{"id":60,"date":"2007-06-14T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-14T01:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/2007\/06\/14\/it-security-outsourcing-decisions-considerations\/"},"modified":"2022-04-06T20:23:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T20:23:49","slug":"it-security-outsourcing-decisions-considerations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/2007\/06\/14\/it-security-outsourcing-decisions-considerations\/","title":{"rendered":"IT Security Outsourcing Decisions &#8211; Considerations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As already raised the bar of suspicion in the previous two articles, now the<br \/>thing to think is &#8211; what needs to be done to clear the air of suspicion?<br \/>What is the possible way out to clear the ambiguity in the Process of<br \/>Outsourcing?  Well though there are various ways to deal with the situation,<br \/>and one can do what may seem to be appropriate, but the steps that need to<br \/>be considered are &#8211; <\/p>\n<p>*        Think as a Hacker<\/p>\n<p>*        Decide on Accessibility?<\/p>\n<p>*        Control Data Usage and Handling<\/p>\n<p>*        Protect the Information<\/p>\n<p>*        Maintain Confidentiality<\/p>\n<p>*        Apply the Sixth Sense \/ Instinct<\/p>\n<p>*        Deploy Vigilance for Incidence Reporting<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Think as a Hacker<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There are few things to be considered and understood before finally handing<br \/>over the reigns to a stranger.  One needs to view the IT issues from a<br \/>hacker&#8217;s perspective. One needs to clearly take a good note of the situation<br \/>looking for the answer to the questions &#8211; <\/p>\n<p>*        What if my confidential information gets into the wrong hands?<\/p>\n<p>*        Do I have IT assets worth an abuse? <\/p>\n<p>*        What negative consequences would occur if they were abused? <\/p>\n<p>*        Is my job going to be on the line if my organization makes the<br \/>headlines? <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Decide on Accessibility?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Most outsourced IT services require one or other person to have full access<br \/>to whole or a part of the organization&#8217;s IT assets. For instance, IT<br \/>Helpdesk support professionals will most likely need administrative rights<br \/>to the client machines and probably the respective servers also. This<br \/>meaningfully translates into full access to corporate data stored on the<br \/>local drives and, potentially, network shares. Consider what an IT auditor<br \/>or security consultant may gather during the days, weeks or months while<br \/>working onsite at an organization&#8217;s IT facility. It at times might translate<br \/>into more than what even the best guys of the organization know. Certainly<br \/>limitless and it only takes one miscreant to cause the damage. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Control Data Usage and Handling<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Outsourced IT service provider might have access to the data as highlighted<br \/>in the previous point.  But that&#8217;s just one of the points identifying the<br \/>risks associated with Outsourcing.  What is more important to establish is<br \/>what are the various outsourced personnel doing with the data.  Data<br \/>handling by the outsourced agency is another aspect to be understood.  If we<br \/>look into the matter we might find that the outsourced agency personnel<br \/>could be storing the data on their servers, laptops, CDs or USB drives or<br \/>might even be printing hard copies?  Clients should expect to turn at least<br \/>some of their information over and need to be informed of why it&#8217;s needed<br \/>and how it&#8217;s going to be used. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Protect the Information<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>IT Systems deal, process and store vital data and information that is<br \/>sensitive, crucial and confidential for the business.  When outsourcing the<br \/>security of the IT establishment and the organization wide information<br \/>security process, one has to consider how the data and information is being<br \/>protected? &#8212; if at all. What are they doing with data and\/or information?<br \/>Are they sharing it with colleagues or competitors? Keeping it to sell on<br \/>eBay in a few years? Even if the people you&#8217;re outsourcing your IT services<br \/>to are bound by contract to protect your information, they may not have your<br \/>best interests in mind, or they may be just plain sloppy. Consider what a<br \/>person has to lose if he ends up leaving the company or getting out of the<br \/>IT business altogether. The probability of sales data, source code or<br \/>patient information being used for ill-gotten gains is pretty low, but it<br \/>can happen. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Maintain Confidentiality<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Call me a pessimist, but I&#8217;ve seen too many digital goods mishandled by<br \/>careless IT experts with a general disregard for other people&#8217;s property.<br \/>The root of a lot of this &#8212; which continues to amaze me &#8212; is when<br \/>organizations outsource IT support, but never consider the basics such as<br \/>running background checks and examining references on the people they&#8217;re<br \/>placing trust in. Confidentiality agreements are being used more and more,<br \/>but arguably not enough. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Apply the Sixth Sense \/ Instinct<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Strong contracts and clean criminal records are not a perfect indicator of<br \/>safe and sound IT services, so don&#8217;t rely solely on them. It&#8217;s also<br \/>unrealistic to attempt to completely control where your sensitive data is<br \/>housed and what a third-party does with it. Whether you&#8217;re for or against<br \/>outsourcing IT services, you&#8217;ll have to do it eventually. Do your best to<br \/>find good people to do business with &#8211; preferably through referrals &#8211; and<br \/>trust your instincts. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><br \/>Deploy Vigilance for Incidence Reporting <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t stop there though. It&#8217;s not a matter of just having the proper<br \/>security controls and paperwork in place to take the risk out of outsourcing<br \/>IT services. It&#8217;s just as important to have watchful employees who can tell<br \/>when something&#8217;s not right and management that&#8217;s willing to listen, support<br \/>their employees and create an overall sense of security vigilance in the<br \/>organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As already raised the bar of suspicion in the previous two articles, now thething to think is &#8211; what needs to be done to clear the air of suspicion?What is the possible way out to clear the ambiguity in the Process ofOutsourcing? Well though there are various ways to deal with the situation,and one can &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,72,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-outsourcing","category-it-security","category-it-security-outsourcing","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mayanktrivedi.net\/technotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}