Cybersecurity Essentials

Charles J. Brooks, Christopher Grow, Philip A. Craig, Donald Short

• Publisher: Sybex
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119362456
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Cyber Security
• Index: Computer Science

An accessible introduction to cybersecurity concepts and practices

Cybersecurity Essentials provides a comprehensive introduction to the field, with expert coverage of essential topics required for entry-level cybersecurity certifications. An effective defense consists of four distinct challenges: securing the infrastructure, securing devices, securing local networks, and securing the perimeter. Overcoming these challenges requires a detailed understanding of the concepts and practices within each realm. This book covers each challenge individually for greater depth of information, with real-world scenarios that show what vulnerabilities look like in everyday computing scenarios. Each part concludes with a summary of key concepts, review questions, and hands-on exercises, allowing you to test your understanding while exercising your new critical skills.

Cybersecurity jobs range from basic configuration to advanced systems analysis and defense assessment. This book provides the foundational information you need to understand the basics of the field, identify your place within it, and start down the security certification path.

• Learn security and surveillance fundamentals
• Secure and protect remote access and devices
• Understand network topologies, protocols, and strategies
• Identify threats and mount an effective defense

Cybersecurity Essentials gives you the building blocks for an entry level security certification and provides a foundation of cybersecurity knowledge

PART I
Securing the Infrastructure

Chapter 1	Infrastructure Security in the Real World
Chapter 2	Understanding Access Control and Monitoring Systems
Chapter 3	Understanding Video Surveillance Systems
Chapter 4	Understanding Intrusion Detection and Reporting Systems
Chapter 5	Infrastructure Security: Review Questions & Hands-On Exercises

CHAPTER 1
Infrastructure Security in the Real World

The following challenges will provide contextual reference points for the concepts you will learn in Part I. Because you have not yet read the chapters in Part I, the challenges in this chapter are designed to introduce you to the infrastructure security scenarios you’ll face in the real world. In this chapter, you’ll learn to:

• Understand the relevance of infrastructure security
• Describe the functions, categories, subcategories, and reference structure of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• Apply the NIST Framework references to specific cybersecurity scenarios

Security Challenges

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework was developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide a set of independent guidelines that organizations can use to implement or upgrade their cybersecurity programs. Because the framework is a product-independent tool, it provides guidelines that any organization can tailor to meet its own cybersecurity needs.

The frameworks are divided into five functions (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover) that provide a top-level description of the cybersecurity development process. Each function is then divided into applicable categories that underpin the stated function. Each category is further divided into subcategories and implementation methodology. Finally, the subcategories are supported by lists of reference documents that contain the nuts and bolt of building the cybersecurity program.

This chapter will kickstart your thought processes for what you are about to learn in Part I. It contains two specific cybersecurity scenarios to which you will be asked to apply the NIST Framework in order to produce a cybersecurity solution that meets the desired objectives. In each case, you will be provided with specific subcategories to research, along with some guidance to help you produce your solutions.

In this first pass through the scenarios, you are expected to generate and record general observations about securing the infrastructure described, as you have not yet been introduced to the supporting material. As mentioned earlier, this is activity is designed to get your cybersecurity thought processes started.

In Chapter 5, you will return to these scenarios and use what you have learned in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 to revise your initial assessments. You will also compare your observations to those of professional security specialists who have provided their observations and solutions for these scenarios.

Infrastructure Security Scenario 1

You are in charge of planning and implementing a security system for a new electrical substation that will be built next to a new housing development. The substation is equipped with high-voltage electrical switching gear for the surrounding community. It is not manned on a full-time basis but does have a control building that houses instrumentation and communication equipment, as shown in Figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 The Electrical Substation

The high-voltage switch gear accepts electrical power from different sources, which it then conditions and routes to the community users as needed. The energy arrives on a set of different high-voltage supply lines and leaves the facility via different sets of distribution lines.

The monitoring devices and control systems in the substation communicate with different parts of the utility’s transmission and distribution system to ro...