Category: Certification

ISO/IEC 27001:2013 ISMS: What Is It?

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The international standard for information security management is ISO/IEC 27001. It describes how to set up an information security management system that has been independently evaluated and certified. This enables you to secure all financial and private information more effectively, lowering the possibility of unauthorized  access.

With ISO/IEC 27001, you can prove to clients, partners, and other stakeholders that security is crucial to how you conduct business and that you are committed to adhering to international best practises. An Information Security Management System (ISMS) must be established, put into place, maintained, and improved over time according to ISO 27001.

Applicability

ISO 27001 is a standard that is not just relevant to the IT sector. Companies including pharmaceutical firms, healthcare institutions, governmental agencies, and other businesses that might not seem like natural ISO 27001 candidates frequently adopt the standard.

And this is what ISO 27001 is all about: it gives businesses the methodology to identify the risks that could result in events that could happen to them (possible incidents), and then it defines procedures for changing employee behaviour to stop such incidents from occurring.

Why are so many businesses outside of IT interested in ISO 27001? Because, contrary to popular belief, IT is not the most important component in data security. Most of the time, businesses already have all the necessary technology in place, including firewalls, antivirus software, backups, etc. However, since this technology is insufficient, there are still data breaches. This is due to the employees’ lack of knowledge regarding how to utilise the technology securely, but more significantly because the technology is quite limited when it comes to thwarting an insider attack. As a result, it is clear that another strategy is required.

Objective

The following are the goals of ISO 27001 standards:

  • Determine hazards and implement controls to control or eliminate them.
  • The ability to modify controls to only some of your business’s regions or all of them
  • Obtain the confidence of customers and stakeholders that their data is secure
  • Gain preferred supplier status by demonstrating compliance.
  • By displaying compliance, surpass additional tender requirements.

Approach

A five-phase outline of our strategy has been provided. These consist of:

Phase 1: Understand Business Process
Understanding the policies and procedures as well as the management’s expectations and the environment.

Phase 2: Identify Risks and Controls
Determine the target processes and gain an understanding of their flow, risk, information resources, and controls.

Phase 3: Controls Design Testing
Determine the controls based on ISO/IEC 27001, create issue and opportunity registers, test the control architecture, and spot any flaws. Create a plan for risk mitigation and determine the residual risks.

Phase 4: Controls Evaluation
Internally audit your systems to find control flaws and their effects.

Phase 5: Certification
For the certification audit, invite the certification agency.

Challenges and Solutions to enable compliance pci

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Challenges and solutions to better enable compliance with PCI SSF:

The PA DSS was introduced to provide a guideline for the development of payment applications. Although software security and resilience could mean a lot more than the 14 requirements of the PA DSS, the PA DSS has been the go-to when it comes to certification and validation for software security.

Now the PA DSS substituted by the PCI SSF. What is PCI SSF? How will this transition affect your organization?

PCI SSF – In brief

PCI SSF stands for Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework. It provides the standard guidelines to be followed by software companies while designing and developing payment software.

It comprised of two independent standards

The PCI SSS –  Secure Software Standard: This defines a set of requirements to ensure integrity and confidentiality of payment transactions, data, and the payment software.

The PCI SLC –  Secure Software Lifecycle Standard: This defines the basis and guidelines to design and develop the payment software, additionally it also lays down the best practices to maintain the payment software securely throughout the software lifecycle.

Although the PCI SSF is an independent set of payment security standards, it can be said that the PCI SSF takes many of its elements of control from the PA DSS standard.

So, what’s new?

PA DSS vs PCI SSF – The transition in detail, challenges, and solutions

Multiple reasons like constant change in technology, advancements in software development techniques, emerging trends in cyber-attacks have led to this transition from PA DSS to PCI SSF. The new standards of PCI SSF have comprehensive elements which would be suitable for both traditional and modern software methodologies. It has been designed in a way where every organization validating to this standard will have control over every aspect.

Let us take a look at the various aspects of differences, similarities, challenges, and solutions… Is this a change or a chance, read through to find out:

Changes and Challenges:

  • Change in Objective- Shifting to a comprehensive approach

The PA DSS was designed exclusively for the PCI DSS environment. It emphasizes majorly on cardholder information and sensitive authentication data. The PCI SSS standard mainly focuses on the integrity and confidentiality of the transaction data. The Secure Software Standard framework lays out core requirements and v1.1 has included applicability to terminal applications.

The PA DSS has certain software lifecycle and security requirements, security features of the software application within itself. The Secure Lifecycle standard focuses on how software development companies shall design their payment software.

The PCI SSF framework has prescribed clearly defined and comprehensive objective controls like Identifying dependencies between hardware and software compatibilities, providing provisions to secure the defaults, mandating a functionality within the software to retain the data securely as per payment industry methods. It evaluates how data is securely deleted. It demonstrates that the software must have a separate feature on how it is authenticating the users, how it provides role-based access control, whether it is tracking malicious activities and reporting the lags to the concerned team for analysis and prevention of lapses.

If PA DSS talks about password policy, several characters, expiry… PCI SSF ensures that these standards are not just given provision for but are implemented in the software and the customer is given awareness about the software, what kind of software it is, the user manual is provided for, the environment for usage, and the features supported, how compliant it is and how it is to be configured. Thus, making it a comprehensive approach.

  • Change in Applicability- Increased Applicability

The intent or applicability of the PA DSS and PCI SSF are quite similar, and we can say that it is a point of similarity between these two standards. The PA DSS standard is strictly applicable only to an application developer or payment application integration service that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data as part of authorization or settlement.

The PCI SSF is applicable to any software developing company that develops payment software that is sold, distributed, or licensed to third parties. It is to be noted that this includes payment software that might be installed on a customer’s system and payment software deployed to customers “as a service” over the internet. However, it is not applicable if a company is developing software in-house for its usage or the usage of any one single customer.

The PCI SSF supports existing ways in PA DSS to demonstrate good application security and also increases the applicability of a variety of new payment software and development processes.

  • Change in the structure of the framework’s standard itself- Ensuring software security right from development:

There are currently no standards that provide a guarantee to the secure development process followed by the software companies developing software for payment industries. Although there are few requirements emphasized in the PA DSS standard on the best practices for software development, but the PCI SSF has implemented new standards in the SLC.

The PCI SLC incorporates threat identification, threat mitigation, and analysis of the risks involved, vulnerability detection and mitigation, avoiding security lapses as a part of its objective controls. SLC emphasizes on various aspects such as change management, data protection and how it is incorporated in the software, how to implement software in a specific environment, modes of third-party communication, how to reach out in case of updates to stakeholders.

Any organization implementing the SLC will give assurance to customers and stake holders of following best practices.

  • Change in criteria- Objective oriented, increased and improved security:

The new standard has opened the criteria for eligibility to be certified to increased payment software types. It supports broader array of payment software types and all software methodologies.

There are new requirements added for Terminal software. The PCI SSS objective talk about separate and exclusive controls for Terminal software. The functions performed by the terminal application needs to be documented. The design of the security features must be defined. All types of attacks that can happen need to be mitigated with in-built mechanism within the terminal application. Security testing needs to be performed so that the lapses are identified, and vulnerabilities are not taken advantage by the hackers. An implementation guide needs to be given on how it integrates with backend.

