Information Assurance and Security: Overview

Information Assurance and
Security: Overview
Information Assurance
“Measures that protect and defend information and
information systems by ensuring their availability,
integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-
repudiation. These measures include providing for
restoration of information systems by incorporating
protection, detection, and reaction capabilities.”
National Information Assurance (IA) Glossary

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale
(MSR) Cube
Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale and Welch, A Model for Information Assurance:

An Integrated Approach, Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Workshop on IAS,
USMA, West Point, NY 5-6 June 2001.
Security Services:
What types of problems can occur?
 Confidentiality
 Integrity
 Availability
 Authentication
 Non Repudiation
Confidentiality
“the assurance that information is not
disclosed to unauthorized persons,
processes or devices.”

Integrity
“the assurance that data can not be
created, changed, or deleted without
proper authorization”
Wikipedia: Information Assurance

Availability:
“Timely, reliable access to data and
information services for authorized
users.”

Authentication
Security service “designed to establish
the validity of a transmission, message,
or originator, or a means of verifying an
individual’s authorizations to receive
specific categories of information”
National Information Assurance (IA) Glossary

Non-Repudiation
“The assurance the sender of the data
is provided with proof of delivery and
the recipient is provided with proof of
the sender’s identity, so neither can
later deny having processed the data”

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale
(MSR) Cube

Information States:
Where is the data?
 Transmission
 Storage
 Processing
Transmission
Time in which the data is in transit

between processing/process steps.
Storage
Time during which data is on a

persistent medium such as a hard
drive or tape.
Processing
Time during which the data is actually

in the control of a processing step.
Security Countermeasures:
Who can enforce/check security?
 People
 Policy and Practice
 Technology
People
 The heart and soul of secure
systems.
 Awareness, literacy, training,
education in sound practice.
 Must follow policy and practice or
the systems will be compromised no
matter how good the design!
 Both strength and vulnerability.
Policy and Practice (operations)
 System users
 System administrators
 Software conventions
 Trust validation
Also a countermeasure and a

vulnerability.
Technology
 Evolves rapidly
 Crypto systems
 Hardware
 Software
 Network
 Firewalls
 Routers
 Intrusion detection
 Other….
 Platform
 Operating systems
 Transaction monitoring
 Other….
 Especially vulnerable to misconfiguration and other
“people” errors. (Does what we tell it to!)
Time
 Relationships between all parts
change over time…
The attack model.
 Threat: Something that might happen
 Vulnerability: point in the system where a
Threat could compromise the system.
 Risk: The combination of the probability of an
event and its consequences
 Attack: Application of a threat to a system.
 Exploit: A successful attack
 Remediation: security team tries to figure out
what happened and come up with a fix to
restore things and a countermeasure.
 Countermeasure: What you do to fix a
vulnerability so the threat can’t be exploited.
Vulnerabilities, Threats and Attacks
 A vulnerability is a weakness in the
system that might be exploited to cause
loss or harm (and a violation of security
services).
 A threat is a potential violation of
security. Security services counter
threats.
 An attack is the actual attempt to
violate security. It is the manifestation
of the threat.
Classifying Communication
Attacks
Types of Attacks
 Interruption: This is an attack on availability
 Interception: This is an attack on confidentiality
 Modification: This is an attack on integrity
 Fabrication: This is an attack on integrity
Additional Threats/Attacks
 Repudiation of origin – a false denial that an entity
sent or created something (I didn’t send that order to
but Enron stock the day before it crashed). Attack on
integrity
 Denial of receipt – a false denial that an entity
received some information or message. (I didn’t
receive the diamond shipment). Attack on integrity
and availability.
 Denial of Service – long term inhibition of
information or service. Attack on availability.
Passive and Active Threats
Security Policy and Mechanisms
 A security policy is a statement of what is and is

not allowed.
 A security mechanism is a method, tool, or
procedure for enforcing security policy.
 These should clearly be separate things.

Policy and Mechanism Example
 Policy – only the systems administrator is
allowed to access the password file and then
only in encrypted form
 Mechanism – the password file is not stored in
clear text, but only in encrypted form with
algorithm XYZ. The O.S. checks the access
authorization of any process attempting to read
the password file immediately before the
access; whenever access is denied, that
attempt is recorded in a log of suspicious
activity.
Security Mechanisms
 Prevention, Detection, Recovery
 Prevention:
 Encryption
 Software Controls (DB access limitations,
operating system process protection)
 Enforce policies (frequent password change)
 Physical Controls
 Detection: Intrusion detection systems
(IDS)
Prevention Mechanisms
 Adequate prevention means that an attack will fail.
Prevention usually involves mechanisms that the
user cannot override.
 Prevention mechanisms are often cumbersome
and do not always work perfectly or fail because
they are circumvented.
 Passwords are a prevention mechanism to prevent
unauthorized access. They fail when the password
becomes known to a person other than the owner.
Detection Mechanisms
 Detection is used when an attack cannot be
prevented and it also indicates the
effectiveness of prevention measures.
 The goal is to determine that an attack is
underway or has occurred and report it.
 Audit logs are detection mechanisms.
When you log into the design center’s unix
servers, it gives you the IP address of the
last successful login.
Recovery
 Recovery has several aspects. The first is
to stop an attack and repair the damage.
 Another is to trace the evidence back to the
attacker and discover the identity of the
attacker (this could result in legal
retaliation).
 Yet another aspect is to determine the
vulnerability that was exploited and fix it or
devise a way of preventing a future attack.
Example: Private Property
 Prevention: locks at doors, window
bars, walls round the property
 Detection: stolen items are
missing, burglar alarms, closed
circuit TV
 Recovery: call the police, replace
stolen items, make an insurance
claim …
Example E-Commerce
 Prevention: encrypt your orders, rely on
the merchant to perform checks on the
caller, don’t use the Internet (?) …
 Detection: an unauthorized transaction
appears on your credit card statement
 Recovery: complain, ask for a new card
number, etc.
 Footnote: Your credit card number has not
been stolen. Your card can be stolen, but not
the number. Confidentiality is violated.

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Information Assurance and

National Information Assurance (IA) Glossary

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale and Welch, A Model for Information Assurance:

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale and Welch, A Model for Information Assurance:

Wikipedia: Information Assurance

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale and Welch, A Model for Information Assurance:

National Information Assurance (IA) Glossary

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale and Welch, A Model for Information Assurance:

Maconachy, Schou, Ragsdale and Welch, A Model for Information Assurance:

Time in which the data is in transit

Time during which data is on a

Time during which the data is actually

Also a countermeasure and a

 A security policy is a statement of what is and is

 These should clearly be separate things.

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