I recently had the pleasure of performing one of the best security assessments I’ve ever done. It was great: I didn’t find any gaps. Not a one. To some people, it might come as a surprise that I’d consider that a good assessment. And I’ll admit, it made me a bit suspicious. Nothing? Seriously? Well, I had to look into why, and I’ll get to that in a moment. But let’s cover something else first. I’ve been on both sides of the table for security audits. Being audited is Not Fun. You have someone coming in, looking over all your processes, and it’s up to you to prove that you’re doing what you’re actually doing, often for reasons that seem[…]
Category: risk management
A few years ago, a friend of mine served in Afghanistan. It was, as he described it, a long and mostly dull duty. When not busy with soldierly duties, he wrote on his blog and took pictures, often of the rather picturesque – to those who didn’t have to traverse it – scenery. At one point, however, he was informed that these landscape pictures were, in fact, an operational security violation. Not the ones taken in-camp, but the gorgeous panoramas of Afghani mountains and valleys. The theory was that, using those pictures, insurgents could find their position. My friend’s response was succinct: “I think they already know about the mountains, sir.” In a previous job, I was charged with creating[…]
Sometimes it can be a daunting task to keep up with computer security best practices, especially when it comes to prevention. There is an almost unlimited amount of things to take into account, not to mention significant decisions on which risks you need to address and which aren’t worth the effort. In addition, many different people have many different ideas about what’s important when it comes to baseline mitigation. This may explain why there are so many sources on the topic, often with different core focuses in mind. For example, Cisco’s Network Security Baseline is geared towards networking configuration, while the PCI-DSS regulations are focused on the technology surrounding credit /debit cards. The truth is that no one set of[…]
In light of the recent Epsilon data breach, it seems appropriate to chat briefly about the realities of balancing information risk. First and foremost, we need to make sure that we understand this thing called “risk.” In our context, risk is defined as “the probable frequency and probable magnitude of future loss” (based on Jack Jones’ FAIR definition). Put into practical terms, risk is the likelihood that we’ll experience a negative event. We then balance that out against the cost of defending against various scenarios (i.e., trying to reduce or transfer that risk), with the goal being to optimize cost vs. benefit. Let’s look at a couple practical examples.