One of the greatest risks to a company’s information security is not a shortcoming in the technical control environment, rather it is their employees’ inaction or action that leads to security incidents (PCI, 2014). For instance, information disclosure leading to social engineering attack, access to sensitive information unrelated to the employee’s role, not reporting unusual activity are some of the scenarios that could result in compromise of an organization’s information security and privacy. Information security awareness programs also helps address the problems related to regulatory compliance like FISMA, HIPAA etc. Over the years, information security awareness programs have become an integral part of security management. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to adopt a security awareness program that will ensure that its employees are conscious and aware of the importance of safeguarding organization’s sensitive and critical information, educating them to better handle information securely, and the risks of mismanaging the information.
Information security awareness programs derived from standards and best practices mainly focuses on the processes and content of the program, without considering how security related decisions are made by individuals and how individuals synthesize security related information (Tsohou, Karyda, & Kokolakis, 2014). An individual’s beliefs, perceptions and biases play a significant role in influencing security policy compliance.
. The goal for this training is to equip employees with knowledge and skills that need positive change and eliminate the cycle of network security ignorance. Employees must be vigilant that there are bad guys out there that want to steal sensitive information from an organization (networksecurity.com) Brian Moynihan; CEO of the bank of American frequently speaks about the challenges modern information services face. As mobile banking stay competitive and within budget, the bank is constantly innovating and improving, but innovation cannot come at the cost of establishing weakened security (Vivek, 2015)
Prior research indicates that employees seldom comply with compulsory information security policies, and organizations are finding that the enforcement of information security policies among employees is a critical challenge (Herath & Rao, 2009). Organizations and researchers have traditionally focused on the use of technology to secure computer networks from security breaches (Herath & Rao, 2009; Rhee, Kim, & Ryu, 2009). Practitioners and researchers have recently realized that effective organizational information security can best be achieved through three components: people, processes, and technology (Herath & Rao, 2009).
8. Which domain requires annual security awareness training and employee background checks for sensitive positions to help mitigate risk from employee sabotage? The user domain. Employees should at least be aware of social engineered attacks and potential risk that they, the employee could do.
As such, our company’s people resources pose the greatest risk for security breach. Our way to help mitigate risk in this area is to keep communication lines open in this area and to continually mandate security knowledge training, with mandatory updates on a regular basis. When the employees are informed of company policy when facing a security matter, they are better equipped to act in the best or right way. In this way knowledge is power – or at least empowerment to act in the best interest of the company’s information security.
In today’s IT world every organization has a responsibility to protect the information and sensitive data they have. Protecting data is not only responsibility of security and IT staff but every individual is involved in protecting the information. The risks to information security are not digital only, but it involves technology, people and process that an organization may have. These threats may represent the problems that are associated to complex and expensive solution, but doing nothing about these risks is not the solution.
An effective information security program should include, periodic assessments of risk, including the magnitude of harm that could result from the unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction of information and information systems that support the operations and assets of the organization. Policies and procedures should be based on risk assessments, cost effective reduced information security risk, and it should ensure that the information security is addressed throughout the entire life cycle of each and every organizational information system. Subordinate plans for providing sufficient information security for groups of the information system, facilities, networks, or information systems.
In the final chapter of CompTIA Security + Study Guide eBook, it covers some great topics, key elements of implementation, support, and managing the security efforts in a company or organization. It’s important for IT Professionals to understand their role in a company/ organization. It’s also extremely important for them to understand the boundaries of security within that company/organization. Adopting best security practices while adhering to company policies will ensure that both parties are happy. There are many fines lines with security management.
The Department of Commerce (DOC) is required to implement an Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) Program as mandated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum 14-03. The memorandum requires Federal agencies to manage information security risk on an ongoing basis. This document provides a high-level DOC-wide strategic plan for maintaining ongoing awareness of information security, vulnerabilities, and threats to support organizational risk management decisions. Otherwise known as information security continuous monitoring or ISCM, this strategic plan promotes informed and actionable risk management decisions; empowers leaders and improves organizational accountability; simplifies regulatory compliance through integrated
While all of these technologies have enabled exciting changes and opportunities for businesses, they have also created a unique set of challenges for business managers. Chief among all concerns about technology is the issue of information security. It seems to be almost a weekly occurrence to see a news article about yet another breach of security and loss of sensitive data. Many people will remember high profile data breaches from companies such as T.J Maxx, Boston Market, Sports Authority, and OfficeMax. In the case of T.J. Maxx, a data breach resulted in the loss of more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers. In many of these incidents, the root cause is a lack of adequate security practices within the company. The same technologies that enable managers can also be used against them. Because of this, businesses must take appropriate steps to ensure their data remains secure and their communications remain
Previous studies showed that the more an organizations’ top leadership engage in creating the information security environment, the more employees are willing to be compliant with the policies (Chen, Ramamurthy, Wen, 2012). This is because more commitment, monitoring and training are being in place with respect to information security policy and preparation. Therefore, in this study the three hypotheses will be a positive relationship between management engagement, regulation and training of information security and employees compliance with these policies.
The realization of potential risks to an organizations information system has been increased in the past few years. The principles of risk management, vulnerabilities, internal threats, and external threats is the first step in determining which levels of security are necessary to protect and limit the risks to an organizations information system. This essay will describe the principles of risk management as they pertain to the information system and its associated technology of Professional Security Training School. Moreover, this essay will include an exploration of the vulnerabilities of
Stanton, Mastrangelo and Jolton (2004) explained the analysis they made of end user security behavior. In fact, it promotes the action of a superior end-user behavior restricting poor end user and provides an important way for efficient production of information security in the organization. In addition, Stanton, Mastrangelo and Jolton (2004) when the user's information technology organization established they can affect the security of the information required in response to describe both harmful behavior and representative of information technology experts, management implementation, and interviews with 110 regular employees. Intentionality and technical expertise As a result, they have developed a taxonomy of six elements of safety behavior
Moreover, information security policies are important in a way that they help reduce the risks associated with employees' acceptable and unacceptable use of the company's information resources. As would confirm Danchev of Windows Security, the first step towards enhancing a company's security is the introduction of a precise yet enforceable security policy, informing staff on the various aspects of their responsibilities, general use of company resources and explaining how sensitive information must be handled and by also describing in detail the meaning of acceptable use, as well as listing prohibited activities (Danchev, 2003). By the same source, a good and well developed security policy should address how sensitive information must be handled, how to properly maintain your ID(s) and password(s), as well as any other accounting data, how to respond to a potential security incident, intrusion attempt, how to use workstations and Internet connectivity in a secure manner, how to properly use the corporate e-mail system (Danchev, 2003).
Information security is often still playing in companies only a minor role. Many companies neglect aspects such as system misuse, sabotage or even espionage. But by now the reality has caught up with them. Straight from abroad there are more hacker attacks and espionage by competitors. Therefore, the law requires different approaches before to ensure information security. Companies must for example ensure that their information-processing systems are protected and kept safe.
A Threat and Vulnerability Assessment and Management Policy by design uses processes and technology that helps identify, assess and remediate IT threats and vulnerability. A term “threat” is any action of exploiting a vulnerability that results in