Posts

• CVSS Demystified: Part 2: Base Metrics
• CVSS Demystified: Part 1
• Ukraine: DDoS attacks on government and bank websites
• Expectations from Authority
• Why is it important to train personnel in security if it is not part of their job routine?
• The Case for Manual Security Code Review
• Why Sec folk should walk in Developers’ shoes…
• Manual Security Code Review
• CTF Solution: JIS-CTF
• CTF Solution: RickdiculouslyEasy: 1
• Computer Security Incident Response Policy: A Sample
• Why should organizations update their BCP, BIA, RTOs, and RPOs?
• How do risk management and risk assessment relate to a business impact analysis for an IT infrastructure?
• Why is it critical to align the RTO and RPO standards within the policy definition itself?
• Why is a policy definition required for a computer security incident response team?
• Why is a post-mortem review of an incident the most important step in the incident response methodology?
• How do an incident response plan and incident response team help reduce risks to the organization?
• Why is it a good idea to include human resources on the incident response management team?
• The Imitation Game: A Core Values Essay
• Ethical behavior and Security
• The Dangers of Weak Hashes
• Security Concerns with the CGI
• Remote Access Policy: A Sample
• Should an organization mention that it will be monitoring and logging remote access use in its remote access policy definition?
• What security controls, monitoring, and logging should be enabled for remote VPN access and users?
• Why is it a best practice of a remote access policy definition to require employees and users to fill in a separate VPN remote access authorization form?
• What strategies can organizations implement to keep security awareness top of mind with all employees and authorized users?
• What are some strategies for preventing users or employees from downloading and installing rogue applications and software found on the Internet?
• When trying to combat software vulnerabilities in the workstation domain, what is needed most to deal with operating system, application, and other software installations?
• How does a security awareness training policy impact an organization’s capability to mitigate risks, threats, and vulnerabilities?
• An Analysis of the Systemic Security Weaknesses of the U. S. Navy Fleet Broadcast System, 1967-1974, as Exploited by CWO John Walker
• The Devin Nunes memo to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Ethical Computer Use Policy
• Lone Star Credit Union: A Separation of Duties Case Project
• Why is it important for an organization to have a policy definition for business continuity and disaster recovery?
• Why the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure help organizations align to separation of duties
• When using a layered security approach to system administration, who would have the highest access privileges?
• Why do you want to refer to technical standards in a policy definition document?
• How does separation of duties throughout an IT infrastructure mitigate risk for an organization?
• Policies for the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure
• Sale of the Japanese Coast Guard Boat (Takachiho): A Case Study
• New Hampshire Security Breach Notifications
• Information Classification: Who, Why, and How
• Python and Digital Forensics
• Phishing Remediation
• The Art of Reconnaissance
• Is the COBIT framework superior to the other standards and frameworks such as the ISO 27000 and NIST?
• What are the key benefits of NIST SP 800-53 Revision 4?
• What is meant by Governance Framework? Why is ISO 27000 certification more attractive to companies than COSO or COBIT certification?
• Why should an organization have annual security awareness training that includes an overview of the organization’s policies?
• What security controls can be implemented on your e-mail system to help prevent rogue or malicious software disguised as URL links or e-mail attachments from attacking the workstation domain? What kind of policy definition should you use?
• Why should an organization have a remote access policy even if it already has an acceptable use policy (AUP) for employees?
• What is the purpose of defining a framework for IT security policies?
• Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT)
• The difference between The Database and the Database Management System
• The Chinese Wall Security Policy
• Specialty Medical Clinic: A HIPAA Case Project
• How do you overcome employee apathy toward policy compliance?
• What is difficult about policy implementation in a flat organization? What is difficult about policy implementation in a hierarchical organization?
• Do employee personality types differ between hierarchical and flat organizations?
• Do employees behave differently in a flat versus a hierarchical organizational structure? Explain your answer.
• Organizational Information Security
• Code Red Worm
• National Security Directive Number 145 – 1984
• Should an organization terminate the employment of an employee if he/she violates an AUP? Why?
• What security controls can be deployed to monitor users that are potentially in violation of an AUP?
