CERT System and Network Security Practices

Abstract

Networks have become indispensable for conducting business in
government,commercial, and academic organizations. Networked systems allow you to
access needed information rapidly, improve communications while reducing their cost,
collaborate with partners, provide better customer services, and conduct electronic
commerce. While computer networks revolutionize the way you do business, the risks
they introduce can be fatal to a business. Attacks on networks can lead to lost money,
time, products, reputation, sensitive information, and even lives.
Systems, networks, and sensitive information can be compromised by malicious and
inadvertent actions despite an administrator’s best efforts. Even when an administrator
knows what to do, they often don’t have the time to do it; operational day-to-day
concerns and keeping systems functioning take priority over securing those systems.
The knowledge that most system and network administrators have about protecting and
securing systems typically comes from experience and word-of-mouth, not by
consulting a published set of procedures that serve in the role of de facto standards
generally accepted by the administrator community; these do not currently exist. For this
reason and others described in this paper, an administrator needs easy-to-access, easy-tounderstand,
easy-to-implement security practices. The CERT system and network
security practices are intended to meet these needs.
CERT security practices are organized into five top-level steps: Harden/Secure, Prepare,
Detect, Respond, and Improve. A total of fifty current practices comprise these steps.
They are summarized in this paper and fully documented on the CERT web site at
http://www.cert.org. The practices to harden and secure systems form a strong
foundation by establishing secure configurations of computing assets. Prepare, Detect,
Respond, and Improve practices assumes that Harden/Secure practices have been
implemented and provide further guidance on what to do when something suspicious,
unexpected, or unusual occurs.