Enterprise information security policy assessment - an extended framework for metrics development utilising the goal-question-metric approach

Effective enterprise information security policy management requires review and assessment activities to ensure information security policies are aligned with business goals and objectives. As security policy management involves the elements of policy development process and the security policy as output, the context for security policy assessment requires goal-based metrics for these two elements. However, the current security management assessment methods only provide checklist types of assessment that are predefined by industry best practices and do not allow for developing specific goal-based metrics. Utilizing theories drawn from literature, this paper proposes the Enterprise Information Security Policy Assessment approach that expands on the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) approach. The proposed assessment approach is then applied in a case scenario example to illustrate a practical application. It is shown that the proposed framework addresses the requirement for developing assessment metrics and allows for the concurrent undertaking of process-based and product-based assessment. Recommendations for further research activities include the conduct of empirical research to validate the propositions and the practical application of the proposed assessment approach in case studies to provide opportunities to introduce further enhancements to the approach

Secure Cloud-Edge Deployments, with Trust

Assessing the security level of IoT applications to be deployed to heterogeneous Cloud-Edge infrastructures operated by different providers is a non-trivial task. In this article, we present a methodology that permits to express security requirements for IoT applications, as well as infrastructure security capabilities, in a simple and declarative manner, and to automatically obtain an explainable assessment of the security level of the possible application deployments. The methodology also considers the impact of trust relations among different stakeholders using or managing Cloud-Edge infrastructures. A lifelike example is used to showcase the prototyped implementation of the methodology

The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002: A Potemkin Village

Due to the daunting possibilities of cyberwarfare, and the ease with which cyberattacks may be conducted, the United Nations has warned that the next world war could be initiated through worldwide cyberattacks between countries. In response to the growing threat of cyberwarfare and the increasing importance of information security, Congress passed the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA). FISMA recognizes the importance of information security to the national economic and security interests of the United States. However, this Note argues that FISMA has failed to significantly bolster information security, primarily because FISMA treats information security as a technological problem and not an economic problem. This Note analyzes existing proposals to incentivize heightened software quality assurance, and proposes a new solution designed to strengthen federal information security in light of the failings of FISMA and the trappings of Congress’s 2001 amendment to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Assessing the effectiveness of defensive cyber operations

Enormous amounts of resources are being allocated for defensive cyber programs. The White House’s Cyber Security National Action Plan proposes a 35% increase in federal spending on cyber security during Fiscal Year 2017. Without an appropriate understanding of how well the people, processes, defenses, and risk are measured, there will naturally be unproductive tasking, inefficient spending and ineffective reporting. In 2016, the White House established the Commission on enhancing National Cybersecurity to assess the state of our nation’s cybersecurity posture. The report recognized both the difficulty and the need to develop meaningful metrics for cybersecurity in order to better secure the cyber landscape as it pertained to the broader digital ecosystem and its connection to our economy, government, and defense. The commission focused on both the private sector as well as the government and suggested the need to perfect policies, practices and technologies. Additionally, the Marine Corps University recently released research topics addressing some of the most important concerns affecting warfighters. One of the concerns was the lack of a methodology for determining the performance of Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO). Specifically addressed was a need to better understand how actions taken by network defenders facilitate network protection. Previous analysis of this topic led to a reactive and un-actionable approach which was tied to negative events such as the quantity and category of incident reports. As there is currently no framework or scorecard built to evaluate DCO as a whole effort, a methodical approach was taken to scope the problem, compare existing frameworks, develop a framework, and present a scorecard. The first phase of research required scoping exactly what is involved in DCO at the most basic level and understanding how the DoD evaluates performance. This resulted in an understanding of the actionability of metrics, the levels of warfare, and the counterbalance of cyber asymmetry. Also identified was the military doctrine for assessments, which frames evaluations in terms of Measures of Effectiveness and Measures of Performance and supports continuous assessments that provide actionable information to decision makers. The second phase required a detailed analysis of existing frameworks that measured related functions of cybersecurity. Specifically utilized were industry accepted compliance, incident handling, governance, and risk management frameworks. The outcome identified four functional areas common to most frameworks; people, processes, defenses, and risk. The third phase involved developing a framework that evaluated the four functional areas of DCO identified in the problem-framing phase, utilizing the most appropriate features of the already established frameworks. A key facet of this evaluation was that assessments should be weighed over time to demonstrate progress but also be measured against standards, peers, and the adversary. The final phase identified the continuous reporting criteria and the tangible mechanism for evaluating an organization in terms of a scorecard. The framework is not a static list of measurements but rather supports tailoring metrics to the organization’s specific requirements. The fundamentals of the framework are organized into elements, levels, categories, ends/ways, and measures. These metrics should be documented utilizing a standardized rubric that assesses the capability and performance of the metrics. The results should be reviewed and analyzed to determine trends, areas for improvement or investment and actionable information to support decision making. Additionally, a modified Delphi analysis with expert consensus validated the major concepts put forward in this paper. Overall, this research provides a comprehensive framework to evaluate the performance of Defensive Cyber Operations in terms of people, processes, defenses, and risk, filling a knowledge gap that is increasingly vital

