Ego cogito, ergo sum or: Think first and then act
• Misconceptions
• What are the tasks of a CISO?
There is a widely held misconception among CISOs, in that “if we are compliant, we are therefore secured”. Acting by way of a fixed set of responses based on regulatory or legislative drivers often provides a false sense of security.
A paradigm shift is necessary within the CISO community, realizing that compliance is not necessarily synonymous with security, and further, that the future motto of any CISO should be ‘Acting Instead of Reacting’. You have to move past just being compliant to managing the unique threats facing your organization. This is evident every day by the data breaches we see making headline news.
Complexity Reduces Security
Organizations in the public and private sectors depend on technology-intensive information systems to successfully carry out their missions and business functions. Information systems can include diverse entities ranging from high-end supercomputers, workstations, personal computers, cellular telephones, and personal digital assistants to very specialized systems (e.g., weapons systems, telecommunications systems, industrial/process control systems, and environmental control systems). Information systems are subject to serious threats that can have adverse effects on organizational operations, organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation by exploiting both known and unknown vulnerabilities to compromise the
As such, our company’s people resources pose the greatest risk for security breach. Our way to help mitigate risk in this area is to keep communication lines open in this area and to continually mandate security knowledge training, with mandatory updates on a regular basis. When the employees are informed of company policy when facing a security matter, they are better equipped to act in the best or right way. In this way knowledge is power – or at least empowerment to act in the best interest of the company’s information security.
Cyber security, also referred to as information technology security, focuses on protecting computers, networks, software programs and data from unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction. Post 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, the United States grows its endeavors to repulse cyberattacks, U.S. corporate organizations and the government agencies wind up in strife over how to adjust to new methods of security and privacy. The current state of security measure protocols and privacy policies placed by the US government in cyberspace raises concerns for the 99%. This is due to the recent cyber-attacks on American corporate organization systems and government alike, where their digital information and network infrastructures within the systems were compromised, and personal data was hacked and stolen.
In today’s IT world every organization has a responsibility to protect the information and sensitive data they have. Protecting data is not only responsibility of security and IT staff but every individual is involved in protecting the information. The risks to information security are not digital only, but it involves technology, people and process that an organization may have. These threats may represent the problems that are associated to complex and expensive solution, but doing nothing about these risks is not the solution.
The CISO has a meeting with the CIO at the end of this week. Now that the CIO is aware of the controls we've implemented to mitigate risks associated with external cyber attacks, he is interested in learning more about our internal security controls. The CISO has asked you to draft a summary on how routers can be used to reduce insider threat risks.
Cyberterrorism is a critical threat and is the most definitive characteristic of the U.S. contemporary security environment. For years, the American people have been victimized by cyber-attacks by having their personal information, emails, credit card, and banking information stolen by an invisible enemy named cyberterrorism. These types of attacks seem insignificant however; they are small examples of the vulnerabilities that our cyber world is experiencing. Our vulnerabilities are leaving our public officials in significant danger from cyber-attacks, as they are vulnerable to such things as the release of personal information and home addresses.
12, 2014. Based on the EO, the Cybersecurity Framework must include a set of standards, methodologies, procedures, and processes that align policy, business, and technological approaches to address cyber risks. It must provide a prioritized, flexible, repeatable, performance-based, and cost-effective approach, including information security measures and controls, to help owners and operators of critical infrastructure identify, assess, and manage cyber risk. The EO will create processes which identify areas for improvement to be addressed through future collaboration with particular sectors and standards-developing organizations. Lastly, the EO must be consistent with voluntary international
In the final chapter of CompTIA Security + Study Guide eBook, it covers some great topics, key elements of implementation, support, and managing the security efforts in a company or organization. It’s important for IT Professionals to understand their role in a company/ organization. It’s also extremely important for them to understand the boundaries of security within that company/organization. Adopting best security practices while adhering to company policies will ensure that both parties are happy. There are many fines lines with security management.
Suzanna is the Security and Controls Director at a publicly traded hospital system. As is typical for someone in this type of role, she’s juggling numerous concurrent information security and compliance objectives.
Suzanna is the Security and Controls Director at a publicly traded hospital system. As is typical for an IT leader with this type of role, she’s juggling numerous concurrent information security and compliance objectives.
This Roadmap to Compliance outlines the guiding principles of the Privacy and Security Plan, and will be a beneficial playbook for how the organization begins to operate in an ongoing state of compliance for
(Galligan, 2015) There are growing concerns at all levels of industry about the challenges posed by cyber-crime,” said Robert B. Hirth Jr., COSO chairperson. “This new guidance helps put organizations on the right path toward confronting and managing the frightening number of cyber-attacks.” (Perez, 2015) The annual Section 404 of SOX and the quarterly section of 302 of SOX should support this principle of COSO. (PROVITI,
Security Officers must obtain a consensus for which mitigating controls are key, which can be a trying negotiation between the CISO, Chief Technology Officer, Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), Infrastructure Engineering, Audit and Assurance teams, and the Investment and Audit committees. How do you harness your entire organization to focus on a common agreed-upon list of key security controls?
Prevalent to the current trend now is the dependency of the society on Information technology and communication systems. Every aspect of human life is one way or the other linked and controlled by information technology tools. The importance of information technology cannot be over emphasized as its unavailability could lead to a form of disaster or the other. Pivotal infrastructures like finance, healthcare, education and security are driven by information technology. However, information technology and its benefits are accompanied by vulnerabilities and risks that can be exploited by people with the necessary technical skills. Individuals like ‘Hackers’ and ‘Cyber Terrorist’ can cause disruption to information systems, commit financial fraud and also attack computers and networks. These attacks and disruptions could result to violence against people and properties. In some cases, death, serious injuries and severe economic loss could occur as a result of these attacks.
In order to effectively implement security governance, the Corporate Governance Task Force (CGTF) recommends that organizations follow an established framework, such as the IDEAL framework from the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. This framework, which is described in the document “Information Security Governance: Call to Action,” defines the responsibilities of (1) the board of directors or trustees, (2) the senior organizational executive (i.e., CEO), (3) executive team members, (4) senior managers, and (5) all employees and users. This important document can be found at the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Web site at www.isaca.org/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm?ContentID=34997.
Almost all kind of large and small organizations might face increasing number of attacks into their network or intellectual property. This may lead to data disclosure, data destruction, and damage of organization’s reputation. There are numerous threats in the cyber space which might be capable of stealing, destroying or making use of out sensitive data for financial and non-financial gains. As the amount of computer, mobile and internet users increases, so does the number of exploiters.