Worst practices: Encryption conniptions

Here's a list of five worst practices that I'd like to share with you:

1. Using Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption. Frequent readers of this site know that I beat the WEP drum often. In fact, the protocol's weaknesses were the subject of a best practices article that I wrote a few months ago: Lessons learned from TJX: Best practices for enterprise wireless encryption. If you're still running WEP encryption in your organization, it's time to face the brutal facts: the simplistic encryption techniques used by WEP may be broken in seconds using freely available tools. As the TJX data breach proved, WEP's inherent flaws provide little real security. If you're looking for a secure alternative to WEP, try WPA2.

2. Practicing "security theatre". Some of you recognize this as a borrowed phrase from well-known security pundit Bruce Schneier's famous essay, In Praise of Security Theater. Essentially, "security theatre" is the practice of implementing complex, expensive security measures solely for the sake of making people notice that you're spending a lot of time and energy on security, despite the fact that your controls are easily defeated and largely ineffective. For example, consider the recent FFIEC federal requirement that banks use two-factor authentication for sensitive transactions. In an effort to skirt this rule, banks added a series of "security questions" to their standard password-based login processes. As any security professionals know, the use of two "something-you-know" fact

To continue reading for free, register below or login

Requires Membership to View

To gain access to this and all member only content, please provide the following information (all fields required):

First Name:
Last Name:
Country: Select... Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Man, Isle of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Email Address:

I would like to receive a FREE subscription to Information Security magazine online.
YesNo

Do you manage, evaluate, recommend, implement, support or purchase security products, software or services?
YesNo

Please estimate the yearly security budget for your entire organization including all security products and services.
Please select... Over $10 Million $5 Million-$10 Million $1 Million-$4.9 Million $500,000-$999,999 $100,000-$499,999 $50,000-$99,999 $25,000-$49,999 $10,000-$24,999 Less than $10,000 None

What is your role in purchasing IT related products and services? (Check all that apply)
Technical decision maker
Financial decision maker
Recommend/Specify
Evaluate products
Implement Products/Services
Determine Needs
Create Security Strategy
None

By joining SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email updates from the TechTarget network of sites, including updates on new content, magazine or event notifications, new site launches and market research surveys. Please verify all information and selections above. You may unsubscribe at any time from one or more of the services you have selected by editing your profile or unsubscribing via email.

TechTarget cares about your privacy. Read our Privacy Policy

3. Encrypting email attachments only to include the encryption key in the message. It happens to me about once a month. Someone sends me a sensitive document by email and, meaning well, uses the encryption feature of Microsoft Office to preserve the confidentiality of the document while in transit. The person then proceeds to praise himself in the body of the message saying something like, "Mike, I know you're always telling me about the security problems with email, so I encrypted this confidential file. The password is football." I wince and gently explain that this doesn't really solve the problem. The simple solution is to use an out-of-band transmission method for the password. For example, send the email and then pick up the phone and call the recipient to provide the password. The likelihood of the same individual intercepting both your email and telephone call is remote.

4. Failing to patch. We all know that applying security updates is a critical component of secure system and application administration, but why don't we do it? Consider Oracle databases as an example. A recent survey showed that two-thirds of Oracle DBAs have never applied a Critical Patch Update. This is despite the fact that Oracle essentially begs DBAs to apply the patches, sometimes warning of such dire consequences as "a severe flaw…[that] could lead to system crashes, remote execution of code and privilege escalation". Remember, hackers read the same security patch announcements that we do. Leaving networks, databases and third-party applications unpatched is asking for trouble.

5. Failing to encrypt laptops. Many of us have been through it at least once in our security careers: someone loses a laptop containing sensitive information about your employees or customers, and you're forced to send out embarrassing notifications and purchase identity theft protection for thousands of people. Fortunately, there's an easy way to avoid this altogether: use disk encryption products to render mobile data unusable if a device is stolen. It's worth noting that in February 2008 alone, the PrivacyRights.org Chronology of Data Breaches listed five significant breaches that resulted from the theft of unencrypted laptops. These took place at high-profile organizations that should know better. The list includes the likes of Kraft Foods, Blue-Cross Blue-Shield and the National Institutes of Health.

It's also interesting to note that more than half of these worst practices come from the same technology domain: encryption. There's a lesson in that fact: as a community, we either don't understand encryption well enough, or we tend to plow ahead with full knowledge that we're perpetuating some of the items on this list of no-nos.

There's an obvious question springing from all of these examples: why do we, as professionals, keep repeating the same mistakes? There's not one "worst practice" in the list above that's recent news. Even flaws in WEP encryption have been around for over five years. The lesson for all of us is to always keep the basics of information security in mind. It's great to go out and implement new, complex security systems, but don't do so to the detriment of implementing time-honored best practices.

About the author:
Mike Chapple, CISA, CISSP, is an IT security professional with the University of Notre Dame. He previously served as an information security researcher with the National Security Agency and the U.S. Air Force. Mike is a frequent contributor to SearchSecurity, a technical editor for Information Security magazine and the author of several information security titles, including the CISSP Prep Guide and Information Security Illuminated. He also answers your questions on network security.