To achieve its objective of integrity and confidentiality on whole transaction data, the PCI SSS has removed dependency on technology. Now any company can get their technology validated to this standard.

Listing  Eligibility – A unique opportunity:

The intent of both the standards is same which is, to set a standard for any software company which develops software for the payment industry. Here the PCI SSF brings with it, a unique and one-of-a-kind eligibility. Once an organisation gets the validation and certification of PCI SLC, they can list their company in the PCI SSF’s list of “SLC qualified vendors”.

Procedural changes- The transition timeline:

  1. The PCI SSF was first published in Jan 2019.
  2. The last acceptance for new PA DSS submissions was closed on 30th June 2021.
  3. Companies which have not submitted ROV and AOV for their PA DSS certification yet, will have to opt for PCI SSF.
  4. If you are already PA DSS certified, minor changes can be submitted till 28th October 2022.
  5. When a product is already PA DSS certified i.e. It has been deployed to vendors the PA DSS will be acceptable for the pre-existing deployed versions of the already PA DSS certified applications.
  6. The PA DSS program closes on 28th Oct 2022.
  7. Any new application, software or updated new versions of the previously deployed applications, need to be compliant with PCI SSF.
  • Change in the assessment process- Internal training and security education:

The PA DSS validation process consists of : selecting a PA QSA, reviewing the payment application, determining if it is PA DSS compliant, submission of the ROV and AOV to council, issuance of the acceptance letter to vendor and listing on the website.

The assessment process of PCI SSF is streamlined. Certain case studies suggest that the new standard assessment can identify lapses such as implementation of attack detection methods, anomalous behaviour, usage of random number generator, execution level vulnerabilities like cache timing, branch prediction, etc.

During such assessment and gap analysis, the importance of security education within software development community increases. Providing training and evaluating the effectiveness of training provided, matures the processes and makes the organisational output more effective.

Chances and Solutions:

  • Conducting a deep interpretation of the PCI SSF framework:

It is of utmost importance to have a deep understanding of the new changes and to be prepared. The elements in the framework of the new standard might have an effect on the business factors, hence it is always better to take prior steps to facilitate necessary business operations. Having a copy of the PCI Council guide handy can go a long way in this transition.

  • Investigating the needs and analysing the standards

An analysis is the first step to achieving any goal. Be it a business goal or the PCI SSF standard. These standards demonstrate the best practices to be followed. Performing a comparative analysis on where the organization is currently with the standards prescribed by PCI SSF will bring you closer to achieving compliance. Once this analysis has been done, you can work on the requirements.

  • Know it in-and-out :

The PCI Security Standard Framework consists of Secure Software Standard (SSS) and Secure Software Lifecycle Program (SLC). The standards prescribed the basis of validation and listing eligibilities vary completely. Although they are part of the same framework, they are designed to achieve different aspects of the objective which is Software Security.

It is significant to know these differences as the security of the payment software being designed and developed can be easily achieved.

  • Staying abreast of the updates from PCI Council

Keeping a tab on updates must be kept as a constant activity during any transitions. A transition is the time announcements are made and staying prepared with updating policies and requirements can prevent last-minute lapses.

  • Professional expertise

The importance and benefits of professional guidance during such transitions are self-evident. We at QRC can help you in preparing for this transition phase. We conduct a thorough audit of your software development process as per the Secure SLC defined scope and requirements. Post assessment, we provide you with AoV, ROV Report. With new Secure SLC standards in play, you can reap the benefit of Secure SLC Annual Maintenance Service that ensures full compliance of the SLC on Recertification Assessment. You can avail services for risk identification, analysis, and management. We conduct impact analysis and provide end-to-end assistance from configuration and change management to establishing Quality Assurance Process. We also provide complete SSS Solution by reviewing, advising, security testing, conducting code review the payment software, training the development teams and helping in certification and listing in PCI SSC Secure Software Standard listing.

What is GDPR & It Influence Enhancing Data Privacy

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Introduction of GDPR

The importance of the protection of private data and the business risks associated with it has increased post-GDPR. The reasons might be several, ranging from the large penalties posed for non-compliance to bringing an exclusive legal framework for data protection but it can be said that business organizations now view data protection with adequate caution.

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is an important legal framework for data privacy formed by the European Union. The European Commission decided to plan the data protection framework for its business organizations in 2012 and later GDPR was introduced as one of the major parts of this reform. GDPR’s applicability extends to the organizations in Europe, the organizations in all its member states across and beyond Europe.

7 Principles of GDPR

The GDPR uses 7 principles to optimize data privacy in an organization. Let us first take a look at the seven principles of GDPR:

  1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency- The GDPR states that processing of data must have proper reasons and the reasons can include or extend to any of the below: You have the user’s consent.
    • You need to process it for a contract.
    • It is crucial for fulfillment of any legal obligation.
    • For the protection of the vital interests of a natural person.
    • It is done in the public interest.
    • You have a legitimate interest.
  2. The data handling and reason for data processing must be transparent. The way of dealing with personal data must be fair and with the consent of the user without any withholding or misuse of data.
  3. Purpose limitation- The GDPR limits the purpose of data processing. It states that data must be collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes only. The purpose for data usage must be clearly defined, communicated to relevant users, and adhered to strictly. Any purpose or need for data processing arising out of the defined scope must have updated consent.
  4. Data minimization- GDPR not only limits the purpose of the data collected but also the data itself. It restricts the amount of data collected for the specified purpose to the minimum. Collection and processing of any excess data must be avoided.
  5. Accuracy- Data collected and processed must be limited, defined to a purpose, and must be accurate. Any inaccurate data must be erased and data storage must be cleaned at regular intervals.
  6. Storage limitation- Storage of data must be specified to a fixed duration. Data retention periods must be specified and any data which is not used after a certain period must be anonymized.
  7. Integrity and confidentiality- Data stored must be protected from threats and must be confidential. Handling of confidential data must be done with complete integrity and diligence to avoid data breaches or data loss.
  8. Accountability- It is not merely enough to follow the principles prescribed by the GDPR, but also a considerable amount of accountability has been created by the need for evidence. There must be a complete documentation of all procedures followed. Adequate evidence must be produced by the organization demonstrating the compliance of the organization with the GDPR requirements.

Effects of GDPR non-compliance:

The repercussions of not being GDPR compliant depends on the severity of the data breach and how severely the organization has followed the GDPR requirements previously. It can be anything from a fine ranging from 10 million euros to four percent of the company’s annual global turnover.

For instance, an organization that has committed an infringement of rights of its data subjects or unauthorized transfer of personal data internationally, or detaining requests of subjects for access of their data will have to pay a maximum penalty of 20 million euros or four percent of worldwide turnover – whichever is greater. These kinds of losses sometimes lead to billions for big organizations.

