Penetration Testing mailing list archives
RE: Is there any way to measure IT Security??
From: "Steve Goldsby (ICS)" <sgoldsby () integrate-u com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 16:49:11 -0500
We have been struggling for years in infosec to get discrete metrics. One of the challenges is that these are complex heterogeneous systems changing on a daily basis, if not more often. I have some personal biases with respect to assessment methodologies. ISO17799/BS7799 lacks likelyhood determination in it's measurement of risk (e.g. a hurricane is rated just as high in N. Dakota as it is in Miami, Florida), and lacks operational guidance useful after the assessment (e.g. remediation guidance). Having said this, it is a good starting point for an immature security program and can be delivered much more cost effectively than other, more robust methodologies. Note: ISO costs $995 per copy/update. I'm not a big fan of that, but I understand the need to support development. NSA-IAM started out of the chute a few years back with a lot of momentum, primarily I believe due to the "NSA" moniker attached to it. It's a good methodology useful for evaluting critical systems and data. I call it the "family jewels" methodology as it focuses not on your organization as a whole, but rather on those assets you identify as most critical. In my opinion, a nice middle ground between ISO/BS/OCTAVE and NIST. Note: NSA-IAM is freely available. Russ Roger's folks at SecurityHorizons deliver excellent certification in this methodology. OCTAVE has a lot of street cred as it hails from the CMM folks. Like ISO, though, it lacks the likelihood determination component, and it not as well vetted or robust as NIST 800, but does offer some of the same advantages as ISO. NIST is my personal favorite. It's the most robust (and costly to implement). The upsides are that it provides a lot of post-assessment guidance such as remediation methods, how to implement a CSIRT, etc. The NIST 800-series is a continually updated set of "plug-ins" for the 800-26/800-30 modules used in the assessment phase. There are 800 series documents for HIPAA, etc. A NIST 800-30 assessment will capture a great deal of organizational as well as technical information, and categorizes your assets into "systems". This makes the elephant (remediation) easier to eat. The other upside to NIST 800 is that it provides a clear path to certification and accreditation, which the other methodologies I mentioned do not. It's well vetted in the security community and embraded by the federal government. Oh, and it's freely available. All of it. I mentioned that ISO can be less disruptive and costly to implement, but if you can tolerate the additional cost (it's not extreme) and labor required, you will be rewarded with deliverables that you can use to identify your intial baseline and followup deltas to effectively and objectively measure the effectiveness of your security dollars. Just my $0.02. Steve Goldsby Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc. www.integrate-u.com / www.networkarmor.com -----Original Message----- From: Marriott, Bill (US - Dallas) [mailto:bmarriott () deloitte com] Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 3:55 PM To: John Alexander; Gary Everekyan; irony () trini org; toto () playon co id Cc: pen-test () securityfocus com; security-management () securityfocus com; secpapers () securityfocus com; security-basics () securityfocus com Subject: RE: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? This is a good list, but somewhat incomplete. I think you should consider that security is not a destination, it is a process. There are plenty of sources out there that you can measure yourself against, from a process point of view. Check out the ISO17799 standard or the BS7799 standard, they outline the processes which go into a well developed security program. Or look at the Generally Accepted Information Security Principles (under development - http://www.issa.org/gaisp/gaisp.html). The NSA IAM/IEM is a methodology for managing controlled penetration/vulnerability for a particular system/app. The OWASP is for web application testing. These might give you an idea of security posture of one server or application, but not overall for your company. This kind of testing makes up a small amount of managing a secure organization. Take a look at the new ISO version, 2005. This fall, there will be a different ISO standard, 27001, which will allow a company to be certified against the standard. http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/pressreleases/2005/Ref963.html Hope that helps. /bpm -----Original Message----- From: John Alexander [mailto:aj () adexec com] Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 4:21 AM To: Gary Everekyan; irony () trini org; toto () playon co id Cc: pen-test () securityfocus com; security-management () securityfocus com; secpapers () securityfocus com; focus-linux () securityfocus com; libnet () securityfocus com; firewalls () securityfocus com; security-basics () securityfocus com Subject: Re: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? Basically IT Security covers a gamut of areas, i am just listing some , on the fly * Antivirus Solutions * Intrusion Prevention * Intrusion Detection * Patch Management * Firewall * VPN Gateway * Vulnerability Assessment & Reporting * Identity Access Management (single-sign-on, SOX/HIPAA/GLB compliance....) * Network Security * Security Policy Compliance Management * AntiSpam (mail protection software) * Web Content Filtering I'm not sure whether we have one-size-fits-all solution which can help us in measuring your enterprise IT Security posture. I can list some good tools i have come across personally like NMap, ScanFi, Nessus, IdentityAccess Manager,GFI ....but the list is endless, so give them a try in google :-) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Everekyan" <karo.onnik () bluetie com> To: irony () trini org, toto () playon co id Subject: Re: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:32:30 -0400
Google Risk reporting and you will get whole list of research links. It would also be helpful to look at owasp www.owasp.org HTH Regards, Gary Everekyan CISSP, CISM, ISSAP, ISSPCS, MCSE, MCT garyeve () Microsoft com "High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation" -Jack Kinder -----Original Message----- From: "Larry Marin (Irony Account)" [irony () trini org] Date: 08/02/2005 01:09 PM You should check out NSA IAM/IEM Methodology...it works well for me. http://www.iatrp.com/iam.cfm Toto A Atmojo wrote:Dear all, Currently I'm looking for a tool, or a technique to measure IT
security?
The baseline for security is CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability), that is every organization which want to called secure must be guarantee that their system comply this matter. But the problem is, we need a tool/technique to measure how secure are we. Therefore, wee need a tool/technique to measure how close that our system status now to CIA. Please share your experience about this matter. If there any link about this issue, I really appreciate if you share
to us (You may contact me privately) . Best Regs, Toto
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Current thread:
- Re: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? John Alexander (Aug 03)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? Alberto Cardona II (Aug 03)
- RE: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? Marriott, Bill (US - Dallas) (Aug 03)
- Message not available
- RE: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? Alexandre Paradis (Aug 04)
- Message not available
- RE: Is there any way to measure IT Security?? Steve Goldsby (ICS) (Aug 04)