Introduction to Information Security

Security Domains and Strategies

Safety of data and information is a real important aspect of a company. Before we can create an outline for general security solutions we must first define what is needed. I recommend that we use a multi-layered security plan. There are a total of seven domains of an IT infrastructure including user domain, workstation domain, LAN domain, LAN-to-WAN domain, WAN domain, remote access domain, and system/application domain. User domain is essentially the people who access the information system.

User domains tend to receive risk due to the user’s carelessness due to lack of awareness, not caring for policies, and security violations. These can easily be rectified with training. Conduct security awareness training, display security posters around the office, and send email reminders to keep the policies fresh in the employee’s mind. Another common threat is caused by employee misuse of the system. Employees might insert USB drives, or download photos music and videos. These items might contain virus’s which in turn damages the system.

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The USB ports should be disabled and content filtering and antivirus scanning should be enabled. Workstation domain is any device that connects to the network. A few threats might be encountered are unauthorized access to the workstation and unauthorized access to applications and data.

These issues can be mitigated simply by enabling password protection on workstations and by defining strict access control policies. LAN domains are a collection of computers connected to one another. Threats for LAN domains include unauthorized access to the LAN, and unauthorized access to systems applications and data. The solutions for these threats are similar to that of the workstation domain. Another major threat are confidentiality of data transmissions via WLAN connections is compromised.

Implementation of encryption between workstation and WAP is crucial. LAN-to-WAN domain is where the infrastructure links to a wide area network and internet. A few issues include unauthorized network probing and port scanning. To resolve this issue disable ping, probing and port scanning on all exterior IP devices within the domain. Another major issue is unauthorized access through the LAN-to-WAN domain. Simply applying strict security monitoring controls for intrusion and detection and preventing would solve this problem. WAN domains connect remote locations. For these types of domains it is easy for open, public and accessible to anyone that wants to connect. Create new laws regarding unauthorized access to the systems, malicious attacks on the infrastructures and financial loss due to malicious outages. Another issue is that most internet traffic is sent in clear text. To prevent this prohibit using the internet for private communications without encryption and VPN tunnels. Remote access domain connects remote users to the infrastructure. Threats for this type of infrastructure are brute force user id and password attacks, multiple logon retries and access control attacks. To stop this from occurring creates user id and password policies requiring periodic changes. Set up automatic blocking for attempted logon retries. System/application domain holds all the critical systems, applications and data. Unauthorized access to data centers, computer rooms and wiring closets is a major issue for this domain. Apply policies, standards and procedures for staff and visitors. The servers must sometimes be shut down to perform maintenance. Create a system that brings together servers, storage and networking. These are a couple things that I have outlined that would make this multi-layered security plan a success. We must know the various threats for each layer and how to resolve each layer. This plan will greatly save the company money as well as lawsuits due to information leakage.