Executive Summary
Our corporate assets are under attack by a continuous barrage of new laws, new employees, new competitors and new exploits. Business survival in the next decade will require a more effective and robust risk strategy to deter, detect and defend against a myriad of new threats to the organization.
Modern day attackers include hackers, spies, terrorists, corporate raiders, professional criminals, vandals and voyeurs. Simply said, these attackers use tools to exploit vulnerabilities. They create an action on a target that produces an unauthorized result. They do this to obtain their objective.
Here are four key lessons to create a "4D" risk strategy in your enterprise.
Lesson 1 – Deter
The Mission
Deter the attacker from launching a salvo of new threats to compromise your organizations assets. You first have to understand the value of your corporate assets to determine what are the most valuable in the eyes of your adversary. You must make it increasingly more difficult for these valuable assets to be attacked or you will find yourself under the constant eye of those who wish to create a significant business disruption.
These attackers are individuals who take on these quests or objectives for several key reasons. They include financial gain, political gain, damage or the simple challenge, status or thrill. It’s your job to create deterrence for each one of these objectives.
The Take Away
In order to effectively deter potential risks to your corporate assets, first you have to understand what they are and how valuable they are in the eyes of each kind of attacker. The more valuable the target, the more deterrence it requires.
Lesson 2 – Detect
The Mission
Detect the use of tools by the attackers. These tools are what they use to assess the vulnerabilities within and throughout the organization. These tools include surveillance, physical attack, information exchange, user commands, scripts or programs, autonomous agents, toolkits, distributed tools or data taps. Some are high tech and most are the craft of social engineers.
The attackers are using a combination of these tools and tactics to exploit corporate vulnerabilities in:
Just about any significant business disruption can be traced back to the fact that the attacker was able to effectively exploit the organizations defenses using a systematic method and the correct tools. Detection of threats begins by detecting the use of tools. Whether it’s the surveillance of an individual or of a facility. Whether it’s the design of the building or the software code for the E-Commerce system. Whether it’s the implementation of security cameras or the firewall. Whether it’s the configuration of the controls for access to the vault or to the ERP system. You have to continuously detect the use of the attackers tools and their methods to exploit your vulnerabilities.
Lesson 3 – Defend
The Mission
Defend the target from any actions by the attackers tools. Targets may include a person, facility, account, process, data, component, computer, Intranet network or Internet. Actions against the target are intended to produce the unauthorized result. Some action categories are labeled:
In order to understand how to defend your corporate assets, you have to attack them yourself using a continuous combination of tools and tests. Only then will you find out where your single point of failure lies and where the attacker is going to successfully exploit a vulnerability you didn’t know exists.
Lesson 4 – Document
The Mission
Document the normal so you know when and where there is an unauthorized result. In order for the attacker to obtain their objective, the target must produce this unauthorized result. These might include:
The Take Away
Documenting the behavior of people, processes, systems and external events is a vital component of a complete strategy for risk mitigation. Understanding what normal "is", begins with effective documentation and analysis. Many organizations begin to document long after it is too late or as a result of a significant business disruption. Documentation remains to be a challenge for many, and a task that attackers know is likely to be left undone or behind schedule.
Conclusion
A "4D" Risk Strategy for Business Survival is only effective if it is operating on a continuous basis. You must create the culture and the due diligence to see that it becomes part of the fabric of the organization internally and with outsourced partners or suppliers. Only then will the attacker realize that this combination to deter, detect, defend and document is alive and growing in your enterprise. This is when attackers become discouraged, afraid, uncertain and ultimately ready for a new and less formidable adversary.
"Attackers use tools to exploit a vulnerability to create an action on a target that produces an unauthorized result, to obtain their objective. These "4D" lessons should put you on the way to creating a more survivable business."
Our corporate assets are under attack by a continuous barrage of new laws, new employees, new competitors and new exploits. Business survival in the next decade will require a more effective and robust risk strategy to deter, detect and defend against a myriad of new threats to the organization.
