Write effective security policies

Enterprise security policies are the foundation for enterprises to avoid security risks. However, many enterprises do not realize the importance of security policies for the sustainable development of enterprises. On many occasions, I will ask questions about information security. For example, what is your security policy? We usually hear the answer that we do not have a security policy or that our security policy is not deployed on the network. I think security policies are an important way to help enterprises focus on the technical control that has been agreed upon and seen by users.

When writing security policies, try to make the policies consistent with the company's business goals and IT management goals. Another key factor is that the policy does not exist independently. It also involves auxiliary documents related to guidelines and program files that can determine the expected user behavior, in this way, policies can be clearly written without ambiguity. The purpose of a security policy is not to influence productivity, but to influence user behavior, so that the results of the security policy can be predicted.

Challenges

Most of the written security policies are not executed, which means that if someone violates the policy, they cannot find relevant disciplinary actions for punishment. This is mainly because of the lack of support from the management and the absence of security policies as employment terms and conditions, the issue of implementation is challenged. The joint participation of senior management and human resources in the implementation of security policies is a crucial factor for the implementation of security policies.

It is also important to write executable policies because many policies are hard to understand or are not understood. The key to solving this problem is to compile a well-established policy that is clear and executable and easy to understand. This kind of management control usually writes policies in an unrealistic way from an ideal perspective, and cannot solve the problems of all business units.

Effective policies are usually concise and meaningful, which can highlight the responsibilities of different departments of an enterprise. The lifecycle of such policies is usually three to five years, policy reviews are required every year to ensure consistency and consistency with commercial strategies.

Currently, the challenge is that there are few security experts in this field. It is usually to replicate the idealized policies of other companies to fill the compliance gap between the company and other companies. Although this is true, you will find that the actual goals and practicality are seldom considered when implementing these policies to deploy technical control.

What is a policy?

A policy is a file that can greatly affect people's behaviors. Generally, a certain result is achieved by specifying a plan or guide.

Authorization

It is best to obtain full support from the senior management or enterprise owners, because without their support, it will be difficult to enforce the policy, but it will only be empty. In addition, security policies should also clarify the causes and consequences to ensure that everyone is aware of the serious consequences of non-compliance.

Adding new requirements without approval from the management will increase the budget of the IT department to achieve technical control, and technical control will occupy a large budget, therefore, it is critical for the management to approve the support for security policies.

Framework

As time passes, it is necessary to add new entries to the security policy. As the business objectives change, whether or not to continue using the security policy needs to be reconsidered, the user's behavior is also changing. Our primary concern is to ensure that security policies can defend against threats, and protecting the company's information resources is a crucial issue.

Keeping the company's budget in mind at any time can also enable the company to better plan the technical control to be deployed and the deployment technical control steps. If the security policy has behavior requirements and no technical control is available to execute the policy, it is difficult for users to comply with the policy.

Do not try to block all possible situations, which can be understood as clear instructions similar to "summary. You will find that the issues we discuss need more details to support, rather than using the appendix and documents to complicate the issue.

A comprehensive security policy will require the participation of all departments of the company. Carefully deploying and coordinating this policy can reduce the security risks of the company.

Always use the "Least Privilege" rule to ensure that the minimum attack scope is exposed, and the smaller the exposure scope, the lower the security risk.

Please pay attention to the Security Policy and the enforcement part. If there is no explicit enforcement principle, users will feel that some principles may be optional, but they are not. Marking the optional parts as color or italic may be more appropriate.

Some policies may only target some users, so these parts should be placed in the appendix, rather than as the file subject, because it is easy to confuse users.

Optional:

Divide security policies so that different security policy terms can be applied to different departments in a more rigorous form. Although this makes the Strategy highly complex, the general strategy may be too broad and increase the exposure level. For this reason, it is best to add more details to the policies of each department, and only inform managers at all levels that human resources can help track the implementation of policies. Different departments have different security attitudes, which is why this approach is adopted.

Ensure that all elements of the security policy can be implemented. If the policy is unrealistic, the entire policy may be ignored or ignored by users.

Security policies should comply with laws and regulations, so as to strengthen the enforcement of policies and attract more attention. It is necessary to mention certain laws and regulations when preparing policies, so that users will treat security policies as legal documents.

Who are the applicable security policies?

Security policies should enable all users in the company, including consultants and foreign colleagues, no matter how remote they are. Ignoring a user may pose a security threat, so before any user uses the company's device, make sure that they read and agree to the company's security policy.

Technical Control

We know that there are hundreds of technical control types, anti-virus software, backup, content filter, firewall, Endpoint Encryption, anti-malware tools, and so on. These technical controls can be mentioned in security policies and should be described as technical controls that have been deployed in the company to protect the company's resources. Tampering, deletion, or modification of these controls should be prohibited. Therefore, the importance of these technical controls should be emphasized in security policies. When discussing audit problems of large enterprises in many occasions, some people found that the company's security leak accident was caused by tampering with a certain technical control. If the security policy does not mention any technical controls and how users can communicate with each other, no action is feasible.

Manage, protect, and process data

Security policies should cover how individuals handle company data, including how to securely store data, how to securely transmit data, and how to securely exchange data.

Report

Reports on technical control are equally important, as this ensures that users know when they violate policies and promptly make the company aware of security risks. If you do not know that the user will cause security leaks, just as there is no policy.

Summary

In this article, we discuss the important factors that need to be taken into account when writing effective security policies. After this series of articles, I believe that security experts can organize their own security policy methods, the help of professional staff always get twice the result with half the effort. I hope the questions discussed in this article will help you.