Orchestra's Blog
Security in Numbers
Security (or Safety) in numbers is the hypothesis that, by being part of a large physical group or mass, an individual is less likely to be the victim of a...
Cybersecurity and Continuous Improvement
The busy folks at NIST have just released the official version of NISTIR 8286 Integrating Cybersecurity and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). It focuses on converging cybersecurity risk management (CSRM)...
Protecting Airspace, WLAN, Wireless and WiFi – Oh My
The interest in protecting organizational wireless networks is growing and so are the number of guidelines, best practices and standards being proposed and adopted (see Wireless Red Teams). One...
800-53 Revision 5 – Outcome Based Security and Privacy Control
NIST released Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5 earlier this month. In my mind it is actually different enough from previous releases to be considered version 1 of a new...
Wireless Red Teams: Evil Twins, Eavesdropping, and Password Cracking
Many companies operate wireless networks to allow greater flexibility through mobile computing. In many cases IT departments deploy wireless networks but ignore the dangers of wireless connectivity, assuming that...
Red, White and Blue Make Purple
Vulnerability scanning, penetration testing and red teams are the main detective controls for residual cyber risk – i.e. the risk that remains given controls already in place. Vulnerability scanning...
Red, White and Blue Cybersecurity Risks
Cybersecurity is moving away from using threats, vulnerabilities and exploits as the management metaphor towards risk-based cybersecurity management. Using risk terminology, penetration testing is a standard detective control used...
Lack of Standard Metrics
Lack of standard metrics to measure, manage and benchmark cyber risk limits security efficiency and effectiveness, making it difficult to prioritize and coordinate cyber defenses Single security truth from...
Fragmented technologies
Organizations’ cyber security stack consist of 100-150 different disconnected point tools or technologies making it difficult to assess and act on the big picture. Organizations based their security operations...
Constantly Shifting Business Needs
In today’s modern world business needs are constantly shifting, IT and cyber risk landscape require a constant stream of attention and resources. CISOs role isn’t just about security, but...
Is Cyber Security Fit-to-Purpose?
ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. ITIL is used by CIOs (especially...
Cyber security: Emphasize Protect or Detect?
I am a subscriber to the NIST cyber security framework school of thought. Even though it is officially called the “Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” it isn’t just about securing...
Measuring the Value of Cyber Security
A value-driven approach to cyber security would help businesses understand where to spend their cyber security budget, and how much to budget. One way to estimate how to spend...
Visibility, Analytics, Policies and Control are the Lynchpin of Cyber Security
Visibility is context. Analytics combine context with events. Policy translates that into a ”plan of action implemented by controls. Another way to put it is “Given” a context, “When”...
Is Cyber Defense Simple, Complicated or Complex?
Cynefin is a sense making framework that divides problem response into simple, complicated and complex. The goal is choose the right response paradigm so that when a problem occurs the...
5 Indicators a Market is Ripe for a Platform
What is a Platform? The word “platform” even though it is used quite often, is a chameleon word – meaning different things in different contexts and to different people....