Automation

By cliangNo Comments
Everyday, we rely so much on automation ... be seen or behind the scene: rice cooker, temperature control of air conditioner, TV program recorder, garage entry, escalator, fire alarm system, traffic light, public lighting, vehicle, train, vessel, cargo terminal, electric grid, etc. Are we ready to bear with the failure in any of these automation?  Or how long we can tolerate with degraded service? These are the basis to derive the alternate processing model to resume service though it might not be up to the expected service quality.  Shortening the unplanned outage time or increasing service quality during outage will be materialized into substantial monetary terms. Cybersecurity practitioner can only facilitate the thought process but the ultimate decision is from business - risk taking between optimal or optional investment to meet the business target....
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Preparedness

By cliangNo Comments
No doubt, we do have deployed and sustained protection as counter-measure against cyber threats.  However, the cyber threat landscape is always evolving - new trick, zero-day exploit, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) are there and we don't know what we don't know. In this regard, we must assume our system or infrastructure shall be compromised.  It is just a matter at what time this happens. To deal with the worst scenario, we have to get well prepared beforehand.   Things like: Establish directive to trade off between service resumption or digital evidence preservation Determine dependency of resuming service in alternate facility though in degraded level Streamline philosophy of containment to minimize damage due to cyber attack Maintain contact info as well as reliable and trusted communication channel among key personnel during emergency situation Prepare Line-To-Take templates to simplify the job for PR Most importantly, Human safety and environment protection should be the first priority Regular drill to validate the readiness and find ways to improve ...
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Crowdsourcing

By cliangNo Comments
Landlord: "Tell me your monthly sales amount." Tenant: "No way, this is confidential business information." With a little trick, such confidential information can be collected. Giving certain incentive, customers will queue up and surrender the sales receipts to the concierge of the mall. Free parking is one of the incentive models.  For in-mall spending over certain amount, concierge validates the parking ticket and captures the receipt details.  But this is less granular because not every customer comes to the mall with own vehicle. A more advanced model is to establish royalty membership to earn points per the spending amount in the mall.  This is still not accurate because not every customer will join the royalty scheme but more granular than the free parking model. Then, confidential sales information could be captured from the crowd for analytics....
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Boundary

By cliangNo Comments
Typically, the boundary defines a clear demarcation of accountability in the case of ICT or ICS system landscape.  It also confines the work scope in any professional engagement activities to ease managing the work product expectation. However, as a cybersecurity practitioner, we must look further beyond to strike for a holistic view in order not to miss out any inherent threats.  It's just a matter of fact how far and how detail we are comfortable to go beyond, or simply include a scope statement for the "limited vision"....
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Design & Build

By cliangNo Comments
Secure by design of ICS (Industrial Control System) is just part of the ICS life cycle.  If design is insecure, retrofit sometimes is not possible and need to rebuild from scratch again. Next is the ongoing sustainability of the cybersecurity because the ICS is only secure at that particular point in time of commissioning.  Addressing new vulnerabilities and continuous strengthening are required to keep staying cyber secure. Of course, identify the business outcomes and acceptable risks then translate into ICS cybersecurity requirements in the procurement specification is the very first step....
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FUD

By cliangNo Comments
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) is the tactic vendors are trying to sell you their cybersecurity solution. Typically, this is done via several stages: Share damages for cyber incidents in the public like substantial fines by the Court or huge claims from customers, loss in reputation, drop in stock price, revenue loss due to business operation interruption plus other fees like investigation, containment and recovery How your other peers are doing Market share and strength of their solution from  independent analyst's ranking How their solution is able to help and protect you Certainly, having cybersecurity protection deployed is better than none but what you need to know: Limitation of the solution as there is no bullet proof protection technology Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to operate including competent skill set and extra resources Understand how effective the protection to limit the risks and threat actors that the organization is facing because each organization has its own business priority, people and culture issues Most importantly,...
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Operation Risk

By cliangNo Comments
Unlike IT application, ICS (Industrial Control System) involves direct physical process that will affect human safety and impose environment impacts. When we conduct ICS risk assessment, we must not just limited thoughts to cyber risks.  Cyber risk is just one of the causes that affect the stability, manageability and operability of the ICS. For impacts caused by cyber issues, are these due to general equipment fault rather than cyber attack?  What about other physical damages like communication lines fails due to natural disaster, or machinery break down from wear and tear?  The counter-measures shall then also address non-cyber issues for a comprehensive business continuity arrangement....
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360

By cliangNo Comments
In physical world, 360 degree can further be 2D or 3D.  Anyway, it has the sense for a holistic view of the surrounding. In cyber world, there isn't any concept of dimension.  The cyber world is connected via different network, gateway and nodes.  The 360 approach is required to assess risks and attack paths to the cyber applications such that the optimal and effective controls can be deployed....
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Zero

By cliangNo Comments
The topic can associate to many things The boundary between positive and negative value Calibration for instrumentation integrity Absolute zero (temperature) Zero-day exploit, attack One of the 2 binary digits From zero to hero Zero-trust ... The zero-trust model (or architecture) is chosen here.  In cyber space with zero-trust, every component needs to be re authenticated for trust even if inside the network.  This is to limit lateral movement when adversary once gains access to an insecure node. This model will reimagine the work process.  Of course, to what degree applying this model will be the trade off of security and productivity plus the risks tolerated....
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Backup & Recovery

By cliangNo Comments
Service availability expectation is high nowadays.  Customers expect everything is always up and running any time for usability. Backup for recovery becomes challenging: platform & applications, system configuration and application data are changing at different frequencies.  It is necessary to formulate the backup strategy at design stage or be part of the major change to meet the recovery time objective by deploying viable technologies. GFS (Grandfather, Father, Son), or 3 generations, is still considered as the minimum set for full backup to recover the entire system at certain point in time.  It's how frequent this is done and what are other business continuity activities to complement the "outdated" information....
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