What is Operational Security?
Operational security (OPSEC) is a security and risk management process that prevents sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands.
Another OPSEC meaning is a process that identifies seemingly innocuous actions that could inadvertently reveal critical or sensitive data to a cyber criminal. OPSEC is both a process and a strategy, and it encourages IT and security managers to view their operations and systems from the perspective of a potential attacker. It includes analytical activities and processes like behavior monitoring, social media monitoring, and security best practice.
A crucial piece of what is OPSEC is the use of risk management to discover potential threats and vulnerabilities in organizations’ processes, the way they operate, and the software and hardware their employees use. Looking at systems and operations from a third party’s point of view enables OPSEC teams to discover issues they may have overlooked and can be crucial to implementing the appropriate countermeasures that will keep their most sensitive data secure.
How Did OPSEC Come Into the Picture?
OPSEC first came about through a U.S. military team called Purple Dragon in the Vietnam War. The counterintelligence team realized that its adversaries could anticipate the U.S.’s strategies and tactics without managing to decrypt their communications or having intelligence assets to steal their data. They concluded that the U.S. military forces were actually revealing information to their enemy. Purple Dragon coined the first OPSEC definition, which was: “The ability to keep knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses away from hostile forces.”
This OPSEC process has since been adopted by other government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, in their efforts to protect national security and trade secrets. It is also used by organizations that want to protect customer data and is instrumental in helping them address corporate espionage, information security, and risk management.
Why is OPSEC Important?
OPSEC is important because it encourages organizations to closely assess the security risks they face and spot potential vulnerabilities that a typical data security approach may not. OPSEC security enables IT and security teams to fine-tune their technical and non-technical processes while reducing their cyber risk and safeguarding them against malware-based attacks.
An effective OPSEC program is important to prevent the inadvertent or unintended exposure of classified or sensitive data. It enables organizations to prevent the details of their future activities, capabilities, and intentions from being made public. However, the key to achieving this is understanding what this information is about, where it is located, what level of protection is applied to it, what the impact would be if it is compromised, and how the organization would respond.
If such information is leaked, attackers may be able to cause major damage. For example, they may be able to build wider cyberattacks and commit identity fraud or theft if employees reuse their login credentials across multiple online services.
The 5 Steps of Operational Security
There are five steps to OPSEC that allow organizations to secure their data processes.
Identify sensitive data
Understanding what data organizations have and the sensitive data they store on their systems is a crucial first step to OPSEC security. This includes identifying information such as customer details, credit card data, employee details, financial statements, intellectual property, and product research. It is vital for organizations to focus their resources on protecting this critical data.
Identify possible threats
With sensitive information identified, organizations then need to determine the potential threats presented to this data. This includes third parties that may want to steal the data, competitors that could gain an advantage by stealing information, and insider threats or malicious insiders like disgruntled workers or negligent employees
Analyze the vulnerabilities
Organizations then need to analyze the potential vulnerabilities in their security defenses that could provide an opportunity for the threats to materialize. This involves assessing the processes and technology solutions that safeguard their data and identifying loopholes or weaknesses that attackers could potentially exploit.
What is the threat level?
Each identified vulnerability then has to have a level of threat attributed to it. The vulnerabilities should be ranked based on the likelihood of attackers targeting them, the level of damage caused if they are exploited, and the amount of time and work required to mitigate and repair the damage. The more damage that could be inflicted and the higher the chances of an attack occurring, the more resources and priority that organizations should place in mitigating the risk.
Devise a plan to mitigate the threats
This information provides organizations with everything they need to devise a plan to mitigate the threats identified. The final step in OPSEC is putting countermeasures in place to eliminate threats and mitigate cyber risks. These typically include updating hardware, creating policies around safeguarding sensitive data, and providing employee training on security best practice and corporate data policies.
An OPSEC process plan must be simple to understand, straightforward to implement and follow, and be updated as the security threat landscape evolves.
Best Practices for OPSEC
OPSEC uses risk management processes to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities before they are exploited and cause problems for organizations. Businesses can build and implement a comprehensive and robust OPSEC program by following these best practices:
Change management processes: Organizations must implement specific change management processes that their employees can follow in case network changes are performed. These changes must be controlled and logged so that organizations can appropriately audit and monitor the amendments.
Restrict device access: Organizations must restrict access to their networks to only devices that absolutely require it. Military agencies and other government organizations deploy a "need to know" basis around their networks, and this theory also must be applied to corporate networks. Network device authentication should be used as a common rule of thumb when it comes to access and information sharing.
Deploy least privilege access: Employees need to be assigned the minimum level of access to data, networks, and resources that they require to do their jobs successfully. This means deploying the principle of least privilege, which ensures that any program, process, or user only has the bare minimum privilege required to perform its function. This is crucial to organizations ensuring better security levels, preventing insider threats, minimizing the attack surface, limiting the risk of malware, and improving their audit and compliance readiness.
Implement dual control: Users responsible for managing their networks should not be made in charge of security. Organizations must ensure that teams or individuals responsible for maintaining their corporate networks are separate from those who set security policies.
Deploy automation: Humans are often the weakest link in an organization’s security processes. Human error can result in mistakes, data inadvertently ending up in the wrong hands, important details being overlooked or forgotten, and critical processes being bypassed.
Plan for disaster: A critical part of any security defense is to plan for disaster and institute a solid incident response plan. Even the most robust OPSEC security needs to be supported with plans that identify potential risks and outline how an organization will go about responding to cyberattacks and mitigating the potential damages.
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