We’ve updated our privacy policy so that we are compliant with changing global privacy regulations and to provide you with insight into the limited ways in which we use your data. Show
You can read the details below. By accepting, you agree to the updated privacy policy. Thank you! View updated privacy policy We've encountered a problem, please try again. Information is meaningful data which has to be protected in order to protect the privacy, security, identity of an organization or a person or a nation. An information is called valuable because of few characteristics. The main characteristics which make an information valuable are 1. Confidentiality Confidentiality ensures that an Information is accessible to only an authorized user. The main pupose of confidentiality is to protect the sensitive information from reaching the wrong hands.It is used to maintain the privacy of the people. Encryption is a good example of confidentiality. 2. Availability Information should be available to an authorised person when it is requested for. It is the guarantee of access to the authorised individual to information. Keeping all the hardware and software up to date and keeping back up, taking proper recovery measures will ensure availability of data. 3. Integrity Integrity maintains the correctness or accuracy of the information while the data is in transit, storage or processing. It is the guarantee that information is trust worthy and not tampered. This attribute ensures that an unauthorised person will not be able to modify the data. RSA digital signature, SHA1 hash codes are good examples. 4. Authentication It is verifying whether the user, data, transactions involved is genuine. This attribute ensures that only genuine or right people are given access to the information. Login mechanisms can be used to verify the authenticity of users 5. Non-Repuditiation This is a property of information which is used to holds a person responsible for the information he sent or received. In future, he cannot deny his role in sending or receiving the information. Information security (sometimes referred to as InfoSec) covers the tools and processes that organizations use to protect information. This includes policy settings that prevent unauthorized people from accessing business or personal information. InfoSec is a growing and evolving field that covers a wide range of fields, from network and infrastructure security to testing and auditing. Information security protects sensitive information from unauthorized activities, including inspection, modification, recording, and any disruption or destruction. The goal is to ensure the safety and privacy of critical data such as customer account details, financial data or intellectual property. The consequences of security incidents include theft of private information, data tampering, and data deletion. Attacks can disrupt work processes and damage a company’s reputation, and also have a tangible cost. Organizations must allocate funds for security and ensure that they are ready to detect, respond to, and proactively prevent, attacks such as phishing, malware, viruses, malicious insiders, and ransomware. Whitepaper: Meeting Data Security Challenges in the Age of Digital Transformation. What are the 3 Principles of Information Security?The basic tenets of information security are confidentiality, integrity and availability. Every element of the information security program must be designed to implement one or more of these principles. Together they are called the CIA Triad. ConfidentialityConfidentiality measures are designed to prevent unauthorized disclosure of information. The purpose of the confidentiality principle is to keep personal information private and to ensure that it is visible and accessible only to those individuals who own it or need it to perform their organizational functions. IntegrityConsistency includes protection against unauthorized changes (additions, deletions, alterations, etc.) to data. The principle of integrity ensures that data is accurate and reliable and is not modified incorrectly, whether accidentally or maliciously. AvailabilityAvailability is the protection of a system’s ability to make software systems and data fully available when a user needs it (or at a specified time). The purpose of availability is to make the technology infrastructure, the applications and the data available when they are needed for an organizational process or for an organization’s customers. Blog: 7 Ways Good Data Security Practices Drive Data Governance. The CIA Triad defines three key principles of data security Information Security vs CybersecurityInformation security differs from cybersecurity in both scope and purpose. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but more accurately, cybersecurity is a subcategory of information security. Information security is a broad field that covers many areas such as physical security, endpoint security, data encryption, and network security. It is also closely related to information assurance, which protects information from threats such as natural disasters and server failures. Cybersecurity primarily addresses technology-related threats, with practices and tools that can prevent or mitigate them. Another related category is data security, which focuses on protecting an organization’s data from accidental or malicious exposure to unauthorized parties. Information Security PolicyAn Information Security Policy (ISP) is a set of rules that guide individuals when using IT assets. Companies can create information security policies to ensure that employees and other users follow security protocols and procedures. Security policies are intended to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive systems and information. Creating an effective security policy and taking steps to ensure compliance is an important step towards preventing and mitigating security threats. To make your policy truly effective, update it frequently based on company changes, new threats, conclusions drawn from previous breaches, and changes to security systems and tools. Make your information security strategy practical and reasonable. To meet the needs and urgency of different departments within the organization, it is necessary to deploy a system of exceptions, with an approval process, enabling departments or individuals to deviate from the rules in specific circumstances. Top Information Security ThreatsThere are hundreds of categories of information security threats and millions of known threat vectors. Below we cover some of the key threats that are a priority for security teams at modern enterprises. Unsecure or Poorly Secured SystemsThe speed and technological development often leads to compromises in security measures. In other cases, systems are developed without security in mind, and remain in operation at an organization as legacy systems. Organizations must identify these poorly secured systems, and mitigate the threat by securing or patching them, decommissioning them, or isolating them. Social Media AttacksMany people have social media accounts, where they often unintentionally share a lot of information about themselves. Attackers can launch attacks directly via social media, for example by spreading malware via social media messages, or indirectly, by using information obtained from these sites to analyze user and organizational vulnerabilities, and use them to design an attack. Social EngineeringSocial engineering involves attackers sending emails and messages that trick users into performing actions that may compromise their security or divulge private information. Attackers manipulate users using psychological triggers like curiosity, urgency or fear. Because the source of a social engineering message appears to be