This book is written for the first security hire in an organization, either an individual moving into this role from within the organization or hired into the role. More and more, organizations are realizing that information security requires a dedicated team with leadership distinct from information technology, and often the people who are placed into those positions have no idea where to start or how to prioritize. There are many issues competing for their attention, standards that say do this or do that, laws, regulations, customer demands, and no guidance on what is actually effective. This book offers guidance on approaches that work for how you prioritize and build a comprehensive information security program that protects your organization. While most books targeted at information security professionals explore specific subjects with deep expertise, this book explores the depth and breadth of the field. Instead of exploring a technology such as cloud security or a technique such as risk analysis, this book places those into the larger context of how to meet an organization's needs, how to prioritize, and what success looks like. Guides to the maturation of practice are offered, along with pointers for each topic on where to go for an in-depth exploration of each topic. Unlike more typical books on information security that advocate a single perspective, this book explores competing perspectives with an eye to providing the pros and cons of the different approaches and the implications of choices on implementation and on maturity, as often a choice on an approach needs to change as an organization grows and matures.

Building a Practical Information Security Program provides users with a strategic view on how to build an information security program that aligns with business objectives. The information provided enables both executive management and IT managers not only to validate existing security programs, but also to build new business-driven security programs. In addition, the subject matter supports aspiring security engineers to forge a career path to successfully manage a security program, thereby adding value and reducing risk to the business. Readers learn how to translate technical challenges into business requirements, understand when to "go big or go home," explore in-depth defense strategies, and review tactics on when to absorb risks. This book explains how to properly plan and implement an infosec program based on business strategy and results. - Provides a roadmap on how to build a security program that will protect companies from intrusion - Shows how to focus the security program on its essential mission and move past FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to provide business value - Teaches how to build consensus with an effective business-focused program

A practical guide to establishing a risk-based, business-focused information security program to ensure organizational success Key Features Focus on business alignment, engagement, and support using risk-based methodologies Establish organizational communication and collaboration emphasizing a culture of security Implement information security program, cybersecurity hygiene, and architectural and engineering best practices Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book DescriptionInformation Security Handbook is a practical guide that’ll empower you to take effective actions in securing your organization’s assets. Whether you are an experienced security professional seeking to refine your skills or someone new to the field looking to build a strong foundation, this book is designed to meet you where you are and guide you toward improving your understanding of information security. Each chapter addresses the key concepts, practical techniques, and best practices to establish a robust and effective information security program. You’ll be offered a holistic perspective on securing information, including risk management, incident response, cloud security, and supply chain considerations. This book has distilled years of experience and expertise of the author, Darren Death, into clear insights that can be applied directly to your organization’s security efforts. Whether you work in a large enterprise, a government agency, or a small business, the principles and strategies presented in this book are adaptable and scalable to suit your specific needs. By the end of this book, you’ll have all the tools and guidance needed to fortify your organization’s defenses and expand your capabilities as an information security practitioner.What you will learn Introduce information security program best practices to your organization Leverage guidance on compliance with industry standards and regulations Implement strategies to identify and mitigate potential security threats Integrate information security architecture and engineering principles across the systems development and engineering life cycle Understand cloud computing, Zero Trust, and supply chain risk management Who this book is forThis book is for information security professionals looking to understand critical success factors needed to build a successful, business-aligned information security program. Additionally, this book is well suited for anyone looking to understand key aspects of an information security program and how it should be implemented within an organization. If you’re looking for an end-to-end guide to information security and risk analysis with no prior knowledge of this domain, then this book is for you.

This book explains the ongoing war between private business and cyber criminals, state-sponsored attackers, terrorists, and hacktivist groups. Further, it explores the risks posed by trusted employees that put critical information at risk through malice, negligence, or simply making a mistake. It clarifies the historical context of the current situation as it relates to cybersecurity, the challenges facing private business, and the fundamental changes organizations can make to better protect themselves. The problems we face are difficult, but they are not hopeless. Cybercrime continues to grow at an astounding rate. With constant coverage of cyber-attacks in the media, there is no shortage of awareness of increasing threats. Budgets have increased and executives are implementing stronger defenses. Nonetheless, breaches continue to increase in frequency and scope. Building a Comprehensive IT Security Program shares why organizations continue to fail to secure their critical information assets and explains the internal and external adversaries facing organizations today. This book supplies the necessary knowledge and skills to protect organizations better in the future by implementing a comprehensive approach to security. Jeremy Wittkop’s security expertise and critical experience provides insights into topics such as: Who is attempting to steal information and why? What are critical information assets? How are effective programs built? How is stolen information capitalized? How do we shift the paradigm to better protect our organizations? How we can make the cyber world safer for everyone to do business?

Building an Effective Security Program for Distributed Energy Resources and Systems Build a critical and effective security program for DERs Building an Effective Security Program for Distributed Energy Resources and Systems requires a unified approach to establishing a critical security program for DER systems and Smart Grid applications. The methodology provided integrates systems security engineering principles, techniques, standards, and best practices. This publication introduces engineers on the design, implementation, and maintenance of a security program for distributed energy resources (DERs), smart grid, and industrial control systems. It provides security professionals with understanding the specific requirements of industrial control systems and real-time constrained applications for power systems. This book: Describes the cybersecurity needs for DERs and power grid as critical infrastructure Introduces the information security principles to assess and manage the security and privacy risks of the emerging Smart Grid technologies Outlines the functions of the security program as well as the scope and differences between traditional IT system security requirements and those required for industrial control systems such as SCADA systems Offers a full array of resources— cybersecurity concepts, frameworks, and emerging trends Security Professionals and Engineers can use Building an Effective Security Program for Distributed Energy Resources and Systems as a reliable resource that is dedicated to the essential topic of security for distributed energy resources and power grids. They will find standards, guidelines, and recommendations from standards organizations, such as ISO, IEC, NIST, IEEE, ENISA, ISA, ISACA, and ISF, conveniently included for reference within chapters.

