Reference no: EM133993374
Assignment:
IT Security Assessment & Auditing
Business units in the Department of Defense (DoD) have auditing frameworks that provide baseline requirements and hardening guidelines to business units that a government network must meet. The primary benefit of utilizing an audit framework is having a standardized and structured way to base security policy. An audit then helps the organization determine how well it is adhering to its security policies. When an audit is combined with a risk assessment, the organization is equipped to identify present gaps. The organization can take steps to narrow or eliminate those gaps, mitigating its IT risk. identify the requirements and hardening guides that provide a frame to which a government network and business should adhere, you will assess the available sites under the Department of Defense (DoD) and identify agencies in charge of providing security guidelines, and you will review the hardening and best practice guidelines provided by the DoD's Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Information Assurance Support Environment (IASE).
Align Auditing Frameworks for a Business Unit within the DoD
•Identify the minimum baseline requirements and hardening guides that provide a framework to which a government network and business unit should adhere
•Assess all the available sites under the Department of Defense, and identify the agencies in charge of providing security guidelines and best practices for federal entities
•Review all the hardening and best practice guides provided by DISA and Information Assurance Support Environment of the DoD (IASE)
•Find the guidelines published by NIST that can assist in securing information assets
• identify and explain the two auditing frameworks or hardening guidelines/security checklists used by DoD
Scenario:
You work for a governmental unit of the DoD, and a manager has asked a brief paper outlining the importance of having the proper DoD-approved frameworks in place when an organization may want to conduct business with a governmental unit. the task is to evaluate all the available DoD, IASE, and NIST hardening guides on the Internet and to find a brief analysis of the technical controls and hardening guides that should be implemented as a minimum guideline for divisions of government agencies such as Frameworks as a Guide Frameworks are, in general, a set of ideas or rules to guide you, whether the rules apply to how to administer IT equipment, how to manage your daily work, or how to drive a car. The framework does not detail the manner in which you conduct yourself hour by hour, but only the general rules you should avoid breaking. The DoD-approved frameworks you research will provide these rules in the form of controls.
Controls can either describe or prescribe "best practices" to secure your IT environment. It is also these controls that grant auditors the ability to measure whether the IT environment following that framework is staying compliant, that is, keeping within these rules of Registered Websites and point out a few of the Information Assurance websites available (i.e., IASE, DISA, etc.)
This is an archived list of sites that had been registered to the Department of Defense the DoD list of registered websites, and then use the keyword search box to identify sites discussing information assurance and review the content of some of the resulting sites.
Do not merely search "information assurance," but use terms such as information, security, and Assurance Each office, agency, and department might showcase its own range of products, toolkits, standards, etc. Do not be overwhelmed with searching and surfing links. The object of this lab step is to gain a general appreciation of the available Web sites as well as identify some of those providing security guidelines and best practices for federal entities.
Review the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) website focus on reviewing the Services and Capabilities of DISA and evaluate which are relevant to their task of formulating a framework for secure government operations.
Review DISA's Information Assurance Support Environment. Pay special attention to the Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs)
Review the STIGs available with special focus on the following topics:
a. Network Hardening Guides
b. Secure Remote Computing
c.Windows Operating Systems
d. Application Security
the pages from the DISA website, you might be prompted for a DoD-approved public key infrastructure (PKI) client certicate to access the linked page. Without the certicate, the browsing will end there. A DoD-approved PKI client certicate is not required to complete
Review the NIST list of Special Publications (800 Series), and review the contents of the guides related to Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations (800-53 and 800-53 A titles).
1. three of the DoD-registered websites that provide guidelines and documents related to information assurance
2. Identify and explain two common auditing frameworks used for DoD
3. Identifying and explaining the two auditing frameworks or hardening guidelines/security checklists used by DoD