IT Security Archives - Page 3 of 3

800-53

NEW GUIDANCE RELEASED BY NIST REDEFINES ASSURANCE & TRUSTWORTHINESS FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

On April 30th, 2013 the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued their latest version of essential guidance: Special Publication 800-53, Revision 4: Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations. Led by Ron Ross, a NIST fellow and the project leader, a team of computer scientists spent the past two years developing this latest 457 page revision. One of the Essential Themes of the New Guidance Mr. Ross indicated that a key theme in the new guidance is the “reintroduction of the notion of assurance, or trustworthiness of information systems.” The bottom line is that organizations will now be under higher scrutiny in terms of how effective they are at identifying vulnerabilities and security weaknesses in systems, which

BAI Security May 2, 2013

Computer Security

LIVE EXPERIMENT DEMONSTRATES DISREGARD FOR BANK SECURITY POLICY

An experiment carried out within London’s financial district has demonstrated what security experts have been saying for years: employees – even those working with ultra-sensitive financial data – are unaware of or are far too loose with basic security practices. In the experiment, Flash Drives were handed out to commuters as they entered the city. Recipients were told the disks contained a special Valentine’s Day promotion. In reality, though, the Flash Drive contained nothing more than code that informed the company performing the experiment how many of the recipients had tried to use the Flash Drive. Among those who were duped were employees of a major retail bank and two global insurers. Clear warning Making these results even more ridiculous, the Flash

BAI Security November 20, 2012

Assessment

ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES GIVING AWAY CONFIDENTIAL SECURITY INFORMATION?

A man calls the receptionist at a competitors company and asks for the name of the Sales Manager. The receptionist says the person you are looking for is Bob Jones. Later, the man calls back to the same company and says he needs to speak with the IT helpdesk. When the helpdesk operator answers the man says “Hi, my name is Bob Jones and I seem to have forgotten my new password. I am on my way to an important meeting can you reset it right away?” In an effort to help the user regain access to the system, the helpdesk operator resets the password and tells the man the new password. The man then accesses the employee area of

BAI Security October 23, 2012

Computer Security Employees

REAL WORLD SOCIAL ENGINEERING ATTACKS … IN THE TRENCHES WITH AN AUDITOR

How well are your users prepared for modern-day social engineering attacks? If you’re like the majority of management personnel I speak with during our pre-audit consultations you’re wary, but confident that your staff has properly prepared your employees from this threat to your organization. In response, I routinely explain that it is admirable that you have that kinds of faith in your managers and user base, but based on our statistical averages be prepared for the possibility of a less than ideal result when you receive our audit findings report. Preventing Social Engineering Attacks with a Social Engineering Evaluations Statistically, the first time we perform a social engineering evaluation on an organization it’s not uncommon for as many as 65% of the users to

BAI Security October 9, 2012

Computer Security

MANY BANKS AND CREDIT UNIONS FAIL THE VULNERABILITY TESTING COMPONENT OF THEIR IT SECURITY AUDIT DUE TO WEAK PATCH MANAGEMENT

Do you have a patch management plan? If so, how effective is it? Many companies either lack a comprehensive plan or the necessary tools to properly automate the processing of updates. In fact, the underlying reasons many banks and credit unions fail the vulnerability testing component of their IT security audit is this lack of effective patch management. Failed Vulnerability Testing Due to Weak Patch Management Often Root Cause of Poor IT Security Audit Results As for the tools, many companies rely only on Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to patch their Microsoft Windows operating system and other Microsoft software. WSUS does not patch non-Microsoft application software, such as Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, which often have severe risks that can lead

BAI Security October 4, 2012