Slides copyright 2010 by Paladin Group, LLC used with permission by UMBC Training Centers, LLC

Security+ Chapter 10 – Implementing Organizational Policies Brian E. Brzezicki

Security Policies (468) No company can have security without strong support from management and a structured plan. Security Policies are part of a security plan, they are used to provide structure and rules to ensure that security concerns are addressed. High level, not specific Standards and Guidelines provide the strength and detail that give the policies their support MUST be enforced, otherwise they are useless

Change Management (470) All organizations need to have Change Management Policies and procedures. Without structured change management, it is too easy for issues to pop up Changes are introduced that can cause disruption or problems Changes to systems/networks grow and cause problems recreating a system if needed.

Documentation (470) Systems, processes, procedures, and changes need to be documented. Failing to document can cause failure to recreate a system to it’s running state. documentation failures can also affect HR, legal and regulatory concerns

Patch Management (471) Systems need to be updated to remain in a secure state. However the patch management must also have a process to ensure that patching does not cause services outages, introduce bugs, or cause unexpected failures.

Due Diligence and Due Care (472) Due Diligence – research that an organization does to understand the risks it faces. Due Care – steps taken to protect against the risks an organization faces

Need to Know / Least Privi Least Privilege (473) lege Fundamental security concept that states a subject should only have the minimal about of knowledge or permissions that they NEED to perform their job functions.

Service Level Agreement (474) An agreement between a service provider and vendor that state the expected level of performance. Response time expected in a failure Amount of uptime for a system or network Performance metrics Required both from an engineering standpoint to ensure that solutions are appropriate, and also from a legal standpoint.

Personnel Policies

Personnel Policies (475) Human Resource Policies that deal directly with personnel. Behavior, expectations, conflict of interests, consequences. Some important personnel policies are Acceptable Use Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Mandatory Vacations Separation of Duties Job Rotation

Acceptable Use (475) Protects an organization by stating how systems and networks are allowed to be used. Should clearly state what type of actions are forbidden. This protects an organization from potential legal issues. Can anyone think of how acceptible Use policies protect an organization from legal issues?

Privacy Policy (n/b) A policy that states the level of privacy a user should expect. Organizations CANNOT monitor employees without the employees notified that they are being monitored. Login Banners should also be used to remind users of any system monitoring

Code of Ethics (476) A guide to drive a users behavior.

Mandatory Vacations (477) Ensuring that users take their vacations. Specifically to fight potential fraud Can also be used to ensure there are no personnel central points of failure

Separation of Duties (477) Ensure that no one employee can control any process from beginning to end Fights fraud Requires multiple people work together (collude) in-order to commit fraud

Job Rotation (477) Ensure that employees rotate or perform different functionalities, or that any single position can and is carried out by multiple people. Specifically to fight potential fraud Can also be used to ensure there are no personnel central points of failure

Education and Training (480) Employees are the week point in security. You must ensure employees have enough knowledge to be able to properly protect organizational assets. Education and Training are essential in that end. Some threats such as phishing can only effectively be counter through education and training.

Computer Disposal ( ) Often after an upgrade cycle computers (or copiers etc) are thrown away or donated to charities or sold. Any equipment that has storage should have the data sanitized. Secure deletion Reinstallation Physical destruction of storage media Degaussing of storage media

Incident Response Policies (485) Very important policies that are used to guide users in the case of an incident. Policies should include Incident Response Team Response Steps

Incident Response Team (485) Group of Employees with varying areas of expertise that are called to respond to an incident Senior Management Systems/Network engineers Security Analysts Public Relations

Response Steps (486) A response to an incident should be known before hand. Even though incidents include unexpected issues and concerns, there should be a structured plan with how to deal with them. Possible Steps: Identification of an incident Containment * Evidence collection * Investigation Eradication Recovery Procedure Changes * Possibly conflicting steps

Preservation Evidence (488) Preserving Evidence and keeping it reliable and untainted is critical if you want to pursue legal action. When doing forensics on a computer you should follow these steps 1.Dump system RAM 2.Power down system 3.Make a it bit level image of your hard drive (3 copies) 4.Analyze one of the images

Preserving Evidence (n/b) In the step above we mentioned you should make at least 3 bit level images of your hard drive the reasoning is One to store with the original hard drive, in case of loss of the original One to keep to verify the integrity of the original files compared to the files after analysis One to actually analyze

Chain of Custody (489) If you choose to collect evidence to present in a legal proceeding, proper steps must be taken from beginning to end to ensure the integrity of the evidence. Labeling evidence Ensuring that everyone that handles the evidence is logged Ensuring no un-authorized access to evidence

File Deletion Terms (n/b) When a user deletes a file, it’s not actually removed (unless using a highly secure OS) Some important terms relating to this are Free space – the space a file takes up that is still available after deletion (before something else uses it) Slack space – When file space is allocated, it is done in fixed sized blocks. A file will not actually use all this space. The unused area of a file even when in use is called the slack space. Information may be hidden in this space. (see visualization)

Slack Space (n/b) Hackers can hide data in the slack space to avoid detection