Jan 11 2010

Long Awaited ISO/IEC 27004:2009

Category: ISO 27k — DISC @ 12:49 pm

Security Metrics: Replacing Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

The long awaited international standard on Information Security Measurement, ISO/IEC27004:2009, is now available.

It’s a must have –
To Download a copy of ISO27004 – Information Security Metrics

Key Features and Benefits:

• Provides guidance on the development, implementation use of metrics to measure the effectiveness of an ISO 27001-compliant ISMS, controls or groups of controls. Helping you to quantify the payback to your organisation of implementing an ISMS.
• Covers not just the development, implementation and use of metrics, but also the communication of the results. Helping you to ensure management buy-in for future projects.
• The use of this standard provides opportunities to identify areas in need of improvement, facilitating continual improvement. Thus leading more secure information, cost savings and increases in efficiency.

If you have not claibrated the model with measurement, only one thing is certain: You will either overspend or under-protect.

Get your copy today >>
To Download a copy of ISO27004 – Information Security Metrics

Tags: Individual Standards, International Organization for Standardization, ISO, ISO 27004, ISO 27k, iso measurement, iso27004, Policy, Security, under-protect

Jun 30 2009

Security controls and ISO 27002

Category: Information Security,ISO 27k — DISC @ 1:56 pm

seeyourdataUsually security breach occurs due to lack of basic security controls or lack of effective control which is not relevant over the time. Security controls also disintegrate over the time due to lack of maintenance and monitoring.
According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse survey, the top three breaches resulted from laptop theft, software or human error, and hackers. Most of these breaches could have been prevented by procedural, management and technical security controls. Most of the security breaches happen during the state of non-compliance. The most famous TJX security breach happens in 2007, at the time of the breach TJX complied with only 3 out of 12 PCI-DSS requirements.

Small organizations sometimes don’t have enough resources to comply with all the requirements of regulations and standards like HIPAA and PCI. But that is not an excuse of not understanding the relevant regulations and standards requirements to your business and having a clear security strategy which explains how to achieve the compliance down the road. Also your security strategy will be an evidence of your due diligence to secure your critical assets. On the other hand big organizations have enough resources to implement security controls, but for whatever reason they often do not have clear strategy how to establish security controls.

Information security is not a onetime static process but an ongoing assessment of risks in your business, where you need to understand the your critical assets, classification of those assets based on CIA, sensitive data and its access, policies, standards, procedures , training, security reviews and continuous monitoring.

One of the most popular baseline for security controls is the international standard ISO 27002 – Code of Practice for Information Security management. ISO 27002 have 11 security clauses and 133 security controls are high level which provides a reasonable guidance for implementing an Information Security Management System (ISMS). Due to ISO 27002 broad scope, it’s relevant to every industry and size of business.

Organization should have a baseline of security controls before barging onto complying with PCI or HIPAA regulation. ISO assessment will help you to understand what controls are in place and assist you with security strategy and later will become a measuring stick for your ISMS.

Ongoing compliance is achieved by monitoring the relevant controls. Ongoing compliance will depend on the quality of your information security management system (ISMS). ISMS would include thorough monitoring, logging and reviewing controls to maintain and improve system security over time. You can develop an automated monitoring process to achieve consistent results and sustain compliance by continuously monitoring your system. ISMS (based on ISO 27001) certainly can be a great value to manage ongoing monitoring, maintenance and improvement cycle.

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Tags: Computer security, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Information Security, Information Security Management System, ISO/IEC 27001, pci dss, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Feb 12 2009

SB1386 and ISO27002

Category: ISO 27k — DISC @ 7:08 pm

In April 20007, California state IT council adopted the information security program guide which help organizations to comply with SB 1386. The council advised the use of information security standard ISO 27002 framework to comply and meet the needs of SB 1386.