Security practitioners must be able to build cost-effective security programs while also complying with government regulations. Information Security Governance Simplified: From the Boardroom to the Keyboard lays out these regulations in simple terms and explains how to use control frameworks to build an air-tight information security (IS) program and governance structure. Defining the leadership skills required by IS officers, the book examines the pros and cons of different reporting structures and highlights the various control frameworks available. It details the functions of the security department and considers the control areas, including physical, network, application, business continuity/disaster recover, and identity management. Todd Fitzgerald explains how to establish a solid foundation for building your security program and shares time-tested insights about what works and what doesn’t when building an IS program. Highlighting security considerations for managerial, technical, and operational controls, it provides helpful tips for selling your program to management. It also includes tools to help you create a workable IS charter and your own IS policies. Based on proven experience rather than theory, the book gives you the tools and real-world insight needed to secure your information while ensuring compliance with government regulations.

Providing a Shared Service Information Technology with a foundation essentials of Information Security. This book is a "must read" for managers thinking of the cloud or shared services

Is your e-business secure? Have you done everything you can to protect your enterprise and your customers from the potential exploits of hackers, crackers, and other cyberspace menaces? As we expand the brave new world of e-commerce, we are confronted with a whole new set of security problems. Dealing with the risks of Internet applications and e-commerce requires new ways of thinking about security. Secure Internet Practices: Best Practices for Securing Systems in the Internet and e-Business Age presents an overview of security programs, policies, goals, life cycle development issues, infrastructure, and architecture aimed at enabling you to effectively implement security at your organization. In addition to discussing general issues and solutions, the book provides concrete examples and templates for crafting or revamping your security program in the form of an Enterprise-Wide Security Program Model, and an Information Security Policy Framework. Although rich in technical expertise, this is not strictly a handbook of Internet technologies, but a guide that is equally useful for developing policies, procedures, and standards. The book touches all the bases you need to build a secure enterprise. Drawing on the experience of the world-class METASeS consulting team in building and advising on security programs, Secure Internet Practices: Best Practices for Securing Systems in the Internet and e-Business Age shows you how to create a workable security program to protect your organization's Internet risk.

BUILD YOUR CYBERSECURITY PROGRAM WITH THIS COMPLETELY UPDATED GUIDE Security practitioners now have a comprehensive blueprint to build their cybersecurity programs. Building an Effective Cybersecurity Program (2nd Edition) instructs security architects, security managers, and security engineers how to properly construct effective cybersecurity programs using contemporary architectures, frameworks, and models. This comprehensive book is the result of the author’s professional experience and involvement in designing and deploying hundreds of cybersecurity programs. The extensive content includes: Recommended design approaches, Program structure, Cybersecurity technologies, Governance Policies, Vulnerability, Threat and intelligence capabilities, Risk management, Defense-in-depth, DevSecOps, Service management, ...and much more! The book is presented as a practical roadmap detailing each step required for you to build your effective cybersecurity program. It also provides many design templates to assist in program builds and all chapters include self-study questions to gauge your progress. With this new 2nd edition of this handbook, you can move forward confidently, trusting that Schreider is recommending the best components of a cybersecurity program for you. In addition, the book provides hundreds of citations and references allow you to dig deeper as you explore specific topics relevant to your organization or your studies. Whether you are a new manager or current manager involved in your organization’s cybersecurity program, this book will answer many questions you have on what is involved in building a program. You will be able to get up to speed quickly on program development practices and have a roadmap to follow in building or improving your organization’s cybersecurity program. If you are new to cybersecurity in the short period of time it will take you to read this book, you can be the smartest person in the room grasping the complexities of your organization’s cybersecurity program. If you are a manager already involved in your organization’s cybersecurity program, you have much to gain from reading this book. This book will become your go to field manual guiding or affirming your program decisions.

The modern dependence upon information technology and the corresponding information security regulations and requirements force companies to evaluate the security of their core business processes, mission critical data, and supporting IT environment. Combine this with a slowdown in IT spending resulting in justifications of every purchase, and security professionals are forced to scramble to find comprehensive and effective ways to assess their environment in order to discover and prioritize vulnerabilities, and to develop cost-effective solutions that show benefit to the business. A Practical Guide to Security Assessments is a process-focused approach that presents a structured methodology for conducting assessments. The key element of the methodology is an understanding of business goals and processes, and how security measures are aligned with business risks. The guide also emphasizes that resulting security recommendations should be cost-effective and commensurate with the security risk. The methodology described serves as a foundation for building and maintaining an information security program. In addition to the methodology, the book includes an Appendix that contains questionnaires that can be modified and used to conduct security assessments. This guide is for security professionals who can immediately apply the methodology on the job, and also benefits management who can use the methodology to better understand information security and identify areas for improvement.