Modern day attackers include hackers, spies, terrorists, corporate raiders, professional criminals, vandals and voyeurs. Simply said, these attackers use tools to exploit vulnerabilities. They create an action on a target that produces an unauthorized result. They do this to obtain their objective.
Here are four key lessons to create a "4D" risk strategy in your enterprise.
Lesson 1 – Deter
The Mission
Deter the attacker from launching a salvo of new threats to compromise your organizations assets. You first have to understand the value of your corporate assets to determine what are the most valuable in the eyes of your adversary. You must make it increasingly more difficult for these valuable assets to be attacked or you will find yourself under the constant eye of those who wish to create a significant business disruption.
These attackers are individuals who take on these quests or objectives for several key reasons. They include financial gain, political gain, damage or the simple challenge, status or thrill. It’s your job to create deterrence for each one of these objectives.
The Take Away
In order to effectively deter potential risks to your corporate assets, first you have to understand what they are and how valuable they are in the eyes of each kind of attacker. The more valuable the target, the more deterrence it requires.
Lesson 2 – Detect
The Mission
Detect the use of tools by the attackers. These tools are what they use to assess the vulnerabilities within and throughout the organization. These tools include surveillance, physical attack, information exchange, user commands, scripts or programs, autonomous agents, toolkits, distributed tools or data taps. Some are high tech and most are the craft of social engineers.
The attackers are using a combination of these tools and tactics to exploit corporate vulnerabilities in:
- Design
- Implementation
- Configuration
Just about any significant business disruption can be traced back to the fact that the attacker was able to effectively exploit the organizations defenses using a systematic method and the correct tools. Detection of threats begins by detecting the use of tools. Whether it’s the surveillance of an individual or of a facility. Whether it’s the design of the building or the software code for the E-Commerce system. Whether it’s the implementation of security cameras or the firewall. Whether it’s the configuration of the controls for access to the vault or to the ERP system. You have to continuously detect the use of the attackers tools and their methods to exploit your vulnerabilities.
Lesson 3 – Defend
The Mission
Defend the target from any actions by the attackers tools. Targets may include a person, facility, account, process, data, component, computer, Intranet network or Internet. Actions against the target are intended to produce the unauthorized result. Some action categories are labeled:
- Probe
- Scan
- Flood
- Authenticate
- Bypass
- Spoof
- Read
- Copy
- Steal
- Modify
- Delete
In order to understand how to defend your corporate assets, you have to attack them yourself using a continuous combination of tools and tests. Only then will you find out where your single point of failure lies and where the attacker is going to successfully exploit a vulnerability you didn’t know exists.
Lesson 4 – Document
The Mission
Document the normal so you know when and where there is an unauthorized result. In order for the attacker to obtain their objective, the target must produce this unauthorized result. These might include:
- Increased Access
- Disclosure of Information
- Corruption of Information
- Denial of Service
- Theft of Resources
The Take Away
Documenting the behavior of people, processes, systems and external events is a vital component of a complete strategy for risk mitigation. Understanding what normal "is", begins with effective documentation and analysis. Many organizations begin to document long after it is too late or as a result of a significant business disruption. Documentation remains to be a challenge for many, and a task that attackers know is likely to be left undone or behind schedule.
Conclusion
A "4D" Risk Strategy for Business Survival is only effective if it is operating on a continuous basis. You must create the culture and the due diligence to see that it becomes part of the fabric of the organization internally and with outsourced partners or suppliers. Only then will the attacker realize that this combination to deter, detect, defend and document is alive and growing in your enterprise. This is when attackers become discouraged, afraid, uncertain and ultimately ready for a new and less formidable adversary.
"Attackers use tools to exploit a vulnerability to create an action on a target that produces an unauthorized result, to obtain their objective. These "4D" lessons should put you on the way to creating a more survivable business."
