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Managing Risk in Information Systems

JONES & BARTLETT LEARNING INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY & ASSURANCE SERIES

LABORATORY MANUAL TO ACCOMPANY

VERSION 2.0

INSTRUCTOR VERSION

Introduction

Risk management begins with first identifying risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to then assess

them. Assessing risks means to evaluate risk in terms of two factors. First, evaluate each risk’s

likelihood of occurring. Second, evaluate the impact or consequences should the risk occur. Both

likelihood and impact are important for understanding how each risk measures up to other risks.

How the risks compare with one other is important when deciding which risk or risks take

priority. In short, assessing is a critical step toward the goal of mitigation.

Assessing risks can be done in one of two ways: quantitatively or qualitatively. Quantitatively

means to assign numerical values or some objective, empirical value. For example, “Less than

$1,000 to repair” or “Biweekly.” Qualitatively means to assign wording or some quasi-subjective

value. For example, a risk could be labeled critical, major, or minor.

In this lab, you will define the purpose of an IT risk assessment, you will align identified risks,

threats, and vulnerabilities to an IT risk assessment that encompasses the seven domains of a

typical IT infrastructure, you will classify the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, and you will

prioritize them. Finally, you will write an executive summary that addresses the risk assessment

findings, risk assessment impact, and recommendations to remediate areas of noncompliance.

Learning Objectives

Upon completing this lab, you will be able to:

Define the purpose and objectives of an IT risk assessment.

Align identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to an IT risk assessment that encompasses

the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure.

Classify identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities according to a qualitative risk assessment

template.

Prioritize classified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities according to the defined qualitative risk

assessment scale.

Craft an executive summary that addresses the risk assessment findings, risk assessment

impact, and recommendations to remediate areas of noncompliance.

Lab #4 Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure

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Hands-On Steps

Note: This is a paper-based lab. To successfully complete the deliverables for this lab, you will need access to Microsoft® Word or another compatible word processor. For some labs, you may also need access to a graphics line drawing application, such as Visio or PowerPoint. Refer to the Preface of this manual for information on creating the lab deliverable files.

3. On your local computer, open a new Internet browser window.

4. Using your favorite search engine, search for information on the purpose of IT risk assessment.

5. Describe the purpose of IT risk assessment.

6. Review the following table for the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities found in a health care IT infrastructure servicing patients with life-threatening conditions:

Risks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities Primary Domain Impacted

Risk Impact/ Factor

Unauthorized access from public Internet

User destroys data in application and deletes all files

Hacker penetrates your IT infrastructure and gains access to your internal network

Intraoffice employee romance gone bad

Fire destroys primary data center

Service provider service level agreement (SLA) is not achieved

Workstation operating system (OS) has a known software vulnerability

Unauthorized access to organization- owned workstations

Loss of production data

Denial of service attack on organization Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and e-mail server

Remote communications from home office

Local Area Network (LAN) server OS has a

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32 | LAB #4 Performing a Qualitative Risk Assessment for an IT Infrastructure

known software vulnerability

User downloads and clicks on an unknown e-mail attachment

Workstation browser has a software vulnerability

Mobile employee needs secure browser access to sales-order entry system

Service provider has a major network outage

Weak ingress/egress traffic-filtering degrades performance

User inserts CDs and USB hard drives with personal photos, music, and videos on organization-owned computers

Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunneling between remote computer and ingress/egress router is needed

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access points are needed for LAN connectivity within a warehouse

Need to prevent eavesdropping on WLAN due to customer privacy data access

Denial of service (DoS)/distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack from the Wide Area Network (WAN)/Internet

7. Review the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure

8. Using the table from step 6, identify in the table’s Primary Domain Impacted column which of the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure will be most impacted by each risk, threat, or vulnerability listed.

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www.jblearning.com Instructor Lab Manual

Qualitative Versus Quantitative The next step requests that you assign a score to each of the risks in the table from step 6. The scoring is done qualitatively, by assigning one of several labels on a scale. In this case, the scale is provided for you, ranging from Critical to Minor.

Using qualitative scores to assess risks is comparatively easy and quick. The alternative is to assess quantitatively, using actual, numerical scores. Using qualitative words such as “critical” or “major” introduces subjective opinion, while citing numbers such as “Damage to be more than $3 million” or “Will cause an outage of under four hours” introduces quantitative objectivity.

Quantitative scoring is more objective, but calculating risk assessment this way can take much more time. This is because it requires you to dig up hard facts. For instance, you can conduct quantitative scoring by referring to your organization’s history or claims records by answering such questions as “How often has this happened to us, or others?” You can also assess risks numerically by researching the costs to recover from losses.

It is possible to assess risks both quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, you could quantitatively score the likelihood and consequences of each risk, for example, “under 10% chance” and “ ‘X’ number of staff lives harmed or lost.” But you could present the final score qualitatively, for example, “critical” or “needs to be addressed immediately.”

9. Using the table from step 6, perform a qualitative risk assessment by assigning a risk impact/risk factor to each of the identified risks, threats, and vulnerabilities throughout the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure where the risk, threat, or vulnerability resides. Assign each risk, threat, and vulnerability a priority number in the table’s Risk Impact/Factor column, where:

 “1” is Critical: A risk, threat, or vulnerability that impacts compliance (that is, privacy law requirement for securing privacy data and implementing proper security controls,

and so on) and places the organization in a position of increased liability

 “2” is Major: A risk, threat, or vulnerability that impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C-I-A) of an organization’s intellectual property assets and IT

infrastructure

“3” is Minor: A risk, threat, or vulnerability that can impact user or employee productivity or availability of the IT infrastructure

Note: Keep the following in mind when working on the next step: When suggesting next steps to executive management, consider your recommendations from their point of view. Be prepared to explain costs, both in implementing the controls and then in maintaining the controls.

Remember that costs come in many forms, not least of which is labor. Be sure accountability is thought out in terms of roles and responsibilities. Other potential costs outside the data center include goodwill or reputation, market share, and lost opportunity. Executive management might have these costs topmost in mind.

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