(ISC)² Blog

The Dilemma of Defense in Depth

By Ala' F. Wrikat, MSc, CISSP, CISM. Ala' is currently a specialist in policies and strategic studies at the Financial-sector's CERT of Jordan. Defense in depth strategy has proven its effectiveness in preventing cyber threats over the years. At the abstract level, most technical security controls are designed with two main components; 1) a knowledge base, and 2) a matching engine. Each security product has its own version of a growing knowledge base of feeds (whatever these feeds are). The content and how frequent these knowledge bases get updated are often the basis of competition between vendors. In this context,... Read more →

The Dawn of True IoT Security

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are now everywhere. Ever since the earliest devices started to appear on the market, in homes, and worse, in corporations, security professionals have sounded the alarm about how these devices were built with no security in mind. Now, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released new draft guidance documents on securing these devices, both before release, as well as acquisition, and integration. These new publications will serve both corporations and consumers in a positive way. However, like any technical directions, the ideas set forth are only effective in capable and qualified hands.... Read more →

#ISC2Congress - Critical Infrastructure a Main Focus of Security Congress 2021

Protecting critical infrastructure and associated challenges was a recurring theme during (ISC)² Security Congress 2021, which took place virtually from Monday to Wednesday this week. It was the subject of various sessions and came up during a keynote session delivered by Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Krebs said critical infrastructure needs to be hardened against foreign adversaries that might have an interest in disrupting it at some point. CISA and other agencies are working to come up with standards and practices for infrastructure security. And they are looking for input from the cybersecurity... Read more →

(ISC)² Celebrates Cybersecurity Awareness Month With Treasure Trove of Knowledge Building Resources

It’s October! And that can mean only one thing. It’s time to kick off the annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month, hosted by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). With remote work the new normal for most and ransomware attacks at peak fever pitch, there’s no time like now to learn about cybersecurity, or for those in the know, for a refresher on some of the common pitfalls to avoid in order to keep your data safe. In celebration of this month of best practices discovery, (ISC)² created a one-stop-shop to find helpful cybersecurity... Read more →

Implementing Controls Without Breaking Everything (Including the Bank)

A very common complaint among information security professionals is lack of a budget to implement the best security tools. It may be true that recent newsworthy security events have increased many budgets, yet it never seems like enough. In many ways, this is true. It is like the difference between the base-model automobile, and the fully equipped model. What easier way is there to grant a system the authority to operate than with the most robust budget imaginable? Yes, it is nice to have all the flashing lights and automated features, but that is not always what is needed to... Read more →

Make New Connections with (ISC)² Community

Are you looking for a space to connect with your peers in the cybersecurity industry? (ISC)² Community connects you to a global network of cybersecurity professionals through an interactive and engaging platform. Community offers members and non-members an opportunity to share insights on the latest cybersecurity trends, ask questions, share knowledge, or voice opinions. Community welcomes all levels of experience to weighing in on the current topics and trending conversations through public discussion or private chats. Users can subscribe to popular threads based on interests such as cloud security, privacy, tech talk, career, and more.  Community Groups encourage engagement through... Read more →

More Than Likely, Or Less Than Probable: Is a truly quantitative security analysis possible?

The Language of Profit and Loss Security professionals spend a lot of time honing their area of expertise. Your strength could be in packet analysis, or programming…maybe you are at your best in the realm of security engineering, or pentesting. Or, you may have the best technical skills, but when it comes to obtaining a budget for a project or a new security tool, you need to understand and explain the difference between likelihood, and probability. Why is this important? This is important because the language of business is based on profits and loss, and that component is key to... Read more →

Wanted: Software Developers with a Security Mindset

The modern software developer faces an enormous amount of challenges. From continuously creating innovative apps to ensuring high quality and meeting tight deadlines, developers need to cope with many responsibilities. As a result, security is still one of the last priorities on many developers’ minds during the software development lifecycle. Vulnerable Apps Increase Cyber Threats Despite that the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report indicates that most data breaches happen through vulnerable web applications, many developers are still hesitant to adopt a security mindset. Even though the news headlines are filled with the names of companies being compromised every day,... Read more →

Hush – This Data Is Secret

Is There Ever Too Much Data? As a security practitioner, you know that businesses are fuelled not only by people but by data. Years ago, the phrase “Big Data” was a new, innovative way to gain a business advantage. Now, big data is the norm. When we think of all the data that has been gathered, we must stop and wonder about what is contained in that data. Many important, and often private details are stored about the clients of a particular business. Over time, it became clear that this data, if obtained by criminals, could be damaging to an... Read more →

How To Get It Right With Cybersecurity Training

The cybersecurity team can be a challenging one for organizations to keep engaged and happy. Talent is scarce, turnover and burnout rates are high. That’s why employers have to keep existing teams engaged in their profession, and current on the latest threats and defenses. To accomplish this, every organization needs a formal, standards-based cybersecurity training and education program for the employees responsible for securing their critical assets. What are the key components of a training program? Whatever an organization’s unique circumstances, three major tenets must guide any training effort: Security is an obligation, not an option. Evolving technology and constantly... Read more →

What Are the Phases of an Incident Response Plan?

