When addressing matters of information confidentiality, integrity, and availability, there are four perspectives that can be taken when introducing security controls. A control can be a protection, detection, response, or assurance mechanism. It is not uncommonfor a single control to provide information security on multiple levels.

Protection: A protection mechanism is used to prevent security incidents from occurring. Examples of protection mechanisms include: firewall rules, access control lists, encrypting packets that transverse over a network, passwords, biometrics, etc.

Detection: It is an information security mechanism that detects when an incident is occurring, and allows a business to adjust its course of action. Detection mechanisms include: intrusion detection systems, virus/spam scanners, vulnerability scanning, quotas, logging alerts, etc. Detection mechanisms often lead into response mechanisms, and are often the same as or similar to assurance mechanisms.

Response: A response mechanism addresses the consequences of a security incident and helps the organization return to a normal state. Response mechanisms can either be in the form of technical security controls (e.g. intrusion prevention system), policy (e.g. requiring a computer emergency response team), or procedures developed for all persons to follow during an incident.

Assurance: Assurance mechanisms give management or third parties the ability to verify the effectiveness of the security controls in place. It may include logging, auditing, and reporting capabilities. Assurance is important to help justify further expenditure on information security projects.

LinuxSecurity.com Feature Extras:

Getting to Know Linux Security: File Permissions - Welcome to the first tutorial in the 'Getting to Know Linux Security' series. The topic explored is Linux file permissions. It offers an easy to follow explanation of how to read permissions, and how to set them using chmod. This guide is intended for users new to Linux security, therefore very simple. If the feedback is good, I'll consider creating more complex guides for advanced users. Please let us know what you think and how these can be improved.

The Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection - To be honest, this was one of the best books that I've read on network security. Others books often dive so deeply into technical discussions, they fail to provide any relevance to network engineers/administrators working in a corporate environment. Budgets, deadlines, and flexibility are issues that we must all address. The Tao of Network Security Monitoring is presented in such a way that all of these are still relevant.

Encrypting Shell Scripts - Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure? If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure and some user doesn't have a "ps -ef" loop running in an attempt to capture that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in "ps" output).

 

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