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Scenario: CEO Brad Lawrence is in the process of making a major decision to merge with another company that has been a rival since they first began. The final decision is his, but he must speak with his board of advisors before making the decision. This board is comprised of his top managers/leaders throughout his company.

How does separation of privilege help ensure that no single security breach can cause an entire security mechanism to fail?

Scenario: CEO Brad Lawrence is in the process of making a major decision to merge with another company that has been a rival since they first began. The final decision is his, but he must speak with his board of advisors before making the decision. This board is comprised of his top managers/leaders throughout his company.

In the scenario given, Brad Lawrence must speak with his board of advisors. How does the fact that he has to negotiate with the advisors display the separation of privilege principle?

You are the new Linux Systems Administrator at your office, but you have to fix some problems that you immediately noticed on your first day.
One of the systems has been set up to be the center of operations, having access to everything the company owns. How would you implement the Separation of Privilege principle in order to ensure that this doesn’t cause problems in the future?

When we need to tell the user that there was an error, it is important that enough information is disclosed to let the user know what the problem is, but kept cryptic enough to not let a malicious user gain an upper hand.

Which of the following will most likely provide the most secure system?

Why should we not specify to the user when the username entered was not in the database or the password was not correct for a particular user.

A company requires that its employees take a three step process when protecting the corporate computers. Employees accept the new method of security reluctantly, and as time goes on passwords being input become weaker.

What is a characteristic of Psychological Acceptability?

A company requires that its employees take a three step process when protecting the corporate computers. Employees accept the new method of security reluctantly, and as time goes on passwords being input become weaker.

Why is it, that psychological acceptability is such an important principle?

A company requires that its employees take a three step process when protecting the corporate computers. Employees accept the new method of security reluctantly, and as time goes on passwords being input become weaker.

Does the above scenario satisfy the psychological acceptability principle?

A hospital is transitioning to new software. Nurses with varying technical backgrounds are required to learn it. The program generates too many confirmation windows and alert popups, which are intrusive and often interfere with work.
Out of frustration, nurses have grown accustomed to disregarding all popups, including warnings and error messages.

What should or should have happened?

Scenario: John works at Hissop Industries. John has design a new application, but John is worried that someone will
try to hack his application if the design is revealed.

What does the Open Design Principle state?

Scenario: John works at Hissop Industries. John has design a new application, but John is worried that someone will
try to hack his application if the design is revealed.

Why is it more effective to not rely on a mechanism remaining a secret to protect information?

Scenario: John works at Hissop Industries. John has design a new application, but John is worried that someone will
try to hack his application if the design is revealed.

In the above scenario, what should John do to maintain the Open Design Principle?

A new encryption algorithm is being developed by a company. The company decided to keep the design secret to prevent people from finding bugs using the source code. Though the company thoroughly tested the software, it was reverse engineered several months later and bugs were discovered that would have most likely been found if the algorithm was made public to be beta tested.

Which is most true?

Scenario: John’s boss is allowing him to add new computers to the department’s set of equipment. John recently learned that people had been abusing the previous systems, since there was only one user access on each device. This is why the corporation needed entirely new equipment and hired a new work force in that department. In order to avoid this problem, John had recently been researching Saltzer and Schroeder Principles and found that the Least Privilege principle definitely would help him fix this problem. The only thing is John doesn’t know how to go about implementing this principle in his work environment.

What is Least Privilege?

Scenario: John’s boss is allowing him to add new computers to the department’s set of equipment. John recently learned that people had been abusing the previous systems, since there was only one user access on each device. This is why the corporation needed entirely new equipment and hired a new work force in that department. In order to avoid this problem, John had recently been researching Saltzer and Schroeder Principles and found that the Least Privilege principle definitely would help him fix this problem. The only thing is John doesn’t know how to go about implementing this principle in his work environment.

In what way could John implement the Least Privilege Principle into the design of his system?

Scenario: John’s boss is allowing him to add new computers to the department’s set of equipment. John recently learned that people had been abusing the previous systems, since there was only one user access on each device. This is why the corporation needed entirely new equipment and hired a new work force in that department. In order to avoid this problem, John had recently been researching Saltzer and Schroeder Principles and found that the Least Privilege principle definitely would help him fix this problem. The only thing is John doesn’t know how to go about implementing this principle in his work environment.

Based on the definition of Least Privilege, should every user be allowed access to all things on a system?

For Windows, the User Account Control limits application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes it. In this way, only applications trusted by the user may receive administrative privileges.
For Unix systems, “sudo” or “su” allows users to run programs with the security privileges of root or superuser

How are these related to Least Privilege?

Scenario: A web site provides electronic commerce services for a major company. Attackers want to deprive the company of the revenue they obtain from that web site. They flood the site with messages, and tie up the electronic commerce services. Legitimate customers are unable to access the web site and, as a result, take their business elsewhere.

What is Least Common Mechanism?

Scenario: A web site provides electronic commerce services for a major company. Attackers want to deprive the company of the revenue they obtain from that web site. They flood the site with messages, and tie up the electronic commerce services. Legitimate customers are unable to access the web site and, as a result, take their business elsewhere.

