Mar 17 2009

Congressional data mining and security

Category: Information SecurityDISC @ 12:42 am

Data mining
Image by moonhouse via Flickr
“By slipping a simple, three-sentence provision into the gargantuan spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last week, a congressman from Silicon Valley is trying to nudge Congress into the 21st Century. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) placed a measure in the bill directing Congress and its affiliated organs — including the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office — to make its data available to the public in raw form. This will enable members of the public and watchdog groups to craft websites and databases showcasing government data that are more user-friendly than the government’s own.”

Would be great if this passes BUT, Government would have to have security provisions so hackers could not manipulate databases in this case raw data. Without proper controls, databases can be easily modified and stolen, so before making the raw data available to public, Congress might need a comprehensive legislation to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data.

Security principles and controls which should be considered in database legislation?
• Principles of least privilege
• Separation of duties
• Defense in depth at every level
• Strong auditing and monitoring controls
• Security risk assessment to assess risks based on ISO 27002 and NIST 800-53
• Comprehensive risk management program to manage risks

Congressional Data Mining: Coming Soon? (Mother Jones)


httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqpMyQMi0to

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: Business, Data mining, database, defense in depth, iso 27002, Mike Honda, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Risk Assessment, Risk management, Security, separation of duities, Silicon Valley