Compliance
Regulatory/Statutory Remediation
Applied Watch is well-positioned to capture a large share of revenue based on the new mandates in
governmental regulations. New Federal regulation, consumer privacy requirements and the need for
increased security post September 11th are fueling increasing emphasis on open source security:
Federal Information Security Management Act - FISMA
Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA)
Title III/Subchapter 3 - Information Security
The purpose of subchapter 3 of FISMA among other things is to provide a
comprehensive framework for ensuring the effectiveness of information
security controls over information resources that support Federal
operations and assets.
Cross Agency FISMA Requirements:
- Providing information security protections commensurate with the
risk and magnitude of the harm resulting from unauthorized access, use,
disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction of information.
- Assessing the risk and magnitude of the harm that could result
from the unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification,
or destruction of such information or information systems.
- Implementing policies and procedures to cost-effectively reduce
risks to an acceptable level.
- Periodically testing and evaluating information security controls
and techniques to ensure that they are effectively implemented.
- Implement Procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to
security incidents, consistent with standards and guidelines issued
pursuant to section 3546(b), including (A) mitigating risks associated
with such incidents before substantial damage is done, (B) notifying and
consulting with the Federal information security incident center,
notifying and consulting with appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Federal Information Security Incident Center
- Provide timely technical assistance to operators of agency
information systems regarding security incidents, including guidance on
detecting and handling information security incidents
- Compile and analyze information about incidents that threaten
information security
- Inform operators of agency information systems about current and
potential information security threats, and vulnerabilities.
Applied Watch Technologies assists federal and military organizations in
meeting FISMA compliance through the implementation of it's Applied
Watch Command Center intrusion management suite.
Applied Watch meets the individual demands of FISMA by:
- Providing a 360 degree holistic view of the entire enterprise
through a single Dashboard view offers security event management, risk
assessments, and security device management through a unique policy manager.
- The Applied Watch Dashboard aggregates each and every "like" event
affecting nodes across the enterprise. The Dashboard takes normalized
events sent from remote Intrusion Detection System sensors and offers
both an alert system and policy management system for continuous tuning
of the security systems in place. The Dashboard offers an open source
powered approach to risk assessments through support of the Nessus
vulnerability scanner. Using the Applied Watch Command Center, security
engineers are able to execute or schedule automated risk assessments
across the enterprise and view the results later in the enterprise
report viewer. Additionally, the Dashboard offers the capability to
detect new IP addresses added or removed from the network since the last
risk assessment, as well as flag identified vulnerabilities as false
positives.
- Relying on free, open source security applications, the Applied
Watch Command Center provides a fundamentally advanced approach to
security management by relying on open source software to assist federal
and military agencies in keeping total cost of ownership (TCO) lower
than competing solutions.
- Individual windows classify and separate events in to different
priority levels for focused attention to only higher priority events. In
addition to the detection capabilities of the Command Center and it's
remote SNORT® IDS Agents, the Command Center also offers incident
response and forensic capabilities for packet analysis and conducting
image dumps and non-volatile memory dumps of suspected compromised hosts
from remote locations over the network.
- The Applied Watch Command Center offers over 20 different
executive and technical report templates as well as a custom report that
allows the security analyst to specify the data to be reported on as
well as the Agents and or group of Agents to report on.
top
SOX
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulation mandates improved accounting oversight and assurance. Public firms
are minimally expected to reassess and re-certify the access and integrity of systems primary to
corporate financial reporting including the removal of access beyond that needed. Open source
security management identifies excessive access and trims it to only that actively used and needed.
top
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act - GLB
Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Safeguards Rule, enforced by the
Federal Trade Commission, requires financial institutions to have a
security plan to protect the confidentiality and integrity of personal
consumer information.
GLB Part 314 - Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information require
that covered entities:
- Develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information
security program that is written in one or more readily accessible parts
and contains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are
appropriate to your size and complexity, the nature and scope of your
activities, and the sensitivity of any customer information at issue.
- Insure the security and confidentiality of customer information.
- Protect against any anticipated threats or hazards to the security
or integrity of such information.
- Protect against unauthorized access to or use of such information
that could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any customer
- Designate an employee or employees to coordinate your information
security program
- Identify reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to the
security, confidentiality, and integrity of customer information that
could result in the unauthorized disclosure, misuse, alteration,
destruction or other compromise of such information, and assess the
sufficiency of any safeguards in place to control these risks. At a
minimum, such a risk assessment should include consideration of risks in
each relevant area of your operations including: (1) Employee training
and management; (2) Information systems, including network and software
design, as well as information processing, storage, transmission and
disposal; and (3) Detecting, preventing and responding to attacks,
intrusions, or other systems failures.
