CISSP Study Guide Notes
CISSP Study Guide Notes
CISSP Study Guide Notes
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● Security solutions should address each of these tenants.
● Vulnerabilities and risks are evaluated based on the threat they pose against these
principles.
● Resources are limited, so you have to prioritise security needs according to this triad.
● Confidentiality:
○ A high level of assurance that data, objects, or resources are restricted from
unauthorised subjects. Prevents unauthorised disclosure.
○ Confidentiality while in storage, process, and in transit.
○ Attacks e.g., stealing password files, social engineering, shoulder surfing,
evesdropping, etc.
○ Can be intentional and directed, or a result of human error/oversight.
○ Countermeasures: encryption, network traffic padding, access control,
authentication procedures, data classification and personnel training.
○ Considerations of confidentiality include:
■ Sensitivity - how sensitive is the data?
■ Discretion - An operator’s decision to control disclosure
■ Criticality - is the information mission critical. If yes, more need to
maintain confidentiality.
■ Concealment -
■ Secrecy
■ Privacy
■ Seclusion - storing something in an out-of-the-way location.
■ Isolation - preventing co-mingling of information.
● Integrity
○ A high level of assurance that the data is unaltered from its original protected
state
○ The object itself is not altered, and the operating system and programming
entities that manage and manipulate the object are not compromised.
○ Alterations should not occur during storage, process, and in transit.
○ Can be examined from 3 perspectives:
■ Preventing unauthorised subjects from making modifications
■ Precenting authorised subjects from making unauthorised modifications,
such as mistakes
■ Maintaining the internal and external consistency of obhects so that their
data is a correct and true reflection of the real world, and any relationship
with any child, peer, or parent object is valid, consistent and verifiable.
○ Controls:
■ Restricting access to objects (authentication)
■ Activity logging
■ Oversight
■ Intrusion detection systems
■ Object encryption
■ Has total verifications
■ Interface restrictions
■ Personnel training
○ Attacks include viruses, logic bombs, unauthorised access, errors in coding and
applications, malicious modification, intentional replacement, and system back-
doors.
○ Intentional and unintentional violations (e.g., mistakes)
○ Considerations of integrity:
■ Accuracy
■ Thruthfulness
■ Authenticity
■ Validity
■ Nonrepudiation
■ Accountability
■ Responsibility
■ Completeness
■ Comprehensiveness
● Availability
○ Authorised subjects have timely and uninterrupted access to objects
○ High level of assurance that the data, objects and resources are accessible to
authorised subjects
○ Implies:
■ prevention of DoS attacks
■ That supporting infrastructure (including network services,
communications and access control) are functional
○ Threats to availability include:
■ Device failure, software errors, environmental issues.
■ DoS (denial of service) attacks, object destruction, communication
interruptions.
○ Threats are intentional and non-intentional
○ Countermeasures:
■ Designing intermediary delivery systems properly
■ Effective access controls
■ Monitoring performance and network traffic
■ Using firewalls and routers to prevent DoS attacks
■ Redundancy for critical systems
■ Maintaining and testing backup systems.
■ Eliminate single points of failure through use of fault-tolerance features
when planning business continuity
■
Security governance.
Nonrepudiation.
Abstraction.
Data hiding.
Importance of Declassification.
COBIT - Control Objectives for Information and Related
Technology.