Towards Identifying and closing Gaps in Assurance of autonomous Road vehicleS - a collection of Technical Notes Part 1

This report provides an introduction and overview of the Technical Topic Notes (TTNs) produced in the Towards Identifying and closing Gaps in Assurance of autonomous Road vehicleS (Tigars) project. These notes aim to support the development and evaluation of autonomous vehicles. Part 1 addresses: Assurance-overview and issues, Resilience and Safety Requirements, Open Systems Perspective and Formal Verification and Static Analysis of ML Systems. Part 2: Simulation and Dynamic Testing, Defence in Depth and Diversity, Security-Informed Safety Analysis, Standards and Guidelines

System Security Assurance: A Systematic Literature Review

System security assurance provides the confidence that security features, practices, procedures, and architecture of software systems mediate and enforce the security policy and are resilient against security failure and attacks. Alongside the significant benefits of security assurance, the evolution of new information and communication technology (ICT) introduces new challenges regarding information protection. Security assurance methods based on the traditional tools, techniques, and procedures may fail to account new challenges due to poor requirement specifications, static nature, and poor development processes. The common criteria (CC) commonly used for security evaluation and certification process also comes with many limitations and challenges. In this paper, extensive efforts have been made to study the state-of-the-art, limitations and future research directions for security assurance of the ICT and cyber-physical systems (CPS) in a wide range of domains. We conducted a systematic review of requirements, processes, and activities involved in system security assurance including security requirements, security metrics, system and environments and assurance methods. We highlighted the challenges and gaps that have been identified by the existing literature related to system security assurance and corresponding solutions. Finally, we discussed the limitations of the present methods and future research directions

Information security awareness in university: maintaining learnability, performance and adaptability through roles of responsibility

The 21st century witnesses that technology is increasingly providing availability and accessibility to information, along with this trend is the emerging problem of information security. In order to analyze how technology introduces this new risks, it is necessary to discuss the technology lifecycle. Consider for instance the technology life cycleas concerning diffusion of an innovation. Since technological innovations or IT solutions are being adopted to support business processes, the need to protect those IT solutions also arises along with its adoption. Accordingly, two important factors need much consideration in raising awareness, firstly how organization influences significantly of end user’s attitude and secondly how the organization ensure regular assessment or evaluation to measure the effectiveness of IS awareness policy within the organization

Distinguishing Leadership of Information Assurance Teams

Information assurance (IA) projects are essential components of the information technology industry and often fail due to budget overruns, missed deadlines, and lack of performance by the project teams. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the strategies necessary to improve IA project team performance. Lewin\u27s situational leadership theory was used as the conceptual framework for this study. Interviews were conducted with 20 IA professionals located in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. The data were transcribed, coded, and clustered for the identification of common patterns based on the Moustakas\u27 modified van Kaam analysis. The major themes that emerged from the interview data included the importance of: communication and teamwork, technical knowledge, training, hiring of skilled resources, and balanced project teams. An organization-wide internal training program emerged as an overarching best practice to improve the leadership strategies within the IA sector. The study results may help improve project success and grow the IA industry by creating more jobs