Chapter 10 Physical Security Requirements Flashcards
SECURE FACILITY PLAN
A secure facility plan outlines the security needs of your organization and emphasizes methods or mechanisms to employ to provide security. Such a plan is developed through a process known as critical path analysis. Critical path analysis is a systematic effort to identify relationships between mission-critical applications, processes, and operations and all the necessary supporting elements. For example, an e-commerce server used to sell products over the web relies on internet access, computer hardware, electricity, temperature control, storage facility, and so on.
Technology convergence
is the tendency for various technologies, solutions, utilities, and systems to evolve and merge over time. Often this results in multiple systems performing similar or redundant tasks or one system taking over the feature and abilities of another. While in some instances this can result in improved efficiency and cost savings, it can also represent a single point of failure and become a more valuable target for hackers and intruders. For example, if voice, video, fax, and data traffic all share a single connection path rather than individual paths, a single act of sabotage to the main connection is all that is required for intruders or thieves to sever external communications.
SITE SELECTION
Site selection should be based on the security needs of the organization. Cost, location, and size are important, but addressing the requirements of security should always take precedence. When choosing a site on which to build a facility or selecting a preexisting structure, be sure to examine every aspect of its location carefully.
Securing assets depends largely on site security, which involves numerous considerations and situational elements. Site location and construction play a crucial role in the overall site selection process. Susceptibility to riots, looting, break-ins, and vandalism or location within a high-crime area are obviously all poor choices but cannot always be dictated or controlled. Environmental threats such as fault lines, tornado/hurricane regions, and close proximity to other natural disasters present significant issues for the site selection process as well because you can’t always avoid such threats.
VISIBILITY
Another element of visibility is related to the area monitored by a security camera. Be sure the locations and capabilities of the security cameras are coordinated with the interior and exterior design of the facility. Cameras should be positioned to have clear site lines of all exterior walls, entrance and exit points, and interior hallways.
NATURAL DISASTERS
Another concern is the potential impact that natural disasters could make in the area. Is it prone to earthquakes, mudslides, sinkholes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, falling rocks, snow, rainfall, ice, humidity, heat, extreme cold, and so on? You must prepare for natural disasters and equip your IT environment to either survive an event or be replaced easily.
FACILITY DESIGN
When designing the construction of a facility, you must understand the level of security that your organization needs. A proper level of security must be planned and designed before construction begins.
Important issues to consider include combustibility, fire rating, construction materials, load rating, placement, and control of items such as walls, doors, ceilings, flooring, HVAC, power, water, sewage, gas, and so on. Forced intrusion, emergency access, resistance to entry, direction of entries and exits, use of alarms, and conductivity are other important aspects to evaluate. Every element within a facility should be evaluated in terms of how it could be used for and against the protection of the IT infrastructure and personnel (for example, positive flows for air and water from inside a facility to outside its boundaries).
The security controls implemented to manage physical security can be divided into three groups:
administrative, technical, and physical. Administrative physical security controls include facility construction and selection, site management, personnel controls, awareness training, and emergency response and procedures. Technical physical security controls include access controls; intrusion detection; alarms; closed-circuit television (CCTV); monitoring; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) power supplies; and fire detection and suppression. Physical controls for physical security include fencing, lighting, locks, construction materials, mantraps, dogs, and guards.
When designing physical security for an environment, focus on the functional order in which controls should be used. The order is as follows:
Deterrence
Denial
Detection
Delay
Security controls should be deployed so that initial attempts to access physical assets are deterred (boundary restrictions accomplish this). If deterrence fails, then direct access to physical assets should be denied (for example, locked vault doors). If denial fails, your system needs to detect intrusion (for example, using motion sensors), and the intruder should be delayed sufficiently in their access attempts to enable authorities to respond (for example, a cable lock on the asset). It’s important to remember this order when deploying physical security controls: first deterrence, then denial, then detection, then delay.
scheduled for replacement and/or repair
The schedule for such operations should be based on the mean time to failure (MTTF) and mean time to repair (MTTR) estimates established for each device or on prevailing best organizational practices for managing the hardware lifecycle. MTTF is the expected typical functional lifetime of the device given a specific operating environment. MTTR is the average length of time required to perform a repair on the device. A device can often undergo numerous repairs before a catastrophic failure is expected. Be sure to schedule all devices to be replaced before their MTTF expires. An additional measurement is that of the mean time between failures (MTBF). This is an estimation of the time between the first and any subsequent failures. If the MTTF and MTBF values are the same or fairly similar, manufacturers often only list the MTTF to represent both values.
WIRING CLOSETS
is where the networking cables for a whole building or just a floor are connected to other essential equipment, such as patch panels, switches, routers, local area network (LAN) extenders, and backbone channels. Other more technical names for wiring closets include premises wire distribution room andintermediate distribution facilities (IDF). It is fairly common to have one or more racks of interconnection devices stationed in a wiring closet
cable plant management policy.
A cable plant is the collection of interconnected cables and intermediary devices (such as cross-connects, patch panels, and switches) that establish the physical network. Elements of a cable plant include the following:
Entrance facility: Also known as the demarcation point, this is the entrance point to the building where the cable from the provider connects the internal cable plant.
Equipment room: This is the main wiring closet for the building, often connected to or adjacent to the entrance facility.
Backbone distribution system: This provides wired connections between the equipment room and the telecommunications rooms, including cross-floor connections.
Telecommunications room: Also known as the wiring closet, this serves the connection needs of a floor or a section of a large building by providing space for networking equipment and cabling systems. It also serves as the interconnection point between the backbone distribution system and the horizontal distribution system.
Horizontal distribution system: This provides the connection between the telecommunication room and work areas, often including cabling, cross-connection blocks, patch panels, and supporting hardware infrastructure (such as cable trays, cable hangers, and conduits).
