Assignment : pki and encryption at work
Assignment 1:
Assignment Requirements
In this assignment, you play the role of chief information technology (IT) security officer for the Quality Medical Company (QMC). QMC is a publicly traded company operating in the pharmaceutical industry.
QMC is expanding its arena of work through an increase in the number of clients and products. The senior management of the company is highly concerned about complying with the multitude of legislative and regulatory laws and issues in place. The company has an internal compliance and risk management team to take care of all the compliance-related issues. The company needs to make important decisions about the bulk of resources they will need to meet the voluminous compliance requirements arising from the multidimensional challenge of expansion.
QMC will be required to conform to the following compliance issues:
- Public-company regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act
- Regulations affecting financial companies, companies that make loans and charge interest, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
- Regulations affecting healthcare privacy information, such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Intellectual Property Law that is important for information asset protection particularly for organizations in the pharmaceutical and technology industry
- Regulations affecting the privacy of information, including personal identification information, such as personally identifiable information (PII) regularly collected from employees, customers, and end users
- Corporate governance policies including disclosures to the board of directors and the auditors and the policies related to human resources, governance, harassment, code of conduct, and ethics
Compliance with regulatory requirements implies encrypting sensitive data at rest (DAR) and allowing access to role-holders in the enterprise who require the access. It also implies that sensitive data in motion (DIM) or data that is being communicated via e-mail, instant message (IM), or even Web e-mail must be suitably protected and sent only to the individuals who have a right to view it. The company is conscious about the loss they may face in terms of penalty and brand damage if they fail to abide by the compliance laws, especially in the online information transfer phase. Therefore, as a dedicated employee, your task is to develop a content monitoring strategy using PKI as a potential solution. You will need to determine a process or method to identify multiple data types, processes, and organizational policies. Incorporate them into a plan, and select a PKI solution that will effectively address the content management needs of your company.
You need to present your PKI solution in the form of a professional report to the senior management.
Submission Requirements
- Format: Microsoft Word
- Font: Arial, 12-Point, Double-Space
- Citation Style: APA
- Length: 1–2 pages
Assignment 2:
Remote Access Method Evaluation
Assignment Requirements
Discuss with your peers which of the two remote access solutions, virtual private networks (VPNs) or hypertext transport protocol secure (HTTPS), you will rate as the best. You need to make a choice between the two remote access solutions based on the following features:
- Identification, authentication, and authorization
- Cost, scalability, reliability, and interoperability
Case Assignment 3:
•Consider the organization where you work, or an organization where you would like to work if you are not currently employed.•Create a Policy that would benefit your organization•Suggest some controls for your policy•Suggest an audit mechanismUse the following Format for your policy:
Overview
You should put one or two sentences here that summarize the policy and its purpose for management. This is typically an explanation of why the policy exists. Don’t be too technical.
Scope
This is where you define who or what the policy applies to, from all employees to only cashiers that handle cash in the front office. If it applies to equipment, it could be all equipment, all servers, all network connected equipment, or just company issued cell phones. Be specific.
Policy
This is where the policy is actually defined. Don’t be too specific, leave that to the procedures and controls that support the policy.
For example, a password policy might state that users cannot share passwords, passwords must be complex, help desk personnel never request passwords, and passwords must rotate periodically. The details of good password construction can be then put in a guideline document, instructions for the help desk on reseting passwords can be a procedure, and that Group Policy is used to force password changes every 60 days is a technical control. None of that should be in the policy, but it all needs to be properly documented and communicated to the people that need it – the guidelines to all staff, the help desk procedure to help desk staff, and the technical controls to the domain admins.
If you are in doubt remember that good policy statements talk about what the policy is trying to accomplish, and are addressed to a wide audience. Procedures and controls talk about how it is to be accomplished and are addressed to the staff that must carry it out.
Compliance Measurement
Typically, this section includes the job title of the person responsible for overseeing its implementation or the department if multiple people are responsible, a reference to audit mechanisms, and the consequences for failure to abide by policy.
Definitions, Related Standards, and Policies
This section usually contains definitions of technical or ambiguous terms, cross-references to applicable regulations, and other policies that relate to this policy. Examples include union contracts, discipline policies, and implementation guidelines. In our password policy example, this where readers would be told to consult the password construction guideline document.
Exceptions
If there any circumstances that might allow temporary exception to the policy, such as during an emergency, define them here. If there is anyone with the authority to temporarily waive the policy, they should be identified by job title. This section is often omitted since many policies do not allow any exceptions.
- 3-5 pages in length.
- APA format.. citations, references etc…