Container or Content

By cliangNo Comments
When installing controls, you have to understand what is the protection objective. Don't just apply textbook knowledge for the sake of having controls. Understand the business environment and the consequence to determine the optimal controls. Sometimes, controls are really unnecessary because the consequence is acceptable by common sense. If you put the wrong focus, the protection doesn't make any sense and wasting valuable resources. Don't just insist for policy compliance because policy could be written incorrectly. Apply your professonal judgment as we are hired to do so. If not, you are neither competent for the job nor having common sense. ...
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Dual Home

By cliangNo Comments
Certain cybersecurity practitioners have no knowledge of the implication when writing policy statement even with help from external subject matter experts. A typical example is that host with "dual home" connection must not be allowed. There are some rationales that this network setup will incur cybersecurity risks but only on particular scenarios. It is risky if one network interface card (NIC) lands on trusted zone while the other NIC lands on a "dirty" zone. The host is then acting as a network firewall that might not be robust as a dedicated network firewall device capabilities. But if the host (especially in control systems) needs this setup to be managed by computer management system (e.g. domain controller) in one network while the other network manages the controllers, sensors and the design is certified by the manufacturer, blindly changing this to non-dual home setup will affect the intended operational capabilities. Lesson learned: don't write something that causes your business immediately falling into...
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Patches

By cliangNo Comments
One of the key activities in cybersecurity is to deploy security patches on regular basis. This is intended to upkeep cyber protection strength of the ICT or ICS infrastructure, platform and application. Certain cybersecurity practitioners are just blindly follow text book knowledge to mandate missing patches are policy violation and need to follow exception process. The cyber protection has undergone various strategical changes over the years: from prevention to detection and now resilience because there are a lot of unknowns to make prevention nor detection effective; from physical location centric to context-based because data are everywhere. Bottom line is to apply patches according to the specific business environment via assessing likelihood of exploitation. If the system is isolated from the Internet with strong physical access control and removable media control, there is no urgency to deploy so-called zero-day vulnerability patch. Follow the now, next or never philosophy because some patches are not even needed like the log4j that has been over-amplified to incur...
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Consequence

By cliangNo Comments
Certain cybersecurity practitioners are obsessive on technical controls. They overlook the consequence due to cyber or other non-cyber causes will be the same. Let's look at the illustration. Supposed if the truck has insecure network connection. It might be controlled remotely by threat actors. The adverse consequence might cause the truck hit any target or spill off the load. The same adverse consequence could be due to faults in the brake, fatigue of the chain, improper driving attitude … So, there should be a balance of cyber protection rather than creating many unnecessary technical controls to overkill the usage. More controls means more complex and more human errors will be resulted. ...
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Information Security

By cliangNo Comments
It is the early term in this domain. It covers everything under the sun regarding information.As time goes by, information containers are moving into digital and seldom in hardcopies making it cyber nature and then cybersecurity becomes a fashion and buzzword. We have already replaced fax machine by email or secure electronic communication, carrying thumb drive instead of bundle of hardcopies, balance in stock account replacing the stock certificates. It is true for most of the cases but there are still information in hardcopy forms like birth certificate, marriage certificate, dealth certificate, passport, deed of assignment, legal documents in court etc. Therefore, these are outside the "cyber" sense and we must not forget the necessary protection to secure these kinds of information. The challenge is the "backup" which will require certified true copy issued by authenticated body. Sometimes, you can only have the original copy without backup like passport. Safekeeping the information container in possession is the prime protection. ...
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Policy #10

By cliangNo Comments
In an organization, policy affects the culture and work practices. A good policy is practically achievable, acceptable and having buy-in with all levels why they have to follow these directives. In contrast, badly written policies will create conflict, politics and non-compliance because auditors will point out you are not doing the work according to the policies. Even worst in cybersecurity, certain cybersecurity practitioners micro-manage the protection technology down to brand name but no published standard is available. Everything is just in their mind with word slipping out from their mouth as recommendation. We must always bear in mind that cybersecurity is to help running business securely and don't overkill with unnecessary controls. There are lots of threats outside the cyber domains affecting business. The bottom line is to adopt resilience approach for prompt recovery rather than adding protection because you never know the threats outside your knowledge domain. Protections will require overheads to sustain their effectiveness too. ...
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Policy Making

By cliangNo Comments
For certain job roles of cybersecurity practitioners, policy making is necessary as a foundation in running the business securely to a reasonably degree. While doing so, we must fully understand the business objectives, operating environment and intended business outcomes taking text book knowledge as a reference rather than blindly applying. Where necessary, suitable qualifier or elaboration is required to enhance clarity. Example is personal privacy. The data subject must be a living individual shall have differentiated the situation in real life. Without this, it is impossible and impractical to enforce by replacing all the tombstone around the globe. ...
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Physics #2

By cliangNo Comments
This is another great example to think deeper to balance cyber and physical world rather than just blindly putting unnecessary investment in cyber protection. There are researchers able to demonstrate remote control of the crane via a Casio watch. Is this scary? Without knowing the exploitation condition, management will be misinformed. We, as security practitioners, must analyze the situation, identify how this can be exploited before provide the correct message. The physical conditions of the crane must also be well under attention. Imagine a loosen bolt / nut, or erected at the improper foundation, incorrect procedure to extend the crane height could all result into the same catastrophic consequence. ...
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Directive

By cliangNo Comments
A clear directive (warning on usage) is required to keep human safe. This is the most effective safety protection. After all, everyone is responsible for own safety. Similarly, a proper directive (usage terms) is deemed sufficient to keep cyber safe. It's just a matter to exercise disciplinary process in an organization is rare leading to too many controls. Making things complicated does not necessarily enhance security but could degrade intended protection. People will try to get around controls to make life easier. ...
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Usability

By cliangNo Comments
Everything is now undergoing digital transformation residing in the cyber space. Certain cybersecurity practitioners I met are overkilling business operations with cyber protection claiming to stay secure. Take the illustration above, the glass window provides scenery view from the room. If the reinforced steel covers are put on, it could definitely protect the glass window from strong wind during adverse weather. But if this steel covers are closed all the time, this will drive guests away affecting revenue. We need to be pragmatic and accept there are always risks from various domains to the business. And it's impractical to eliminate all risks. If you attempt doing so, it will end up "The operation was successful. The maharaja is dead." ...
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