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Which businesses are affected by SB 1386 law?
o If you have a business in California
o Outsourcing company who does business with a company in California or have customers in California
o Data centers outside of California which store information of California residents

sb1386

Toolkits are designed to help organizations who need to comply with a law like SB 1386. SB 1386 and ISO 27002 implementation toolkit assist ISO 27002 compliance. Also help organizations who are interested in certification to lay in the ground work for (ISO 27001) certification that would demonstrate the conformance with world class information security management systems.


The Comprehensive SB1386 Implementation toolkit comprises of:
1. The SB 1386 Documentation Toolkit: a download with nearly 400 of densely packed pages of fit-for-purpose policies and procedures ensuring full compliance with SB 1386.
2. International IT Governance: An Executive Guide to ISO 17799/ISO 27001 (Soft Cover) This is the US version of the long established world leading manual on designing and implementing an Information Security Management System (ISMS) in line with the best practice guidance of ISO27001/ISO17799.
3. vsRisk™- the Definitive ISO 27001: 2005-Compliant Information Security Risk Assessment Tool which in summary:
o automates and delivers an ISO/IEC 27001-compliant risk assessment
o Uniquely, can assess confidentiality, integrity & availability for each of business, legal and contractual aspects of information assets – as required by ISO 27001
o Comprehensive best-practice alignment
o Supports ISO 27001
o Supports ISO 27002 (ISO/IEC 17799)
o Conforms to ISO/IEC 27005
o Conforms to NIST SP 800-30
o The wizard-based approach simplifies and accelerates the risk assessment process;
o Integrated, regularly updated, BS7799-3 compliant threat and vulnerability databases.
4. Plus an electronic copy of the Information Security Standard ISO/IEC 27002: (formerly ISO 17799).

Buy The SB-1386 & ISO27002 Implementation Toolkit NOW!

ISO assessment is a great first step towards ISO 27002 compliance and toward the final goal of ISO 27001 certification audit or for that matter any compliance audit.

ISO 27002 Framework for Today’s Security Challenges
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRFMfiLbNj8

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Tags: Information Security, Information Security Management System, International Organization for Standardization, iso 27001, iso 27002, iso 27005, iso assessment, National Institute of Standards and Technology, sb 1386

Jan 30 2009

ISO 27k and CMMI

Category: Information Security,ISO 27k — DISC @ 2:00 am

To become a successful business in today’s market, optimized information security controls may be the panacea for unmet security needs. One way to achieve optimized information security control is to perform ISO assessment and assess the organization security posture based on ISO 27002 code of practice and map each control with Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) to find out the current CMMI level for each control. information The goal is to address the organization security needs as a whole, and assess how different departments and business functions are addressing the current business security requirements. The CMMI has five levels and evaluate security controls based on levels, not on specific objectives. Each level provides the basis for the next level where it is not possible to get to the next level without complying with previous level. ISO 27002 is a comprehensive framework which can be utilized to obtain the baseline upon which to build each level. For each control in ISO 27002, maturity levels are defined using maturity definition found in CMMI. In the assessment report maturity level of each control of ISO 27002 standard can be evaluated. Utilizing the color coded scheme provided by CMMI model, create a one page ISO control summary for executives which will not only help them to understand the current security posture but also can be instrumental for measuring progress and resource allocation.

The scope of the ISO27k standards includes various aspects of IT. The introduction to ISO 27002 states clearly: “Information can exist in many forms. It can be printed or written on paper, stored electronically, transmitted by post of using electronic means, shown on films, or spoken in conversation. Whatever form information takes, or means by which it is shared or stored, it should always be appropriately protected.”

