- Introduction
- Principle 1: There Is No Such Thing As Absolute Security
- Principle 2: The Three Security Goals Are Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability
- Principle 3: Defense in Depth as Strategy
- Principle 4: When Left on Their Own, People Tend to Make the Worst Security Decisions
- Principle 5: Computer Security Depends on Two Types of Requirements: Functional and Assurance
- Principle 6: Security Through Obscurity Is Not an Answer
- Principle 7: Security = Risk Management
- Principle 8: The Three Types of Security Controls Are Preventative, Detective, and Responsive
- Principle 9: Complexity Is the Enemy of Security
- Principle 10: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt Do Not Work in Selling Security
- Principle 11: People, Process, and Technology Are All Needed to Adequately Secure a System or Facility
- Principle 12: Open Disclosure of Vulnerabilities Is Good for Security!
- Summary
- Test Your Skills
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Principle 3: Defense in Depth as Strategy
A bank would never leave its assets inside an unguarded safe alone. Typically, access to the safe requires passing through layers of protection that might include human guards and locked doors with special access controls. Furthermore, the room where the safe resides could be monitored by closed-circuit television, motion sensors, and alarm systems that can quickly detect unusual activity. The sound of an alarm might trigger the doors to automatically lock, the police to be notified, or the room to fill with tear gas.
Layered security, as in the previous example, is known as defense in depth. This security is implemented in overlapping layers that provide the three elements needed to secure assets: prevention, detection, and response. Defense in depth also seeks to offset the weaknesses of one security layer by the strengths of two or more layers.
In the information security world, defense in depth requires layering security devices in a series that protects, detects, and responds to attacks on systems. For example, a typical Internet-attached network designed with security in mind includes routers, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to protect the network from would-be intruders; employs traffic analyzers and real-time human monitors who watch for anomalies as the network is being used to detect any breach in the layers of protection; and relies on automated mechanisms to turn off access or remove the system from the network in response to the detection of an intruder.
Finally, the security of each of these mechanisms must be thoroughly tested before deployment to ensure that the integrated system is suitable for normal operations. After all, a chain is only as good as its weakest link.