- Design and implement information safeguards to control the risks
you identify through risk assessment, and regularly test or otherwise
monitor the effectiveness of the safeguards' key controls, systems, and
procedures.
- Oversee service providers, by: (1) Taking reasonable steps to
select and retain service providers that are capable of maintaining
appropriate safeguards for the customer information at issue; and (2)
Requiring your service providers by contract to implement and maintain
such safeguards.
- Evaluate and adjust your information security program in light of
the results of the testing and monitoring required by paragraph (c) of
this section; any material changes to your operations or business
arrangements; or any other circumstances that you know or have reason to
know may have a material impact on your information security program.
The Applied Watch Command Center assists organizations alike in
conforming to the security controls mandated by the GLB Act through:
- Security analysts are able to monitor an entire enterprise through
a single Dashboard monitoring view that categorizes threats in to
separate, collapsable, pivot table priority windows. These alert views
can be expanded, moved around, minimized, and event closed without the
concern over lost events. The Applied Watch Command Center offers a
multi-pronged approach to alert monitoring, device management, event
notification, and incident response.
- Risk Analysis and Vulnerability Assessments Along with the many
other open source and commercial security applications supported by the
Applied Watch Command Center, one critical component offers
vulnerability identification, remediation, and mitigation using the open
source Nessus vulnerability scanner. Native support of this command-line
utility provides a graphical user interface to the user allowing
vulnerability assessments to be executed and even scheduled via a
calendar to be automatically run later.
- Nessus support offers a unique vulnerability reporting interface
that provides a detailed report of vulnerabilities in the environment
needing attention. Support for Nessus also introduces capabilities for
identifying new machines added to the network, machines that have been
removed, as well as a capability for flagging vulnerabilities as false
positives. Vulnerabilities are prioritied from high to low so security
engineers can focus on mitigating higher threats before focusing on
lower priority issues.
- Through native support for Syslog-NG, the Command Center supports
multiple log formats, including Cisco Pix firewalls, and application,
system, and security Windows event logs. This support allows security
analysts to review critical server logs for fail login attempts,
application crashes, dropped packets, and other activity that may be
precursors to an attack.
- With integrated support for both open source SNORT® and
Snort-Inline, the Applied Watch Commnad Center provides multiple level
of Intrusion Detection and Prevention at cost effective alternatives to
costly commercial solutions. Through daily updates to IDS/IPS rulesets
from snort.org and bleedingedge.com Snort® rulesets, security analysts
are kept up-to-date with the latest malware, spyware, and virus rule
patterns. With the support for Snort-Inline intrusion prevention,
malware is not only detected, but prevented before even entering the
network.
- One of the many rich features available in the Command Center is
the 3D Report Viewer, allowing over 20 different executive and technical
report templates for analysts to choose from. The event reporting
combined with the reports provided from Nessus, enabled analysts to
identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited by Internet-born or
internal threats.
top
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act - HIPAA
HIPAA details a set of compliance regulations for covered entities that
requires them to:
- Ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all
electronic protected health information the covered entity creates,
receives, maintains, or transmits.
- Protect against any reasonably anticipated threats or hazards to
the security or integrity of such information.
- Protect against any reasonably anticipated uses or disclosures of
such information that are not permitted.
HIPAA requires that covered entities meet the requirements of Sec. 164.306 by implementing:
- Security management process (Standard) : Implement policies
and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations.
- Risk analysis (Required): Conduct an accurate and thorough
assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected
health information held by the covered entity.
- Risk Management (Required): Implement security measures
sufficient to reduce risks and vulnerabilities to a reasonable and
appropriate level.
- Sanction policy (Required): Apply appropriate sanctions
against workforce members who fail to comply with the security policies
and procedures of the covered entity.
- Information system activity review (Required): Implement
procedures to regularly review records of information system activity,
such as audit logs, access reports, and security incident tracking reports.
- Assigned security responsibility (Standard): Identify the
security official who is responsible for the development and
implementation of the policies and procedures.
- Workforce security (Standard): Implement policies and
procedures to ensure that all members of its workforce have appropriate
access to electronic protected health information, as provided under
paragraph (a)(4) of this section, and to prevent those workforce members
who do not have access under paragraph (a)(4) of this section from
obtaining access to electronic protected health information.
- Information access management (Standard): Implement policies
and procedures for authorizing access to electronic protected health
information.
- Security awareness and training (Standard): Implement a
security awareness and training program for all members of its workforce
(including management).
- Security reminders (Addressable): Periodic security updates.
- Protection from malicious software (Addressable): Procedures
for guarding against, detecting, and reporting malicious software.
