Implementation of policies and standards within an organization are important to maintain information systems security. Employees within an organization play a huge role in the effort to create, execute, and enforce a security policy. Every business requires a different strategy and approach to it's security policy, depending on their size and nature of business.
Security Policies
An organization's security policy describes the company's management intent to control the behavior of their employees in relation to information security. A security policy is necessary to protect proprietary information within a company. Because security policies apply to employees at all levels in a company, they should be written at a reading level that all employees can understand. In addition, multi-lingual versions should be available for employees whose first language is not English. An organization's security policy should not conflict with the law. At a high level, an Enterprise Information Security Policy is created that supports the organization's goals and mission statement. This EISP does not require frequent changes. Within the scope of the EISP, there are also issue-specific and system-specific security policies. Issue-specific policies provide targeted direction to employees in relation to a particular technology or occurrence. System-specific policies provide managerial guidance and access control lists related to certain software or systems used by the company.
The intensity and depth of an organization's security policy depends heavily on the nature of their business. A large company compared to a small company would require a different approach to their security policy. Also, the type of information that the company dea...
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...onal working in an enterprise environment. Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification trains professionals in IS audit control and assurance. This list could go on, but the take-away is that many businesses can benefit from employing security professionals with the skills and knowledge gained through these certifications.
Every organization, big or small, should have some level of security policy to protect their proprietary information. While the intensity and depth of an organization's security policy depends heavily on the nature of their business, common guidelines are mentioned in this paper that apply to all policies. One of the most important things to remember is that employees are a critical component to a successful security policy. It is the organization's job to ensure that their security policy is widely distributed and understood.
Whitman, M., & Mattord, H. (2010). Management of information security. (3rd ed., p. 6). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Security helps the organization meet its business objectives or mission by protecting its physical and financial resources, reputation, legal position, employees, and other tangible and intangible assets through the selection and application of appropriate safeguards. Businesses should establish roles and responsibilities of all personnel and staff members. However, a Chief Information Officer should be appointed to direct an organization’s day to day management of information assets. Supporting roles are performed by the service providers and include systems operations, whose personnel design and operate the computer systems. Each team member must be held accountable in ensuring all of the rules and policies are being followed, as well as, understanding their roles, responsibilities and functions. Organizations information processing systems are vulnerable to many threats that can inflict various types of damage that can result in significant losses (Harris, 2014). Losses can come from actions from trusted employees that defraud the system, outside hackers, or from careless data entry. The major threat to information protection is error and omissions that data entry personnel, users, system operators and programmers make. To better protect business information resources, organizations should conduct a risk analysis to see what
...the marketplace, increase profit, and comply with both external and internal policies and procedures, including federal laws and regulations. It is imperative before an organization begins to discuss, design or implement policies a clear understanding of hardening and the benefits of a layered defense at key “point on the network (public and private), at the server, and at the desktop. Policies written by an organization, which encompasses guidelines or mandates from a government entity are therefore ensure a layered approach.
For effective internal network security, policy and procedure needs to be in place, and it needs to be enforced from the top down. It is also a good idea to periodically review these policies and procedures to ensure that they still meet the necessary requirements that the business requires. If IT can work together with the rest of a business we can help to lesson that accidental and malicious threat that internal authorized users present.
This is a case study of how policies, laws and regulations affect the cybersecurity field in organizations. Laws and regulations have been used in multiple various fields to provide guidance and control over how certain practices are been done. Their introduction to the Information Security field is recent, and due to the importance of what’s at stake, they seem to play a necessary role. It’s vital that we explain in details what has been observed in organizations’ programs and normal operations as a result of implementing these rules. In the past, not having any kind of direction while creating Information Security programs have proved to isolate agencies away from current progress in cybersecurity, while creating confusion on how to face
Business owners will go to amazing lengths to keep their workplace safe while completely overlooking their IT security and their multifunction devices. IT security breaches cost the average company $800,000 in 2009 (Tattrie, 2009). Those figures represent a 97 percent increase from 2008. The $800,000 includes labor lost when a breach freezes systems, cost of repairing the damage caused by the breach, and the cost of replacing the faulty security. That is quite a large sum that is also highly avoidable. Due to escalation in Internet use, the amount of computer security breaches that businesses have experienced in the last year has increased at a rapid rate. Breaches can come from external attacks as well as within the walls of a company. External attacks are serious but the threat created by a company’s employees can be much worse (Robb, 2010). Last year 81 percent of security breaches came from inside the company. Employees can cause deliberate attacks, but more likely employee use can compromise your system without malice and unknowingly. Employees can abuse internet access privileges by downloading pornography, downloading music, and pirating software. Obviously, this is improper use of company time and resources but more importantly, it can expose your company to fines from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and it also can make your computer network more vulnerable to access from outside troublemakers and industry spies. BSA has collected more than $70 million in penalties from companies where employees violated piracy laws.
