Security Basics mailing list archives
Re: Security and Contingency Planning
From: "Bob Radvanovsky" <rsradvan () unixworks net>
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 22:24:10 -0600
See comments within your message. -rad ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Piedrahita" <piedrahr () wchsys org> To: <security-basics () securityfocus com> Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 3:15 PM Subject: Security and Contingency Planning
Hi Everyone: I have a hypothetical situation and two questions: Hypothetical Situation: I have taken all the precautions and spent many, many dollars to protect my little business but yesterday, a very bad person breached my network defenses and stole some very confidential product, customer, and financial information from my little business. But, they didn't get it all. I spotted the activity and crashed the entire data center before they got some of the key pieces of information. Fortunately I had a hot site ready to go so my little business is running again and I am taking extra steps to make things even more difficult for some one to break into my systems but I know "they" are going to come after the rest of the information again (the stuff is worth oogles of dollars, O.K. ;-) Question 1: Besides calling the local constabulary, are there any established and/or reputable private businesses out there that can send a sort of network tactical investigative team to investigate the incident (do the network investigation legwork (audit all the logs, traffic analysis, etc.), develop the evidence, deliver the reports, and tell me who (maybe not by name) did what, when they did it, how they did it, and from where they did it, etc.
Since it involved a critical infrastructure, and deals with a governance that is federal mandated (or soon will be for the Security Provision of it), there is the Cybercrime Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Quite frankly, let them handle it, and chances are, for an Internet and/or HIPAA violation, your intruder could come from anywhere, so the FBI is probably your best bet. You being a healthcare provider, are under federal obligation of safeguarding your data as best as possible. This is where HIPAA governance would be vague insofar as to the ramnifications of posing 'what if' scenarios should a healthcare provider actually loose data to data theft, what are the possible consequences that they could face in federal court, aside from the onslaught your organization would now face from several other angles (current customers, former customers, medical staff, union organization representing medical staff, etc.). The problem is that (in reality) noone really knows. I would challenge anyone who would come back with a clearcut answer stipulating that Result A would come from Situation A. It doesn't quite work that way, esp. for a large enough of a healthcare provider. Political implications, human factors, financial considerations -- all of these play aspects in the (overall) outcome once the news is announced that your organization has been '0wn3d' (owned).
What I need is a cross between the U.S. Marines, Dick Tracy, and Lt. Cmdr. Data (Star Trek) that can look at all this and tell me something useful in a reasonable amount of time. I don't think the local constabulary can handle something like that in a short amount of time so I will need serious help for this.
For something like this, your local police are not going to know what to do. In fact, most police departments may refer you to the FBI for this exact sort of thing. ;)) The FBI has become quite good over the past several years at conducting post-IT forensics analysis cases. The movie industry has portrayed them as a group of bumbling fools -- and after having associated with a few here locally -- is hardly the situation. I found many of of the FBI agents to be highly intelligent, very capable of solving problems, resourceful, and very considerate of their (ahem) 'customer'. Not having worked with the FBI for any cybercrime-related case, I cannot stipulate how something like this would or would not work for you and/or your organization. I suspect that the FBI should -- at least -- be considered as a potential candidate for your post-IT forensics analysis.
Question 2: Along the same line, does anyone know of any good Public Relations firms that could help my little company manage to ensuing maelstrom once the public finds out (especially my shareholders, ouch!) that my little company lost it's customer's personal information, valuable trade secrets, etc.?
I can only imagine what would happen. Once news such as that leaks out, it would be very difficult to contain at that point. And after the media has feasted on your organization, your company will need to spend lots -- TONS -- of money on getting customers to come back to you. Probably would want to look at a local company specifically dealing with advertising and marketing to spindoctor your organization as being creditible.
Oh yeah, don't worry about the attorneys; I already have a dozen of them paid for in advance for the next decade.
Good to know; new motto for your firm: "Have attorney -- will sue." (spinoff from the Old Western "Have gun -- will travel." slogan) 8)) BTW, is this inclusive within your organization's IT DRP enterprise plan? Has it been reviewed by your HIPAA security committee? Is your CSO aware of such scenarios (provided, of course, that *you* aren't the CSO -- at least, I hope that you wouldn't be, because a CSO asking the general public about a 'what if' scenario doesn't leave me with a warm 'n fuzzy, esp. coming from an executive level position) that exist without your organization? I found that many healthcare providers are doing the least amount of work possible to be 'compliant', and cannot, for the life of me, figure out why an industry is sooooo reluctant in taking efforts of providing a safeguarded and/or secured environments for their customers??? It makes absolutely no sense! Having a group of hungry sharks and jackals ready to sick onto the first customer that even *thinks* of suing your organization isn't going to solve the problem. These scenarios *should* have been answered A LONG TIME AGO -- say 2 or 3 years ago. Then again, many individuals who (reluctantly) identified themselves as having worked for, with, or associated with the healthcare and/or health insurance industries -- that I came across at a local security conference last year -- out of the group (12 in this case) -- only 2 were considering any active course of action, and actually *had* any plan for security breaches, hardening, firewalls, IDS, proactive pentesting, etc. My question is this: why has the healthcare industry dilly-dallied for so long -- I mean, why at the 11th hour? I hope that I don't come across as being too smug, but many of your questions should've been answered some time ago. Insofar as to post-IT forensics analysis, consider the FBI. ;))
Any information would be most appreciated. Thanks, Rick. ***** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE ***** This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current thread:
- Security and Contingency Planning Richard Piedrahita (Dec 21)
- Re: Security and Contingency Planning Bob Radvanovsky (Dec 26)
- Re: Security and Contingency Planning K K Mookhey (Dec 26)