Efficient Information Assurance Policy and Management

1. Information Assurance Policy and Management (Original notes by Sheldon Durrant and Timothy Summers)

2. Purpose of the Policy • Recognizing sensitive information assets • Clarifying security responsibilities • Promoting awareness for existing employees • Guiding new employees

3. Management Goals for Policy • There are typically three to five goals, such as: • Promote efficient business operation. • Facilitate sharing of information throughout the organization. • Safeguard business and personal information. • Ensure that accurate information is available to support business processes. • Ensure a safe and productive place to work. • Comply with applicable laws and regulations.

4. Role of Management in Policy • Owners • “Each piece of computing equipment is owned by someone, and the owner may not be a system user. An owner provides the equipment to users for a purpose, such as to further education, support commerce, or enhance productivity. A security policy should also reflect the expectations and needs of the owners.”

5. Characteristics of Good Policy • Be easy to understand • Be applicable • Be doable • Be enforceable • Be phased in • Be proactive • Avoid absolutes (allow for exceptions) • Meet business objectives

6. Policy Enforcement • Policies are meaningless if not enforced. • Steps organization must take: • Collect information • Emphasize training as part of routine operations • Ensure that policies are distributed

7. Monitoring • People do not like to feel as if they are being watched. • Monitoring may lead to employee mistrust and/or legal issues. • All users must be made aware of the organization’s right to monitor

8. Remedies • The organization has the right to control the environment in which the system operates. • Remedies are penalties to be taken for breaking rules. • Remedies should also include clear definitions in the disciplinary escalation process.

9. Auditing • Delegation of auditing responsibilities should be done by management. • The policy should state • who is responsible for capturing data for auditing purposes • how such data should be handled and stored • who should have access to the data.

10. Policy Review • Security policies should grow and change along with the organization. • Policies should state how often the policies will be reviewed and/or updated. • Provisions should be provided so that sudden or unexpected changes in the policy can be adopted. This might come in the form of waivers. – Barman “Writing Information Security Policies”

11. Process of Policy Reviews • Policy Reviews should include information gained from audits and risk assessments. • Management should make it a point to be involved in the policy review to ensure that any changes in policy are in line with the goals, vision and direction of the organization. • Policy Reviews should include everyone who was responsible for developing them in the first place, including management, administrators, security staff, and human resources.

12. Books Used