This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Defense in Depth
Defense in depth is the term used for employing defense or security for protecting information with multiple controls all the way from the top level to the very bottom level to make sure that the data or information remains safe. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines defense in depth as “The application of multiple countermeasures in a layered or stepwise manner to achieve security objectives. The methodology involves layering heterogeneous security technologies, methods or controls in the common attack vectors to ensure that attacks missed by one technology, method or controls are caught by another.”
Defense in depth tells users that security needs to be employed at every level so that if security at one level fails, it may be able to catch the intruders at another level. In the corporate world, defense in depth is employed by various means. Physical controls or videos monitor users’ entrance and exits, computer log files record the users’ login times and actions, programs prevent users from installing unnecessary software, antivirus programs prevent installing or copying of virus files, email programs require identification and verification via public key infrastructure (PKI), and the data or server rooms require users to have an additional access card that is issued with further security clearance. Governmental departments used to give a security clearance by checking the users’ activities once a year or so, but as of the beginning of 2020, security clearance is a daily process of tracking users’ activities on the Internet in general and on social media websites such as Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok. Thus, defense in depth works in tandem with a continuous process of tracking a user. Security has no end point or phase because hackers and intruders continue to invent new methods to compromise security as the technology provides newer machines, facilities, and equipment.