HALOCK News

The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS^®): In episode 29 of Cybersecurity Where You Are, co-hosts Tony Sager and Sean Atkinson are joined by Chris Cronin, ISO 27001 Auditor and Partner at HALOCK, a leading information security consultancy. Their discussion focuses on “reasonableness” as it relates to cybersecurity risk management. This topic isn’t just about proving to regulators, litigators, and others that security controls were in place prior to an incident. It also considers how to implement safeguards without overburdening users and executives.

CIS RAM was developed by HALOCK Security Labs in partnership with CIS. HALOCK has used CIS RAM’s methods for several years with positive response from legal authorities, regulators, attorneys, business executives, and technical leaders. HALOCK and CIS collaborated to bring the methods to the public as CIS RAM v1.0 in 2018, and now v2.1 in 2021 – 2022. CIS is a founding member of the nonprofit DoCRA Council that maintains the risk analysis standard that CIS RAM is built upon.

Increasing need for risk management ‘… taking sufficient measures to secure the sensitive personal data of other people as state regulators are now starting to use a clear definition for reasonable, risk-based security in their injunctions. In terms of litigation, a demonstrated due of care shows the absence of negligence which is a determining factor in lawsuits. A growing number of security frameworks are now available that can help organizations define what “reasonable security” actually.”

“a) That risk assessments should evaluate the likelihood of magnitudes of harm that result from threats and errors, b) That risk assessments should explicitly estimate foreseeable harm to consumers as well as to the covered financial institutions, c) That risk mitigating controls are commensurate with the risks they address, [and] d) That risk assessments estimate likelihoods and impacts using available data.”

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) recently released the CIS Risk Assessment Method (RAM) v2.0, an information security risk assessment method to help enterprises justify investments for reasonable implementation of the CIS Critical Security Controls (CIS Controls). CIS RAM was developed by HALOCK Security Labs in partnership with CIS. HALOCK has used CIS RAM’s methods for several years with positive response from legal authorities, regulators, attorneys, business executives, and technical leaders. HALOCK and CIS collaborated to bring the methods to the public as CIS RAM v1.0 in 2018, and now v2.0 in 2021. CIS is a founding member of the non-profit DoCRA Council that maintains the risk analysis standard that CIS RAM is built upon.

At RSA Conference 2021, panelists debate the meaning of a very important word that may very well have an impact in data breach litigation

The Duty of Care Risk Analysis Standard (DoCRA) provides principles and practices for evaluating risk. It considers all parties that could be affected by those risks. DoCRA evaluates safeguards if they are appropriate in protecting others from harm while presenting a reasonable burden by defining what is reasonable risk. It helps establish reasonable security based on an organisation’s specific mission, objective, and obligations. Quite apart from the legal and moral imperative, there is a good business case for reasonable security measures.

The Sedona Conference Working Group 11 (WG11) has provided the definition for reasonable security. In February 2021, The Sedona Conference released its Commentary on a Reasonable Security Test to help the regulatory and litigation communities “move the law forward in a reasoned and just way.” We now have a test for reasonable security practices that brings together the traditions of regulators, litigators, and information security communities to balance burdens of safeguards against the risk of harm to ourselves and others.

CIS RAM is an interesting method at many levels. It conforms and supplements standards like ISO 27005, NIST Special Publications 800–30, or RISK IT. It also bridges two different risk analysis methods: the well known method found is U.S. regulations and InfoSec standards: Risk = impact + likelyhood, and the less known “Calculus of Negligence” or “Learned Hand Rule” and as such incorporates principles and practices from Duty of Care Risk Analysis.

TECHOPEDIA – Industry experts discuss cybersecurity predictions for 2021.These are what they identified as likely issues facing enterprises and the IT professionals that must protect them. Measuring Reasonable Security (Duty of Care), Ransomware, Cybersecurity Training & Awareness, Email Vulnerability, Endpoint Protection. Featuring Chris Cronin, Erik Leach, Steve Lawn, Glenn Stout.
   

A working group of the Sedona Conference has proposed a solid answer to these questions. By its own description, the Sedona Conference is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational institute dedicated to the advanced study of specific law and policy, including privacy and data security law. The Conference has just published a set of commentary on a reasonable security test. The paper is worth reading.   

Spirion, a data protection and compliance company based in St. Petersburg, Fla., launched its Global Alliance Partner Program, for data security which spans software developers, technology providers, systems integrators and solution providers. Partners will “extend the functionality” of Spirion’s Data Privacy Management Framework, according to the company. Solution provider members of the program include GuidePoint Security and HALOCK Security Labs, while technology partners include ContextSpace, Seclore and Tonic.    

The NetDiligence Virtual Summer Summit panel “What is Reasonable Cybersecurity?” proves, defining “reasonable” is not an easy task.

Moderator Andy Maher (AXIS) led panelists Chris Cronin (HALOCK), Doug Meal (Orrick LLP), and Tim Murphy (Office of the Attorney General for Pennsylvania) in a spirited discussion which gave hints of how this issue could become combative in a high stakes legal setting. But as Cronin pointed out, the very fact that definitions are evolving in contentious settings belies the fact that litigators, regulators, and insurers do have common understanding of how risk is assessed. And so, the tasks of defining terms, weighing their utility, and applying them though a risk-based analysis process should fall on experts such as the assembled panel.

Establishes technology and solution provider partner ecosystem committed to strengthening personal data protection through best-in-class solutions. “Our collaboration with Spirion is one of HALOCK’s most strategic partnerships designed to address some of the most complex challenges related to data protection in large enterprise environments,” said Terry Kurzynski, HALOCK Security Labs Founding Partner. “Our alliance with Spirion extends our reach into understanding, controlling, and protecting what’s most important to our clients, their sensitive data.”    

Based on the Duty of Care Risk Analysis (DOCRA) that many regulatory bodies rely on to ensure that organizations are delivering reasonable risk management practices to protect their customers and vendors, the CIS RAM aligns with the CIS Controls specifically and uses a simplified risk statement to benchmark the level of risk associated and determine a viable safeguard to mitigate risk.   

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ramp up mandated cybersecurity efforts for financial institutions by altering the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s Safeguards Rule, which requires financial institutions to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program.

“People are not generally doing what we would consider risk assessments,” said Chris Cronin, a partner at HALOCK Security Labs. “Instead, they’ll have an auditor come in and run an audit.”

Cyber Security: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 3 / Number 4

Regulators, litigators and cyber security standards require that cyber security controls should be ‘reasonable’. But rarely do these authorities define what the word means. Lawyers and regulators have long stated that reasonableness is a balance between protecting others from harm and using controls that are no more burdensome than the risks they reduce. They have illustrated this concept with a calculation that is remarkably similar to risk calculations used in cyber security risk management. This paper explores an accidental collaboration between the cyber security community, judges and regulators to define reasonableness, and demonstrates to readers how they can use risk analysis to defend their security programmes as reasonable.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the final agenda for a July 13, 2020 virtual workshop that will seek input on proposed changes to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s Safeguards Rule, which requires financial institutions to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program.

HALOCK partner will serve as a panelist during the 9:30am session: The Costs and Benefits of Information Security Programs.    

In a post on Halock.com, auditor Chris Cronin writes that as insurers try to model cyber risk and brokers try to get the right information from their clients it may be better to focus on management behavior than on hacker tactics.

Using data from NetDiligence reports, Cronin breaks down costs of crisis services, legal defense, settlements, regulatory defense and fines between small/medium and large organizations.