement
• Conduct the BIA • Identify preventive controls• Develop recovery strategies• Develop an IT contingency plan• Plan testing, training, and exercises• Plan maintenance
Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Provides detailed scenarios of each potential attack’s impact
Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.)
• The CP team conducts the BIA in the following stages:– Threat attack identification– Business unit analysis– Attack success scenarios– Potential damage assessment– Subordinate plan classification
• What are the goals of a BIA?
Management of Information Security, 3rd ed.
Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.)
• An organization that uses a risk management process will have identified and prioritized threats
• The second major BIA task is the analysis and prioritization of business functions within the organization• Each should be categorized
Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.)
• Create a series of scenarios depicting impact of successful attack on each functional area
• Attack profiles should include scenarios depicting typical attack including:(1) Methodology, (2) Indicators, (3) Broad consequences
• Estimate the cost
Should this be done in-house or outsourced?
NIST Business Process and Recovery Criticality
Key recovery measures: Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD) - total amount of
time the system owner is willing to accept for a mission/business process outage or disruption
Recovery time objective (RTO) - maximum amount of time that a system resource can remain unavailable before there is an unacceptable impact on other system resources and processes
Recovery point objective (RPO) - point in time, prior to a disruption or system outage, to which mission/business process data can be recovered after an outage
NIST Business Process and Recovery Criticality
Work Recovery Time (WRT) - amount of effort that is necessary to get the business function operational AFTER the technology element is recovered Can be added to the RTO to determine the realistic
amount of elapsed time before a business function is back in useful service
Total time needed to place the business function back in service must be shorter than the MTD
Must balance the cost of system inoperability against the cost of recovery
Timing and Sequence of CP Elements
Management of Information Security, 3rd ed.Figure 3-6 Contingency planning implementation timeline
Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning
Incident Response Plan
The question is not will an incident occur, but rather when an incident will occur
•A detailed set of processes and procedures that commence when an incident is detected
•When a threat becomes a valid attack, it is classified as an information security incident if it:
directed against information assets a realistic chance of success threatens the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of
information assets
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
Who creates the incident response plan?
•Planners develop and document the procedures that must be performed during the incident and immediately after the incident has ceased
•Separate functional areas may develop different procedures
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
• Develop procedures for tasks that must be performed in advance of the incident– Details of data backup schedules– Disaster recovery preparation– Training schedules– Testing plans– Copies of service agreements– Business continuity plans
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
Management of Information Security, 3rd ed.Figure 3-3 Incident response planning
Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
• Planning requires a detailed understanding of the information systems and the threats they face
• The IR planning team seeks to develop pre-defined responses that guide users through the steps needed to respond to an incident
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
• Incident classification – Determine whether an event is an actual incident
– Uses initial reports from end users, intrusion detection systems, host- and network-based virus detection software, and systems administrators
(Example: RSA Data Loss Prevention)
Incident Response Software
Incident Response Plan Tools
Incident Response Plan Tools
Incident Response Plan: Indicators
• Possible indicators• Probable indicators• Definite indicators
• When the following occur, the corresponding IR must be immediately activated Loss of availability Loss of integrity Loss of confidentiality Violation of policy Violation of law
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/16/169528579/outsourced-employee-sends-own-job-to-china-surfs-web
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
• Once an actual incident has been confirmed and properly classified
– IR team moves from the detection phase to the reaction phase
– A number of action steps must occur quickly and may occur concurrently
Incident Response Plan: Action Steps
1. Notification of key personnel (alert roster)
2. Assignment of tasks
3. Documentation of the incident
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
• The essential task of IR is to stop the incident or contain its impact
• Incident containment strategies focus on two tasks:
IRP: Stopping the Incident
Containment strategies
•Once contained and system control regained, incident recovery can begin
•Incident damage assessment
•An incident may increase in scope or severity to the point that the IRP cannot adequately contain the incident
IRP: Recovery Process
• Identify the vulnerabilities• Address the safeguards that failed• Evaluate monitoring capabilities (if present)• Restore the data from backups as needed• Restore the services and processes in use • Continuously monitor the system• Restore the confidence of the members
Incident Response Plan (cont’d.)
• When an incident violates civil or criminal law, it is the organization’s responsibility to notify the proper authorities• Involving law enforcement has both advantages and
disadvantages
Article: Incident Response – SANS Survey
Disaster Recovery Plan
• The preparation for and recovery from a disaster, whether natural or man made
• In general, an incident is a disaster when:
Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.)
• The key role of a DRP is defining how to reestablish operations at the location where the organization is usually located
• Common DRP classifications:• Natural Disasters• Human-made Disasters
• Scenario development and impact analysis– Used to categorize the level of threat of each potential
disaster
Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.)
Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.)
Discussion on Disaster Recovery Myths
Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.)
Discussion on Disaster Recovery Checklist
Business Continuity Plan
• Ensures critical business functions can continue in a disaster
• Activated and executed concurrently with the DRP when needed
• Relies on identification of critical business functions and the resources to support them
BCP: Strategies
• Continuity strategies
Business Continuity Plan:Site Options
• Hot Sites• Warm Sites• Cold Sites
• Other Alternatives: Timeshares, Service Bureaus, Mutual Agreements
Ex. RSA data centers – lease 2 - 10gig Ethernet lines between MA and NC
Business Continuity Plan (cont’d.)
• To get any BCP site running quickly organization must be able to recover data
• Options include:
Timing and Sequence of CP Elements
Figure 3-4 Incident response and disaster recovery
Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning
Timing and Sequence of BCP
Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning
Timing and Sequence of CP Elements
Management of Information Security, 3rd ed.Figure 3-6 Contingency planning implementation timeline
Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning
Business Resumption Planning
• Because the DRP and BCP are closely related, most organizations prepare them concurrently
Business Resumption Planning (cont’d.)
• Components of a simple disaster recovery plan – Name of agency– Date of completion or update of the plan and test date– Agency staff to be called in the event of a disaster – Emergency services to be called (if needed) in event of a
disaster
Business Resumption Planning (cont’d.)
• Components of a simple disaster recovery plan (cont’d.) – Locations of in-house emergency equipment and supplies– Sources of off-site equipment and supplies– Salvage priority list– Agency disaster recovery procedures– Follow-up assessment
Testing Contingency Plans
• Problems are identified during testing– Improvements can be made, resulting in a reliable plan
• Contingency plan testing strategies– Desk check– Structured walkthrough – Simulation – Parallel testing– Full interruption testing
Contingency Planning: Final Thoughts
• Iteration results in improvement
• A formal implementation of this methodology is a process known as continuous process improvement (CPI)
• Each time the plan is rehearsed it should be improved
• Constant evaluation and improvement lead to an improved outcome
