CSIA 310 DISC 3

Management Briefing: Combating Insider Threats

Good morning everyone. Separation of Duties, Least Privilege and Rule Based Access

Control(RBAC) are all Cybersecurity terms that have significant relevance to todays discussion.

The importance of Sifers-Grayson to implement an Identity Governance & Administration

solution to mitigate and quarantine insider threats. These threats are very real and can cause

significant financial damage to our company and our brands reputation. Through simple best

practices outlined below, RBAC and other policies to limit access to confidential information

should be implemented to harden Sifers-Grayson security from insider threats.

What is an insider threat? “An insider threat is a current or former employee who has or

had authorized access to an organization’s network, system, or data. This also includes

intentionally exceeded or intentionally used that access in a manner that negatively affected the

confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the organization’s information or information

systems.”(SEI, 2012) There are three primary reasons why Sifers-Grayson should invest in an

Identity Governance & Administration solution. Protection from IP Theft, IT sabotage, fraud and

other accidental insider threats is the most significant. Anyone of those mentioned attacks are

very real and can be avoided through simple practices. Another important reason is this solution

will document and analyze the vulnerabilities in our system spot and control such attacks before

they happen. The third and most important reason is implementation of NDA’s, Non-Disclosure

Agreements for new and current employees to legally protect themselves and our company from

fraudulent activities.

Role Based Access Control is a security approach to restrict system access to authorized

users only. “With RBAC, security is managed at a level that corresponds closely to the

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organization's structure. Each user is assigned one or more roles, and each role is assigned one or

more privileges that are permitted to users in that role”(NIST, 2020) Separation of Duties is the

separation of tasks or responsibilities for critical infrastructure or functions. Requiring

authorization from two separate badges for entry to a sever room would be an example of this.

Least privilege is another similar concept “Implementation of the principle of least privilege on

an information system (i.e., read, write, or execute permissions) can include restrictions around

the creation, deletion, or modification of information.”(Miller, 2017)

These important Security features can harden Sifers-Grayson system significantly from

insider threats. RBAC to limit who has access to what information. Least privilege to limit what

the user can do with the information they have access to. And Separation of Duties, so that more

than one individual authorization is needed to make significant changes to the system at any

given time. IP theft and corporate espionage and fraud are all very real threats that Sifers-

Grayson should prepare for by implementing a Identity Governance & Administration solution.

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References

Software Engineering Institute. December 2012. Common Sense Guide to Mitigating Insider

Threats 4th Edition. resources.sei.cmu.edu. Retrieved July 8th, 2020, from

https://resources.sei.cmu.edu/asset_files/TechnicalReport/2012_005_001_34033.pdf

NIST. June 22nd, 2020. Role Based Access Control. Computer Security Resource Center.

Retrieved July 8th, 2020, from https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/role-based-access-control

Miller, Sarah. July 26th, 2017. Separation of Duties and Least Privilege (Part 15 of 20: CERT

Best Practices to Mitigate Insider Threats Series). Software Engineering Institute.

Retrieved July 8th, 2020, from https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/insider-

threat/2017/07/separation-of-duties-and-least-privilege-part-15-of-20-cert-best-practices-

to-mitigate-insider-threa.html

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