Threats to Information Systems and Effective Countermeasures
Some internet browsers may have problems loading this document. If so, please save the file to your device and open it with Adobe Acrobat, or another PDF reader. This thesis supports the hypothesis that the measurement of the potency of threat agents to information systems is a crucial element in the accurate calculation of the risks to which systems are subject and the subsequent management of those risks. It describes a series of papers that were published as the result of research that has been carried out into a range of information security issues. The research evolved over the period from 1995 from the underlying drive to identify means of proving improved protection for government and military information systems. Once the initial research was completed, further work was undertaken to resolve issues identified in completed research and also to address newly identified security issues. This document describes the relationship between the papers that were produced from the individual areas of research and address a range of related topics. This document examines the sources of threats to information systems and methods that can be employed to improve the process of managing and treating the risk that they create. It also addresses issues relating to areas of information security that have not been clearly understood and a provides a number of countermeasures that can be implemented to protect information systems in government, the commercial sector and in private use and a framework for the forensic investigation of incidents. As a result of this research, a clearer understanding has been gained of methods that can be implemented to improve the security of information systems at all levels and a threat methodology has been developed that is now taught in a number of countries and which has now been adopted by the UK Government for further development to meet their specific needs. The contribution to knowledge has been the development of advice on the security of information systems, a taxonomy for the investigation of incidents and a method for the measurement of threat.
Computer networks, Security measures, information networks
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