Based off the definition of what Least Common Mechanism is, would it be appropriate to have an application be easily accessible and depended upon by everyone?

Scenario: A web site provides electronic commerce services for a major company. Attackers want to deprive the company of the revenue they obtain from that web site. They flood the site with messages, and tie up the electronic commerce services. Legitimate customers are unable to access the web site and, as a result, take their business elsewhere.

In what way could the site owners, in the above scenario, stop something like the attack above from happening again?

A popular forum, visited by thousands of people every day, was defaced by an unknown group.The attackers erased all data on the main server as well as the backup server, which was connected to the main server to provide a “realtime”
backup service.

What’s a good idea to implement for the Least Common Mechanism security concept?

Scenario: Shauna recently became an employee of JACO Industries. When accessing her new computer at her desk, she noticed that she had access to every part of the system that she wanted access to. “This is fantastic.” she thought, but began to think about how risky that could be if anyone was allowed this type of access to everything on a system. Thinking about it, she cannot decide whether or not she wants to go talk to her boss about it as it would lessen her privileges and could make her job harder, and she would not know how to go about telling her boss about this issue.

What is a fail-safe default?

Scenario: Shauna recently became an employee of JACO Industries. When accessing her new computer at her desk, she noticed that she had access to every part of the system that she wanted access to. “This is fantastic.” she thought, but began to think about how risky that could be if anyone was allowed this type of access to everything on a system. Thinking about it, she cannot decide whether or not she wants to go talk to her boss about it as it would lessen her privileges and could make her job harder, and she would not know how to go about telling her boss about this issue.

In what way could Shauna tell her boss that allowing everyone access to everything on a system could lead to a major security breach?

Scenario: Shauna recently became an employee of JACO Industries. When accessing her new computer at her desk, she noticed that she had access to every part of the system that she wanted access to. “This is fantastic.” she thought, but began to think about how risky that could be if anyone was allowed this type of access to everything on a system. Thinking about it, she cannot decide whether or not she wants to go talk to her boss about it as it would lessen her privileges and could make her job harder, and she would not know how to go about telling her boss about this issue.

Why would it be better to deny all packets being transmitted through a firewall if they are not explicitly allowed?

Scenario: Shauna recently became an employee of JACO Industries. When accessing her new computer at her desk, she noticed that she had access to every part of the system that she wanted access to. “This is fantastic.” she thought, but began to think about how risky that could be if anyone was allowed this type of access to everything on a system. Thinking about it, she cannot decide whether or not she wants to go talk to her boss about it as it would lessen her privileges and could make her job harder, and she would not know how to go about telling her boss about this issue.

In what way could Shauna’s boss fix this problem so that it fits the fail-safe default principle?

At a local university, students are required to scan their student IDs each time they must enter into their assigned dormitory.

This is an example of a failsafe default because

Scenario: CEO Brad Pitt is looking to have his programmers design him a very secure database. The programmers proceed by getting together and critically thinking about how they could possibly not only create the database, but make it very secure as well. John suggests that they have the users of the database take a 10 step process to gain access to the database. Susie suggests that the team keep the total number of steps lower than 3. Susie’s idea is chosen by the team, and John’s is not.

What is Economy of Mechanism?

Scenario: CEO Brad Pitt is looking to have his programmers design him a very secure database. The programmers proceed by getting together and critically thinking about how they could possibly not only create the database, but make it very secure as well. John suggests that they have the users of the database take a 10 step process to gain access to the database. Susie suggests that the team keep the total number of steps lower than 3. Susie’s idea is chosen by the team, and John’s is not.

How does maintaining simplicity when creating a mechanism make keeping a system secure easier?

Scenario: CEO Brad Pitt is looking to have his programmers design him a very secure database. The programmers proceed by getting together and critically thinking about how they could possibly not only create the database, but make it very secure as well. John suggests that they have the users of the database take a 10 step process to gain access to the database. Susie suggests that the team keep the total number of steps lower than 3. Susie’s idea is chosen by the team, and John’s is not.

Why is it that Susie’s idea was chosen by the team and John’s was not?

James designed a completely new system that is very complex while performing all needed functions and tasks. He argues that his system is more secure because it has never been created before.

Is an new and more complex system more secure than a simple and commonly used system?

James designed a completely new system that is very complex while performing all needed functions and tasks. He argues that his system is more secure because it has never been created before.

Why is James’ system not secure?

Scenario: A bank has decided to do banking online. They are having a problem thinking of the program’s design. How can they slim down the chances that someone’s information will possibly be stolen?

What is Complete Mediation?

Scenario: A bank has decided to do banking online. They are having a problem thinking of the program’s design. How can they slim down the chances that someone’s information will possibly be stolen?

In what way could the bank slim down the chances of a client’s banking information being stolen?

Scenario: A bank has decided to do banking online. They are having a problem thinking of the program’s design. How can they slim down the chances that someone’s information will possibly be stolen?

Would it be a likely idea for the bank to use a system that asks for verification between each click/keystroke?