- Log-in monitoring (Addressable): Procedures for monitoring
log-in attempts and reporting discrepancies.
- Password management (Addressable): Procedures for creating,
changing, and safeguarding passwords.
- Security incident procedures (Standard) Implement policies
and procedures to address security incidents.
- Contingency plan (Standard): Establish (and implement as
needed) policies and procedures for responding to an emergency or other
occurrence (for example, fire, vandalism, system failure, and natural
disaster) that damages systems that contain electronic protected health
information.
- Evaluation (Standard): Perform a periodic technical and
nontechnical evaluation, based initially upon the standards implemented
under this rule and subsequently, in response to environmental or
operational changes affecting the security of electronic protected
health information, that establishes the extent to which an entity's
security policies and procedures meet the requirements.
- Facility Facility access controls (Standard: Implement
policies and procedures to limit physical access to its electronic
information systems and the facility or facilities in which they are
housed, while ensuring that properly authorized access is allowed.
- Workstation use (Standard): Implement policies and
procedures that specify the proper functions to be performed, the manner
in which those functions are to be performed, and the physical
attributes of the surroundings of a specific workstation or class of
workstation that can access electronic protected health information.
- Workstation security (Standard): Implement physical
safeguards for all workstations that access electronic protected health
information, to restrict access to authorized users.
- Device and media controls (Standard): Implement policies and
procedures that govern the receipt and removal of hardware and
electronic media that contain electronic protected health information
into and out of a facility, and the movement of these items within the
facility.
- Access control (Standard): Implement technical policies and
procedures for electronic information systems that maintain electronic
protected health information to allow access only to those persons or
software programs that have been granted access rights
- Audit controls (Standard): Implement hardware, software,
and/or procedural mechanisms that record and examine activity in
information systems that contain or use electronic protected health
information.
- Integrity (Standard): Implement policies and procedures to
protect electronic protected health information from improper alteration
or destruction.
- Person or entity authentication (Standard): Implement
procedures to verify that a person or entity seeking access to
electronic protected health information is the one claimed.
- Transmission security (Standard): Implement technical
security measures to guard against unauthorized access to electronic
protected health information that is being transmitted over an
electronic communications network
The Applied Watch Command Center assists organizations in meeting
HIPAA compliance through a multifarious set of rich features and
capabilities. These inlude:
- Security management process, Audit controls: Security
analysts are able to monitor an entire enterprise through a single
Dashboard monitoring view that categorizes threats in to separate,
collapsable, pivot table priority windows. These alert views can be
expanded, moved around, minimized, and event closed without the concern
over lost events. The Applied Watch Command Center offers a
multi-pronged approach to alert monitoring, device management, event
notification, and incident response.
- Risk Analysis and Vulnerability Assessments Along with the
many other open source and commercial security applications supported by
the Applied Watch Command Center, one critical component offers
vulnerability identification, remediation, and mitigation using the open
source Nessus vulnerability scanner. Native support of this command-line
utility provides a graphical user interface to the user allowing
vulnerability assessments to be executed and even scheduled via a
calendar to be automatically run later.
- Risk Management: Nessus support offers a unique
vulnerability reporting interface that provides a detailed report of
vulnerabilities in the environment needing attention. Support for Nessus
also introduces capabilities for identifying new machines added to the
network, machines that have been removed, as well as a capability for
flagging vulnerabilities as false positives. Vulnerabilities are
prioritied from high to low so security engineers can focus on
mitigating higher threats before focusing on lower priority issues.
- Information system activity review: Through native support
for Syslog-NG, the Command Center supports multiple log formats,
including Cisco Pix firewalls, and application, system, and security
Windows event logs. This support allows security analysts to review
critical server logs for fail login attempts, application crashes,
dropped packets, and other activity that may be precursors to an attack.
- Protection from malicious software: With integrated support
for both open source SNORT® and Snort-Inline, the Applied Watch Commnad
Center provides multiple level of Intrusion Detection and Prevention at
cost effective alternatives to costly commercial solutions. Through
daily updates to IDS/IPS rulesets from snort.org and bleedingedge.com
Snort® rulesets, security analysts are kept up-to-date with the latest
malware, spyware, and virus rule patterns. With the support for
Snort-Inline intrusion prevention, malware is not only detected, but
prevented before even entering the network.
- Security Reminders: One of the many rich features available
in the Command Center is the 3D Report Viewer, allowing over 20
different executive and technical report templates for analysts to
choose from. The event reporting combined with the reports provided from
Nessus, enabled analysts to identify vulnerabilities before they are
exploited by Internet-born or internal threats.
Back to the top