Information Security Governance – A Practical Development and Implementation Approach

The Growing Imperative Need for Effective Information Security Governance With monotonous regularity, headlines announce ever more spectacular failures of information security and mounting losses. The succession of corporate debacles and dramatic control failures in recent years underscores the necessity for information security to be tightly integrated into the fabric of every organization. The protection of an organization's most valuable asset information can no longer be relegated to low-level technical personnel, but must be considered an essential element of corporate governance that is critical to organizational success and survival. Written by an industry expert, Information Security Governance is the first book-length treatment of this important topic, providing readers with a step-by-step approach to developing and managing an effective information security program. Beginning with a general overview of governance, the book covers: The business case for information security Defining roles and responsibilities Developing strategic metrics Determining information security outcomes Setting security governance objectives Establishing risk management objectives Developing a cost-effective security strategy A sample strategy development The steps for implementing an effective strategy Developing meaningful security program development metrics Designing relevant information security management metrics Defining incident management and response metrics Complemented with action plans and sample policies that demonstrate to readers how to put these ideas into practice, Information Security Governance is indispensable reading for any professional who is involved in information security and assurance.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER 1: GOVERNANCE OVERVIEW. 1.1 What Is It? 1.2 Back to Basics. 1.3 Origins of Governance. 1.4 Governance Definition. 1.5 Information Security Governance. 1.6 Six Outcomes of Effective Security Governance. 1.7 Defining Information, Data, Knowledge. 1.8 Value of Information. CHAPTER 2: WHY GOVERNANCE? 2.1 Benefits of Good Governance. 2.1.1 Aligning Security with Business Objectives. 2.1.2 Providing the structure and framework to optimize allocations of limited resources. 2.1.3 Providing assurance that critical decisions are not based on faulty information. 2.1.4 Ensuring accountability for safeguarding critical assets. 2.1.5 Increasing trust of customers and stakeholders. 2.1.6 Increasing the company's worth. 2.1.7 Reducing liability for information inaccuracy or lack of due care in protection. 2.1.8 Increasing predictability and reducing uncertainty of business operations. 2.2 A Management Problem. CHAPTER 3: LEGAL AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS. 3.1 Security Governance and Regulation. CHAPTER 4: ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES. 4.1 The Board of Directors. 4.2 Executive Management. 4.3 Security Steering Committee. 4.4 The CISCO. CHAPTER: STRATEGIC METRICS. 5.1 Governance Objectives. 5.1.1 Strategic Direction. 5.1.2 Ensuring Objectives are Achieved. 5.1.3. Risks Managed Appropriately. 5.1.4 Verifying Resources are Used Responsibly. CHAPTER 6: INFORMATION SECURITY OUTCOMES. 6.1 Defining Outcomes. 6.1.1 Strategic alignment. 6.1.2 Risk Management. 6.1.3 Business process assurance / convergence. 6.1.4 Value delivery. 6.1.5 Resource management. 6.1.6 Performance measurement. CHAPTER 7: SECURITY GOVERNANCE OBJECTIVES. 7.1 Security Architecture. 7.1.1 Managing Complexity. 7.1.2 Providing a Framework & Road Map. 7.1.3 Simplicity & Clarity through Layering & Modularisation. 7.1.4 Business Focus beyond the Technical Domain. 7.1.5 Objectives of Information Security Architectures. 7.1.6 SABSA Framework for Security Service Management. 7.1.7 SABSA Development Process. 7.1.8 SABSA Lifecycle. 7.1.9 SABSA Attributes. 7.2 COBIT. 7.3 Capability Maturity Model. 7.4 ISO/IEC 27001/ 27002. 7.4.1 ISO 27001. 7.4.2 ISO 27002. 7.5 Other Approaches. 7.5.1 National Cybersecurity Task Force. CHAPTER 8: RISK MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES. Risk Management Responsibilities. Managing Risk Appropriately. 8.1 Determining Risk Management Objectives. 8.1.1 Recovery Time Objectives. CHAPTER 9: CURRENT STATE. 9.1 Current State of Security. 9.2 Current State of Risk Management. 9.3 Gap Analysis - Unmitigated Risk. 9.3.1 SABSA. 9.3.2 CMM. CHAPTER 10: DEVELOPING A SECURITY STRATEGY. 10.1 Failures of Strategy. 10.2 Attributes of A Good Security Strategy. 10.3 Strategy Resources. 10.3.1 Utilizing Architecture for Strategy Development. 10.3.2 Using Cobit for Strategy Development. 10.3.3 Using CMM for Strategy Development. 10.4 STRATEGY CONSTRAINTS. 10.4.1 Contextual constraints. 10.4.2 Operational constraints. CHAPTER 11: SAMPLE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT. 11.1 The Process. CHAPTER 12: IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY. Action Plan Intermediate Goals. Action Plan Metrics. Re-engineering. Inadequate Performance. 12.1 Elements Of Strategy. 12.1.1 Policy Development. Attributes of Good Policies. Sample Policy Development. Other Policies. 12.1.2 Standards. Attributes of Good Standards. Sample Standards. Classifications. Standard Statement. CHAPTER 13: SECURITY PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT METRICS. 13.1 Information Security Program Development Metrics. 13.2 Program Development Operational Metrics. CHAPTER 14: INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT METRICS. 14.1 Management Metrics. 14.2 Security Management Decision Support Metrics. 14.4 CISO Decisions. 14.2.1 Strategic alignment. 14.2.2 Risk Management. 14.2.3 Metrics for Risk Management. 14.2.4 Assurance Process Integration. 14.2.5 Value Delivery. 14.2.6 Resource Management. 14.2.7 Performance Measurement. 14.7 Information Security Operational Metrics. 14.3.1 IT and Information Security Management. 14.3.2 Compliance Metrics. CHAPTER 15: INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AND RESPONSE METRICS. 15.1 Incident Management Decision Support Metrics. Conclusion. Appendix A. SABSA Business Attributes & Metrics. Appendix B. Cultural Worldviews. Heirarchists. Egalitarians. Individualists. Fatalists.

About the Author :
Krag Brotby, cism, has more than twenty-five years of experience in the computer security field with a focus on governance, metrics, and architecture. A frequent presenter at security conferences, he has authored a variety of publications on information security risk management, governance, and metrics. A principal author and editor of the ISACA CISM review manual and related presentation materials, he has served on the CISM Practice Analysis Task Force defining the information security practice area for the coming years.