(ISC)² Blog

FISMA 2008 - What is it and what will change?

Those that have supported the implementation of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 have seen a significant change and focus of information security in federal government over that past several years, including the increased attention placed on agencies through OMB policies requiring them to implement a multitude of standards and guidelines. Obviously, right out of the box, I have seen a mix of opinions from the increased cost of security, including many negative views on the reactive approach government leaders have taken to introduce new security related policies. From the perspective of a security professional, the government... Read more →

Cross Organizational Collaboration - Securing the World with Cooperation

We just completed an awesome conference in Taipei, so I posted some Comments on Proxy Caches and Web Application Security (OWASP Taipei) on my blog. Like many of you, we are members of multiple security-related organizations including non-profit, government, military, educational and commercial organizations. I happen to be both an (ISC)² member as well as chapter leader for (the new chapter) OWASP Thailand. Many (ISC)² members serve on myriad IT-security boards as directors and advisors. In addition, various organizations support and sponsor each other; for example, (ISC)² is an OWASP sponsor. As professionals, it is our responsibility and ethic to... Read more →

Information Security During Economic Uncertainty

Most of the world has been understandably shaken by the turn of events in the financial arena these past few weeks. Whatever the outcome, whenever economic uncertainty arises, information security professionals inevitably ask themselves the question: "Is my organization going to cut security budgets?" The short answer is, "They shouldn't." Fortunately, times have changed considerably since the early days of security which is now seen as an essential business requirement such as accounting and legal. It has become a business function that is as important as anything else in a 21st-century organization. It's true that there may be an initial... Read more →

Securing Software Through Professionalism

The challenge of software vulnerabilities has been discussed by many in the information security industry for several years now. Not only have there been several major breaches due to unsecured software, the costs continue to rise for those of us who have to maintain systems and constantly patch the vulnerabilities that are found. As we know, the problem is not isolated to any particular piece of software – it’s across the board, whether it’s operating systems, word processing, new media or any other application that can make enterprises open to attack. After hearing from our members and those who write... Read more →

Visualization for Command and Control of Cyberspace Operations

AF083-022 TITLE: Visualization for Command and Control of Cyberspace Operations TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Information Systems, Space Platforms, Human Systems The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation. OBJECTIVE: Develop visualization techniques for planning and execution of Cyberspace operations. DESCRIPTION: Fulfilling the Air Force mission “… to fly and fight... Read more →

Contingency planning for Information Security

Until the last few weeks, Information Security Managers the world over have been struggling along as always, doing as much as they can possibly do with often limited resources and uncertain support from the rest of management. Suddenly, inadequately controlled risks in the finance sector have triggered an economic meltdown that affects us all. It's a classic "something else happened" scenario beloved of contingency planners everywhere. Given the global financial crisis, it's likely that information security budgets (along with all others) are going to be stretched taut for a while. So what is the best way for us as information... Read more →

DRP and BCP Step 1: Establish Communications

I have seen a number of security professionals with a lack of operational experience in disaster recover and business continunity planning address both DRP and BCP as if it was a templated, academic exercise. This is one of the worse possible approaches for DRP. So, let's make this quite simple. The most important first step that must be done in any disaster recovery situation is to establish communications. In most cases this means that you need to establish communications between people within an organization and also external to the organization. In Thailand, for example, I see many folks approaching DRP... Read more →

SSH Keys

At my previous position as a Systems Administrator, I got to experience firsthand the convenience of using SSH keys. My personal SSH key was encrypted and password protected, of course. This allowed for quick and easy authentication to systems as my user account. As long as you kept your SSH daemon up to date this was actually reasonably secure. This greatly reduces the amount of passwords you have to remember in a Unix or Linux environment which is not utilizing any kind of directory services. The second and even more useful aspect of SSH keys is from an automatic administration... Read more →

Interpreting the Law

In the never-ending battle against identity theft, a proactive event recently took place in Texas: a company was charged with improperly dumping patient records. This was discovered before any actual identity theft was reported. Per the Texas 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act: "A business shall implement and maintain reasonable procedures, including taking any appropriate corrective action, to protect and safeguard from unlawful use or disclosure any sensitive personal information collected or maintained by the business in the regular course of business. A business shall destroy or arrange for the destruction of customer records containing sensitive personal information within... Read more →

PCI-DSS v1.2 - My Thoughts, Concerns & Questions

Having had the opportunity to go to the 2008 PCI-SCC meeting in Orlando this year, that just so happened to be conveniently 5 minutes down the street from my office. And having had a couple of weeks to digest the new PCI-DSS v1.2 standard, here are some of my thoughts, concerns and questions. I’m not going to go into all the minor changes or clarifications, but rather the ones I feel have the most impact to the most organizations. One of the first ones I think that jumped out to allot of us was the notes added to requirement 6.1,... Read more →