The wholesome impact of the GDPR approach

What are the impacts of achieving  GDPR compliance  in an organization? Read through:

  • Increase in customer trust: The GDPR lays down frequent audits of data protection activities and employs a Data Protection Officer (DPO) as a mandatory requirement. Compliance with such data protection principles makes sure that necessary operational practices are in place and this increases the trust of the customers.
  • Improved data security: The access to critical data must be restricted only to necessary resources and the GDPR ensures this through its requirement of privileged identity access management. The GDPR has laid down a strong foundation for data security. It goes a step further and states that any data breach or exposure of data to unauthorized personnel must be reported within 72 hours of occurrence.
  • Cuts down maintenance costs – The GDPR lays down that any data or software or internal applications which are redundant. It requires an organization to keep all their up to date to be compliant with the GDPR requirements and this way, the costs related to storage and retention of old data is cut down.
  • Constantly evolving technology- There are multiple advantages to staying up-to-date from better management of business demands internally to offering better quality to customers externally. The GDPR pushes an organization to stay at its best and latest technology constantly, pushing it to adapt to migrating trends like cloud computing, BYOD, virtualization, etc.
  • Improved decision making- The requirements laid down by GDPR are such that the organizational data and data management will become more consistent and consolidated, which in turn makes it easier to use for automation and analysis. This decreases arbitration and improves the decision-making in the organization.

How GDPR enables optimum data privacy?

The GDPR is not merely a legal requirement, but a legislation that provides wide scope for the achievement of better data security and privacy while striking a balance between advancement in business and technology. The GDPR uses tools like pseudonymization and its seven principles to demonstrate better privacy within the organization.

Anonymization and pseudonymization of data are critical tools through which the GDPR enables optimum data security and privacy in the organization. Using the concept of  pseudonymization, data can be partially anonymized:

  • When data is collected, the user’s identity is replaced with a unique random pseudo-identity.
  • The relationship between the user’s identity and pseudo-identity is stored separately.
  • The data user can be determined with the help of the mapping data stored separately.
  • The data is regarded as pseudonymized.
  • It is crucial to keep this mapping data safely stored. On deletion of the mapping data, the data gets fully anonymized.

The GDPR enables optimization of data privacy in every step of meeting its requirements, right from understanding the purpose of data collection, defining the scope of data collection, minimizing the amount of data collected and stored, obtaining adequate consent from data users for collection, and maintenance of documentation for all the processes followed.

It is the basic requirement of the GDPR to follow lawfulness, fairness, and transparency of data irrespective of whichever process is followed. It is a continuous and evolving process to achieve the principles of the GDPR and this process enables an organization to exercise optimum privacy of personal d

Assessment process followed by QRC –

We at QRC, provide  GDPR assessment  services and can lead you through the road-map of staying GDPR compliant. Take a look at our implementation process:

  • GDPR Readiness Check Questionnaires- This is done to determine the amount of data risk present in the current situation, to check if the organization is GDPR-ready.
  • GDPR Gap Analysis – Ascertaining the position of the organization in terms of GDPR requirements and conducting a gap analysis to determine plans for reaching the standards.
  • GDPR Data Flow Audit- A data flow audit is conducted with a prepared data flow map. This is to clearly define what personal data is stored and how it is stored.
  • On-site audits- An on-site audit is conducted with a questionnaire to identify how the organization’s improved practices demonstrate readiness.

Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)- All new processes introduced in time, need to undergo assessment for data protection risks associated with them and a remediation plan to mitigate those risks.

PCI Awareness training and how to go about it

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The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) which was formed in the year 2004 for the sole purpose of addressing these risks associated with data security, has set a standard to be followed by organizations that deal with sensitive data or otherwise known as authentication information. The PCI DSS strives to protect sensitive data, but a recent survey suggests that most PCI DSS compliant organizations are viewing this standard as a certification process rather than as an opportunity to improve their resilience. In order to emphasize the importance of the PCI DSS standard and to gain a wholesome perspective, PCI awareness training is required in every organization.

Let us look into the “Who, Why What and How?” of PCI awareness training.

Who must take the PCI awareness training?

The PCI awareness training is aimed at the employees of any organization in the payment card industry, but it can be taken by anyone who would be interested in learning about the payment card industry or any organization which must stay compliant with the PCI DSS standard.

The  12.6  of PCI DSS standards states that it is mandatory for an organization that obtains, processes, and retains payment card data to provide annual training for its staff members.

Why does an organization need PCI awareness training?

Let us take a look at the benefits of undergoing PCI awareness training:

1. We are already aware of how being PCI certified can provide a deep understanding of compliance. A PCI awareness training provides important insights way before the organization actually undergoes the assessment and certification process.

2. Through such extended insights, the employees of the organization can gain an understanding of better operational efficiency, aiding in cost management and asset management.

3. Access to know best practices across the industry in advance.

4. Eases in driving compliance and efficiency across the business organization.

What is PCI DSS Standard 12.6?

The PCI DSS 12.6 consists of a Security Awareness Program and Employee Training Requirements. It requires the organization to set up a formal security awareness program to ensure that all the employees are aware of the significance of data security. Below are the requirements of 12.6 PCI DSS :
1) 12.6.1  – Provide data security training for the employees at least annually.
2) 12.6.1.a  – Arrange training through various modes and multiple methods like corporate mailers, web module-based training, training meetings, etc.
3) 12.6.1.b  – Ensure that all the employees attend the training arranged twice, once during onboarding and regularly on an annual basis.
4) 12.6.2  – Take confirmation and acknowledgment from all the staff members that the security policies and guidelines have been communicated and understood by them.

Additionally, the PCI DSS 12.6 also suggests that the training conducted demonstrates the below points :

1. The effect of compliance of PCI DSS and the training requirements are fulfilled annually.

2. To keep implementing better understanding amongst the employees through training to ensure card data is constantly being protected.

3. Make sure that all the staff knows the requirements, roles, and procedures as given by PCI DSS.

4. Ensure that the training provided includes awareness about the financial implications caused by data breaches.

5. Security updates received every month are being communicated in a timely manner through security mailers and tips.

6. The training material includes important documents and policies which have company-specific guidelines on cyber security.

How to implement PCI awareness training?

While implementing a PCI awareness training program, it is to be given utmost importance as it can prove to be a make or break of an organization’s network and cyber governance. The most important task is to decide on a security awareness team as the PCI council has stated that a security awareness team will be responsible for “the development, delivery, and maintenance of the security awareness program”. One quick tip while taking the first and foremost step of determining a security awareness team is to choose people from a different team with different responsibilities as that way the inputs provided will be diverse and various needs of different teams will be taken care of. Once a security awareness team is determined, roles must be determined within the team.

Below are a few important things to consider while arranging a PCI awareness training :

1. Primary emphasis must be given to internal security. When internal security is emphasized, the best practices are demonstrated in a well-defined manner, and this aids while tackling the external threats.

2. Every team in the organization must be given equal awareness about the threats, vulnerabilities present within the organization so that every employee maintains the same state of mind towards cyber risk while at work.

3. The prerequisite to a good training program is well-prepared process guidelines and process documents. Compliance with security standards, certifications, existing threat levels need to be analyzed and reported. Important reports and documents need to be easily and readily available for illustrating the importance of cyber risk within the organization to the employees.

4. The arranged training sessions must be in a timely manner as vulnerabilities are constantly evolving in nature. Planning the training sessions in regular intervals and in accordance with the organization’s important milestones is important. Timing is key when it comes to training.

5. From the very first day of training, make sure that employees take initiative from their end voluntarily to protect the data security of the organization. Cyber risk security tips and awareness must be included in the day-to-day activities of the employees.

6. Holding monthly awareness campaigns with a monthly theme is a good way to implement training without affecting day-to-day productivity. Cyber risk themes like password protection, social network security, etc. can be chosen as a monthly topic for special features.

