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Printable Version: RFC1244.PDF
RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991
may be responsible for personal password administration. Systems
managers are obligated to fix security holes and to oversee the
system.
It is critical to get the right set of people involved at the
start of the process. There may already be groups concerned with
security who would consider a computer security policy to be their
area. Some of the types of groups that might be involved include
auditing/control, organizations that deal with physical security,
campus information systems groups, and so forth. Asking these
types of groups to "buy in" from the start can help facilitate the
acceptance of the policy.
2.1.4 Responsibilities
A key element of a computer security policy is making sure
everyone knows their own responsibility for maintaining security.
A computer security policy cannot anticipate all possibilities;
however, it can ensure that each kind of problem does have someone
assigned to deal with it.
There may be levels of responsibility associated with a policy on
computer security. At one level, each user of a computing
resource may have a responsibility to protect his account. A user
who allows his account to be compromised increases the chances of
compromising other accounts or resources.
System managers may form another responsibility level: they must
help to ensure the security of the computer system. Network
managers may reside at yet another level.
2.2 Risk Assessment
2.2.1 General Discussion
One of the most important reasons for creating a computer security
policy is to ensure that efforts spent on security yield cost
effective benefits. Although this may seem obvious, it is
possible to be mislead about where the effort is needed. As an
example, there is a great deal of publicity about intruders on
computers systems; yet most surveys of computer security show that
for most organizations, the actual loss from "insiders" is much
greater.
Risk analysis involves determining what you need to protect, what
you need to protect it from, and how to protect it. Is is the
process of examining all of your risks, and ranking those risks by
level of severity. This process involves making cost-effective
Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 10]