Is Your IT Environment Secure?

November 18, 2015

Sarah Ackerman, Greg Bernard, Brian Matteson

Clark Schaefer Consulting
Clark Schaefer Consulting

 Serving elite and emerging companies with

practical solutions
 Specializing in project work that is centered
around three core competencies:
Risk/Control (e.g., Risk Assessment, Internal and
IT Audit, Compliance)
Technology (e.g., IT Security, System Changes,
Disaster Recovery)
Accounting & Finance
Introductions

Sarah Ackerman, CISSP, CISA

Technology practice leader
 Responsible for overall engagement quality
and oversight of security and IT audit projects
 Extensive experience in information security,
risk management, IT audit, and other
risk/control, IT, and compliance services
Introductions

Greg Bernard, CISSP, CISA

Manager
 IT/internal audit/security projects
 Experienced in IT and IT security, including
security assessments, IT audits, vulnerability
management and risk management

Brian Matteson
Senior Consultant
 Subject matter expert in programmatic IT
security review, enterprise risk assessment,
insider threat, and APTs
Overview

CIA Triad – Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability:

The three most important components of security

Participants will learn:

 Definition of each element
 How each element affects your business
 Importance of security awareness for the safety of data
 Consequences of ignoring the importance of the CIA triad
components
 Methods used to ensure confidentiality
 How to ensure that your information is trustworthy and
accurate
 How to guarantee the reliable access to information
CIA – Defined

 Confidentiality – Taking action to ensure there is no

unauthorized access to data
– Confidentiality protects access to data
– Privacy protects access to a person

 Integrity – Safeguarding data from unsolicited

modification or deletion

 Availability – Ensuring data is available when it is

required
CIA Triad
 CIA – Risks and Controls

CIA Risks Controls

Confidentiality • Loss of sensitive data • Access administration
• Unauthorized access and security
• Use of cryptography

Integrity • Loss of completeness • Change monitoring

and accuracy software
• Potential fraudulent • Logging
activity • Quality control

Availability • Service interruption • System backups

• Reputational risk • Business continuity
• Opportunity Cost and disaster recovery
planning
• Failover testing
Failure to Consider CIA – Consequences

 Confidentiality – Data leaks and breaches

– Could lead to compromise of sensitive
proprietary/customer information

 Integrity – Use of unreliable data

– Could have negative impact on downstream
systems and processes

 Availability – Unexpected downtime

– May lead to poor system performance and/or
customer dissatisfaction
Confidentiality – What you can do

 Access Control
– Define user IDs, passwords, and specific access levels (e.g.,
role-based access)
• Principle of least privilege
– Limit access to the minimum necessary for a user’s job
responsibility

– Use multi-factor authentication

• Something you know – password
• Something you have – proximity card
• Something you are – fingerprint/retina scans

– File/document permissions
• Secure individual files/documents
Confidentiality – What you can do

 Encryption
– Encrypt data at rest
• Hard disk encryption
– Workstations (desktops and laptops)
– Storage mechanisms (servers)

– Encrypt data in motion

• Secure transmission methods (network and transport layers)
– Prevents compromise of data in transit
• Use of secure transport protocols (e.g., HTTPS, TLS)
– Prevents compromise of data in transit

 Segregation of Duties
– Prevents users from having excessive access to data which is not
relevant to their responsibilities within a business process
Confidentiality – What you can do

 3rd Party Vendor Oversight

– Ensure that contracts are written to protect
• Confidentiality agreements / non-disclosure agreements
• Security considerations – SSAE16 reports

– Monitor vendor activities

• Limit access to only what is necessary to perform job
• Request reports of activities performed
• Segregate their access
Confidentiality – Real Examples of Loss

2014
 Target and Home Depot were hacked resulting in loss
of customer credit card information
– Demonstrates loss of confidential information
– Significant reputational damage

 Sony also hacked, resulting in exposure of:

– Sensitive information about employees
– Leaks of Sony Pictures films, and other data
– Attack resulted in loss of intellectual property/ confidential
information
Integrity – What you can do

 Physical Integrity
– Ensure reliability of physical environment where data is
stored
– For example, the following techniques:
• Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
• Redundant array of independent disks (RAID)

 Logical Integrity
– General controls to help ensure the reliability of data:
• Referential integrity
– Ensures that a value in one database table references an existing
value in another table
• Entity Integrity
– Ensures that each row of a database table is uniquely identified,
so that it can be retrieved separately if necessary
Integrity – What you can do

 Logical Integrity
– Use file integrity/change monitoring software to monitor data
and logs

