Download as PDF, PPTX
![Image Credits
Bank safe on title slide: By Alvesgaspar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons
Honduran TIGRES soldiers: United States Special Operations Command (Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/qweJtn, CC-BY 2.0)
Longhorn cattle: Evelyn Simak [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
NORAD: By NORAD (government website) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Iterative process diagram: By Aflafla1 [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/fivethingsilearnedaboutinformationsecurity-uiw2015-11-02-151109142418-lva1-app6891/85/Five-things-I-learned-about-information-security-43-320.jpg)
Uploaded byMajor Hayden
Five things I learned about information security
Major Hayden, a principal architect at Rackspace, outlines five key lessons learned about information security: the importance of communication and relationships, prioritizing detection and response capabilities, synchronizing people, processes, and technology, setting standards over policies, and maintaining a professional perspective during security incidents. He emphasizes that security requires collaboration and ongoing adaptation to threats, as well as the necessity of thorough root cause analysis following incidents. Hayden includes recommended readings to further explore these concepts.
More Related Content
Similar to Five things I learned about information security
Five things I learned about information security
- 1. Major Hayden University ofthe Incarnate Word - November 2, 2015 Five lessons I learned about information security
- 2.
- 3. Major Hayden Principal Architectat Rackspace Fedora Security Team Package maintainer Fedora Planet blogger Former board member Ambassador Ansible Python OpenStack Xen/KVM/Containers Information Security
- 4. Major Hayden Principal Architectat Rackspace GIAC Certified Unix Security Administrator Paper: Securing Linux Containers http://bit.ly/securinglinuxcontainers GIAC Security Essentials Certification Red Hat Certified Architect
- 7.
- 8. Agenda How did Iget into information security? Five lessons learned (many of them learned the hard way) Final thoughts (and some required reading)
- 9. How did Iget into information security?
- 10. How did Istumble into information security?
- 11. I sent anangry email after a security incident. Special note: this is not a recommended method for getting into an information security career.
- 12. Impromptu calendar invitationfrom the Chief Security Officer (CSO) arrives
- 13.
- 15. Lesson 1: Information securityrequires lots of communication and relationships
- 16. People within businessesgenerally fall into one of three security mindsets:
- 17. “Security is mission-criticalfor us and it’s how we maintain our customers’ trust.” These are your allies. Share your intelligence with them frequently. They must be ”read into” what’s happening. Highlight their accomplishments and efforts to your leadership and theirs at every possible opportunity.
- 18. “Security is reallyimportant, but we have lots of features to release. We will get to it.” These people see security as a bolt-on, value-added product feature. Share methods for building in security from the start. Make it easier for this group to build secure systems through technical standards.
- 19. “I opened thisweird file from someone I didn’t know and now my computer is acting funny.” This group is your biggest risk. Take steps to prevent them from being able to make mistakes in the first place. Regularly send high-level communication to this group with useful information in a friendly format.
- 20. Lesson 2: Spend themajority of your time and money on detection and response capabilities
- 21. Make it easierto detect an intruder and respond to the intrusion Don’t let your intruders act like this: Make them act more like this:
- 22. Ensure that ifan attacker gains access to your network, you know about the intrusion and how to respond Automation, aggregation, alerting Firewall logs Netflow data/analysis Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) Server logs Authentication logs Physical security devices Immediate, coordinated response
- 23. Incident communication Use broadcommunication that hints at urgency without sharing details. Share the details with your allies in the business.
- 24. Lesson 3: People, process,and technology must be in sync
- 25. After an incident: Don’ttalk about people*. Don’t talk about what could have been done. Don’t talk about vendors. * No matter how delicate you are, you will eventually “call the baby ugly”.
- 26. Assume the worstwill happen again. Design processes and technologies to reduce its impact in the future. This is an iterative process.
- 27. Lesson 4: Set standards,not policies.
- 28. Use a littlepsychology to drive the behavior you truly want: a more secure infrastructure
- 29. Compare these twomethods of communicating with the business:
- 30. “If your systemdoesn’t pass this PCI-DSS audit, we won’t be able to take credit cards. We know what that means.”
- 31. “We have atechnical standard for public-facing environments that you need to meet, and we have some tools to self-assess your systems.”
- 32. Technical people caneasily digest technical standards, but not lengthy compliance documents. Design a standard so that an environment can meet multiple compliance programs if it is followed carefully.
- 33. Lesson 5: Don’t takesecurity incidents personally.
- 35. Security incidents highlight areasfor improvement. They also give you a better idea of what attackers want from your business.
- 36. Take the timeto do a thorough root cause analysis. Adjust spending, priorities, and tasks based on what you find.
- 37.
- 38. Information security thriveson frequent, honest, meaningful communication more than anything else. Security incidents will happen. How you respond to them is critical. Design systems that prevent people from making mistakes in the first place.
- 39. Switch: How toChange Things When Change is Hard Chip & Dan Heath When you want to make change happen, this book will help you focus your thinking. It has some great frameworks and situational examples.
- 40. Winning With People JohnMaxwell Building relationships requires learning a lot about yourself first. This book is broken into five sections that gradually take you through how to have stronger, lasting relationships with others.
- 41. The Phoenix Project GeneKim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford A must for anyone working in IT. It’s a modern spin on Goldratt’s classic, The Goal, that focuses on a new IT executive that is in over his head. Security and compliance issues play a big role in how he works within his business.
- 42.
- 43. Image Credits Bank safeon title slide: By Alvesgaspar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Honduran TIGRES soldiers: United States Special Operations Command (Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/qweJtn, CC-BY 2.0) Longhorn cattle: Evelyn Simak [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons NORAD: By NORAD (government website) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Iterative process diagram: By Aflafla1 [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons