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ISO-IEC 17799The New International

Standard for Information Security Management

Caroline Hamilton

RiskWatch, Inc.With assistance from:

Mike Nash, Gamma Secure Systems Ltd

Camberley, United Kingdom

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IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDS

Examples from America’s past include

Railroad Tracks

Shoe Sizing

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FOUNDING OF NIST - 1901

At that time, the United States had few, if any, authoritative national standards for any quantities or products. What it had was a patchwork of locally and regionally applied standards, often arbitrary, that were a source of confusion in commerce. It was difficult for Americans to conduct fair transactions or get parts to fit together properly. Construction materials were of uneven quality, and household products were unreliable. Few Americans worked as scientists, because most scientific work was based

overseas.

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The Baltimore Fire of 1904 The need for standards was dramatized in 1904,

when more than 1,500 buildings burned down in Baltimore, Md., because of a lack of standard fire-hose couplings. When firefighters from Washington and as far away as New York arrived to help douse the fire, few of their hoses fit the hydrants. NIST had collected more than 600 sizes and variations in fire-hose couplings in a previous investigation and, after the Baltimore fire, participated in the selection of a national standard.

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Competing Standards

US-Government - -NIST Standards

BS 7799 -- ISO-IEC 17799 Standard

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International Standards International Standards in Information Security are

developed by Security Techniques Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 27

Three Areas– WG 1 - Security Management– WG 2 - Security Algorithms/Techniques– WG 3 - Security Assessment/Evaluation

Includes responsibility for ISO/IEC 17799 (BS 7799), the main topic for today.

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History

SC 27 formed in 1990– Replaced previous ISO/IEC security committee

which was failing to make progress– Scope excluded standardisation of algorithms

» (now relaxed)

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Membership

Members of SC 27 are National Standards Bodies– Participating or Observing– Also liaisons from other standards making

bodies or committees Working Groups are composed of experts

nominated by National Bodies– Up to 200 participating experts

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Participating Members SAI Australia IBN Belgium ABNT Brazil SCC Canada CSBTS/CESI China CSNI Czech Rep DS Denmark SFS Finland AFNOR France DIN Germany MSZT Hungary BIS India UNINFO Italy JISC Japan

KATS Korea, Rep of DSM Malaysia NEN Netherlands NTS/IT Norway PKN Poland GOST R Russian Fed SABS South Africa AENOR Spain SIS Sweden SNV Switzerland BSI UK DSTU Ukraine ANSI USA

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Adoption of New Standard

Australia/New Zealand AS/NZS ISO/IEC 17799:2000 The primary information security standard

in Australia was AS4444, and in New Zealand was NZS4444. These have been replaced with a new international standard, 17799. See Standards Australia OnLine at http://www.standards.com.au.

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Observers ASRO Romania DSN Indonesia EVS Estonia IPQ Portugal IRAM Argentina NSAI Ireland

ON Austria PSB Singapore SII Israel SNZ New Zealand SUTN Slovakia SZS Yugoslavia

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WG 2 Security Techniques There are International Standards for:

– Encryption (WD 18033)– Modes of Operation (IS 8372)– Message Authentication Codes (IS 9797)– Entity Authentication (IS 9798)– Non-repudiation Techniques (IS 13888)– Digital Signatures (IS 9796, IS 14888))– Hash Functions (IS 10118)– Key Management (IS 11770)– Elliptic Curve Cryptography (WD 15946)– Time Stamping Services (WD 18014)

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Other Standards

US Government Standards– Data Encryption Standard (DES) (FIPS 46)– Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

(FIPS 197) (FIPS - Federal InformationProcessing Standard)

Proprietary Standards– e.g. RSA (The Rivest Shamir Adleman

algorithm)

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WG 3 Security Evaluation

Third Party Evaluation– Criteria for an independent body to form an

impartial and repeatable assessment of the presence, correctness and effectiveness of security functionality

“Common Criteria” (CC) (IS 15408)

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Common Criteria Produced by a consortium of Government

bodies in North America / European Union– Mainly National Security Agencies

Influenced by International Standardisation committee– Adopted as International Standard 15408

Adopted and recognised by other major Governments– All EU, Australia, Japan, Russia

Replaces “Orange Book” (US) and ITSEC (EU)

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Content of CC Part 1 – Introduction and General Model Part 2 – Functional Components Part 3 – Assurance Components Related standards:

– Protection Profile Registration Procedures (IS 15292)– Framework for Assurance (WD 15443)– Guide on Production of Protection Profiles (WD

15446)– Security Evaluation Methodology (WD 18045)

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Relevance of CC

The Common Criteria and its predecessors (Orange Book, ITSEC) raised the level and reliability of security functionality found in standard products– Operating Systems, Databases, Firewalls

Important for major product vendors Important for high-risk Government systems Important for Smart Cards Irrelevant to everyone else

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Why?