7. Sending reminder emails with cyber security tips is also an efficient way of implementing cyber security amongst employees. Email newsletters can be sent if any new guidelines are implemented.

8. Intranet portals must be actively used to access the important reports and documents used during the annual training sessions. This way, employees will always have sufficient access to cyber security guidelines.

12 requirements of the PCI DSS Compliance

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Electronic payments are all over the world today, owing to the convenience of time and effort it gives to the users. From small vendors to big corporates, are all offering card payments as an alternative payment method to augment their selling opportunities. Nevertheless, a user’s card information is sensitive and to process this information is attached with risk and accountability. Securing this personal data from thefts and frauds is the duty of merchants as per PCI DSS. (Payments Card Industry Data Security Standards). PCI DSS intends to reduce the risk of card fraud and increase the security controls for cardholder data.

What is PCI DSS?

Information relating to Credit cards is extremely vulnerable, as data thefts have turned predominant now. Credit card theft is the second most common type of theft and the amount of fraud by new credit card accounts saw a 48% increase from 2019.

The  PCI DSS  is a compliance standard set for data security requirements concerning the handling, storing, or transmission of cardholders’ data. Leading card brands Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB collaborated to form PCI SSC which is an independent council that maintains and updates PCI standards.

To whom does it apply?

PCI DSS applies globally to all big and small merchants, also the service providers who store, process, or transmit cardholder information. PCI necessitates card holder data, sensitive authentication data to be made compliant by the companies and maintained as merchants use such data. If a payment card carries the logo of any of the above-said PCI’s founding card brands, it must be protected as per PCI DSS.

Requirements of PCI DSS Compliance

PCI DSS is your roadmap to card data security compliance by fulfilling the 12 requirements listed in the standard. Following are the 12 Requirements under PCI DSS for card data securitization.

  • Step 1) Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data– Firewalls are the first line of defence against hackers, so have the firewall and routers configured properly. This firewall must set the rules to what kind of traffics can be allowed inside your corporate network
  • Step 2) Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters – Remove Vendor supplied default settings for all software, network devices, and servers. Using default settings, usernames and passwords are simple to guess putting access to the device at risk. Upgrade your settings for all devices and maintain documentation for these high-security configurations
  • Step 3) Protect stored cardholder data- Use ‘encryption key management process’ to encrypt card data and protect the encryption keys also. It requires creating a Card Holder (CHD) Flow to document how the cardholder data flows in the organization. PCI demands the use of discovery tools to locate and secure unencrypted PAN and other vulnerable data.
  • Step 4) Encrypt cardholder data transmitted across open, public networks – This step focuses on securing the data in transmission. As the hacker’s eye on the data on the transit, PCI requires encryption of data before transmission.
  • Step 5) Protect all systems against malware and regularly update anti-virus software or programs – Install anti-virus on all hardware and software devices. Make sure that the anti-virus does continuous monitoring and generates logs on a regular basis.
  • Step 6) Develop secure systems and applications – Conduct a thorough risk assessment to implement processes for deployment of technology. It is important to update and patch internet browsers, applications, databases, firewalls, POS terminals, and OS in the card flow path within a month of its release.
  • Step 7) Restrict cardholder data on a need-to-know basis – This step requires having a role-based access control (RBAC). It allows access to card holder’s data only to individuals who need it for business purposes, through keycards and passcodes.
  • Step 8) Identify and authenticate access to system components – This PCI DSS step requires, every individual user to have a separate and unique password and username. Group and shared passwords must never be used. This step helps to trace back the activity in the event of an internal data breach.
  • Step 9) Restrict physical access to cardholder data – PCI DSS directs to have electronic monitoring of entry-exit of file storage and data center locations. These video recordings must be preserved for 90 days and there needs to be a process to identify between employees and visitors.
  • Step 10) Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data – This step mandates monitoring and protection of all network systems with a clear history of activities. These activity logs must be centrally monitored daily, time-synchronized, and maintained for 1 year at least.
  • Step 11) Regularly test security systems and processes – Due to the constant eyeing of cybercriminals, PCI requires merchants to have a continuous process and system testing. Create plans for vulnerability scanning and penetration testing as specified by PCI DSS.
  • Step 12) Documenting and maintaining risk assessments – This step involves creating, maintaining, and implementing a security policy for the company covering its employees, management, and third parties. The policies must be reviewed annually as well.

Consequences of Non-compliance

Theft or breach of card data badly affects the entire payments ecosystem. Here are a few consequences one may have to face for non-compliance with PCI standards.

Penalties – PCI DSS non-compliance can result in penalties from the card companies. Fines depend upon the volume of payments handled by the merchant in question. Penalties may vary from $ 50 per cardholder and peak up to a total of $100,000 per month. The bigger companies that operate with volume frequently get audited for PCI Compliance and they may decide to levy penalties in case of non-compliance.

Revenue loss and damaged reputation -Due to data breach, there can be loss of trust among customers which can lead to loss of credibility and personal fallouts. The business that is lost is the largest consequence of data breach. It is extremely hard to recover from data breaches because the losses get greater than the data itself in such scenarios and impacts organizations for years.

Legal action – Even though PCI DSS is not a legal requirement, in an event of data breach, the affecting parties can take legal action. In 2007, $40.9 M was compensated by TJX for exposing 100 million card holders’ information.

How to Make PCI Compliance Easy and Cost-Effective?

Here we are trying to burst the mythos that  PCI Compliance  can be stressful, expensive, and time-consuming. These are a few things that make sure that your budgets are not hit hard for ensuring compliance.

  1. Install patches and updates regularly to avoid technology and additional staffing costs on the security team.
  2. Train the development team on secure coding best practices. This will reduce much vulnerability from the start and reduce remediation costs.
  3. Keep up with the changing PCI standards. In case you fall short of complying with the latest standards, reassessments are required. Reassessments involve audits which are further time-consuming and expensive.
  4. Send your key personnel on Compliance training courses so that they can understand the most relevant risks that apply to your organization. This further reduces reassessment and audit costs.

QRC as a leading PCI Qualified Security Assessor Company

Being a PCI QSA, QRC helps businesses to highlight gaps in their compliance posture whether it is a SAQs Assessment or the complete  PCI DSS certification, supporting end-to-end in compliance journey with complete confidence.

As a certified PCI Qualified Security Assessor Company, QRC can certify your organization and process for PCI DSS compliance. We also offer other PCI security standards like  PCI 3DS,  PCI SSF  etc. QRC provides these services to give organizations across the globe an edge of being a completely security compliant business organization. Our security assessment services cover all aspects of the technology infrastructure (Web, API, Network, Cloud Assets, Servers)that has helped our clients to streamline data security processes and practices over the years.

Everything you need to know about ISO/IEC 27001

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This article is part of our ISO 27001 risk assessment  hub page, where we bring together detailed resources on certification, implementation, controls, and compliance. If you are new to ISO/IEC 27001, this guide will help you understand what the standard is, why it matters, and how it helps organizations build a reliable Information Security Management System.

Everything you need to know about ISO/IEC 27001 Certification

ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard for the management of information security, where ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. ISO/IEC 27001 is the go-to rule book if you are looking to set up a strong Information Security management system for your organization.

