Dialogue, partnership and empowerment for network and information security:the changing role of the private sector from objects of regulation to regulation shapers

The protection of cyberspace has become one of the highest security priorities of governments worldwide. The EU is not an exception in this context, given its rapidly developing cyber security policy. Since the 1990s, we could observe the creation of three broad areas of policy interest: cyber-crime, critical information infrastructures and cyber-defence. One of the main trends transversal to these areas is the importance that the private sector has come to assume within them. In particular in the area of critical information infrastructure protection, the private sector is seen as a key stakeholder, given that it currently operates most infrastructures in this area. As a result of this operative capacity, the private sector has come to be understood as the expert in network and information systems security, whose knowledge is crucial for the regulation of the field. Adopting a Regulatory Capitalism framework, complemented by insights from Network Governance, we can identify the shifting role of the private sector in this field from one of a victim in need of protection in the first phase, to a commercial actor bearing responsibility for ensuring network resilience in the second, to an active policy shaper in the third, participating in the regulation of NIS by providing technical expertise. By drawing insights from the above-mentioned frameworks, we can better understand how private actors are involved in shaping regulatory responses, as well as why they have been incorporated into these regulatory networks.

Distances of centroid sets in a graph-based construction for information security applications

The aim of this paper is to prove that, for every balanced digraph, in every incidence semiring over a semifield, each centroid set J of the largest distance also has the largest weight, and the distance of J is equal to its weight. This result is surprising and unexpected, because examples show that distances of arbitrary centroid sets in incidence semirings may be strictly less than their weights. The investigation of the distances of centroid sets in incidence semirings of digraphs has been motivated by the information security applications of centroid sets.

Information security culture : a behaviour compliance conceptual framework

Understanding the complex dynamic and uncertain characteristics of organisational employees who perform authorised or unauthorised information security activities is deemed to be a very important and challenging task. This paper presents a conceptual framework for classifying and organising the characteristics of organisational subjects involved in these information security practices. Our framework expands the traditional Human Behaviour and the Social Environment perspectives used in social work by identifying how knowledge, skills and individual preferences work to influence individual and group practices with respect to information security management. The classification of concepts and characteristics in the framework arises from a review of recent literature and is underpinned by theoretical models that explain these concepts and characteristics. Further, based upon an exploratory study of three case organisations in Saudi Arabia involving extensive interviews with senior managers, department managers, IT managers, information security officers, and IT staff; this article describes observed information security practices and identifies several factors which appear to be particularly important in influencing information security behaviour. These factors include values associated with national and organisational culture and how they manifest in practice, and activities related to information security management.

Integrating information security policy management with corporate risk management for strategic alignment

Information security policy defines the governance and implementation strategy for information security in alignment with the corporate risk policy objectives and strategies. Research has established that alignment between corporate concerns may be enhanced when strategies are developed concurrently using the same development process as an integrative relationship is established. Utilizing the corporate risk management framework for security policy management establishes such an integrative relationship between information security and corporate risk management objectives and strategies. There is however limitation in the current literature on presenting a definitive approach that fully integrates security policy management with the corporate risk management framework. This paper presents an approach that adopts a conventional corporate risk management framework for security policy development and management to achieve alignment with the corporate risk policy. A case example is examined to illustrate the alignment achieved in each process step with a security policy structure being consequently derived in the process. It is shown that information security policy management outcomes become both integral drivers and major elements of the corporate-level risk management considerations. Further study should involve assessing the impact of the use of the proposed framework in enhancing alignment as perceived in this paper.

Contextualizing the tensions and weaknesses of information privacy and data breach notification laws

Data breach notification laws have detailed numerous failures relating to the protection of personal information that have blighted both corporate and governmental institutions. There are obvious parallels between data breach notification and information privacy law as they both involve the protection of personal information. However, a closer examination of both laws reveals conceptual differences that give rise to vertical tensions between each law and shared horizontal weaknesses within both laws. Tensions emanate from conflicting approaches to the implementation of information privacy law that results in different regimes and the implementation of different types of protections. Shared weaknesses arise from an overt focus on specified types of personal information which results in ‘one size fits all’ legal remedies. The author contends that a greater contextual approach which promotes the importance of social context is required and highlights the effect that contextualization could have on both laws.

Tool-supported dataflow analysis of a security-critical embedded device

Defence organisations perform information security evaluations to confirm that electronic communications devices are safe to use in security-critical situations. Such evaluations include tracing all possible dataflow paths through the device, but this process is tedious and error-prone, so automated reachability analysis tools are needed to make security evaluations faster and more accurate. Previous research has produced a tool, SIFA, for dataflow analysis of basic digital circuitry, but it cannot analyse dataflow through microprocessors embedded within the circuit since this depends on the software they run. We have developed a static analysis tool that produces SIFA compatible dataflow graphs from embedded microcontroller programs written in C. In this paper we present a case study which shows how this new capability supports combined hardware and software dataflow analyses of a security critical communications device.

Enterprise information security policy assessment : an extended framework for metrics development utilising the goal-question-metric approach

Effective enterprise information security policy management requires review and assessment activities to ensure information security policies are aligned with business goals and objectives. As security policy management involves the elements of policy development process and the security policy as output, the context for security policy assessment requires goal-based metrics for these two elements. However, the current security management assessment methods only provide checklist types of assessment that are predefined by industry best practices and do not allow for developing specific goal-based metrics. Utilizing theories drawn from literature, this paper proposes the Enterprise Information Security Policy Assessment approach that expands on the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) approach. The proposed assessment approach is then applied in a case scenario example to illustrate a practical application. It is shown that the proposed framework addresses the requirement for developing assessment metrics and allows for the concurrent undertaking of process-based and product-based assessment. Recommendations for further research activities include the conduct of empirical research to validate the propositions and the practical application of the proposed assessment approach in case studies to provide opportunities to introduce further enhancements to the approach.

Principles of information accountability : an eHealth perspective

Information accountability is seen as a mode of usage control on the Web. Due to its many dimensions, information accountability has been expressed in various ways by computer scientists to address security and privacy in recent times. Information accountability is focused on how users participate in a system and the underlying policies that govern the participation. Healthcare is a domain in which the principles of information accountability can be utilised well. Modern health information systems are Internet based and the discipline is called eHealth. In this paper, we identify and discuss the goals of accountability systems and present the principles of information accountability. We characterise those principles in eHealth and discuss them contextually. We identify the current impediments to eHealth in terms of information privacy issues of eHealth consumers together with information usage requirements of healthcare providers and show how information accountability can be used in a healthcare context to address these needs. The challenges of implementing information accountability in eHealth are also discussed in terms of our efforts thus far.