␡
- 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
This chapter is from the book
Principle 12: Open Disclosure of Vulnerabilities Is Good for Security!
A raging and often heated debate within the security community and software developing centers concerns whether to let users know about a problem before a fix or patch can be developed and distributed. Principle 6 tells us that security through obscurity is not an answer: Keeping a given vulnerability secret from users and from the software developer can only lead to a false sense of security. Users have a right to know about defects in the products they purchase, just as they have a right to know about automobile recalls because of defects. The need to know trumps the need to keep secrets, to give users the right to protect themselves.