The idea behind information security is that data, either personal or commercial, will only be viewed by those for whom it was intended and keeping unwanted eyes away. One of the most popular methods to secure data is the use of passwords and/or PIN numbers that only designated persons know. This type of securing information worked well when the password and/or PIN numbers follow a secure policy, but this method quickly fails when the designated persons that use the secure information mistreat the password and/or PIN numbers.5 The user may write down the key needed to access the information or simply tell it to someone who does not have access; then the information is no longer secure and problems arise. In the case of an organization, they may notice that information is being leaked to a rival and would need to find the source of the leak to prevent it from occurring again.
Organizations which rely on network infrastructure for their business operation must utilize security technology to protect the network from harmful actions of automated attacks as well as malicious human activity. It is also important to enact policies and guidelines for the employees of the organization, which in many regards can be the weakest link in the chain of security. According to a survey by The Ponemon Institute (2012), “78 percent of respondents said their organizations have experienced a data breach as a result of negligent or malicious employees or other insiders” (p.1). A statistic like this points to the need for comprehensive policies that detail the company’s expectations and mandates for specific situations relating to cybersecurity.
Principle of Security Management by Brian R. Johnson, Published by Prentice-Hall copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc.
The first thing that we must consider about Information Security is that there is not a final destination at which we can arrive. IT Security is an ongoing set of processes and activities that requires attention and expertise on a daily basis. It is important to understand that systems are not secured by themselves and it is our responsibility to maintain and improve them periodically as required. It is of vital importance to establish the appropriate mechanisms and requirements in order to support the company’s CIA triad. The following report will provide you guidance about auditing and hardening techniques applied though the 7 Domains by utilizing IT Security Best Practices.
Information security has become one of the most pressing issues government agencies, corporations and organizations deal with. Organizations have heavily invested in securing their information from unauthorized access. This investment comes in the form of building physical and virtual infrastructures, as well as training employees in the best practices of information security (Ifinedo, 2012). Despite such efforts, employee’s compliance with information security guidelines within an organization has been one of the driving factors jeopardizing the security of information owned by an organization. Therefore, understanding what predicts compliance with information security policies presets a great opportunity for organizations
Development of privacy policies: Privacy and security policies and procedure must be adopted and enforced including actions items in the event of a breach.
Nowadays, the information is the most treasured asset in an organization, due to it along with the experience represents the input necessary to take appropriate decisions and consequently to have success in the business. Almost all the information and knowledge related with the processes business, goods and services offered by a company, is processed, managed and stored through technology and information systems, thus the security of information has become increasingly important and plays a critical role in the enterprise government.
A clear, straightforward policy in relation to operational security can often benefit the privacy and security of some businesses (“Understanding Operational Security,” 2016). As a result, Edu Corp constantly analyzes and deploys appropriate solutions to secure every company aspect relating to our operational security. By adhering to Edu Corp’s comprehensive Operational Security Policy, employees may assist in protecting and safeguarding various forms data and critical information, as owned by Edu Corp.
The company needs to have policies that explain what the network requirements are and what needs to be done to provide a functional network. Policies should reference regulations that apply to the business and should cover different areas such as administrative functions, documentation, and security (TestOut, 2014a). Policies should require that administrators follow procedures. Procedures are step-by-step instructions for such things as installing and configuring hardware and software, updating antivirus and operating systems, and backing up data.