Benefits of ISO 27k framework:
o Framework addresses the security issues for the whole organization and limit data breaches
o Address compliance with various regulations like (SOX, HIPAA, and PCI) without creating silos.
o Reduce total cost of security by decreasing total number of controls required
o Perception of your business that you are serious about information security not just compliance
o Enhance partners and vendors confidence to do business with your organization
o Future deciding factor for national and especially international partners for more business
o Internationally recognized standard which addresses security awareness for the whole organization

isotocmmi

Assessment will give an organization a high level view of their current security posture and provide a road map for security strategy in a sense what needs to be addressed first utilizing risk based approach. This is also a good start if your organization is interested in the Information Security Management System (ISMS) or ISO 27001 certification. ISO 27001 is the standard for the certification which includes the set of requirements for ISMS. Justifiable scoping is the key to a quick and successful certification; organization may adjust their scope in a re-certification attempt. Perhaps in the first attempt you may need to include just a web portal in your scope and the entire infrastructure behind supporting that portal. Once the ISMS project scope is determined, here are some steps you can follow to prepare for ISO 27001 auditors.

1. Based on your scope, create an asset list
2. Find out asset threats and vulnerabilities and classify the asset based on CIA scale
3. Come up with risk matrix based on impact and likelihood of the risk
4. Create priorities based on impact and likelihood of the risk
5. Based on priorities, implement appropriate controls for risks which needs to be addressed
6. Do the risk assessment again, PDCA improve ISMS

“ISO27001 is a structured, technology-neutral, vendor-agnostic specification and code of practice for information security management in organizations of all sizes that should be adopted as part of an organization’s overall risk management strategy.”

This should give you a jump start to certification. You have already started the process of certification because most of the documentations in the risk assessment will become part of certification process later and will lead you to 12 steps which are part of PDCA cycle. ISMS certification process utilized Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle methodology which continually improve information security management system and meet the contractual, legal, and regulatory requirements for information security.

ISO assessment is utilized to analyze the current security posture of an organization where each control is defined and can be color coded using the base definition found in CMMI. Therefore ISO assessment is a great first step towards the final ISO 27001 certification audit or for that matter any compliance audit.

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ISO 27k framework for today’s security challenges
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRFMfiLbNj8

Three useful titles on ISO 27k by Alan Calder

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Tags: Capability Maturity Model Integration, CIA scale, Information Security, Information Security Management System, International Organization for Standardization, isms, iso 27001, iso 27002, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI, PDCA, Risk Assessment, Risk management, Security, SOX HIPAA, vsrisk

Oct 07 2008

vsRisk and security risk assessment

Category: ISO 27k,Security Risk Assessment — DISC @ 3:18 pm

Information Security Risk Management for ISO27001 / ISO27002

The State of California has adopted ISO/IEC 27002 as its standard for information security and recommends other organizations and vendors to use this standard as guidance in their efforts to comply with California law.

To achieve an ongoing compliance, major organizations require tools to comply with standard such as ISO 27002/ISO27001. vsRisk is an easy to use Information Security Risk Assessment tool which makes risk assessment process consistent, easier and produces required documentation to achieve ISO 27001 certification . vsRisk also aligns seamlessly with standards like ISO 27002, ISO 27005 and NIST SP 800-30.

vsRisk helps organizations to develop an Information Security Management System (ISMS) asset inventory and capture business, legal and contractual requirements against each asset. vsRisk is customizable to meet specific needs when introducing new risks, vulnerabilities and controls without any additional help from a consultant. vsRisk helps you focus on assets rather than on threats and vulnerabilities. This is an approach which works by treating business processes as an asset, which is examined for their criticality, lack of security and consequences of failed process can be examined. In this regards, vsRisk is an effective and efficient tool by identifying most important points and key issues right away, which focusing on threats doesn’t.

Major benefits of vsRisk tool:
1. It is the definitive ISO27001 risk assessment tool, compliant
with all the key information security standards – which means that
you can be certain that a vsRisk risk assessment will help you
achieve ISO27001 certification.
2. It is designed to be usable – your lead risk assessor and any
asset owners involved in your risk assessment are going to find
their task made easier
3. Unique features include the risk assessment wizard, which
standardizes the risk assessment process and guides asset owners
through the risk assessment process.
4. vsRisk creates a baseline from which future risk assessments can
easily be made.
5. vsRisk integrates with ISMS documentation toolkit, for even
greater usability.

