How is sustaining security like keeping your home clean?

We (i.e., Encari) are currently immersed in helping NERC-registered entities (e.g., generation and transmission companies) address their respective NERC CIP Reliability Standards compliance concerns.  Specifically as it relates to NERC-registered Table 1 entities (e.g., transmission providers), these entities were required to become compliant with all 45 NERC CIP Reliability Standards requirements on or before June 30, 2009.  As such, beginning on July 1, 2009, these Table 1 entities were required to be “auditably compliant,” which, in simple terms, means that these entities at any point in time following June 30, 2009 must be capable of demonstrating its compliance with any NERC CIP Reliability Standard of interest through provided documented evidence.

Now, regardless of whether your particular organization is subject to compliance requirements prescribed in applicable standards, regulations, etc., it is important to recognize that focusing your security strategy on a phenomenon we call “point-in-time security” is not viable.  Point-in-time security refers to the state of your security posture at that point in time.  A viable security strategy needs to focus on sustainable security, or, in the context of compliance, sustainable compliance.

This is where the analogy to keeping your home clean comes in.  Let’s say you recently decided to embark upon a “clean home sustainment strategy.”  Ignoring your peers, colleagues, and friends calling you “crazy” or “out of your mind” for doing so, think about the challenges associated with pursuing such a strategy.  Think about what happens after your home has reached its optimal point-in-time state of cleanliness.  What happens if you do not clean the dishes in the kitchen after a day / week?  What happens if you do not do your family’s laundry after a few days / week?  What happens if you do not clean out your gutters after a few months?  We could generate a rather comprehensive list of questions if time permitted.

Now apply this thought process to your security posture.  You may have the greatest change control and configuration management process in the world.  However, think about the compromised posture of your security if this process were not maintained multiple times every day.  What about your information protection plan, your patch management process, your corporate security policies, standards, processes and procedures, your testing, development (i.e., non-production environment) and production environments, your recruitment processes, your identity and access management processes, etc.?  This list of questions / considerations can continue until we retire, just as can the list of questions pertaining to the state of your home’s cleanliness.

So, the point we’re making here is do not think in terms of point-in-time security / in terms of a compliance deadline that must be met.  In order to sustain desired compliance and / or a desired state of security, applicable security considerations must be met on a recurring basis indefinitely.