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SECURITY TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE • February/March 2014 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com
terms that others can understand in order to minimize
information risks.
Document response procedures.
In over 12 years of performing information security
assessments, I've seen two (yes, two) businesses that had
a security incident response plan. Like life insurance,
seat belts, and other "security niceties" that some feel
nonessential, an incident response plan will enable you
and your business to detect and respond to security
breaches in much more expedient and professional fash-
ion. Apparently, Target discovered the breach relatively
quickly. How quick is your response going to be?
Decide what constitutes an "incident" (i.e. malware
infection and subsequent credit card breach), then deter-
mine the people and steps that need to be taken to
properly respond. An incident response plan won't help
prevent a breach but it will help you minimize the impact
of a breach and that's what matters the most.
Go beyond your security policies and implement the
right tools to bring things full circle.
Most security policies are like New Year's Resolutions:
they're worthless about 10 days after they're written
down. If you're going to effectively minimize your infor-
mation risks, you have to know what you've got, under-
stand how it's at risk, and implement reasonable tech-
nologies to ensure everything is kept in check. I suspect
we'll continue to see that Target was remiss in all three
of these areas. Most businesses are.
Never ever forget my favorite information securi-
ty saying: you cannot secure what you don't acknowl-
edge. In the context of the Target breach, if you don't
a) acknowledge how your vendors treat security and
interact with your network, b) know how information
flows through your network, c) account for the people
and system processes that access large volumes of sensi-
tive information, d) understand what tools are neces-
sary for locking down sensitive information (even it's
it stored in computer's memory for mere seconds), and
e) proactively monitor your environment, a breach will
eventually occur. And, like many breaches today, you
may never even know about it until a third-party tells
you it happened. ❚
Kevin Beaver is an information security consultant, expert
witness, author and professional speaker with Atlanta-based
Principle Logic, LLC. With over 24 years of experience in the
industry, Kevin specializes in performing independent IT
security vulnerability assessments of networks, computers,
and applications. He has authored/co-authored 11 books on
information security including the best-selling Hacking For
Dummies as well as Implementation Strategies for Fulfilling
and Maintaining IT Compliance. In addition, he's the creator
of the Security On Wheels information security audio books
and blog providing security learning for IT professionals on
the go. You can reach Kevin through his website www.prin-
ciplelogic.com, follow him on Twitter at @kevinbeaver and
connect to him on LinkedIn.
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The Target Breach
(continued from page 12)
Just a Prank
(continued from page 8)
will provide event messages indicating camera restarts, failed
logon attempts, and other events that can indicate isolated
and recurring problems.
Other network monitoring tools can be used to watch and
report when the amount of video traffic on a network path
drops below a level that would indicate video transmission
loss. ❚
Write to Ray about this column at ConvergenceQA@go-rbcs.com. Ray
Bernard, PSP, CHS-III is the principal consultant for Ray Bernard
Consulting Services (RBCS), a firm that provides security consulting
services for public and private facilities. For more information about
Ray Bernard and RBCS go to www.go-rbcs.com or call 949-831-6788.
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