“vsRisk™- the Definitive ISO 27001: 2005-Compliant Information Security Risk Assessment Tool, which automates and delivers an ISO/IEC 27001-compliant risk assessment and can assess confidentiality, integrity and availability for each of business, legal and contractual aspects of information assets – as required by ISO 27001. Providing a comprehensive best-practice alignment, it supports ISO 27001 and 27002 (ISO/IEC 17799) disciplines, and is ISO/IEC 27005 and NIST SP 800-30 compliant. It also offers a wizard-based approach that simplifies and accelerates the risk assessment process, plus integrates and regularly updates BS7799-3 compliant threat and vulnerability databases.”

The key to successful Risk Management is to protect your most important/critical assets. The importance/criticality of an asset might change over time. That is another reason to automate security risk assessment process to recalibrate your risks based on current state of security.

Risk Management to ISO27001/NIST Wizard-based risk assessment tool Simplifies compliance – To buy vsRisk tool!

Meet Stringent California Information Security Legislation with Comprehensive Toolkit

ISO27001 EXPERTS CAN HELP COMPANIES MEET STRINGENT CALIFORNIAN …
EIN News (press release) – Netherlands
vsRisk™- the Definitive ISO 27001: 2005-Compliant Information Security Risk Assessment Tool, which automates and delivers an ISO/IEC 27001-compliant risk …

Tags: asset owner, automate security risk assessment, baseline, california, isms, iso 17799, iso 27001, iso 27001 certification, iso 27002, iso 27005, nist sp 80-30, sb 1386, vsrisk

Aug 08 2008

ISO27k and compliance

Category: Information Security,ISO 27k — DISC @ 2:42 am

Security review is performed to identify and analyze risks and weaknesses in the current security posture of an organization. An ISO assessment is performed utilizing international standard ISO 27002 and company security policy, the purpose of the review is to evaluate the information security posture of an organization based on international standard. The level of compliance will indicate how close your organization is to meeting the key objectives for each 133 controls defined within 11 security control clauses collectively containing a total of 39 main security categories and one introductory clause introducing risk assessment and treatment.

It is important to not only assess the control for completeness (all relevant areas are addressed) and comprehensiveness (each individual area is covered completely), but also this balanced framework serves as the basis for both measuring an organization’s effectiveness in addressing risk and structuring an organization’s overall security program. Because ISO 27002 requirements are largely a superset of other major regulations, achieving ISO 27002 compliance positions most organizations to be well on their way to meeting the requirements of SOX, HIPAA and GLBA.

To achieve ISO compliance, thorough assessment utilizing all 133 controls will provide mitigating solution guidelines for gaps. To give your business an edge, conduct a security review based on ISO controls, if you would like to compare your security practices with international standard.
The result of the assessment will not only establish and maintain security policy, but also validates the policy’s completeness, design new controls and provide a road map to mitigate risks. An assessment of risks will determine what issues need to be addressed and provide a guideline to meet security regulations and a road map to build a world class ISMS (Information Security Management System).

ISO27001 is an international standard which is considered as an information security best practice or due diligence and is part of the security controls and audit controls specification document. ISO27002 is a code of practice which recommends guidelines for information security management systems and is closely linked to ISO 27001. ISO27001 continues to provide comprehensive best-practice advice and guidance to private and public organizations around the globe on how to design and implement a compliant information security management system ISMS.
An ISMS is not simply a set of documents. Maintaining and improving ISMS allows it to grow over time to address new business requirements. An ISMS is simply a system which addresses information security risks facing an organization and identifies the level of organization compliance with applicable regulations.

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Tags: glba, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, hipaa, Information Security, Information Security Management System, isms, iso 27002, iso assessment, iso compliance, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27002, sox

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