TOTAL SECURITY IN DEPTH IS PREFERRED OVER LAYERED SECURITY
Layered security, describes the
practice of combining multiple serious security controls to protect resources
and data. Like all other security methods, layered security is designed to
protect assets (an asset is anything you want to protect and can include
people, property, data, etc.). Layered security can be used in any environment,
from military operations, to individuals, and community residents (homeowners,
neighborhood watch groups, etc.). In other words, "layered security is the
practice of using many different security controls at different levels to
protect assets. This provides strength and depth to reduce the effects of a
threat. Your goal is to create redundancies (backups) in case security measures
fail, are bypassed, or defeated. Placing assets in the innermost perimeter will
provide layers of security measures at increasing distances from the protected
asset.
Single defense may be flawed,
and the most certain way to find the flaws is to be compromised by an attack so
a series of different defenses should each be used to cover the gaps in the
others' protective capabilities. Firewalls, intrusion detection systems,
malware scanners, integrity auditing procedures, and local storage encryption
tools can each serve to protect your information technology resources in ways
the others cannot. A common example for home users is the Norton Internet
Security suite, which provides (among other capabilities):
i.
an
antivirus application
ii.
a
firewall application
iii.
an
anti-spam application
iv.
parental
controls
v.
privacy controls
Security in depth originally coined in a military context, the term
"defense in depth" refers to an even more comprehensive security
strategy approach than layered security. In fact, on might say that just as a
firewall is only one component of a layered security strategy, layered security
is only one component of a defense in depth strategy.
Layered
security arises from the desire to cover for the failings of each component by
combining components into a single, comprehensive strategy, the whole of which
is greater than the sum of its parts, focused on technology implementation with
an artificial goal of securing the entire system against threats. Defense in
depth, by contrast, arises from a philosophy that there is no real possibility
of achieving total, complete security against threats by implementing any
collection of security solutions. Rather, technological components of a layered
security strategy are regarded as stumbling blocks that hinder the progress of
a threat, slowing and frustrating it until either it ceases to threaten or some
additional resources -- not strictly technological in nature -- can be brought
to bear.
A
layered security solution also assumes a singular focus on the origins of
threats, within some general or specific category of attack. For instance,
vertically integrated layered security software solutions are designed to
protect systems that behave within certain common parameters of activity from
threats those activities may attract, such as Norton Internet Security's focus
on protecting desktop systems employed for common purposes by home users from
Internet-borne threats. Defense in depth, on the other hand, assumes a broader
range of possibilities, such as physical theft followed by forensic recovery of
data by unauthorized persons, incidental threats as a result of dangers that do
not specifically target the protected systems. Defense in depth strategies also
include other security preparations than directly protective. They also address
such concerns as:
- monitoring,
alerting, and emergency response
- authorized
personnel activity accounting
- disaster
recovery
- criminal
activity reporting
- forensic
analysis
One
of the most important factors in a well-planned defense in depth strategy is
taking advantage of threat delay. By ensuring rapid notification and response
when attacks and disasters are underway, and delaying their effects, damage
avoidance or mitigation that cannot be managed by purely technological measures
can be enacted before the full effects of a threat are realized.
For
instance, while a honeypot system may not itself stop a malicious security
cracker who has gained unauthorized access to a network indefinitely, it might
facilitate notification of the breach to network security specialists and delay
his progress long enough that the security specialists can identify and/or
eject the intruder before any lasting damage is done.
How in depth security is preferred
over layered security as follows
Layered
security and defense in depth are two different concepts with a lot of overlap.
A good layered security strategy is extremely important to protecting your
information technology resources. A defense in depth approach to security
widens the scope of your attention to security and encourages flexible policy
that responds well to new conditions, helping ensure you are not blindsided by
unexpected threats.
Each
of these strategic philosophies of security should inform your treatment of the
other, so that normally overwhelming circumstances for a more narrow and
brittle security strategy such as simultaneous attacks by independent threats,
far greater intensity of attack than expected, and threats that seem to have
strayed from their more common targets might all be effectively warded off.
Both are worth understanding -- and the first step to that understands how they
differ from one another, how they are similar, and the relationship between
them.
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