It provides a systemized set of policies and process flows to be used by organizations. The ISMS prescribed by ISO/IEC 27001 helps organizations to protect their information system, irrespective of how big they are and which industry they belong to.

ISO/IEC 27001 Certification : Planning, Process, and Main sections

To be eligible for an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate, a company must succeed in the audit conducted by an accredited certification body. Once this certificate is obtained, it implies that the organization has satisfied all the requirements as per the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standard.

The pre-requisite to succeeding in the external audit is to optimize or revamp the existing Information Security Management System. The standard lists six steps to create and self-evaluate:

1. Understanding the security controls required for the specific industry or organization and developing a security policy.

2. To get the developed security policy up and going by manifesting clearly defined scope across the various teams, the tasks carried out by these teams, and the technology used to complete the tasks.

3. Organizing a risk assessment.

4. Evaluating the outcome of the risk assessment and identifying the threats.

5. Selecting appropriate controls to mitigate the threats identified and implementing it with proper steps.

6. Modifying the security policy according to selected and implemented controls.

The 3 principles of Information Security Management System: –

The standard lays out 14 controls to achieve the three aspects, which it states as the basic principles to achieve for information security.

•  Confidentiality: Confidentiality is to maintain the organization’s information in private. This aspect ensures providing access to crucial information only to authorized persons.

•  Integrity: Integrity refers to giving rights to edit crucial information only to specified persons.

•  Availability: Authorized persons must have timely access to the crucial information.

ISO/IEC 27001 aims at ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information in the organization. Risk assessment of the information, clear definition of needs of the organization, and risk mitigation are carried out step-by-step to achieve this.

The Plan-Do-Check-Act Methodology: –

The standard lays out 14 controls, which can be implemented through a 4-step methodology: Plan, Do, Check, Act. The 14 controls involve guidelines to prepare a information security plan, taking timely actions and doing to prevent data threat and checking the critical aspects at various levels.

Plan:  It provides guidelines on how to plan the information security policies, plan for implementation of well-designed ISMS, and plan of risk management within the human resource team.

Do:  It emphasizes data security within the organization.

Check:  It instructs to check the crucial aspects within the organization.

Act:  This explains the actions to be taken within the organization to prevent data incidents and threats.

14 Key Requirements of Information Security Management System: –

Let us take a look at them.

A.5: Information security policies (2 controls): This control is all about Information security policies. From defining the framework to create an ISMS to documentation of policies and also the method to review it.

A.6: Organization of information security (7 controls):  This control is about implementing the well-designed ISMS. It comprises clear assignment of duties designation-wise for smooth operation of the ISMS.

A.7: Human resource security – 6 controls:  This control defines the steps to be taken for information security during the on-boarding and off-boarding of employees in the organisation. It also involves the aspects of conducting training for awareness on information security, the nature of decisions or actions taken by the management on non-adherence and agreements regarding termination of employees.

A.8: Asset management (10 controls):  This control consists of protection of data assets. The framework to be followed for maintenance of hardware, software and databases. The extent of data integrity and safe handling of data assets are checked by auditors.

A.9: Access control (14 controls):  This control ensures the aspect of confidentiality. It is about limitation of access to specified persons and how the access privileges are managed.

A.10: Cryptography (2 controls):  This control checks the various types of encryptions used (like DES, RSA, or AES) for protection of sensitive information.

A.11: Physical and environmental security (15 controls):  This control checks the measures taken for protection of information from physical factors. All physical aspects such as security systems in the buildings, access to internal equipment, vulnerabilities involving human and natural factors are checked.

A.12: Operations security (14 controls):  This control consists of securing the data with backup and preventing the organization from data loss. It provides guidelines on how to save and store data involving data flows.

A.13: Communications security (7 controls):  This control defines the standard of network and communication services used for ensuring a good standard in data infrastructure.

A.14: System acquisition, development, and maintenance (13 controls):  This control defines the standards of security to be met while the organization acquires new information systems.

A.15: Supplier relationships (5 controls):  This control checks the aspects of the organization’s communication and interaction with any third-party. All the interactions, communication, and extent of access present with any third-party service providers, outsourced personnel and vendors are checked.

A.16: Information security incident management (7 controls):  This control lays out the best practices to be followed to prevent security incidents, handling of a threat and preventing recurrence of such situations.

A.17: Information security aspects of business continuity management (4 controls):  This control is about the aspects of how the organization should handle disruptions, steps for smooth operation of ISMS during a time of crisis.

A.18: Compliance with internal requirements, such as policies, and with external requirements, such as laws (8 controls):  This control provides a check for statutory compliance to the laws laid for the industry in which the organization is operating. It audits and reviews the effectiveness of requirements of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard.

Validity of ISO/IEC 27001:

The validity for the ISO/IEC 27001 certification is 3 years. Regular reviews and evaluation of the ISMS by the senior management of the organization must be conducted internally during this period.

Benefits of being ISO/IEC 27001 certified. Why should you choose this?

The 14 Key Requirements of the ISO/IEC 27001 provides a system of risk mitigation that is rigorous and strong. The follow-up audits, final and most crucial of the three aspects, ensures that your ISMS is constantly evolving along with the threats and the world of digital crime. Having a robust risk mitigation system like the ISO/IEC 27001 means that your organization follows all the best practices and gives an edge over every other organization.

Being ISO/IEC 27001 certified is a sign of reliability, it means you can be trusted with data security. This would be a major reason behind your customers opting you over your competitors as the world today is constantly seeking an assurance for protection of data. It will reduce the cost of sales and boost your sales. Strong risk management increases the maturity of the management as it gives a clear perception of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. ISO/IEC 27001 suits all organizations, irrespective of the size, industry, and geographical location. Cyber security is one of the biggest challenges faced by business organizations globally.

QRC as a Certification Body for ISO/IEC 27001:

QRC provides a hassle-free solution to getting your organization ISO/IEC 27001 certified by walking you through the comprehensive process. Right from enquiry submission, effort estimation, forming a contract, various stages of audits and assessments leading to the certification and annual reviews following it. As an ISO/IEC 27001 independent certification body, QRC provides these services to give organizations across the globe an edge of being a completely security compliant business organization with streamlined information security management process.

What is Payment Card Industry Data Security compliance?

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Understand the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requirements and how the critical role it plays under placing a robust benefit on successful enforcement of the PCI DSS compliance program.

Developed and launched by the founding payment brands of  PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC)  in 2006, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a standardized, industry-wide set of requirements and processes for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design, and critical protective measures.

The requirements stated for PCI DSS compliance are essential to ensure that all entities that process, store, or transmit payment card information maintain a secure environment to prevent any security incident. Though the PCI DSS is not a law, it holds a strong contractual obligation to be applied and enforced through fines or other restrictions – directly by the payment providers themselves.

Here we will have a look at :

  • Overview of the PCI DSS
  • 12 Requirements for PCI DSS compliance
  • PCI DSS compliance  Benefits
  • Difficulties Posed by PCI Non-Compliance
  • Conclusion

Overview of the PCI DSS

PCI DSS has been put forth as the benchmark standard compliance program for the security and protection of the cardholder data, The standard applies to any business IT system or operation that involves any stage of storing, processing, or transmitting the cardholder data. Successful implementation of the controls defined under the PCI DSS makes it more difficult for the attackers to steal sensitive data promoting security and assurance to multiple parties involved in the payment processing cycle like Payment Card Brands, Issuers, Merchants, and Acquirers, etc.PCI DSS Implementation does not require any special grade countermeasures but focuses on placing a minimum baseline to help organizations defend their business against their attackers.