Common Criteria is complex Evaluation is complex and time consuming Limited number of approved Evaluation

Facilities– Expensive– Inflexible

Money is usually better spent improving security

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WG 1 Security Management Two key standards:

– Guidelines for Information Security Management (GMITS) (TR 13335)

– Code of Practice for Information Security Management (IS 17799)

Other standards:– Guidelines on the use and management of trusted third

parties (TR 14516)

– Guidelines for implementation, operation and management of Intrusion Detection Systems (WD 18043)

– Guidelines for security incident management (WD 18044)

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GMITS and 17799

GMITS developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 27 (standards committee)

IS 17799 is (almost) identical to BS 7799-1– BS 7799-1 was the most widely purchased security standard

worldwide

Officially, no overlap– This is rubbish

GMITS is dying– Scope is IT security, not Information Security– Only a TR (Technical Report)– Editors of GMITS are moving to work on 17799

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ISO/IEC 17799 and BS7799-2

IS 17799 is a catalogue of good things to do BS 7799 Part 2 is a specification for an ISMS

(Information Security Management System) ISMS compliance can be independently

assessed

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What is an ISMS?

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ISO/IEC 17799 Layout

10 Major Headings 36 Objectives 127 Major Controls Several Thousand Pieces of Guidance

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The 10 Major Headings

Security Policy Security Organisation Asset Classification and Control Personnel Security Physical and Environmental Security Comms and Operational Management Access Control Systems Development and Maintenance Business Continuity Management Compliance

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Security Objectives

Security Policy Security Organisation Asset Classification and Control Personnel Security Physical and Environmental Security Comms and Operational Management Access Control Systems Development and Maintenance Business Continuity Management Compliance

• Secure Areas• Equipment Security• General Controls

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Security Controls

Security Policy Security Organisation Asset Classification and Control Personnel Security Physical and Environmental Security Comms and Operational Management Access Control Systems Development and Maintenance Business Continuity Management Compliance

• Secure Areas• Equipment Security• General Controls

• Siting• Power Supplies• Cabling• Maintenance• Off-premises• Disposal/reuse

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ISO/IEC 17799 A standard for Information Security Management

– Very wide acceptance Based on British Standard BS 7799

– Replaced Part 1 of BS 7799

– Part 2 of BS 7799 still exists and is current

– Part 2 describes how to build and assess a security management system

– National equivalents to BS 7799-2 exist in most developed countries

– Except North America

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BS 7799-2

ISMS Requirements– Scope

– Security Policy

– Risk Assessment

– Statement of Applicability

– Develop./maintain ISMS

– Documentation

ISO/IEC 17799 Controls (in imperative format)

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Complying with BS 7799-2

Security Policy Risk Assessment Statement of Applicability Management System

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Security Policy

Scope Confidentiality Integrity Availability Accountability Assets Risk Assessment Regulatory/Legal

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Risk Assessment

AssetAsset VulnerabilityVulnerabilityThreatThreat

RISKRISK

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Statement of Applicability

Identifies actual security controls Must consider all 7799-2 listed controls

– include or exclude with justification

Select applicable controls by business and risk analysis

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Security Management

The means by which Management Monitors and Controls security

Requires regular checks that:– Controls are still in place and effective– Residual risks are still acceptable– Assumptions about threats etc. remain valid

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Revision of IS 17799

ISO/IEC 17799 was identical in technical content to BS 7799-1:1999

Part of the negotiations for adoption was the initiation of an immediate major revision process

Revision started April 2002– First meeting in Berlin failed to finish its agenda– Lot of fuss over philosophy and definitions e.g. “What is security?”– Editors sent away to finish the job – Having difficulties finding enough changes to justify a major

revision

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Revision of BS 7799-2

BS 7799-2:2002 issued as draft for comment in March 2002– Aligned with other continuous review standards (“Plan-

Do-Check-Act”)

– Comment period now closed

Final text agreed 10th June 2002 Publication as a British Standard in July

2002

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In closing

Information Security Standards matter Many standards are for a specialist audience ISO/IEC 17799 is relevant to every security

professional

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For more info about ISO 17799

Gamma Secure Systems Ltd

http://www.gammassl.co.uk/

Caroline Hamilton

RiskWatch, Inc.

Chamilton@riskwatch.com