trusted, people are more likely to comply, for example by clicking a link that installs malware on their device, or by providing personal information, credentials, or financial details. Organizations can mitigate social engineering by making users aware of its dangers and training them to identify and avoid suspected social engineering messages. In addition, technological systems can be used to block social engineering at its source, or prevent users from performing dangerous actions such as clicking on unknown links or downloading unknown attachments. Malware on EndpointsOrganizational users work with a large variety of endpoint devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, many of which are privately owned and not under the organization’s control, and all of which connect regularly to the Internet. A primary threat on all these endpoints is malware, which can be transmitted by a variety of means, can result in compromise of the endpoint itself, and can also lead to privilege escalation to other organizational systems. Traditional antivirus software is insufficient to block all modern forms of malware, and more advanced approaches are developing to securing endpoints, such as endpoint detection and response (EDR). Lack of EncryptionEncryption processes encode data so that it can only be decoded by users with secret keys. It is very effective in preventing data loss or corruption in case of equipment loss or theft, or in case organizational systems are compromised by attackers. Unfortunately, this measure is often overlooked due to its complexity and lack of legal obligations associated with proper implementation. Organizations are increasingly adopting encryption, by purchasing storage devices or using cloud services that support encryption, or using dedicated security tools. Security MisconfigurationModern organizations use a huge number of technological platforms and tools, in particular web applications, databases, and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from providers like Amazon Web Services. Enterprise grade platforms and cloud services have security features, but these must be configured by the organization. Security misconfiguration due to negligence or human error can result in a security breach. Another problem is “configuration drift”, where correct security configuration can quickly become out of date and make a system vulnerable, unbeknownst to IT or security staff. Organizations can mitigate security misconfiguration using technological platforms that continuously monitor systems, identify configuration gaps, and alert or even automatically remediate configuration issues that make systems vulnerable. Active vs Passive AttacksInformation security is intended to protect organizations against malicious attacks. There are two primary types of attacks: active and passive. Active attacks are considered more difficult to prevent, and the focus is on detecting, mitigating and recovering from them. Passive attacks are easier to prevent with strong security measures. Active AttackAn active attack involves intercepting a communication or message and altering it for malicious effect. There are three common variants of an active attacks:
Passive AttackIn a passive attack, an attacker monitors, monitors a system and illicitly copies information without altering it. They then use this information to disrupt networks or compromise target systems. The attackers do not make any change to the communication or the target systems. This makes it more difficult to detect. However, encryption can help prevent passive attacks because it obfuscates the data, making it more difficult for attackers to make use of it.
Information Security and Data Protection LawsInformation security is in constant interaction with the laws and regulations of the places where an organization does business. Data protection regulations around the world focus on enhancing the privacy of personal data, and place restrictions on the way organizations can collect, store, and make use of customer data. Data privacy focuses on personally identifiable information (PII), and is primarily concerned with how the data is stored and used. PII includes any data that can be linked directly to the user, such as name, ID number, date of birth, physical address, or phone number. It may also include artifacts like social media posts, profile pictures and IP addresses. Data Protection Laws in the European Union (EU): the GDPRThe most known privacy law in the EU is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This regulation covers the collection, use, storage, security and transmission of data related to EU residents. The GDPR applies to any organization doing business with EU citizens, regardless of whether the company itself is based inside or outside the European Union. Violation of the guidelines may result in fines of up to 4% of global sales or 20 million Euro. The main goals of the GDPR are:
GDPR includes protection of the following data types:
Data Protection Laws in the USADespite the introduction of some regulations, there are currently no federal laws governing data privacy in general in the United States. However, some regulations protect certain types or use of data. These include:
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for protecting users from fraudulent or unfair transactions such as data security and privacy. The FTC can enact regulations, enforce laws, punish violations, and investigate organizational fraud or suspected violations. In addition to federal guidelines, 25 US states have enacted various laws to regulate data. The most famous example is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The law went into effect in January 2020 and provides protection to California residents, including the right to access private information, request deletion of private information, and opt out of data collection or resale. There also other regional regulations such as:
Information Security with ImpervaImperva helps organizations of all sizes implement information security programs and protect sensitive data and assets. Imperva Application SecurityImperva provides multi-layered protection to make sure websites and applications are available, easily accessible and safe. The Imperva application security solution includes:
Imperva Data ProtectionImperva’s data security solution protects your data wherever it lives—on premises, in the cloud and in hybrid environments. It also provides security and IT teams with full visibility into how the data is being accessed, used, and moved around the organization. Our comprehensive approach relies on multiple layers of protection, including:
Which of the following is a characteristic of information security in organizations?Select one of the three characteristics of information security (confidentiality, integrity, or availability) and explain its importance.
What are the characteristics of information security?What are the 3 Principles of Information Security? The basic tenets of information security are confidentiality, integrity and availability. Every element of the information security program must be designed to implement one or more of these principles. Together they are called the CIA Triad.
What are 3 main characteristics of information security?The CIA triad refers to an information security model made up of the three main components: confidentiality, integrity and availability.
What is information security in an organization?Information security is “the practice of preventing unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, inspection, recording or destruction” of sensitive records. Security measures perform four critical roles: It protects the organisation's ability to function.
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