Aiding the successful implementation of the  PCI DSS compliance program, the PCI SSC council has provided a set of resources to aid any organization that seeks to implement or attain  PCI DSS compliance. Along with other key documents, the security council has provided:

  • PCI Data Security Standard quick reference guide and approach
  • PCI Software Security Framework  and a list of Validated Payment vendors and applications under its Secure Software Standard and Secure Software Lifecycle Standard to help payment software vendors adhere to security practices in the development cycle and software.
  • PCI PIN Transaction Security (PTS) requirements for device vendors and manufacturers, along with a list of approved PIN transaction devices
  • Self-Assessment Questionnaires templates in aiding organizations to validate their PCI DSS compliance.
  • List of Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) for the multiple compliance standards
  • List of Approved Scanning Vendors (ASVs)
  • An Internal Security Assessor (ISA) education program

The council also provides resources for Card production, PIN, TSP (Token Service Providers), and contactless payments, etc.

12 Requirements for  PCI DSS compliance

The PCI DSS compliance program has seen major changes over the years, The latest versions  groups the  12 PCI DSS requirements, in the six principles stated are as follows:

Implementation of Secure Network Infrastructure

  1. Install and maintain a secure firewall
    Network firewalls can be software or hardware technologies that provide the first line of defense to a network. Firewalls can restrict incoming and outgoing network traffic
    through rules and criteria configured by your organization. Being the first line of defense against cyber threats and their effectiveness, firewalls are required for PCI DSS compliance.
  2. Password protection policy
    Implementation of adequate configuration standards for networking devices and applications in the enterprise is necessary. Using third-party products with generic passwords lowers the effectiveness of the security measures, making the systems easily accessed by the public. IT heads need to maintain and update asset inventory along with a strict policy for password usage and configuration, to ensure PCI DSS compliance.
    Secure Cardholder Data
  3. Protect Cardholder data
    The third requirement is designed to minimize the impact of an attacker managing to compromise your network and system components to gain unauthorized access to your data stores. To effectively reduce the risk of unauthorized access, it is necessary that data retention is kept to an absolute minimum and the stored data is protected using Encryption, Tokenization (with effective supporting practices), and so on.
    Regular scanning and maintenance of the cardholder data environment are required to ensure that no unencrypted data exists, to maintain PCI DSS compliance.
  4. Encrypt cardholder data across the network
    Much like “Cash In Transit,” cardholder data is sent across multiple channels as per requirement. This makes it necessary to ensure that the sensitive cardholder data is encrypted when transiting over public-facing environments.
    Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
  5. Install and maintain an antivirus program
    Cybercriminals are constantly evolving malware strains, hence all the devices that require an antivirus program must be installed. The program needs to be patched and updated regularly. With evolving security requirements, it’s essential that asset security programs remain updated and to ensure that the controls remain effective.
    The audit logs help you to verify compliance with PCI DSS assessment, without which one would be unaware of an unauthorized browser extension or malware that can read PANs as they are entered into a payment application. 
  6. Maintain strong system and application
    Application developers can never be perfect hence it is necessary to update/patch security holes, a cybercriminal will pass the security vulnerabilities across the hacker community to exploit the weakness until the systems are patched. The software development process must be carried out securely to ensure no new vulnerabilities are introduced.
    All changes must be managed, to document the supporting risk-based
    decisions made (e.g., Impact, Rollback options, etc. The updates are necessary for all software on devices that are used to manage cardholder data.
    Implement Strong Access Control Measures
  7. Restrict access to cardholder data
    Isolating access rights is nowhere crucial than the payment cardholder data. The merchants need to ensure that managing employees grant access rights to the least amount of data that are necessary to perform any action.
    It’s necessary to establish an access control system for each element of the cardholder data infrastructure, and all access rights must be set by default to ‘deny all’ unless an individual is specifically allowed access to designated cardholder data.
  8. Authentication policy for access to system components
    Any person who has access to cardholder data should have individual credentials for access identification. Unique IDs and authentication methods (passwords/token devices/biometrics) should be used for everyone. Prohibit shared/generic accounts and implement Two-factor authentication for remote access.
  9. Restrict physical access
    Merchants need to restrict physical access to cardholder data or systems that house cardholder data – including hardcopies, stored in a secure location to manage PCI DSS compliance.
    The card environment should have physical security controls and procedures for the identification and management of any visitors to the premises.
    Regularly Monitor and Test Networks
  10. Monitor and maintain access logs
    All activities concerning handling and managing cardholder data need to have a log entry associated with them. The logging mechanisms are necessary for vulnerability management. Merchants must create a process that links all access by individual users to
    cardholder system components that will enable you to reconstruct and record events.– especially when done with administrative privileges.
    The ability to produce detailed audit reports on demand is important for  PCI  DSS  compliance.
  11. Regularly test security systems and processes
    New vulnerabilities are discovered daily and hence PCI DSS requires merchants to regularly test cardholder data systems and processes to find those vulnerabilities and fix them.  Vulnerability scans  for both internal and external networks (at least quarterly) and penetration testing (network and application layer) are required.
    Network and host-based IDS or IPS are to be managed and maintained along with a system to monitor file integrity.
    Maintain an Information Security Policy
  12. Document and maintain policies that address information security for all personnel
    PCI DSS compliance  requires merchants to maintain a policy that addresses information security for all personnel. The policies determine the nature of the controls used to ensure security and comply with PCI requirements that apply to each component in the cardholder data environment like – PIN entry devices, servers, network services, applications, PCs, and other endpoints.

PCI Compliance Benefits

Cybercriminals are opportunists that seek to exploit the misinterpretation/misapplication of the PCI DSS controls, poorly managed PCI DSS oversight, bad practices, or poor risk management processes. Even though the process of complying is a very daunting task, yet its importance is growing over time. The process of gaining  PCI DSS compliance  with the right tools can be completed with ease even considering the maze of standards and issues.

The compliance benefits can be counted as follows :

  • Ensure system security and develop customer trust, confidence and manage system security that ensures trust for businesses
  • Reduce the risk of security breaches by ensuring application security and loophole closure concerning Cardholder Date and Cardholder Data Environment.
  • An increase in business prospects as being the  PCI compliance  stature promotes one as a secure business ensuring growth in reputation.
  • An organization that complies with PCI DSS should be able to decrease the data breach significantly. Being compliant with PCI DSS ensures that the company has a strong commitment to protecting its data, improving customer relationships.
  • Gaining  PCI DSS compliance  will prepare you better with other privacy and regulation standards like ISMS,HIPAA, SOX,  GDPR, etc.
  • Successful implementation will lead to the overall improvement of IT infrastructure efficiency.

Difficulties Posed by PCI Non-Compliance

PCI DSS compliance is treated as an annual “tick box” audit however, this is far from reality where PCI DSS should be treated more like having the responsibility for owning and running couriers, road haulage, or taxi services. The increasing dependency on electronic payment systems has increased its regard in the eyes of cybercriminals. This ever-growing trend toward payment cards increases the potential opportunities for criminals to exploit poor practices.

