In other words, if the asset were new, it would be assigned a lower sensitivity label than it currently is assigned. When assets fail to be declassified as needed, security resources are wasted, and the value and protection of the higher sensitivity levels is degraded.
The two common classification schemes are government/military classification (Figure 1.4) and commercial business/private sector classification. There are five levels of government/military classification (listed here from highest to lowest):
Figure 1.4 Levels of government/military classification
Top Secret The highest level of classification. The unauthorized disclosure of top-secret data will have drastic effects and cause grave damage to national security.
Secret Used for data of a restricted nature. The unauthorized disclosure of data classified as secret will have significant effects and cause critical damage to national security.
Confidential Used for data of a private, sensitive, proprietary, or highly valuable nature. The unauthorized disclosure of data classified as confidential will have noticeable effects and cause serious damage to national security. This classification is used for all data between secret and sensitive but unclassified classifications.
Unclassified The lowest level of classification. This is used for data that is neither sensitive nor classified. The disclosure of unclassified data does not compromise confidentiality or cause any noticeable damage.
An easy way to remember the names of the five levels of the government or military classification scheme in least secure to most secure order is with a memorization acronym: U.S. Can Stop Terrorism. Notice that the five uppercase letters represent the five named classification levels, from least secure on the left to most secure on the right (or from bottom to top in the preceding list of items).
Items labeled as confidential, secret, and top secret are collectively known as classified. Often, revealing the actual classification of data to unauthorized individuals is a violation of that data. Thus, the term classified is generally used to refer to any data that is ranked above the unclassified level. All classified data is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act as well as many other laws and regulations. The US military classification scheme is most concerned with the sensitivity of data and focuses on the protection of confidentiality (that is, the prevention of disclosure). You can roughly define each level or label of classification by the level of damage that would be caused in the event of a confidentiality violation. Data from the top-secret level would cause grave damage to national security, whereas data from the unclassified level would not cause any serious damage to national or localized security.
Commercial business/private sector classification systems can vary widely because they typically do not have to adhere to a standard or regulation. The CISSP exam focuses on four common or possible business classification levels (listed highest to lowest and shown in Figure 1.5):
Figure 1.5 Commercial business/private sector classification levels
Confidential The highest level of classification. This is used for data that is extremely sensitive and for internal use only. A significant negative impact could occur for a company if confidential data is disclosed. Sometimes the label proprietary is substituted for confidential. Sometimes proprietary data is considered a specific form of confidential information. If proprietary data is disclosed, it can have drastic effects on the competitive edge of an organization.
Private Used for data that is of a private or personal nature and intended for internal use only. A significant negative impact could occur for the company or individuals if private data is disclosed.
Confidential and private data in a commercial business/private sector classification scheme both require roughly the same level of security protection. The real difference between the two labels is that confidential data is company data whereas private data is data related to individuals, such as medical data.
Sensitive Used for data that is more classified than public data. A negative impact could occur for the company if sensitive data is disclosed.
Public The lowest level of classification. This is used for all data that does not fit in one of the higher classifications. Its disclosure does not have a serious negative impact on the organization.
Another consideration related to data classification or categorization is ownership. Ownership is the formal assignment of responsibility to an individual or group. Ownership can be made clear and distinct within an operating system where files or other types of objects can be assigned an owner. Often, an owner has full capabilities and privileges over the object they own. The ability to take ownership is often granted to the most powerful accounts in an operating system, such as the administrator in Windows or root in Unix or Linux. In most cases, the subject that creates a new object is by default the owner of that object. In some environments, the security policy mandates that when new objects are created, a formal change of ownership from end users to an administrator or management user is necessary. In this situation, the admin account can simply take ownership of the new objects.
Ownership of objects outside of formal IT structures is often not as obvious. A company document can define owners for the facility, business tasks, processes, assets, and so on. However, such documentation does not always “enforce” this ownership in the real world. The ownership of a file object is enforced by the operating system and file system, whereas ownership of a physical object, intangible asset, or organizational concept (such as the research department or a development project) is defined only on paper and can be more easily undermined. Additional security governance must be implemented to provide enforcement of ownership in the physical world.
A security role is the part an individual plays in the overall scheme of security implementation and administration within an organization. Security roles are not necessarily prescribed in job descriptions because they are not always distinct or static. Familiarity with security roles will help in establishing a communications and support structure within an organization. This structure will enable the deployment and enforcement of the security policy. The following six roles are presented in the logical order in which they appear in a secured environment:
Senior Manager The organizational owner (senior manager) role is assigned to the person who is ultimately responsible for the security maintained by an organization and who should be most concerned about the protection of its assets. The senior manager must sign off on all policy issues. In fact, all activities must be approved by and signed off on by the senior manager before they can be carried out. There is no effective security policy if the senior manager does not authorize and support it. The senior manager’s endorsement of the security policy indicates the accepted ownership of the implemented security within the organization. The senior manager is the person who will be held liable for the overall success or failure of a security solution and is responsible for exercising due care and due diligence in establishing security for an organization.
Even though senior managers are ultimately responsible for security, they rarely implement security solutions. In most cases, that responsibility is delegated to security professionals within the organization.
Security Professional The security professional, information security (InfoSec) officer, or computer incident response team (CIRT) role is assigned to a trained and experienced network, systems, and security engineer who is responsible for following the directives mandated by senior management. The security professional has the functional responsibility for security, including writing the security policy and implementing it. The role of security professional can be labeled as an IS/IT function role. The security professional