1 A Comprehensive Framework for Information Assurance Abe Usher, CISSP

2 Agenda  Introduction  Information Assurance defined  What you need to know  A comprehensive (lightweight) framework  Demonstrations  IATAC resources  Questions

3 Introduction: whoami  Deputy Director of the Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center (IATAC)Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center  Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)  M.S. in Information Systems  Creator of the INFOSEC ZeitgeistINFOSEC Zeitgeist  Former infantry officer  Geek

4 Introduction: purpose  To provide an information briefing on a simple, yet comprehensive framework for thinking about Information Assurance (IA) issues

5 IA defined: old perspective  Information Security:  “Protection of information systems against unauthorized access to or modification of information, whether in storage, processing, or transit and against the denial of service to authorized users, including those measures necessary to detect, document, and counter such threats.[1]”  John McCumber, 1991

6 IA defined: contemporary perspective  Information Assurance:  “Information Operations that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. This includes providing for the restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities.[2]”  confidentiality- assurance that information is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals, processes, or devices.  integrity- quality of an IS reflecting the logical correctness and reliability of the operating system; the logical completeness of the hardware and software implementing the protection mechanisms; and the consistency of the data structures and occurrence of the stored data.  availability- timely, reliable access to data and information services for authorized users.  NSTISSI No. 4009, "National IA Glossary," May 2003

7 What you “need to know”  Technologist perspective –TCP/IP stack details –Firewalls –Intrusion detection –Anti-virus –INFOSEC Research Council hard problems list  Policy perspective: –DoD 8500 series documents –DoD 5200 series documents –DoD 8100 series documents –NIST 800 series documents –National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace –DoD IA Strategy –DITSCAP / NIACAP  Operator perspective: –IS Alliance: Common Sense Guide for Home and Individual Users –IS Alliance: Common Sense Guide for Senior Managers

8 Common criteria

9 What you “need to know”  Do we lose the forest while looking at the trees?

10 Thoughts on classification  “The beginning of all understanding is classification.” Hayden White

11 A comprehensive, yet “lightweight” framework

12 Thoughts on classification “Classification is, in fact, a general method used by us all for dealing with information… So by classification we can organize our knowledge of the [plant kingdom] into a system which stores and summarizes our information for us in a convenient manner… Clearly, some systems by which we can organize this knowledge, make generalizations and predictions, and simply reduce the sheer bulk of data with which we have to deal, is not only desirable but essential.”  Charles Jefferies An Introduction to Plant Taxonomy

13 A comprehensive, yet lightweight framework

14 A comprehensive, yet lightweight framework

15 A comprehensive, yet lightweight framework

16 A comprehensive, yet lightweight framework

17 Case study: confidentiality of information in transmission  Alice views an information resource belonging to Bob using a plain text protocol  Information state: transmission  Security service: confidentiality  Security countermeasure: encryption [3], secure transmission medium, frequency hopping, obscure system interface, access controls

18 Case study: confidentiality of information in transmission

19 Interactive Web based version

20 Case study: availability of net based resources  Bob wants to view a Web resource belonging to Alice  Information state: storage, transmission  Security service: availability  Security countermeasure: traffic filtering/blocking [4], rate limiting, functional redundancy, data redundancy, load balancing, acceptable use policy, business continuity of operations plan

21 Case study: availability of net based resources

22 A comprehensive, yet lightweight framework

23 IATAC Resources  IAnewsletter  IA Digest  Technical inquiries  Technical repository  On the Web at: – –

24 Questions

25 Backup slides

26 References [1] McCumber, John. "Information Systems Security: A Comprehensive Model". Proceedings 14th National Computer Security Conference. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Baltimore, MD. October [2] NSTISSI No. 4009, "National INFOSEC Glossary," January [3] OpenSSH protocol. Designed through the OpenBSD project at Latest release September [4] Linux Planet. Traffic filtering by IP Address. February [5] Maconachy, Victor, Corey Schou, Daniel Ragsdale, and Don Welch. "A Model for Information Assurance: An Integrated Approach". Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Workshop on Information Assurance and Security. U.S. Military Academy. West Point, NY. June 2001.

27 Information Security Zeitgeist  Provides a graphical depiction of the emergence and disappearance of hot topics in information security over time  Inspired by the Google Zeitgeist report  On the Web:  

28 Information Security Zeitgeist

29 Information Security Zeitgeist