Failing to noncompliance would result into :

  • Data breach incidents that affect consumers, financial institutions along with severe damage to the company brand.
  • In addition to the loss of brand reputation, a merchant should expect their revenue to drop drastically owing to the loss of clients followed by a security incident.
  • Legal actions, insurance claims. government fines and lawsuits and canceled accounts.

Conclusion

The PCI DSS compliance poses a challenge to every business that’s not rightly prepared and looking forward to gaining the PCI DSS compliance status. PCI DSS continues to evolve based upon mature and well-established industry best practices. Consequently, to repay the consumer trust and to reduce the attractiveness to criminals, businesses must understand the heritage of the PCI DSS controls to better enable them to develop robust defenses.

Acing the SOC audit with ideal documentation

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Creating evidence of significant operational activities and documentation of processes is a prerequisite to achieving compliance in an organization. It is the first and foremost step in any audit process. The SOC 1 and the SOC 2 audit processes are no exemption to this age-old practice. Any organization aiming to achieve compliance through the SOC reports must ensure that proper evidence is documented and presented during the audit. This generally includes providing documents that emphasize the various ways in which the organization has formed policies and guidelines with the compliance requirements in mind. It must also highlight that such policies are actively in practice.

The SOC 1 audit requires documents that are related to the internal controls of financial reporting, while the SOC 2 audit might require documents that emphasize trust principles. The nature and kind of documentation differ based on the audit the organization is subjected to.

Read through to learn how to ace the documentation process of the SOC audit:

System Description:  This is a document that is handed over to the auditor before the audit process. This is a description provided by the management about the organization’s systems, policies, processes, system infrastructure, and controls placed. While this report is often referred to as “Management description”, it is not necessary that it needs to be highly descriptive. Appropriate details must be provided with enough information about key policies, day-to-day process flows with flowcharts, or any tools for easy illustration.

It is always better to highlight how the compliance requirements like the trust principles, etc. are implemented to smooth delivery of services along with compliance. As this document is generally handed over well in advance, the organization must take caution if any changes are to occur in the systems.

Documentation for user entity controls:

These are reports which align the organization to the control objectives and requirements of the SOC audit as these illustrate the efforts of the organization which are implemented at the user-entity level. This documentation is descriptive about how services from third-party are secured for processes like auditing, services related to the cloud, transaction-level activities involving other organizations. Details like service level and user entity commitments must be provided as they are crucial to the organization. It is to be noted that all the processes implemented to exercise control objectives within the organizational operations must be included in this document like access and data process in information systems, monitoring processing errors, carrying over important reconciliations.

Documentation for technical security:

This documentation is done including all the physical devices used within the network of the organization. It can be described as a list of all the physical devices, all the records related to the maintenance of such equipment, plans for data security and security measures like configuration of the system, methods of data retention used, methods of data deletion, access management system, password policies, etc.

It is suggested to include major records maintained like system access logs, system backup records, patch records, security of key controls which ensure the protection of data. Any data which is related to the management of systems and devices with an infrastructure must be documented and reported.

Documentation for operational activities:

It is crucial to document the process flow of day-to-day activities done in the organization in the form of flow diagrams, control documents, risk management plan workflow, any compliance routine, data privacy practices, usage agreements, and confidential agreements.

Documentation for human resource management:

Human resource management in an organization involves activities like creating an organizational hierarchy chart, assigning clearly defined roles for every hierarchy created, having a list of roles and responsibilities of all the employees, putting a compliance process in place, creating security awareness, distribution of employee handbooks for operational practices. Apart from such day to day activities, the human resource must also have a well structures process aligned for the hiring of candidates, onboarding of new employees, evaluating employee performance, terms and conditions for employee termination, proper surrender of access to physical devices and system applications, action applicable on violation of company policy, transfer of department and change of positions for existing employees, code of conduct, manuals for standard operating procedures for information security, corporate governance and code of conduct.

All the processes carried out day in and day out, as well as monthly, annual practices as mentioned above, must be documented and presented with complete information.

Documentation for administration and security policies:  It is of utmost importance to document the mandatory policies which are formed in the organization at the time of inception or at the time of risk management planning like the organization’s administrative policies, the information security policy, the business continuity policy, incident management policy, disaster recovery policy, policies for access management, etc.

Documentation for risk assessment:  Documents related to any assessments done previously like risk assessment reports, third-party audit reports, assessment questionnaires, vulnerability tests, or any other audits or risk assessment tests done must be documented and presented in the SOC audit. Audit findings if any from the previous audits must also be presented along with the corrective actions implemented. Below are a few pointers for an ideal risk assessment report:

  • Identification of threats
  • Possibility of threats and impact of possibility.
  • Steps to mitigate the risks identified
  • Plan of action and additional precautions to be taken
  • Policies to involve all departments in the risk assessment process
  • Communication of risk across the organization

Conclusion

An organization aiming to achieve compliance through the SOC audit must look forward to and be ready for a huge amount of documentation and evidence presentation as both SOC 1 and SOC 2 have their requirements to be met as part of the SOC assessment process. In such a situation, it is better if the organization has a repository of all documentation stored and maintained. This ensures ease in the audit process for the auditor and the organization, as all the documents will be already present and available for the auditor and any case of missing documents can be identified well in advance and necessary action can be taken accordingly by the auditor. If this practice is followed in the long term, the organization can even bring best practices for documentation and can ensure that there are no gaps in documentation in the coming years.

We at QRC can help you get your documentation ready for the SOC audit. It requires a flawless presentation of the organization’s documentation to get through the SOC audit. Through our SOC assessment services, we can help you align your organization’s documentation to the requirements of the SOC, and this way your organization emphasizes that you go through flawless documentation, assessment, and audit. When there are no gaps in documentation, compliance, and audits are a no-brainer !

Cybersecurity Challenges using IoT / IoMT Health

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The healthcare industry has seen rapid changes in the past few years, especially with the advent of IoT devices that have been evolving at a faster pace. We have seen considerable development, even having a long way to go. The pandemic fueled rapid adoption, revealing the vulnerabilities, and inefficiencies in this sector.

While major IoT healthcare initiatives currently revolve around telemedicine and remote monitoring, the upcoming phase had a broader scope like tracking, monitoring and maintaining medical equipment and healthcare assets etc. Applications like personal healthcare, biosensors, smart beds, smart pills, the health insurance industry, robotics, and other specializations have just expanded the scope of IoT, and we haven’t talked about the pharma industry yet.

Benefits of IoT Healthcare

The ongoing pandemic clearly paved the way for faster adoption of the IoT devices and tele healthcare services. The key advantages of having IoT in healthcare are :

  • Medical Mobility :  When more patients need urgent assistance, it becomes necessary for the medical staff to track and maintain records of even hundreds of patients, serving in real time. IoT helps in tracking and getting alert when any critical change in a patient’s parameter occurs, aiding in locating and providing direct assistance asap.
  • Patient Data Processing :  Medical professionals tend to spend hours processing different kinds of medical information, Coupled with ML, IoT can excessively reduce these efforts to a few minutes, additionally offering possible treatment options.
  • Enhanced preventive medicine, by better understanding conditions (courtesy of IoT data) and providing timely diagnosis without awaiting for obvious symptoms.
  • Mass reduction in risk of error and miscalculation due to  human factors.
  • Medical Apps  for monitoring critical health issues, aid healthcare professionals in finding out whether the  patient has taken the prescribed medication else, the therapists can call and remind a patient. The whole process can be automated.
  • Under secure practices,the personal data can be directly transferred to the doctor, maintaining  confidentiality,  as the information is moved from one device to another.