• Why must an organization have an acceptable use policy (AUP) even for non-employees, such as contractors, consultants, and other third parties?
• Why does an organization want to align its policies with the existing compliance requirements?
• Will the AUP apply to all levels of the organization? Why or why not?
• Why is an Acceptable Use Policy not a fail-safe means of mitigating risks and threats with the user domain?
• Do compliance laws, such as HIPAA or GLBA, play a role in AUP definition?
• Can Internet use and e-mail use be covered in an acceptable use policy?
• Why do organizations have acceptable use policies (AUPs)?
• What are three risks and threats of the user domain?
• NIST Guidelines for Password Policies: 2017
• Why Do Organizations Need Security Policies?
• PenTesting and Ethics
• Penetration Testing
• The Perfect Password
• Cloud Computing
• Migrating to the Cloud: Step-by-step guide
• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
• Cloud-based systems: Security Overview
• Identity Management (in the cloud): IDaaS
• SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS
• Why are all messages sent across a network not encrypted?
• Greater Threat: Compromise of a routing device or Compromise of a highly-utilized data transmission cable?
• Film Review: Brazil: An IS perspective
• Privacy and Security: A Dichotomy?
• Multiple Points of Presence (MPOP)
• Vulnerabilities in E-Commerce and Social Networking sites
• Email Cryptosystems
• Galt House Hotel Credit Card Info Breach
• NSA: Cybersecurity Career Options
• Why is controlling the misbehavior of software as important as software behaving as expected during execution?
• Threat Identification: For an Organization in Florida
• XSS Attack on Twitter
• Security Architectures
• Job Posting: Security Administrator
• Massive Brute-Force Attack on Alibaba
• OWASP Top 10 Web Vulnerabilities: 2013
• Enterprise Information Security Policy & Issue-Specific Security Policies
• Influencing and Motivating Employees
• Critical Remote Access Vulnerability: Intel AMT backdoor
• Web Analytics Tools – WebTrends and Google Analytics
• Possible security issues with taking pictures on a smartphone and posting them on a social networking site
• What are the security implications of having a social networking account compromised?
• Google Removal from Search Policy
• (ISC)² CBK
• Disaster Recovery
• Hurriacane Ike and a DR Story
• Web Service: RSS
• Comparison of Privacy Policies of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
• Fuzzing
• Insider Risk
• Struxnet
• Information in your Personal Computer
• Management Styles and Approaches
• IBM z13:”World’s Most Powerful Mainframe”
• What is the importance of a business continuity plan? What are essential items that should be included in this plan for any business or organization?
• List and explain five ways to become proactive in securing the organization
• What is a zero-day attack? Why do these represent a significant threat to information systems?
• What are the components of two-factor authentication?
• Describe and discuss common authentication types
• The root cause of an SQL injection attack and why it continues to be one of the most common security risks to a data server
• What are the security risks with the use of ActiveX?
• Summarize the risks of using JavaScript in a web application from a security perspective.
• How Fast Does Ransomware Encrypt Files?
• What are the three security issues with utilizing client-side plug-ins in a web application?
• Tiger Team
• Zero Day Threats
• Macro Virus Demo
• What are some of the ways that a leader in an organization can embody and promote security as an organizational consideration?
• What are the key factors involved in assessing the importance of a risk?
• What are the challenges in enforcing security policies in an organization when they have not been in place previously?
• What challenges exist in creating and implementing new security policies in an organization when there has been no consideration of security in the past?
• Why is leadership outlook on security critical to employee buy-in at all levels?
• Summarize the process of constructing security training inside an organization. What are at least four resources that should be consulted to make sure the training is adequate and current?
• What factors should be involved in deciding on a delivery method for an organization’s security training?
• What are the main problems with preventing social engineering in an organization?
• Why do insiders pose such a significant threat to an organization?
• Security Awareness and Training: SANS Guidelines
• VPN Security Flaws and Its Prevention
• Security Awareness and Training: SANS Guidelines
• Reverse Firewall
• How does the evolution of attack tools affect existing systems? What steps should an organization take to remain vigilant of these new methods for compromising systems?
• What steps should be taken to protect a system that is going down for, or coming back up from, maintenance? Why would this be a good potential time for an attacker to strike?
