An Introduction to Information Security

What Is Information Security?

Information security, also known as cyber-security, is the practice of protecting information assets from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.

It is a rapidly growing and important field as the amount of information systems become more and more connected with the mass production and use of the likes of smart products and IOT devices, creating an ever growing attack surface. This ever growing attack surface exposes the exponentially growing amount of data and assets that we generate and transfer each year all while the threats to these systems and data are becoming more advanced.

What Makes up an Information Security Program?

There are many aspects that could make up an information security program depending on the complexity of the organisation, however today we will only be focusing on a few key aspects such as:

• Governance: Governance is how you direct and control your organisation's approach to security. This includes the development of policies, standards, and procedures that outline the security programs as well as the co-ordination of security activities taken out and implemented by the organisation.

• Risk Management: This involves identifying and evaluating the possible risks to an organisation's information assets and determining what the appropriate controls and safeguards are to mitigate those risks.

• Security Controls: This involves the implementation of both technical and non-technical measures to ensure the security of organisation assets. These measures would include Firewalls, Anti-Viruses, IDS, IPS, Encryption, Access controls, Physical premise security, Separation of duties, etc.

• Incident Response: As hard as it may be to hear, no security program is flawless or impenetrable. So having an Incident Response and Business Continuity plan is essential to mitigating attack damage and ensuring your organisation can continue function as it should be as soon as possible after an attack. This involves having a plan in place to respond to a security breach or other incidents, including steps to contain the incident, prevent further harm, and restore normal operations ensuring business continuity.

• Compliance: Many organisations are subject to national and international laws, regulations or industry standards that require them to implement specific security controls and safeguards. Ensuring compliance with the requirements relevant to your organisation is an important part of an effective information security program.

What Challenges Do Information Security Programs Face?

• Limited Resources: Individuals and organisations will most likely have limited budgets to devote to the designing, implementation and maintenance of a security program. This can make it hard to create a fully comprehensive program which poses the challenge of still trying to develop a program that fits within budget, achieves the most per dollar spent and doesn't sacrifice anything essential.

• Management Approval: Many organisations have board members and management teams that are older, non technical and are revenue focused. So not only do they tend to not understand the current state of information security and current technologies, they don't have an interest in the subject as they focus solely on generating revenue for the organisation. This is a major issue as security is preventative and you can often not directly see the benefits, especially in terms of finance, this leads to management assigning limited resources for security as mentioned above.

• Finding The Right Balance: One of the key challenges for information security is the ability to balance security with accessibility. It is important to ensure that information assets are secure, but it is also important to allow authorised users to access the resources they need in order to do their jobs. This requires careful planning and implementation of appropriate controls and safeguards.

• Lack Of Acceptance: Employees may not fully understand or agree with the need for information security measures, which can make it difficult to implement and enforce your program's policies and procedures. Without the program being accepted and practiced throughout the entire organisation, the program can essentially become useless.

• Compliance: Organisations may be required to comply with a variety of laws, regulations and industry standards which can constantly change and be updated making it difficult to keep up with and implement a suitable program.

• Integration: Whether creating a new security program for an organisation that never had one, or updating the security program of an organisation who is severely out of date, designing and integrating new and up to date security measures into legacy systems can be incredibly complex and expensive which is a major deterrent to many business owners.

• Maintenance: In the world of security things develop and change very quickly. Technology often becomes outdated, new vulnerabilities are found all the time, and adversaries are constantly adapting. So ongoing monitoring, testing and reviews are needed to ensure that your security program stays up to date with the latest trends and best practices and that it remains effective against new and emerging threats. All of which can be challenging and expensive to stay on top of.

Key Takeaway.

Information security is an essential component of any organisation's operations and it is important for organisations to invest in appropriate, procedures, policies and controls to protect their information systems and assets from threats despite any challenges they may face in doing so. By implementing an effective information security program, organisations can better protect themselves and their customers from the chances and consequences of a security breach, and ensure that their operations can recover quickly and smoothly in the unfortunate but inevitable event that they face a security incident of some extent.

When it comes to security, lets be pro-active, not reactive.