Information Integrity #2

By cliangNo Comments
The missing Chinese character is "zero", this gives entirely different meaning. Disseminating of informative message appears does not have much of cybersecurity concerns. However, it depends on the usage purpose. If the incorrect information does not impose adverse consequence, then it only cause inconvenience to the target audience. But if it does (like sending out incorrect result of lottery draws, stock price, exchange rates), then the service provider has liability. Usually, a disclaimer is added to relieve the liability and using the service will constitute the acceptance of the usage term implicitly. Bottom-line is to have a comprehensive risk assessment of the digital solution or service offered to other parties. ...
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Insider #2

By cliangNo Comments
Physical access requires substantial resources while visual accessibility is anywhere Industrial Control Systems (ICS) in a plant are now modernized using commodity hardware and software with networking capability to enhance overall efficiency, business analytics and to standardize skillset in plant operation plus support. With network, remote diagnostic and support are also possible to cut down the turn around time without waiting for engineer on site. Some cybersecurity practitioners put focus only on the cyber portion of the plant. This is not wrong provided that the physical aspects are equally considered at the compatible level. This is because the ICS is just a portion of the entire plant. The physical and mechanical plant conditions must also be secured. If background check is deemed necessary for O&M teams to reduce insider threat, this should also extend to the service crews (e.g. delivery, janitor), physical security guard service, contractors, vendors or even management. Most often, management level is by default granted with...
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Onion Approach

By cliangNo Comments
Information protection is usually via layered defence, sometimes refers as the "onion approach". In physical world, protected contents are placed inside secure facility thru multiple control points with access granularity like site level, particular zone(s) in the site, building, equipment room and cabinet before reaching the target. When things are changed accessible from network, reliance on physical access is still required but there are added controls to the cyber portion. Layered protection counterparts are: network firewall, application firewall, middleware gateway, RBAC, multi-factor authentication. Latest concept is zero-trust (ZT): user identity (and the authorized roles), request originated from which device (and platform), via trusted or untrusted network, type of application raising the request, types of contents for access, industry compliance and latest threat intelligence are all the variables in determining the permission for access. The same onion approach applies except more complexity in setting up and maintenance of these dynamic parameters. ...
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