Question
“Ensuring Current Defenses”
- Making sure your defenses are current is a major function of the IT professional team at any company. This week’s studies offer lots of suggestions on how to manage this. What concepts and topics do you think are most important, and how do you see yourself and your team implementing such suggestions when you get on the job?Security architecture vulnerabilities, threats, and countermeasures,Security operations
Sample paper
Ensuring Current Defenses
There are some critical concepts in enhancing the defense of the security systems. One of the concepts is implementing a layered security system. This because any single security defense system may have certain flaws and thus vulnerable to a particular attack. A series of defenses may help cover the vulnerabilities or gaps of the different defense systems, thus enhancing the overall capabilities of the security system. Layered security might involve one or more of security procedures. The IT professional team may choose from among firewalls, malware scanners, anti-spam applications, privacy controls, intrusion detection systems, data storage encryption tools, and among others. Implementation of administrative and physical controls may further improve the resilience of the security system to attacks.
Another important concept is to regularly update and patch the security systems as well as the computer applications (Young, 2013). Frequent updating is vital in reducing the vulnerability of the security system to various external threats. The effectiveness of the security system will depend on the frequency of updating the programs, various applications, and the operating system. Automatic updating of the security systems, applications, and operating systems would offer the best guarantee in reducing the vulnerability to various internal and external risks (Young, 2013). Another way is to set the frequency of security systems update. This may be necessary where updating the security system, applications, and operating systems interfere with the normal organizational operations. The IT team may schedule updates to take place at a time when there would be minimal disruptions to the normal workflow.
One of the crucial topics is security architecture vulnerabilities, threats, and countermeasures. This topic explores a wide range of issues concerning security threats and vulnerabilities (Stewart, Chapple, & Gibson, 2012). The first part of the topic covers vulnerabilities associated with security architectures such as state attacks, covert channels, and emanations. The part also covers technology aspects and process integration. State attacks are those targeting the timing and data flow. They may also disrupt the transition process from one state to another. Covert channel refers to a method of passing information through unique paths (Stewart, Chapple, & Gibson, 2012). By using a covert channel, hackers may be able to gain access to information without detection. The topic focuses on the issue of emanations, which relates to the normal electromagnetic radiation emitted by electronic components during normal operations. In order to eliminate interception of emanations, it is necessary to apply cable shielding and physical controls to ensure that unauthorized persons do not go near sensitive equipment.
The topic is critical in understanding threats facing distributed architecture systems. This involves security vulnerabilities and threats facing client-based, web-based, server-based, and distributed systems (Stewart, Chapple, & Gibson, 2012). The topic also provides general safeguards that apply to distributed architecture systems, for instance, the need to screen emails since they may contain malicious software. Another important topic is security operations. Security operations are vital since this enhances the detection of changes that could have resulted out of a possible breach. The essence of security operations is to ensure the integrity of the entire information system. This involves monitoring of databases, networks, web sites, data centers, servers, and applications. These suggestions are very applicable to the real job scenario. For instance, screening emails will help in reducing malware attacks or downloading of malicious software. Another application is the need to implement physical safeguards that limit access to sensitive areas or equipment.
References
Stewart, J. M., Chapple, M., & Gibson, D. (2012). CISSP. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Young, P. (2013). Untangling the web: A guide to Internet research. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=qLzoWKp2JHcC&dq=the+need+to+frequently+up date+and+patch+security+systems&source=gbs_navlinks_s
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