Cybersecurity Engineering Notes


These notes were provided by Robert M. Farrell, Ph.D., BEE'69. Dr. Bob Farrell is President and CEO of Seneca Technology Group and received the Villanova Engineering Alumni Society J. Stanley Morehouse Memorial Award in 2007.

Links and items in parentheses below were provided by R. Perry.



Layers of the Problem

Personal - PCs, Individuals

PW (passwords), PIV (Personal Identity Verification *), virus protection, (personal certificates), etc.

Enterprise - Business, University

Domain Management, Community of Users, Policies, Active Monitoring and Control

Nation or State - Jurisdiction, Laws, Protection

Monitor Violations, Prosecute, Forensics

Global

Protect Nation or State against Agressors - passive protection against hackers, political groups, nation states

Cyber Warfare - actively fighting back


* See csrc.nist.gov/publications/:

FIPS-201-1 - Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors

SP-800-63 - Electronic Authentication Guideline

Table A.1 - Estimated Password Guessing Entropy in bits vs. Password Length

SP-800-73-3 - Interfaces for Personal Identity Verification (4 Parts)

SP-800-76-1 - Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification

SP-800-78-2 - Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Sizes for Personal Identification Verification (PIV)



US Federal Cybersecurity Priorities

Identity Management
Access Control, PW, Biometrics, etc.
Real Time Monitoring
Perimeter firewalls, Traffic, Unusual Signatures, etc.
Situational Awareness
Visualization, State Representation, Modeling, etc.
Intrusion Detection
Pattern Recognition, Anomaly Detection, etc.
Vulnerability Scanning
Periodic Assessments of Compliance: Architecture, Operations, Policy, etc.
Application Security
Hardening Applications, Scanning, Testing, etc.
Education and Training
Threat Awareness, Best Practices, etc.