02. Information Asset Identification and Classification Flashcards
Information Asset Identification and Classification
Assets are things of value that an organisation protects in an information security program, and include…
- Information Systems Hardware
- Software
- Virtual Assets
- Information
- Facilities
- Personnel
- Servers, laptops, tablets etc..
- Operating systems, subsystems, applications etc…
- Operating system guests, containers etc..
- Databases, PII etc..
- Data centers, development centers etc..
- Staff
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Asset Identification and valuation
After security leadership have determined the scope of a security program, the initial step of the program development is…
identification of assets and determination of their value
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Asset Identification and valuation
IT needs to acquire and track several characteristics of every asset, including…
- Identification
- Value
- Location
- Security Classification
- Asset Group
- Owner
- Custodian
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Asset Identification and valuation
The purpose of performing a periodic “true up”, a process by which it is confirmed if assets still physically exist through whatever means used, is performed so that discrepancies can be investigated to verify that assets have not been..
moved/removed without authorization or stolen
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Asset Identification and valuation
Software assets are considered to have..
Tangiable value
Althought software itself is intangiable in that it cannot physically be touched, if software is used to deliver goods and services it can be classified as a tangible asset (source)
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Asset Identification and valuation
Information assets are considered to be less tangible than hardware assets and include…
- Customer Information
- Intellectual property
- Business Operations
- Virtual Assets
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Asset Identification and valuation
A significant challenge related to information assets, where it will be next to impossible for an organisation to idetnify or know what services are in place, is the use of…
Cloud-Based Information Assets
An example is people taking it upon themselves to use services such as Dropbox to upload significant amounts of information as part of an exchange with a third party
The intent is not malicious but is not tracked and sight of the data is lost
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Asset Identification and valuation
The term that defines where users purchase their own computing services and bypass corporate IT
Shadow IT
Implies not all assets can be identified
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Virtual Assets
A term used which defines the ability for virtual servers to be created at the click of a button without additional cost to the organisation and often without approval…
Virtual Sprawl
aka
Virtualisation Sprawl
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Virtual Assets
Significant risks associated with virtualisation or cloud based computing that make it difficult for virtual assest to be managed or tracked
- Virtual Sprawl
- Elasticity
- Containerization
- Software-Defined Network (SND)
- Virtual servers spun up often without authorization
- Additional resources automatically spun up to meet demand
- Multiple software instantiations execut on running operating system
- Virtual network devices can be created at will or by automatic means
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Asset Classification
The process by which an organisation assigns an asset to a category representing usage or risk
Asset Classification
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Asset Classification
Within the information security program, the purpose of asset classification is to determine…
its level of criticality to the organisation
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Asset Classification
2 key measures of criticality…
- Information Sensitivity
- Operational Dependency
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Asset Classification
Criticality measurements of an asset form the basis for…
- Information Protection
- System Redundancy and Resilience
- Business Continuity Planning
- Disaster Recovery Planning
- Access Management
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Asset Classification
Scarce resources in the form of infomration protection and resilience need to be allocated to…
assets that require it the most
Makes no sense to protect all assets to the same degree
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