defining security roles; prescribing how security will be managed, who will be responsible for security, and how security will be tested for effectiveness; developing security policies; performing risk analysis; and requiring security education for employees. These efforts are guided through the development of management plans.
The best security plan is useless without one key factor: approval by senior management. Without senior management's approval of and commitment to the security policy, the policy will not succeed. It is the responsibility of the policy development team to educate senior management sufficiently so managers understand the risks, liabilities, and exposures that remain even after security measures prescribed in the policy are deployed. Developing and implementing a security policy is evidence of due diligence and due care on the part of senior management. If a company does not practice due diligence and due care, managers can be held liable for negligence and held accountable for both asset and financial losses.
A security management planning team should develop three types of plans, as shown in Figure 1.3:
FIGURE 1.3 Strategic, tactical, and operational plan timeline comparison
Strategic Plan A strategic plan is a long-term plan that is fairly stable. It defines the organization's security purpose. It defines the security function and aligns it to the goals, mission, and objectives of the organization. It's useful for about five years, if it is maintained and updated annually. The strategic plan also serves as the planning horizon. Long-term goals and visions for the future are discussed in a strategic plan. A strategic plan should include a risk assessment.
Tactical Plan The tactical plan is a midterm plan developed to provide more details on accomplishing the goals set forth in the strategic plan, or can be crafted ad hoc based on unpredicted events. A tactical plan is typically useful for about a year and often prescribes and schedules the tasks necessary to accomplish organizational goals. Some examples of tactical plans are project plans, acquisition plans, hiring plans, budget plans, maintenance plans, support plans, and system development plans.
Operational Plan An operational plan is a short-term, highly detailed plan based on the strategic and tactical plans. It is valid or useful only for a short time. Operational plans must be updated often (such as monthly or quarterly) to retain compliance with tactical plans. Operational plans spell out how to accomplish the various goals of the organization. They include resource allotments, budgetary requirements, staffing assignments, scheduling, and step-by-step or implementation procedures. Operational plans include details on how the implementation processes are in compliance with the organization's security policy. Examples of operational plans are training plans, system deployment plans, and product design plans.
Security is a continuous process. Thus, the activity of security management planning may have a definitive initiation point, but its tasks and work are never fully accomplished or complete. Effective security plans focus attention on specific and achievable objectives, anticipate change and potential problems, and serve as a basis for decision making for the entire organization. Security documentation should be concrete, well defined, and clearly stated. For a security plan to be effective, it must be developed, maintained, and actually used.
Organizational Processes
Security governance should address every aspect of an organization, including the organizational processes of acquisitions, divestitures, and governance committees. Acquisitions and mergers place an organization at an increased level of risk. Such risks include inappropriate information disclosure, data loss, downtime, or failure to achieve sufficient return on investment (ROI). In addition to all the typical business and financial aspects of mergers and acquisitions, a healthy dose of security oversight and increased scrutiny is often essential to reduce the likelihood of losses during such a period of transformation.
Similarly, a divestiture or any form of asset or employee reduction is another time period of increased risk and thus increased need for focused security governance. Assets need to be sanitized to prevent data leakage. Storage media should be removed and destroyed, because media sanitization techniques do not guarantee against data remnant recovery. Employees released from duty need to be debriefed. This process is often called an exit interview. This process usually involves reviewing any nondisclosure agreements as well as any other binding contracts or agreements that will continue after employment has ceased.
When acquisitions and mergers are made without security considerations, the risks inherent in those obtained products remain throughout their deployment life span. Minimizing inherent threats in acquired elements will reduce security management costs and likely reduce security violations.
It is important to evaluate the risks associated with hardware, software, and services. Products and solutions that have resilient integrated security are often more expensive than those that fail to have a security foundation. However, this additional initial expense is often a much more cost-effective expenditure than addressing security deficiencies over the life of a poorly designed product. Thus, when considering the cost of a merger/acquisition, it is important to consider the total cost of ownership over the life of the product's deployment rather than just initial purchase and implementation.
Acquisition does not relate exclusively to hardware and software. Outsourcing, contracting with suppliers, and engaging consultants are also elements of acquisition. Integrating security assessments when working with external entities is just as important as ensuring a product was designed with security in mind.
In many cases, ongoing security monitoring, management, and assessment may be required. This could be an industry best practice or a regulation. Such assessment and monitoring might be performed by the organization internally or may require the use of external auditors. When engaging third-party assessment and monitoring services, keep in mind that the external entity needs to show security-mindedness in their business operations. If an external organization is unable to manage their own internal operations on a secure basis, how can they provide reliable security management functions for yours?
When evaluating a third party for your security integration, consider the following processes:
On-Site Assessment Visit the site of the organization to interview personnel and observe their operating habits.
Document Exchange and Review Investigate the means by which datasets and documentation are exchanged as well as the formal processes by which they perform assessments and reviews.
Process/Policy Review Request copies of their security policies, processes/procedures, and documentation of incidents and responses for review.
Third-Party Audit Having an independent third-party auditor, as defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), can provide an unbiased review of an entity's security infrastructure, based on Service Organization Control (SOC) reports. See Chapter 15 for details on SOC reports.
For all acquisitions, establish minimum security requirements. These should be modeled after your existing security policy. The security requirements for new hardware, software, or services should always meet or exceed the security of your existing infrastructure. When working with an external service, be sure to review any service-level agreement (SLA) to ensure that security is a prescribed component of the contracted services. When that external provider is crafting software or providing a service (such as a cloud