Disaster recovery is now a normal part of business operations. However, before the year 2000, disaster recovery was a “nice to have” addition to a business. Then, the “Y2K” bug became the impetus that brought disaster recovery to the forefront of business preparedness. Next, in 2001, the rise of terrorism brought new attention to the need for businesses to prepare for disasters. As time progressed, incidents such as the blackout of 2003 that shut down the northeastern United States for a day, made many recognize that disaster recovery centers could not be on the same power grid, let alone at... Read more →

Challenges and Misconceptions of Certificate Revocation in PKI

By Qamar Peer Bellary Sadiq, CISSP, CCSP Public Key Infrastructure is the most commonly used technology in security space for the purpose of establishing Authentication, Data Integrity, Non-Repudiation, email encryption, SSL/TLS with X.509 Certificates (also known as Digital Certificate). Digital Certificate is a form of a digital identity document in the digital world and helps identify users, entities and servers. PKI is an amalgamation of a suite of protocols, people, processes and technologies that must work in a synchronized manner to create, store, distribute, manage and revoke digital identities. However, there exists real world challenges, pitfalls and misconceptions around Certificate... Read more →

The Weeds and Flowers of Information Security

Why it is essential to have experience - and not JUST to pass the CISSP Growing The Garden of InfoSec Think about your path in information security. It took a lot of work and study. No one is born knowing information security, and no child in any playground has ever said “when I grow up, I want to get a CISSP credential”. Information security is one of the most popular professions right now, and it is anticipated that the demand for qualified information security professionals will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Any great garden requires serious care and... Read more →

Addressing the Human Element of Security: Awareness & Training Programs

Did you ever hear the story about the hyphen that cost 80 Million dollars? In the infancy of the United States’ space program, a programming error resulted in a forced abort of a rocket early in its flight to prevent possible injury along its crash path. Or how about the time a pilot miscalculated the required fuel for a flight from Montreal to Edmonton? These are both fatal examples of how human error can have serious consequences. In our hyper-connected world, our errors can have damaging consequences. Sometimes, the harm can be minor, such as the “Melissa” macro virus of... Read more →

Employment for Security Analysts to Grow 31% by 2029

Demand for cybersecurity professionals will stay strong through the remainder of the decade, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. In the 10-year period between 2019 and 2029, employment of information security analysts will grow by 31%, according to the bureau’s Occupational Outlook Handbook. The projected growth rate is more than seven times higher than the national job growth average of 4%, and roughly three times that of the 11% projected growth in IT-related occupations. The reason for the high growth rate for information security analysts is no secret to anyone in the industry. As the bureau notes: “Cyberattacks have... Read more →

Remote Work During the Pandemic: What We Got Wrong

By Stephen Fried, CISSP As COVID-19 began to spread rapidly across the globe in 2020, many organizations moved their employees off company premises and enabled large "work from home" efforts. Nobody knew how long this would last, but we assumed we could work remotely for a few months until this thing worked itself out, then return to the office and get back to "normal." We were very wrong. We weren’t just wrong about the length of the crisis; we were wrong about how our employees defined “home.” What we didn’t anticipate is that the pandemic would force companies to rethink... Read more →

Is Your Security Team Cloud Ready?

Cloud services play a key role in the digital transformation and operation of today’s enterprises. Yet security teams are often left out of planning these initiatives, increasing the level of risk organizations will face. Security is an integral part of adopting cloud services, without being a barrier to innovation. More and more enterprises are migrating their data and applications to the cloud. The variations in implementations and environments create a level of complexity for IT security teams to monitor cloud services while keeping them secure. Is your internal team poised to shape secure cloud strategy and innovation? If it isn’t,... Read more →

Report: Impact of COVID-19 on Enterprise IT Security Teams

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected enterprise IT security organizations around the world? And how are they rethinking their priorities and investments as a result? Find answers and insights inside CyberEdge Group’s Impact of COVID-19 on Enterprise IT Security Teams Report, sponsored by (ISC)². This comprehensive survey of 600 cybersecurity professionals representing 7 countries and 19 industries reveals an in-depth study of how COVID-19 has altered enterprises and how they are responding. The research shows: A 114% increase in remote workers during the pandemic 67% of responding organizations are experiencing IT security staffing challenges 75% claim COVID-19 has increased their... Read more →

Can I Ask You A Question?

The Many Advisory Roles of a CISSP A Long and Prosperous Career Throughout your cybersecurity career, you will spend a lot of time in the world of identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover. Sometimes, the skills required for the job can range from the mundane, such as running a phishing campaign, to some nail-biting, all-nighters of remediation (after someone ignored your carefully crafted phishing campaign and clicked on a malicious link). Your skills were not easily acquired. Perhaps you derived these skills from tinkering with machinery, dumpster-diving, and everything in between. Information security research has transitioned to more sophisticated tools... Read more →

Patch Management in IT and OT Environments

The evolution of the cyber threat landscape highlights the emerging need for organizations to strengthen their ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate cyber risks before they evolve into security incidents. Although the terms “patch management” and “vulnerability management” are used as if they are interchangeable, this is not the case. Most are confused because applying patches is one of the many ways available in our arsenal to mitigate cyber risks. What is Patch Management? Patch management is a strategy for managing patches or upgrades for software applications and technologies and involves the acquisition, testing, and installation of multiple patches to... Read more →