ePortfolio Entry #1
Forrest Pham
Christopher Bowman
CYSE 200T
September 15, 2024
CIA Triad and Authorization vs. Authentication
BLUF: The paper provides an overview of the CIA Triad, which includes Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability-important concepts in information security. It also explains the differences between Authentication and Authorization, showing how each plays its own unique role in the process of keeping data safe and managing access to it.
The CIA Triad
The three significant concepts that the CIA Triad is based on form the basis for information security: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. These concepts are crucial for the making and following of rules meant to protect data and systems.
Confidentiality ensures that information is kept away from unauthorized people. Techniques to do this include encryption, access controls, and authentication, which ensure only allowed individuals can access sensitive information. For instance, “Confidentiality measures have been developed to prevent unauthorized access attempts to sensitive information” (Chai). This could be in the use of 2FA for online banking, which requires both password and code received on the user’s mobile phone.
Integrity assumes that data should be correct and reliable. This ensures that no unauthorized person makes changes to the data and the data is consistent when utilized. Mechanisms like cryptographic checksums and version control ensure data integrity. As indicated, “Integrity refers to maintaining the consistency, accuracy, and trustworthiness of the data throughout its entire life-cycle” (Chai). For example, a digital signature might serve as proof that authentic software updates have not been tampered with.
Availability ensures that information and resources are accessible to the allowed user when required. This includes maintaining hardware and software in proper condition to prevent any type of malfunction. “Availability means information should be consistently and readily accessible for authorized parties” (Chai). Techniques such as the implementation of additional server systems and frequent backup activities ensure that a website remains functional during hardware failure.
Authentication vs. Authorization
Authentication is how users or systems are verified as to who they are. Normally, it is used to verify the identity of users with information such as usernames and passwords. It would mean, for example, the checking of information like usernames, passwords, or personal features, fingerprints, or facial identification. For instance, to log into an email account, one needs a password to verify who the user is.
Authorization determines what an authenticated user is permitted to do. It notifies the rights and privileges that are given to the user. After verifying the identity, one sees what the user can perform or what access he can achieve. According to this article, “Authorization is a process of determining and granting the permissions to a authenticated user or system which defines what resources they can access and what operations they’re allowed to perform” (GeeksforGeeks). For instance, in the case of the user logging into their email account, it is authentication, while authorization will decide what he can do inside sending or reading emails.
Conclusion
Understanding the CIA Triad is important for creating good information security policies. Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability each focus on key parts of data protection. Also, knowing the difference between Authentication and Authorization helps manage user access and make sure that security measures work well. Authentication checks who the user is, while Authorization decides what access rights they have. Together, these ideas are the basis of strong security practices, keeping data safe from unauthorized access and ensuring it remains complete and available.
Works Cited
Chai , Wesley. “What is the CIA Triad? Definition, Explanation, Examples.” (28 June 2022)
“Difference Between Authentication and Authorization.” GeeksforGeeks, 24 July 2024, www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-authentication-and-authorization/.
ePortfolio Entry #2
Forrest Pham
Christopher Bowman
CYSE 200T
November 10, 2024
Balancing Technology and Training: Addressing the Human Factor in Cybersecurity
BLUF: Given limited cybersecurity budgets, organizations must balance spending on cybersecurity training and technology investments. Both are vital in defending against cyber threats.
Given the limited resources, securing an organization’s systems becomes more difficult as sophisticated cyberattacks become more frequent. It goes without saying that investments are to be made toward cybersecurity technologies like firewalls, encryption, and intrusion detection systems to help protect sensitive data from potential breaches. The company should also invest in an equal measure in employee training on how the employees can identify potential threats and prevent them. Collins et al. (2011) observe that organizational data breaches, especially in the health and education sectors, are a cause of alarm. The authors attribute this tendency of the cyber attackers targeting these sectors to a lack of appropriate security measures. For instance, health information systems in states with breach notification laws report more incidents than others as an indication that protection is still not at its best state. This calls for a two-prong mechanism involving technology and human influence in the fight against cyber threats. An efficient employee who has been adequately trained to identify suspicious activities and takes appropriate actions accordingly compliments the technological protection (Collins et al., 2011).
In spite of the relevance of training, the investment in technology cannot be disregarded still as fundamentally very significant. Ashwin Krishnan says, “While cybersecurity budgets are usually strained, investment in advanced technologies remains imperative, especially in threat detection, automated response systems, and secure network infrastructure, to stay ahead of the evolving threats. Without these tools, even the best-prepared staff can be overwhelmed by sophisticated attacks, leaving organizations vulnerable to compromise. Payne further details how white-collar crime and cybercrime increasingly overlap, with advances in technology-coupled with broadened access to computers-opening up avenues of criminal opportunity. Many such crimes melt conventional financial crime together with digital methods, again underlining the demand for state-of-the-art security tools to deter these threats.
