Misconception

By cliangNo Comments
Administrative control back by legal system is the most effective control Many cybersecurity practitioners has misconception that technical controls are means to secure the cyber environment. They insist for encryption, MFA, session time out, catch up with security patches, deploy latest version, mandate anomalies detection in virtual environment etc. Sometimes, excessive controls will not increase the level of security much. Even worst, new controls will bring to new risks not to mention degrading productivity. Have a thorough understanding the business, cyber environment and attack surface is the essential element. Conducting a risk assessment is to strike the right balance what to invest and what risks can be tolerated. Example #1, if the system is fully isolated, remote exploit thru network even with CVSS score of 10 doesn't matter. Example #2, RFiD tags won't be stick to each piece of commodity in the supermarket. Only high value items are tagged. This is the business risk to accept when running the self-service operating model. ...
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Dynamic Policy

By cliangNo Comments
Written directives for cybersecurity are getting more challenges to formulate into policies due to dynamic business nature. If too rigid, compliance will be an issue. If too loose, then forget it because the policies won't stipulate specific protection. Eventually, policy statement will be conditional. Instead of laying down business logic, precise specific protection is stated for generic situation. An example is information protection regarding credit card transaction. If transaction value exceeds defined threshold, further check is needed for authorization. This will be implemented in the system and the defined threshold will be per cardholder's spending profile, usual spending location, repayment history etc. The zero-trust access model is taking similar approach to grant access in further strengthening critical information asset assess. Last but not the least, technical enforcement can always be defeated or circumvented by human factor and usage behavior. That's why raising situation awareness and workforce competency development are important to invest rather than solely narrow focused on...
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Unnecessary Control #2

By cliangNo Comments
Control must be enforceable. If control can be circumvented or bypassed, then there is no point to deploy such control. That's why we need to keep updating the system, infrastructure to sustain their effectiveness over time due to emerging threats are out. There are many examples out there in the cyber world. Attack and defense are competing each other. Once in the digital journey, allocate resources to address multiple aspects to stay secure: Collect threat intelligence and their impacts to own environmentAssess operation risks to prioritize protectionMaintain workforce competency and situation awarenessRefresh technology obsolescenceEstablish achievable and enforceable cybersecurity directives ...
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Full Coverage

By cliangNo Comments
Traffic camera is only deployed at risky locations to detect unsafe driving behavior but not everywhere This time, I talk about auditor instead of cybersecurity practitioner that I have come across. In an ICS audit, auditor has questioned why the deployed anomalies detection does not have full coverage of all devices. This will impose cyber risks due to malicious traffic cannot be detect early. Despite thorough elaboration with the following rationales, auditor is still not satisfied: The ICS is isolated from the Internet and not even any other peer ICSWithin the ICS, the plant units are further zoned in the network such that cyber threats are contained prohibiting lateral movement to compromise the entire ICSThe ICS is hardened with removable media lock downOutgoing process information data to other the repository in the ICS network is thru unidirectional gateway enforcing push out to avoid reverse TCP attack in the case of stateful network firewallFull coverage will have only very a small gain in detection capability...
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Let me drop everything …

By cliangNo Comments
And work on your problem! Politics are always incurred in work and culture of an organizations especially large one. Cybersecurity becomes a hot topic and new normal to strike for cyber safe in applicaton system, business process or industrial automation. There are cybersecurity policies mandating the right things to do. However, no policies are perfect and neither can policies address all situations in real life. It then creates a new political atmosphere. The appropriate approach is to engage a 3rd party to look at the entire cybersecurity culture of an organization from fresh-eye, the competency of the cybersecurity team whether the members possess the relative credentials, their ability to upkeep knowledge, their working relationship with business, the cybersecurity strategy or priority on the organization as a whole rather than micro-management and zero-one decision of so-called policy compliance. ...
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Administrative Control

By cliangNo Comments
Certain cybersecurity practitioners insist to impose technical controls to secure the infrastructure/system. To some degrees yes, basic technical controls will prohibit human error or low skill attacks. Adding technical controls will never secure the infrastructure/system more. At some points, more controls will even degrade the security due to a number of issues: People will find ways to circumvent controls because affecting productivity (writing down complex password)New control might introduce new system weaknessExtra efforts are required to sustain the control effectiveness (upgrade, backup, other housekeeping tasks: patch, patch, patch ...) These are always the neglected elements. Sometimes, exercise administrative control will enforce discipline internally while externally relying laws & regulations. ...
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Dual Standards

By cliangNo Comments
It is no harm to have dual standard to fit specific use case. As long as the directive is clearly stated, it is fine. For badly written policies, the policy requirements are subject to interpretation creating chaos. This happens especially due to incompetent cybersecurity practitioners. Therefore, the outcome of any security assessment should not just look at how the system is designed, built and operate. Validating the policy statement if it is up to industry best practice and practically achievable in commercial world are also equally important. ...
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Enforcement #4

By cliangNo Comments
A directive must come with sensible enforcement Cybersecurity policy establishment and cybersecurity policy enforcement are usually executed independently in an organization. Normally, policy authors are more knowledgeable to stipulate the rationale behind whether explicitly or implicitly why protection are required to secure the cyber space of the organization. Enforcement team simply follow the book to provide advisories or perform compliance check. The world is not perfect and situation will drive decision if it is a policy exception or the inadequacy of policy for revision. As cybersecurity practitioner, we must exercise our professional judgment to advise pragmatic approach in helping business for policy compliance rather than just a zero or one decision. After all, a "cyber court" in an organization is uncommon where the "cyber judge" will have the final ruling. Certain cybersecurity practitioners even have mal-practice to involve Senior Management for approval without taking up professional responsibility. Senior Management should be in the informed role rather than an approval role. ...
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Opportunist

By cliangNo Comments
Dual signages on display - adopt the appropriate one in particular situation? Policy statement must be clearly defined and published. It must also be precise without ambiguity but subject to interpretation by different parties. If your cybersecurity policies are written unclear, a lot of unnecessary internal overheads of so-called policy exceptions or enforcement issues will be surfaced. Therefore, regular policy review and adjustment is indeed integrated into the policy requirement. And last but not least, don't be aggressive to write something that is not achievable in the specific business environment. ...
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Surrealism

By cliangNo Comments
It is easy to for artists to draw something or writers compose fictions beyond imagination. Such creation even stimulates innovation that when putting into practice disrupting the industry and our life. However when writing cybersecurity policies, the directives must be pragmatically achievable and effectively enforceable. After all, policies are the internal company rules for every level to comply with. If the rules cannot be achieved, nor enforced, these rules are just a document in the bookshelf. Follow what the industry or the peers do rather than inventing something high-sounding but cannot be landed on the ground. Non-compliance will be the outcome. ...
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