How do you evaluate your systems design for security and privacy?

The first step is to gain a clear understanding of your objectives: what you aim to safeguard and what you intend to defend against. Your assets might include sensitive customer information, financial transactions, or intellectual property, while your threats could manifest in the form of hackers, malicious software, or unauthorized access attempts. This initial step often involves the use of tools like asset inventories, threat models, or risk matrices, which play a crucial role in documenting and prioritizing both assets and threats.

with over 20 years in the cyber trenches, evaluating systems for security and privacy becomes a fine art. Here's how I approach it: 1. Threat Modeling 2. Defense in Depth 3. Risk Assessment 4. Regulatory Compliance 5. Continuous Monitoring 6. Incident Response Plan 7. Encryption Strategies 8. Authentication and Authorization 9. Vendor Risk Management 10. Security Awareness Training 11. Penetration Testing Remember, in the world of cyber warfare, it's not about if an attack will happen, but when. A resilient fortress is built on proactive defense and the ability to adapt to the ever-evolving threat landscape. Stay vigilant, stay fortified.

Looking at Third-Party Vendor Risk as a client of their services you should also know about your vendors assets and how they manage devices, especially if you are sharing Class 3/4 data with them. While a small company might just need a simple Excel sheet to manage devices and applications, larger companies must use the proper tools to manage ALL endpoints that connect to the network and could potentially be a point of entry by external threat actors.

This could be achieve by using techniques such as privacy testing, penetration testing, security testing, and audit testing to test the privacy and security solutions. After the testing the we should try as much as possible to also collect feedback from stakeholders, users, or customers to evaluate the effectiveness and satisfaction of your security and privacy solutions.

Begin by understanding the systems, how they interact internally and with other external systems, and what data is being sent and/or received. This helps identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities in the systems. Check access controls, use authentication and authorization mechanisms to restrict access only to required data. Check that sensitive data both in transit and at rest is encrypted with up-to-date standards. Make sure to keep all software components, libraries, and dependencies up to date with security patches and updates to protect against known vulnerabilities. Have a working logging and monitoring. Establish incident response procedures. Check compliance with relevant data protection regulations and industry standards.

Some basic principles to apply: - For administrators, strictly enforce separation of user and administrative accounts. There are very few reasons for any user to have administrative privilege on any system using their normal user account. - Ensure the principle of least-privilege is applied to administrative accounts and ensure you conduct regular reviews of privilege to ensure that only those that need it continue to have it. Make sure that service accounts are included in reviews. - Enable auditing to determine if service accounts are being used interactively. - Minimise data that's available to all. Data should be segregated and access controlled and audited.

Security principles like Defense in Depth, Least Privilege, Segregation of Duties, Encryption, Authentication and Authorization, and Logging and Auditing are key for system design. Privacy principles like Data Minimization, Consent and Choice, Transparency and Accountability, Access and Correction, and Security and Confidentiality are also crucial. These principles enhance security, ensure privacy compliance, reduce breach impact, verify identities, maintain accountability, respect user privacy, and build secure systems.

Overall, evaluating a system for security and privacy is an ongoing process that must evolve with the threat landscape and technology advancements. It involves a blend of proactive and reactive strategies, continuous education and improvement, and adherence to established standards and frameworks. By systematically addressing each area of concern and staying vigilant, organizations can create resilient systems capable of withstanding the myriad of security and privacy challenges they face.

Security Principles such as Defense in Depth, Least Privilege, Segregation of Duties, Encryption, Authentication and Authorization, Logging & Auditing. Privacy Principles such as Data Minimization, Transparency & Accountability & finally Security & Confidentiality. Incorporating these security and privacy principles into systems design is not only a best practice but a fundamental necessity in today's digital landscape. Organizations can reduce the impact of potential breaches, ensure the least privilege is granted, separate duties to prevent misuse, protect data from unauthorized access, verify user identities, maintain accountability, collect only essential data, obtain consent, maintain transparency, & safeguard personal information.

Applying security and privacy principles will vary among organizations, although the principles are the same as already mentioned, the processes and technologies that implement them will vary depending on organization size and budget. There is no "one size fits all".

The importance of implementing robust security and privacy controls. These controls, which are either technical or organizational measures, are crucial in mitigating risks and vulnerabilities. For instance, firewalls can be used to filter and block unwanted network traffic, while antivirus software can detect and remove malicious code. Regular patching is also essential to fix security flaws and bugs. Moreover, backup and recovery systems are vital for creating and restoring copies of your data and system. In terms of privacy, techniques such as anonymization and pseudonymization can be used to remove or replace identifying information from your data.

Implementing security and privacy controls goes hand in hand with what was defined as assets and threats. There is a lot of vendors out there than can provide solutions for every aspect (and almost for every budget), although it is not the same the security controls to apply in a hospital than in a defense organization. Not all controls have to be expensive or complicated, "simple" measures such as moving important information from one non protected site to behind a room locked could be sufficient for some organizations (just an example).

I recommend is testing and validating your system for security and privacy. This involves measuring the effectiveness and performance of your system against your security and privacy objectives and standards Consider using penetration testing to simulate potential attacks and identify vulnerabilities. Vulnerability scanning can help detect weaknesses and exposures in your system. User feedback is also invaluable, as it provides insights into user opinions about security and privacy. These methods collectively ensure that your system is secure, compliant, and meets the necessary standards. Remember, continuous testing and validation are key to maintaining a secure system.

Finally, no matter the sofistication of the implemented controls, if there is no testing of the security measures (physical, technological or procedural), there is no way to know if there is a possibility of recovery after an attack, concept now known as resiliency.

Cybersecurity, also referred to as information technology security, focuses on protecting computer systems, networks, and data from theft, damage, or unauthorized access. In today’s interconnected world, cyber threats can come from various sources, including hackers, malicious software, and even disgruntled employees. The primary goal of cybersecurity is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.

Following are the key points; Threat Modeling Data Classification Encryption Access Controll Logging and Monitoring Compliance with Regulations

Always consider security as a concept that’ll never gain traction, before it’s too late. Security today evolves using ai on both the good side and the bad side. Always embrace new technologies and features. Always be better than your competitors, and think about what you can improve. You try your best, and that is what matters.