In fact, the balance between technology and training largely depends on that very specific risk profile of an organization and industries in which it operates. As Krishnan said, “This is where a risk-based approach towards budgeting can assist in trying to determine an effective means of resource allocation.” Indeed, such industries as healthcare, seriously affected by sensitive data and highly sought after, de facto require a leading role in advanced security technologies, joined by continuous employee education. Such a combination ensures that organizations are ready both to defeat technical vulnerabilities and human frailties, thus establishing an all-encompassing and proactive security posture.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity resource investments are at hand, but organizations should make difficult choices depending on the unique risk landscape. The right balance needs to be struck in technological investments and employee training that would be ongoing in nature, hence strengthening the defenses against emerging threats of cyber-attacks. Thus, this two-fold approach offers an organization preparedness both on the technical and human elements of cybersecurity and, hence, provides the safeguarding of valued assets and is of immense help in reducing potential damage due to cyber-attacks.
Works Cited
Collins, Jason D., Vincenzo A. Sainato, and David N. Khey. “Organizational Data Breaches 2005-2010: Applying SCP to the Healthcare and Education Sectors.” International Journal of Cyber Criminology, vol. 5, no. 1, Jan.-July 2011, pp. 794-810. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, ISSN 0974-2891.
Krishnan, Ashwin. “Cybersecurity Budget Breakdown and Best Practices.” TechTarget, 1 Sept. 2022, https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/Cybersecurity-Budget-Breakdown-and-Best-Practices.
Payne, Brian K. “White-Collar Crime, Cybercrime, or Both?” Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, vol. 19, no. 3, 2018, pp. 16-32. Scholastica, https://scholasticahq.com/criminology-criminal-justice-law-society/.
ePortfolio Entry #3
Forrest Pham
Christopher Bowman
CYSE 200T
November 2, 2024
SCADA and Critical Infrastructure: Challenges and Solutions
BLUF: SCADA systems are the backbone in the operation of all infrastructures that are presently targeted with increasing frequency by cyber threats. Therefore, effective protection requires an aggressive security framework approach that will account for recent modernized vulnerabilities related to IP-based technologies.
Critical infrastructure systems, such as power and water supply networks, are representative of fundamental supports to our daily way of life and safety. Unfortunately, they turn out to be very potential targets for the cyber-attacks, especially when traditional proprietary protocols migrate towards IP-based systems (SCADA Systems). This transition also brings along different vulnerabilities associated with the IP technologies, which makes these systems more susceptible to cyber threats. Further, a lot of infrastructures are with obsolete components, and therefore, it gets difficult for implementing the security. For instance, utility companies that rely on aging SCADA systems that are seldom updated expose themselves to attacks capable of causing disruptions in service and creating public hazards (Digital Guardian).
SCADA systems are part of the critical infrastructure on which our reliance is absolute. They gather data from hundreds of sensors and allow operators to take effective actions based on the situations in real time. SCADA would, for example, instantly notify an anomaly when it occurs in the operation flow within a chemical plant, thus enabling timely action that might prevent disasters. But this same vital functionality puts the SCADA system under much interest from cyber attackers; thus, this is another buzz for effective security strategies.
With the increased dependence on IP-based protocols like TCP/IP, the urgency to ensure stringent security will also increase. Unfortunately, most of the security approaches are still reactive and focused on compliance, instead of proactive security. One of the proposed frameworks for securing SCADA systems involves adapting the best practices of IT security to handle the unique challenges of the industrial environment. This framework emphasizes governance, risk management, and compliance controls that meet the operations of SCADA (ISACA).
Continuous risk assessment forms a major cornerstone in prudent SCADA security; it enables an organization to act expeditiously against emerging threats with frequent re-evaluations of vulnerabilities. Asset management also assumes key importance since identification and classification of the assets of SCADA enable organizations to identify the possible vulnerabilities (Digital Guardian). Besides that, effective monitoring and incident management are critically required because of the intrinsic weaknesses of SCADA protocols. A good monitoring system allows an organization to respond to a security incident in an effective way, hence improving their security posture and securing critical infrastructure against cyber-attacks that keep changing every now and then.
Conclusion
In other words, as fundamental as SCADA systems are with regard to the continuity and integrity of basic infrastructures, moving onto structures based on IP increases the level of cyber vulnerabilities. Security for SCADA systems can therefore only be ensured through an all-inclusive method that not only integrates continuous risk assessment, proactive monitoring, and appropriate governance strategies but also provides a holistic model. Such a model would give organizations the much-needed ability to protect their SCADA systems from existing and future threats in an ever-interconnected world (SCADA systems).
Works Cited
Digital Guardian. “What SCADA Security.” Digital Guardian, 2024, https://www.digitalguardian.com/blog/what-scada-security.
ISACA. “SCADA Cybersecurity Framework.” ISACA Journal, 2014, https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/past-issues/2014/scada-cybersecurity-framework.
SCADA Systems. “SCADA Systems.” SCADA Systems, 2024, http://www.scadasystems.net.