Literature Database Entry

weiss2005metric


Steffen Weiß, "Metric for IT-Security of an Organization," Master's Thesis, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich–Alexander University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (FAU), May 2005. (Advisors: Falko Dressler and Oliver Weißmann)


Abstract

For example Basel II has lead to higher requirements on information technology, but also dependency on information technology has risen. Thus consciousness about security increased and procedures are established to reduce damages and rates of occurrence. However, the problem arises to measure improvement of security if additional controls are installed. But measurement of security was not possible so far. In this diploma thesis, a metric for measurement of security of an organization is established to face this problem. Technical and organizational aspects of a security concept are included. The aim of this thesis is measurement of IT-Security and Information Security of organizations. Measurement must consider the organization as a whole and results must be comparable between organizations. First, a comparable indicator for security is established. It is based on the intuitive understanding of security and defined as '100% - [percentage of lost assets]' As known from risk management, amount of lost assets is assessed in scenarios. A list of abstract scenarios is given for simplification of the organization's assessment. Additionally this list provides more repeatable results. In the first step, this list is adapted to the context of the organization under measurement. In a second step, the likely damage and the likely rate of occurrence of these scenarios is assessed. Indicators measured in the organization (like number of spam-mails) as well as expert knowledge (like knowledge about special threats) and values suggested in the predefined scenarios are used to support the measurement process. Results of single scenarios are quantified. Afterwards results are combined to some different indicators with the help of precisely defined formulas. Results of this calculation allow determining the security status of the whole organization. An evaluation of the metric was conducted on a small unit of a university. Thus it was able to show that the metric is applicable in a real-world assessment. The metric was contributed to the ISO-committee as a suggestion for an according standard. This suggestion was accepted in April 2005. Thus the metric provided will significantly influence this standard.

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Steffen Weiß

BibTeX reference

@phdthesis{weiss2005metric,
    author = {Wei{\ss}, Steffen},
    title = {{Metric for IT-Security of an Organization}},
    advisor = {Dressler, Falko and Wei{\ss}mann, Oliver},
    institution = {Department of Computer Science},
    location = {Erlangen, Germany},
    month = {5},
    school = {Friedrich--Alexander University of Erlangen--Nuremberg (FAU)},
    type = {Master's Thesis},
    year = {2005},
   }
   
   

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Last modified: 2024-03-29