• Why is it important to retain documentation of legacy elements of a software system?
• Choose at least three available tools for software review and analysis, and summarize their features and drawbacks.
• What factors should influence the time frame and scope of a penetration test?
• Why is it important to probe and attack a system both at rest and in action?
• What advantages do actual attackers have over penetration testers in attempting to compromise a system? Justify your conclusions.
• What factors should be considered in responding to any compromise identified in either static or dynamic analysis of a system? Rank at least four factors and justify your ordering.
• What are the important considerations in choosing a Red Team (or attack team) for your software system?
• Fuzzing
• Why is a periodic system review beneficial to security?
• What protections can you place within an organization on code that is developed externally?
• What are the risks of not mapping the instantiation and cleanup of variables containing privacy data?
• How is the Scope of a Variable important to Security Planning?
• What are the most critical aspects of security in an Object-Oriented Software system?
• The Importance of Establishing a Ranking of Vulnerabilities in a System
• Constructing Misuse Cases: Benefits and Drawbacks
• Benefits of creating a vulnerability map for a planned software system
• Why should requirements gathering be prevented after the scope of the system is defined?
• Why is it important to rank the importance of various stakeholders involved in system development?
• Why is it important to incorporate security throughout the SDLC instead of just in one phase or another?
• Wireless Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks
• Secure SDLC
• Cryptographic Storage – Best Practices
• Buffer Overflow
• What are the differences between data and information?
• What are the Risks associated with Inheritance in Classes?
• Why is it Important to Monitor and Control System Output?
• The Importantance of Setting Boundaries on Variable Values
• Buffer Overflow: Definition and Defense
• How does SQL differ from Programming Languages?
• The Risks of Directly Executing User Input
• DBMS: The Differences between an Attribute and a Field
• The Role of the Data Dictionary in the DBMS?
• Can Rootkits Beneficial to Security Administrators?
• Different Types of Data Backup
• Steps to Hardening any Operating System
• Does any RAID configuration provide a complete solution to fault tolerance in servers?
• Home Computer and Fault Tolerence
• PGP and Self-Signed Digital Certificates
• The Modern Usage of the RSA Cipher
• Asymmetric and Symmetric key cryptography: A Comparison
• NAT and Security
• Macro Virus Demo
• Who is ultimately responsible for the security choices in software system development and deployment?
• Database Systems: Threats and Mitigation
• Why is it important to understand the updates and patches available for your operating system?
• Policies to combat Social Engineering via Phone Calls
• Physical Penetration into a Facility: Risks and Mitigation
• Red Teams: Benefits and Challenges
• What is the easiest phase of standard software development life-cycle for security considerations?
• Who can be more destructive? The Unwitting Insider or the Intentional External Attacker?
• TCP SYN Flood
• Software Security and Integrity
• Automated tools for passive and active reconnaissance
• Nortel: Database hack, industrial espionage, and banckruptcy
• Information Security Governance Documents
• Database Transactions – Fraud, Security and the “Halloween Problem”
• Contract Law for Online Providers
• Laboratory Manual to Legal Issues in Information Security: Lab 8
• Safe Harbors in Breach Notification Laws: Rhode Island
• SQL injection attack: i-dressup.com data breach
• Laboratory Manual to Legal issues in Information Security: Lab 6
• Laboratory Manual to Legal issues in Information Security: Lab 5
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Section 802
• Laboratory Manual to Legal issues in Information Security: Lab 3
• HIPAA Complainant Consent Form
• Database Access Control on Data Creation
• Creating a SQL Server 2008 Database Account
• The Fourth Amendment and Technology
• NoSQL Database: MongoDB
• Lab: Tables & Databases
• Laboratory Manual to Legal issues in Information Security: Lab 2
• Laboratory Manual to Legal issues in Information Security: Lab 1
• Do you see any drawbacks for transaction logs?
• In what situations or scenarios are transaction logs helpful and important?
• What is a transaction log in SQL?
• SQL Statements
• Demonstrating Responsible Stewardship: Organizations & Personal Information
• Heartland Payment Systems breach: An InfoSec History Lesson
• Vulnerabilities of Web Applications – Business Scenario Analysis