Home > Articles

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Implementation

You cannot implement what senior management won’t support. Sure, you will need the employees to buy into the process, but the biggest element of success depends on making sure that security flows from the top. With senior management leading the way, you can further ensure success by setting up a data-classification scheme so that employees realize the importance of the data they work with. You will also want to consider employee training—without it, how will employees know good security practices? As a final step, you will want to build in security controls because they allow you to monitor the level of compliance.

Data Classification

Organizational information that is proprietary or confidential in nature must be protected. Data classification is a useful way to rank an organization’s informational assets. The two most common data-classification schemes are military and public. Companies store and process so much electronic information about their customers and employees that it’s critical for them to take appropriate precautions to protect this information. Both military and private data-classification systems accomplish this task by placing information into categories. The first step of this process is to assess the value of the information. When the value is known, it becomes much easier to decide what amount of resources should be used to protect the data. It would make no sense to spend more on protecting something with a lesser value or worth.

Each level of classification that is established should have specific requirements and procedures. The military and commercial data-classification models have predefined labels and levels. When an organization decides which model to use, it can evaluate data placement by using criteria such as the following:

  • The value of the data

  • Its age

  • Laws

  • Regulations pertaining to its disclosure

  • Replacement cost

Military Data Classification

The military data-classification system is widely used within the Department of Defense. This system has five levels of classification:

  • Unclassified

  • Sensitive

  • Confidential

  • Secret

  • Top secret

Each level represents an increasing level of sensitivity. Sensitivity is the desired degree of secrecy that the information should maintain. If an individual holds a confidential clearance, it would mean that he could access unclassified, sensitive, or confidential information for which he has a need to know. His need-to-know would not extend to the secret or top secret levels. The concept of need-to-know is similar to the principle of least privilege, in that employees should have access only to information that they need to know to complete their assigned duties. Table 3.4 provides details about the military and public/private data-classification models.

Public/Private Data Classification

The public or commercial data classification is also built upon a four-level model:

  • Public—This information might not need to be disclosed, but if it is, it shouldn’t cause any damage.

  • Sensitive—This information requires a greater level of protection to prevent loss of confidentiality.

  • Private—This information is for company use only, and its disclosure would damage the company.

  • Confidential—This is the highest level of sensitivity, and disclosure could cause extreme damage to the company.

Table 3.4 Commercial and Military Data Classifications

Commercial Business Classifications

Military Classifications

 

Top secret

Confidential

Secret

Private

Confidential

Sensitive

Sensitive

Public

Unclassified

Roles and Responsibility

Just as we have discussed the importance of data classification, it’s important to provide a clear division of roles and responsibility. This will be a tremendous help when dealing with any security issues. Everyone should be subject to this policy, including employees, consultants, and vendors. The following list highlights some general areas of responsibility different organizational roles should be held to regarding organizational security. Common roles include owner, data custodian, user, and security auditor:

  • Data owner—Usually a member of senior management. After all, senior management is responsible for the asset and, if it is compromised, can be held responsible. The data owner can delegate some day-to-day duties but cannot delegate total responsibility; senior management is ultimately responsible.

  • Data custodian—This is usually someone in the IT department. The data custodian does not decide what controls are needed, but he or she does implement controls on behalf of the data owner. Other responsibilities include the day-to-day management of the asset. Controlling access, adding and removing privileges for individual users, and ensuring that the proper controls have been implemented are all part of the data custodian’s daily tasks.

  • User—This is a role that most of us are familiar with because this is the end user in an organization. Users do have responsibilities: They must comply with the requirements laid out in policies and procedures. They must also practice due care.

  • Security auditor—This is the person who examines an organization’s security procedures and mechanisms. How often this process is performed depends on the industry and its related regulations. As an example, the health care industry is governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations and states that audits must be performed yearly. Regardless of the industry, senior management should document and approve the audit process.

Security Controls

The objective of security controls is to enforce the security mechanisms the organization has developed. Security controls can be administrative, technical, or physical. With effective controls in place, risks and vulnerabilities can be reduced to a tolerable level. Security controls are put in place to protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Administrative

Administrative controls are composed of the policies, procedures, guidelines, and baselines an organization develops. Administrative controls also include the mechanisms put in place to enforce and control employee activity and access, such as the following:

  • Applicant screening—A valuable control that should be used during the hiring process. Background checks, reference checks, verification of educational records, and NDAs should all be part of the screening process.

  • Employee controls—Another useful mechanism that can add defense in depth to the organization’s administrative controls. Some common employee controls include detailed job descriptions with defined roles and responsibilities. These are procedures that mandate the rotation of duties, the addition of dual controls, and mandatory vacations.

  • Termination procedures—A form of administrative control that should be in place to address the termination of employees. Termination procedures should include exit interviews, review of NDAs, suspension of network access, and checklists verifying that employees have returned all equipment they had in their care, such as remote-access tokens, keys, ID cards, cellphones, pagers, credit cards, laptops, and software.

Technical

Technical controls are the logical mechanisms used to control access, authenticate users, identify unusual activity, and restrict unauthorized access. Some of the devices used as technical controls include firewalls, IDS systems, and authentication devices such as biometrics. Technical controls can be hardware or software.

Physical

Physical controls are the controls that are most typically seen. Examples of physical controls include gates, guards, fences, locks, CCTV systems, turnstiles, and mantraps. Because these controls can be seen, it’s important to understand that people might attempt to find ways to bypass them. You’ve probably seen this at a card key–controlled entrance: One person opens the door, and two or three walk in.

Pearson IT Certification Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Pearson IT Certification and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Pearson IT Certification products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.pearsonitcertification.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020