– Required to meet payment card industry (PCI) standards

• Sample extract – “Deploy file-integrity monitoring software to
alert personnel to unauthorized modification of critical system
files, configuration files, or content files, and configure the
software to perform critical file comparisons at least weekly”

– Examples include:
• Tripwire
• CimTrak (by Cimcor)
Integrity – Real Examples of Loss

 Recent examples of loss of integrity due to vulnerabilities:

– April 2013: The Associated Press Twitter account was
hacked
• Resulted in false reports of explosions at the White
House.
• Caused a $136 Billion drop in value on the stock market

– October 2013: The Syrian Electronic Army hijacked a

link from President Obama’s Twitter account
• Redirected to video of terror incidents

– January 2015: Twitter accounts for the New York Post

and United Press International were hacked
• Resulted in publication of erroneous news stories
Availability – What you can do

 Define what data exists and prioritize its importance

 Understand type of storage/retrieval device or media

including both hardware and software

 Define and implement the appropriate network

bandwidth between devices and network connections
of mediums

 Consider the processing overhead of affected

mechanisms
Availability – What you can do

 Implement monitoring of service levels with vendors

 Implement effective means of backup to an

offsite/disaster recovery location
– Data replication
– Data mirroring
– Frequent periodic backups (e.g., nightly)

 Define and document an effective Disaster

Recovery/Business Resumption Plan
– Defines how to quickly recover data
– Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
– Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
Availability – Examples of Loss

 Recent examples of loss of availability resulting in system

downtime:
– PayPal: Due to a power outage, PayPal services were
unavailable for many customers on October 30, 2015

– Neustar UltraDNS: Due to an internal server issue, Neustar

UltraDNS, a web content delivery service, was down on
October 15, 2015
• Resulted in 90 minute outage for popular websites, including
Netflix and Expedia

– CenturyLink: Result of a software glitch that affected

the 911 network overseen by CenturyLink
• 911 service was down in six western Pennsylvania counties for two
hours on October 6, 2015
Security Awareness – Tips for Leadership

U.S. Department of Homeland Security tips for industry

leadership:

1. Implement a layered defense strategy that includes

technical, organizational, and operational controls

2. Establish clear policies and procedures for employee use

of organization’s IT systems/data
Security Awareness – Tips for Leadership

3. Coordinate cyber incident response planning with

existing disaster recovery and business continuity plans
across organization

4. Implement technical defenses

– For example, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and Internet
content filtering

5. Update your anti-virus software often

Security Awareness – Tips for Leadership

6. Follow your organization’s guidelines and security

regulations

7. Regularly download vendor security patches for all of

your software

8. Change the manufacturer’s default passwords on all of

your software
Security Awareness – Tips for Leadership

9. Encrypt data and use two-factor authentication where

possible

10. If you use a wireless network, make sure that it is secure

11. Monitor, log, and analyze successful and attempted

intrusions to your systems and networks
Security Awareness – Tips for Employees

U.S. Department of Homeland Security tips for industry

employees:

1. Read and abide by your company’s Internet use

policy

2. Make your passwords complex.

– Combination of numbers, symbols, and letters (uppercase
and lowercase)
Security Awareness – Tips for Employees

3. Change your passwords regularly (every 45 to 90

days)

4. Don’t share any of your usernames, passwords, or

other computer or website access codes

5. Only open emails or attachments from people you

know
Security Awareness – Tips for Employees

6. Never install or connect any personal software or

hardware to your organization’s network or
hardware without permission from your IT
department

7. Make electronic and physical backups or copies of

all your most important work

8. Report all suspicious or unusual problems with your

computer to your IT department
Security Awareness – Training
Training Best Practices:
 Modify training program for different departments and/or
locations

 Offer different programs for managers and staff

 Provide training more than once per year

 Deliver security awareness training through several different

channels

 Measure the success of your company’s training program

(next slide)
Security Awareness – Metrics and Indicators

Metric Indicator
Increase in reports of attempted Better recognition of suspicious
email/phone scams emails/calls

Reduction in malware outbreaks Fewer opened malicious emails

Vulnerability scans are scheduled

Decrease in time between
to detect high & critical
detection and remediation
vulnerabilities

Increase in number of personnel Attendance tracking and

completing training performance evaluations

Increase in comprehension of Feedback from personnel; and

training material training assessments
Source: PCI Security Standards Council
Questions?

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For More Information

If you wish to discuss any aspects of this presentation in

more detail, please feel free to contact us:

Clark Schaefer Consulting, LLC.

120 East Fourth Street, Suite 1100
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
513-768-7100
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Email: info@[Link]