10 Steps to Cyber Security – Parts 6-10

The cyber security threat landscape is constantly changing with the ever growing number and scale of attacks. The consequent measures necessary to combat the threats need to be robust, comprehensive and agile. Simply put, it is about developing an effective approach and constantly testing and refining it. The sections below cover the second 5 sections of some 10 essential recommended steps that should be taken to achieve an effective level of cybersecurity and is based on guidance from NCSC. Incident Management A security incident is inevitable for all organisations. An effective systems of incident management policies and processes will reduce any likely impact, enable speedier recovery and improve business resilience. Without an effective management system in place, some of the possible risks of an attack include;

• Greater business impact of an attack through failure to realise the attack early enough and consequent slowness to respond resulting in more significant and ongoing impact
• Potential for continuous or repeated disruption due to failure to find the root cause
• Failure to conform with legal and regulatory standards which could result in financial penalties

It is important to manage the risk by taking some of the following steps;

• Establish an incident management capability using in-house or specialist external service provider, create a plan and test its effectiveness.
• Define reporting requirements
• Define roles and arrange specialist training to ensure the correct skill base
• Establish and regularly test a data recovery strategy including offsite recovery
• Collect and analyse post incident evidence for root cause analysis, lessons learned and evidence for crime and/or compliance reporting

Malware Prevention Malware is the most common form of security compromise and it is a fact that all organisations interact with known malware sites. The risk of malware can include; email with malicious content or links to malicious sites, web browsing to sites containing malicious content, introduction of malware through uncontrolled devices such as USB media or smartphones. Inadequate controls for protection against malware could result in business disruption and/or loss of access to critical data. Malware risks can be managed effectively using some of the following techniques;

• Create and implement effective malware policies
• Control import and export of data and incorporate malware scanning
• Use blacklisting to block access to known malicious sites
• Establish a defence in depth approach which includes security controls for endpoints, anti-virus, content filtering to detect malicious code, disable browser plugins and auto run features, ensure baseline security configurations are in place
• Users should be educated regularly to understand the risk of malware, their role in preventing it and the procedure for incident reporting

Systems Monitoring Systems monitoring provides the ability to determine how systems are being used and whether they have been attacked or compromised. No or poor monitoring prevents organisations from; detecting attacks against infrastructure or services, slows reaction to an attack resulting in increased severity of an attack, cause non compliance with legal or regulatory requirements Systems monitoring risks can be prevented by taking the following steps;

• Develop and implement a monitoring strategy based on the business risk assessment
• Ensure that all systems are monitored, should include the ability to detect known attacks as well as having heuristic capabilities
• Monitor network traffic to identify unusual traffic or large uncharacteristic data transfers
• Monitor user activity for unauthorised use of systems
• Fine tune monitoring systems to collect relevant events and alerts
• Deploy a centralised logging solution with collection and analysis capability, and automated anomaly and high priority alerts
• Align policies and processes to manage and respond to incidents detected by monitoring systems

Removable Media Removable media such as USB memory devices are often involved in introduction of malware or removal of sensitive data. A comprehensive cyber security strategy must implement controls such as those listed below to effectively manage the risk posed.

• Devise and implement a policy to govern the use of removable media. A standard for information exchanged on corporate systems should use appropriate and protected measures
• If essential, the use of removable media should be limited only to designated devices
• Automatically scan removable media for malware before any data transfer
• Issue removable media formally to users and prohibit use of personal media sticks
• Encrypt information at rest on removable media
• Manage reuse and disposal of media to ensure data is effectively deleted or media destroyed and data retrieval prevented

Remote Working Remote working for staff or remote support from suppliers is an effective and popular trend but can expose organisations to risk. Mobile working will necessitate the transfer of data across the Internet, sometimes to public spaces. These risks could lead to; loss or theft of data if mobile devices get stolen, compromise of credentials or data if screens are overlooked in public places, loss of user credentials if stored on a device, remote tampering through insertion of malware or monitoring of activity Some of the recommended controls are listed below;

• Create a robust policy to address the risk, this should include identifying who is authorised, what kind of information they can access, increased monitoring for remote connections
• User training to include; awareness of the risks, securely storing and managing credentials, incident reporting
• Develop and apply a secure baseline for remote devices
• Encrypt data at rest and data in transit for remote/mobile devices