Reference no: EM133749889

Question: Technical controls are essential to a well-planned information security program, particularly to enforce policy for the many IT functions that are not under direct human control. Networks and computer systems make millions of decisions every second, and they operate in ways and at speeds that people cannot control in real time. Technical control solutions can improve an organization's ability to balance the often-conflicting objectives of making information readily and widely available of preserving the information's confidentiality and integrity. These technical controls must fit with the physical design of the systems and networks.

Access control is now more than access to a physical location. Discretionary access controls (DACs) provide the ability to share resources in a peer-to-peer configuration that allows users to control and provide access to information. Nondiscretionary access controls (NDACs) are managed by a central authority in the organization where a form of this is called lattice-based access control (LBAC) in which users are assigned a matrix of authorizations for areas of access. NIST has a new approach to lattice-based access controls called Attribute-Based Access Controls (ABACs).

In networks, firewalls fall into several major categories of processing modes: packet-filtering firewalls, application layer proxy firewalls, media access control layer firewalls, and hybrids. Packet-filtering firewalls scan network data packets for compliances with the rules of the firewall's database and this is done at the network layer of the OSI model. The application firewall is known as proxy server because it can be configured to run special software that acts as a proxy for a service request such as a web server with a proxy server. Media access control layer firewalls make filtering decisions based on the specific host computer's identity. Hybrid firewalls can perform a variety of tasks such as unified threat management and NexGen firewalls that can do a variety of functions.

Interview a network administrator at your workplace to learn about the type of security controls in place on that network. What types of firewalls are used and for what purposes? Are intrusion detection and/or intrusion prevention systems present? Who monitors them? What different methods are used to protect the networks that operate the organization's record keeping systems? Does the security level vary on different network segments?