The IoT devices collect and transfer health data like the blood pressure, oxygen and blood sugar levels, weight, and ECG readings etc. With the increase in consumer engagements and consciousness regarding their health and better quality of life, there is a surging demand for remote healthcare services aiming to provide a better quality of life. While industries are approaching to provide a more integrated and IoT enabled healthcare solution, these industries have their own set of challenges, a larger amount of which is considering the security threat and privacy challenges.

IoT / IoMT Threats and security challenges

With the increasing market share of the IoT devices in the healthcare field, it has offered a simple door for cyber criminals trying to misuse and profit from device vulnerabilities. Ransomware tops the list of cyberthreats for healthcare organizations.

IoT Device security challenge 

The IoT concerns a wide range of modules like the data acquisition,communication, sensors etc. Owing to the lack of consideration of cybersecurity threats, they have an inherent technical debt which results in compromised medical devices with unpredictable behavior.

Network Segmentation
Most of the healthcare organizations  lack network segmentation  and  access control  of IoT, owing to this any new device introduced will have global organization access, especially to lateral moving sensitive patient information in the network channels. Lack of NATing, allows a IoT device with default configurations to be discover able on the internet.

Use of Legacy systems
Legacy systems cannot be patched or updated as this interferes with the provision of patient care that’s essential 24/7. As these systems are devoid of any new security updates, they greatly facilitate the work of attackers in formulating IoT security breaches,

Mediajacking

Security threats that are owing to the implementation of malicious media to gain access to the medical device fall under the category of media jacking. Once the software is accessed, the attacker can vary the injection quantity to potentially cause lethal damage to the patient, additionally stealing confidential information.

User Impersonation

IoT devices capture data in real time and are a treasure trove of patient data for cybercriminals. Most of the devices lack a data protocol or standard, also the use of open source softwares. The data can be misused to create fake ID using the sensitive information like medical history and social security number, to buy drugs or equipments to sell later or file a fraudulent insurance claim

For any IoT device or environment implementation, apart from  side-channel attacks, following are the key vulnerable areas in IoT device :

  1. Traffic Interception
    Use of legacy systems and network segmentation increase the chances of data drain of confidential data from a secure network while transmitting information to a healthcare’s IoT system.
  2. Debug Port
    Physical devices essentially come with a debug port used for development or debugging purposes. But they can also provide access to attackers to read, high jack or modify the firmware.
  3. Authentication and Authorization
    Secure authentication and authorization mechanisms are necessary to ensure the protection of data against any hacking attempts.Most of the IoT devices come with a device with a default password, which are necessary to be updated to avoid ease of access to malicious hackers.

Considering security as an ‘add-on’ feature in device acquisition
Most of the activities in the device acquisition and implementation phase consider security just an add-on feature, leading to an increase in the risk of human error and poor system configuration. Even the unregulated practice of BYOD, especially by physicians belonging to independent medical groups.

Security concerns while developing IoT apps
While lightweight, developer friendly APIs are the need of the hour, the advent of IoT devices has brought a whole new challenge for IoT security developers. The following are few risks associated with the IoT app development, seen over recent years.

Data Breach Continues To Crash Down Organization

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This article is part of our ISO/IEC 27001 certification hub page, which explains how organizations can strengthen information security and reduce risks through a structured management system. Data breaches can disrupt operations, damage trust, and create serious compliance challenges, making ISO/IEC 27001 an important framework for identifying risks and improving security controls.

According to the latest news reports, leading multinational pharmaceutical companies, playing a key role in affordable and innovative medicines, suffered a massive data breach recently.

The research labs had exposed sensitive data of millions of patients, including COVID -19 test results along with their booking details such as their name, address, phone number, email id, payment details, digital signature and the medical tests prescribed.

Breaches as such occur, as a result of unauthorized access to the system for accessing sensitive information. It could be due to unprotected networks and processing systems and lack of best security and privacy practices in place. In the wake of such incidents, it becomes mandatory on the part of all businesses to make data security as their highest priority.

The data breach has been a sharp reminder of the need to adopt security standards and  data privacy  frameworks like  ISO/IEC 27001, HIPAA, GDPR  etc to strengthen the digital infrastructure and tighten cyber security control measures of the business organization especially for ones that expand to multinationals. Adherence to these will help to minimize any security incident that would have a major impact on business operations.

The growing risk of attacks on the business and security weakness emphasises organizations the need to secure and safeguard people, process and technology.

At a minimum, organizations should think to implement and perform regular Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration testing (VAPT) practices to understand and evaluate immediate risk.

Vulnerability Assessment  is a process of discovering a system’s vulnerabilities, by having an in-depth evaluation of security weaknesses that affect an information system that is present internally and/or externally.

Penetration testing  (commonly referred to as pen testing) is the process of actively checking your business application and systems to determine if potential vulnerabilities can actually be exploited, performed under controlled conditions, simulating scenarios representative of what a real attacker would attempt.

VAPT is the Norm for Security Testing:

Pacing with lightning speed with new testing methodologies, the two significant tests namely Vulnerability assessment and Penetration testing provide an integrated view of threats while locking the scope of vulnerabilities.

Still thinking why consider VAPT ?

  • Avoid Unauthorised access:  Testing current security posture can expose security posture under controlled circumstances. It helps us identify the current loopholes, so that they can be efficiently addressed.
  • Infrastructure under control:  VAPT can identify vulnerabilities inadvertently introduced during changes to the environment, such as a major upgrade or system reconfiguration.
  • Security under Surveillance:  Organizations, especially those acting as data custodians, are being required to showcase their efficient security posture to their customers. Penetration testing can demonstrate a commitment to security from a customer perspective and provide attestation that their assets or services are being managed securely.
  • Risk Management:  VAPT is a common requirement for internal due diligence as part of ongoing efforts to manage threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to an organization. Results can be used as input into an on-going Risk Management process.
  • Protect Business.  VAPT allows companies to proactively assess for emerging or newly discovered vulnerabilities that were not known.

Ohhk, but how to proceed with VAPT ?

VAPT assessments require a clear methodology and planning, a few key steps involved are as follows :

  • Planning the scope  – Decide which systems components (network devices, servers, security devices, applications etc) either accessible from external or internal will be included in the scope of testing.
  • Vulnerability Assessment  – Perform the assessment by using various testing methods and tools to identify potential vulnerabilities and threats to the scoped systems.
  • Exploitation–  The valid vulnerabilities are exploited further to check for the extent of information gained and impact on the  specific system with respect to the confidentiality, integrity and availability.
  • Reporting  – Results from VAPT testing must be analysed,confirmed and documented. This includes recommendations and prioritization of threats that need to be addressed.

If there is a data breach in customer data, then organizations will have reputational damage which can be devastating. Studies have shown that almost a third of customers from retail, finance and healthcare will stop doing business with organizations if their data has been breached. So, it is always better to have a robust security and privacy systems and good VAPT practices in place.