Confidentiality and Privacy Controls Overview

Identify & Classify Information

Where is it located and who has access? Value to the organization?

Encryption

Protect information in transit and in storage. Does not protect during data processing.

Access Controls

Information rights management (IRM), Data loss prevention (DLP), Digital watermarks

Information Rights Management (IRM)

Software that limits what actions (read, copy, print, etc.) can be performed by users granted access to a file or document

Data loss prevention (DLP)

Procedure to filter outgoing traffic to prevent confidential information from leaving

Digital watermarks

Code embedded in documents that enables an organization to identify confidential information that has been disclosed.

Training

Most important control given critical role of employee attitudes and behaviors.

Spam

Unsolicited e-mail that contains either advertising or offensive content.

CAN-SPAM Act

Requires commercial email solicitations to meet certain requirements and provides criminal and civil penalties for violations.

Identity theft

Unauthorized use of someone's personal information, usually financial gain.

General Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP)

A framework designed to guide organizations in managing personal information and ensuring privacy. It consists of principles intended to foster transparency, accountability, and responsible data handling.

1.      Management

a.      Procedures and policies with assigned responsibility and accountability

2.      Notice

a.      Provide notice of privacy policies and practices prior to collecting data

3.      Choice and consent

a.      Opt-in versus opt-out approaches

4.      Collection

a.      Only collect needed information

5.      Use, retention, and disposal

a.      Use information only for stated business purpose. When no longer useful, dispose in a secure manner

6.      Access

a.      Customer should be able to review, correct, or delete information collected on them

7.      Disclosure to third parties

8.      Security

a.      Protect from loss or unauthorized access

9.      Quality

10. Monitoring and enforcement

a.      Procedures in responding to complaints

b.      Compliance

Encryption

The process of transforming normal content (plaintext) into unreadable form (ciphertext).

Preventive control

Protects data during transmission and storage, but not during processing.

Factors that influence encryption strength

Key length (longer = stronger), algorithm used, management of cryptographic keys.

Symmetric encryption

Uses one key to encrypt and decrypt. Both parties need to know the key.

Asymmetric encryption

Encryption process that uses a pair of matched keys, one public and the other private; either key can encrypt something, but only the other key in that pair can decrypt

Digital signatures

A hash encrypted with the creator’s private key

Hashing

Process that transforms a document or file into a fixed length string of data

Nonrepudiation

Creating legally binding agreements that cannot be unilaterally repudiated by either party.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Securely transmits encrypted data between sender and receiver.

Digital certificate

Used to store an entity’s public key, often found on web sites

Data masking

Replacing real data with fake data

Blockchain

Distributed ledger of hashed documents

ciphertext

Document or file that must be decrypted to be read

Certificate authority

Company that issues pairs of public and private keys and verifies the identity of the owner of those keys

Key escrow

Copy of an encryption key stored securely to enable decryption if the original encryption key becomes unavailable

Nonce

Random number used to validate a new block in a blockchain

Hash

plaintext transformed into short code