Private and government organizations are required to use the guidelines and best practices as a part of an overall national security strategy. The US Department of Defense has collaborative joint partnerships with academic and private industry devoted to the research and development to collectively improve cybersecurity, and:
- Prevent cyber attacks reduce the vulnerability minimize damage rapid recovery;
- Reduce the vulnerability;
- Minimize damage;
- Recover rapidly.
Commercially developed software and computing equipment that is targeted for use in high-security environments for processing classified information must pass federal standards and regulations prior to deployment as outlined in the DFARS compliance (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement).
National Security Strategy: Cryptographic, Standards, Security Assessment and Validation
All internal and external system communication must be encrypted according to regulation. As part of the quality and security expectations, an assessment of the system security standard must be properly and consistently validated.
Research into Emerging Security Technologies
All new or developing emerging technologies must be certified as reliable and security before implementing. These are a prelude to remaining up to date on new encryption algorithms, technologies for proposed software and devices.
Development of Guidelines for Security Awareness, Training and Certification
Security vulnerabilities, data integrity, and procedural changes should advise on leaders and users on how to recognize hoaxes, errors and to distinguish them from genuine security threats. Training and certification are essential in assigning the proper personnel to monitor, manage, or oversee these systems in any national security strategy. The key responsibility is protecting critical information systems and produce relevant and accurate threat information in real time. Compliant systems and technologies security involves the protection of sensitive and classified information through encryption technologies.
The Cyberspace Security Standards
To promote national security awareness, the US government implements strategies to educate and train on cybersecurity policy standards within the domestic workforce. The initiatives document guidelines to inform and certify security professionals working in partnership with government agencies.
A Security Risk Assessment Plan
A well thought out risk assessment plan should address and determine the likelihood of a potential security breach or disaster. The plan will provide step by step instructions on evaluating the impact on which technologies involved, potential lost, and budget. The Security Risk Assessment Plan will clearly list which systems and data need to be backed up. The frequency of the backed up and the secure location of the backed-up data.
Data Storage Location, Isolation and Security
Compatibility and the preferred file system for implementing secure data storage recover are essential when implementing advanced security features that give control access to resources stored on disk systems. Detailed workflow and data flow for specific files, directories, and securable objects that may require restricted permission to specific users and groups.
Encryption and Data Protection
Define the encryption technologies and protocols that will be both for ensuring the privacy of the systems electronic communication and for securely storing information on disks, or other storage systems that it may need to connect to. A process called “hardening” your devices locks down any possible attempt to access encrypted data from unauthorized persons or other systems.
Authentication and Limited Access
The authentication schemes employed must meet or exceed NSA standards for the technologies that require user access or limited access. Unbreakable symmetries cipher for standalone user IDs and passwords or one-time passwords should comply and verifiable within your authentication scheme.
Tracking and Auditing
Implemented data handling technology should include the tools and procedures necessary to monitor all activity to protect the integrity of the system. Whether is the network or data, the security tools must allow a quantitative and qualitative legitimate measure of the system performance and integrity at any time. An advanced security audit trail analysis should be availing a sequential log. Accurate audit logs should be accessible anytime to verify security policies adherence or to improve system security. Other key uses include incident response and prevention, system maintenance, alerting, and post-mortem reporting.
Managing Key Areas of Cybersecurity
Enhanced or simulated test for cracking applied encryption technologies before and during deployment. It’s been a beneficial factor to apply NSA underlined high technology and information Security Recommendation Guides outlining steps for secure configuration of different operating systems. Such as Microsoft Windows and Cisco IOS. The NSA guides are being used by many private sectors and government agencies as a baseline for ensuring the security of their information systems.
About the Author: Rick Delgado
Rick Delgado is a business technology consultant for several Fortune 500 companies. He is also a frequent contributor to news outlets such as Wired, Tech Page One, and Cloud Tweaks. Rick enjoys writing about the intersection of business and new innovative technologies.