SERVER ROOMS/DATA CENTERS
Server rooms, data centers, communications rooms, wiring closets, server vaults, and IT closets are enclosed, restricted, and protected rooms where your mission-critical servers and network devices are housed. Centralized server rooms need not be human compatible. In fact, the more human incompatible a server room is, the more protection it will offer against casual and determined attacks. Server rooms should be located at the core of the building. Try to avoid locating these rooms on the ground floor, on the top floor, and in the basement whenever possible. Additionally, the server room should be located away from water, gas, and sewage lines. These pose too large a risk of leakage or flooding, which can cause serious damage and downtime.
Smartcards
Smartcards are credit-card-sized IDs, badges, or security passes with an embedded magnetic strip, bar code, or integrated circuit chip. They contain information about the authorized bearer that can be used for identification and/or authentication purposes. Some smartcards can even process information or store reasonable amounts of data in a memory chip. A smartcard may be known by several phrases or terms:
An identity token containing integrated circuits (ICs)
A processor IC card
An IC card with an ISO 7816 interface
Smartcards
are often viewed as a complete security solution, but they should not be considered complete by themselves. As with any single security mechanism, smartcards are subject to weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Smartcards can fall prey to physical attacks, logical attacks, Trojan horse attacks, or social-engineering attacks. In most cases, a smartcard is used in a multifactor configuration. Thus, theft or loss of a smartcard does not result in easy impersonation. The most common form of multifactor used in relation to a smartcard is the requirement of a PIN.
Memory cards
are machine-readable ID cards with a magnetic strip. Like a credit card, debit card, or ATM card, memory cards can retain a small amount of data but are unable to process data like a smartcard. Memory cards often function as a type of two-factor control: the card is “something you have” and its personal identification number (PIN) is “something you know.” However, memory cards are easy to copy or duplicate and are insufficient for authentication purposes in a secure environment.
Proximity Readers
A proximity reader can be a passive device, a field-powered device, or a transponder. The proximity device is worn or held by the authorized bearer. When it passes a proximity reader, the reader is able to determine who the bearer is and whether they have authorized access. A passive device reflects or otherwise alters the electromagnetic field generated by the reader. This alteration is detected by the reader.
Intrusion detection systems (IDSs)
are systems—automated or manual—designed to detect an attempted intrusion, breach, or attack; the use of an unauthorized entry/point; or the occurrence of some specific event at an unauthorized or abnormal time. Intrusion detection systems used to monitor physical activity may include security guards, automated access controls, and motion detectors as well as other specialty monitoring techniques.
Access Abuses
Examples of abuses of physical access controls are propping open secured doors and bypassing locks or access controls. Masquerading is using someone else’s security ID to gain entry into a facility. Piggybacking is following someone through a secured gate or doorway without being identified or authorized personally. Detecting abuses like these can be done by creating audit trails and retaining access logs.
Emanation Security
Many electrical devices emanate electrical signals or radiation that can be intercepted by unauthorized individuals. These signals may contain confidential, sensitive, or private data. Obvious examples of emanation devices are wireless networking equipment and mobile phones, but many other devices are vulnerable to interception. Other examples include monitors, modems, and internal or external media drives (hard drives, USB thumb drives, CDs, and so on). With the right equipment, unauthorized users can intercept electromagnetic or radio frequency signals (collectively known as emanations) from these devices and interpret them to extract confidential data.
TEMPEST countermeasures.
TEMPEST was originally a government research study aimed at protecting electronic equipment from the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitted during nuclear explosions. It has since expanded to a general study of monitoring emanations and preventing their interception. Thus, TEMPEST is now a formal name for a broad category of activities.
TEMPEST countermeasures include Faraday cages, white noise, and control zones.
Faraday Cage
A Faraday cage is a box, mobile room, or entire building designed with an external metal skin, often a wire mesh that fully surrounds an area on all sides (in other words, front, back, left, right, top, and bottom). This metal skin acts as an electromagnetic interference (EMI)-absorbing capacitor (which is why it’s named after Michael Faraday, a pioneer in the field of electromagnetism) that prevents electromagnetic signals (emanations) from exiting or entering the area that the cage encloses. Faraday cages are quite effective at blocking EM signals. In fact, inside an active Faraday cage, mobile phones do not work, and you can’t pick up broadcast radio or television stations.
White Noise
White noise simply means broadcasting false traffic at all times to mask and hide the presence of real emanations. White noise can consist of a real signal from another source that is not confidential, a constant signal at a specific frequency, a randomly variable signal (such as the white noise heard between radio stations or television stations), or even a jam signal that causes interception equipment to fail. White noise is most effective when created around the perimeter of an area so that it is broadcast outward to protect the internal area where emanations may be needed for normal operations.
Control Zone
A third type of TEMPEST countermeasure, a control zone, is simply the implementation of either a Faraday cage or white noise generation or both to protect a specific area in an environment; the rest of the environment is not affected. A control zone can be a room, a floor, or an entire building. Control zones are those areas where emanation signals are supported and used by necessary equipment, such as wireless networking, mobile phones, radios, and televisions. Outside the control zones, emanation interception is blocked or prevented through the use of various TEMPEST countermeasures.
EVIDENCE STORAGE
Evidence storage is quickly becoming a necessity for all businesses, not just law enforcement–related organizations. As cybercrime events continue to increase, it is important to retain logs, audit trails, and other records of digital events. It also may be necessary to retain image copies of drives or snapshots of virtual machines for future comparison. This may be related to internal corporate investigations or to law enforcement–based forensic analysis. In either case, preserving datasets that might be used as evidence is essential to the favorable conclusion to a corporate internal investigation or a law enforcement investigation of cybercrime.
