Security Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Countermeasures

Ashley J. Oliver

Oliver COM Solutions

Senior Network Security Engineer

2018 CISSP Candidate

Topic: Security Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Countermeasures

What is a house with a shaky foundation? Is it safe? Is it secure? This question may not be a common one, but is imperative in the practice of cybersecurity. Higher-level protective controls that are built on a questionable system may not be as effective as those built on a solid, secure, foundation. Think for example, of the most minuscule security flaw that may leave your organization open to exploitations. If malicious entities can effortlessly circumvent your firewall completely, how are you really protecting your data? What if your organization encompasses PII and PHI? Are you prepared for a potential exploit of this data based on a loosely assembled foundation?

Think about the decision to be vigilant about your system design the same as you would any decision that should be based on a solid foundation. For example, you wouldn’t decide where to go to college without researching the programs, campus culture(s), would you? Often overlooked, many protected systems can encompass extremely secure firewall configurations. However, if a vital security flaw exists on the computer that runs on said systems, you will be back at square one in no time. One should never underestimate malicious entities and their abilities to completely bypass the safeguards that you have put in place to secure your system, such as a Firewall for example. 

There is no such thing as a completely secure security architecture. Weaknesses and vulnerabilities can and will exist in every computer system. This is why security models such as Biba, Bell LaPadula, and Take Grant (just to name a few) exist, as well as security architectures. The primary objective of these models and architectures is to concentrate on well-known vulnerabilities.

Lastly, if you aren’t convinced that you need to take Security Models and Architecture seriously for the protection of your system, think about existing vulnerabilities from real life use case scenarios. Such as, risk of theft, sensitive data existing on desktops, lack of security understanding, client compromises which could lead to network compromises, and user-installed software presenting a greater malware risk, just to name a few.