expand for answer

Accountability

(1) A security principle stating that individuals must be able to be identified. With accountability, violations or attempted violations can be traced to individuals who can be held responsible for their actions.

(2) The ability to map a given activity or event back to the responsible party; the property that ensures that the actions of an entity can be traced to that entity.

(IS) Process of tracing information system activities to a responsible source.

(COMSEC) Principle that an individual is entrusted to safeguard and control equipment, keying material, and information and is answerable to proper authority for the loss or misuse of that equipment or information.

The process of holding someone responsible (accountable) for something. In this context, accountability is possible if a subject’s identity and actions can be tracked and verified.

Go Home

Similar items:

Maturity Level Details:Maturity levels consist of a predefined set of process areas. The maturity levels are measured by the achievement of the specific and generic goals that apply to each predefined set of process areas. The following sections describe the characteristics of each maturity level in detail.Maturity Level 1 - Initial At maturity level 1, processes are usually ad hoc and chaotic. The organization usually does not provide a stable environment. Success in these organizations depends on the competence and heroics of the people in the organization and not on the use of proven processes.Maturity level 1 organizations often produce products and services that work; however, they frequently exceed the budget and schedule of their projects.Maturity level 1 organizations are characterized by a tendency to over commit, abandon processes in the time of crisis, and not be able to repeat their past successes.Maturity Level 2 - Managed At maturity level 2, an organization has achieved all the specific and generic goals of the maturity level 2 process areas. In other words, the projects of the organization have ensured that requirements are managed and that processes are planned, performed, measured, and controlled.The process discipline reflected by maturity level 2 helps to ensure that existing practices are retained during times of stress. When these practices are in place, projects are performed and managed according to their documented plans.At maturity level 2, requirements, processes, work products, and services are managed. The status of the work products and the delivery of services are visible to management at defined points.Commitments are established among relevant stakeholders and are revised as needed. Work products are reviewed with stakeholders and are controlled.The work products and services satisfy their specified requirements, standards, and objectives.Maturity Level 3 - Defined At maturity level 3, an organization has achieved all the specific and generic goals of the process areas assigned to maturity levels 2 and 3.At maturity level 3, processes are well characterized and understood, and are described in standards, procedures, tools, and methods.A critical distinction between maturity level 2 and maturity level 3 is the scope of standards, process descriptions, and procedures. At maturity level 2, the standards, process descriptions, and procedures may be quite different in each specific instance of the process (for example, on a particular project). At maturity level 3, the standards, process descriptions, and procedures for a project are tailored from the organization's set of standard processes to suit a particular project or organizational unit. The organization's set of standard processes includes the processes addressed at maturity level 2 and maturity level 3. As a result, the processes that are performed across the organization are consistent except for the differences allowed by the tailoring guidelines.Another critical distinction is that at maturity level 3, processes are typically described in more detail and more rigorously than at maturity level 2. At maturity level 3, processes are managed more proactively using an understanding of the interrelationships of the process activities and detailed measures of the process, its work products, and its services.Maturity Level 4 - Quantitatively Managed At maturity level 4, an organization has achieved all the specific goals of the process areas assigned to maturity levels 2, 3, and 4 and the generic goals assigned to maturity levels 2 and 3.At maturity level 4 Subprocesses are selected that significantly contribute to overall process performance. These selected subprocesses are controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques.Quantitative objectives for quality and process performance are established and used as criteria in managing processes. Quantitative objectives are based on the needs of the customer, end users, organization, and process implementers. Quality and process performance are understood in statistical terms and are managed throughout the life of the processes.For these processes, detailed measures of process performance are collected and statistically analyzed. Special causes of process variation are identified and, where appropriate, the sources of special causes are corrected to prevent future occurrences.Quality and process performance measures are incorporated into the organization.s measurement repository to support fact-based decision making in the future.A critical distinction between maturity level 3 and maturity level 4 is the predictability of process performance. At maturity level 4, the performance of processes is controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques, and is quantitatively predictable. At maturity level 3, processes are only qualitatively predictable.Maturity Level 5 - Optimizing At maturity level 5, an organization has achieved all the specific goals of the process areas assigned to maturity levels 2, 3, 4, and 5 and the generic goals assigned to maturity levels 2 and 3.Processes are continually improved based on a quantitative understanding of the common causes of variation inherent in processes.Maturity level 5 focuses on continually improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological improvements.Quantitative process-improvement objectives for the organization are established, continually revised to reflect changing business objectives, and used as criteria in managing process improvement.The effects of deployed process improvements are measured and evaluated against the quantitative process-improvement objectives. Both the defined processes and the organization's set of standard processes are targets of measurable improvement activities.Optimizing processes that are agile and innovative depends on the participation of an empowered workforce aligned with the business values and objectives of the organization. The organization's ability to rapidly respond to changes and opportunities is enhanced by finding ways to accelerate and share learning. Improvement of the processes is inherently part of everybody's role, resulting in a cycle of continual improvement.A critical distinction between maturity level 4 and maturity level 5 is the type of process variation addressed. At maturity level 4, processes are concerned with addressing special causes of process variation and providing statistical predictability of the results. Though processes may produce predictable results, the results may be insufficient to achieve the established objectives. At maturity level 5, processes are concerned with addressing common causes of process variation and changing the process (that is, shifting the mean of the process performance) to improve process performance (while maintaining statistical predictability) to achieve the established quantitative process-improvement objectives.
[view]

Administrative entity, identified by an account number, used to maintain accountability, custody, and control of COMSEC material. Administrative entity, identified by an account number, used to maintain accountability, custody, and control of COMSec material.
[view]

FIPS 140-2, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules, May 2001.This term refers to the accreditation used to distinguish between secure and well-established crypto modules produced in the private sector. It stands as a certification for those producers who need them to be used in regulated industries that typically collect, store, transfer, and share data that is deemed to be sensitive in nature but not classified. FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security, simply named "Level 1" to "Level 4". It does not specify in detail what level of security is required by any particular application.Level 1 Security Level 1 provides the lowest level of security. Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (e.g., at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used). No specific physical security mechanisms are required in a Security Level 1 cryptographic module beyond the basic requirement for production-grade components. An example of a Security Level 1 cryptographic module is a personal computer (PC) encryption board.Level 2 Security Level 2 improves upon the physical security mechanisms of a Security Level 1 cryptographic module by requiring features that show evidence of tampering, including tamper-evident coatings or seals that must be broken to attain physical access to the plaintext cryptographic keys and critical security parameters (CSPs) within the module, or pick-resistant locks on covers or doors to protect against unauthorized physical access.Level 3 In addition to the tamper-evident physical security mechanisms required at Security Level 2, Security Level 3 attempts to prevent the intruder from gaining access to CSPs held within the cryptographic module. Physical security mechanisms required at Security Level 3 are intended to have a high probability of detecting and responding to attempts at physical access, use or modification of the cryptographic module. The physical security mechanisms may include the use of strong enclosures and tamper-detection/response circuitry that zeroes all plaintext CSPs when the removable covers/doors of the cryptographic module are openedLevel 4 Security Level 4 provides the highest level of security. At this security level, the physical security mechanisms provide a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access. Penetration of the cryptographic module enclosure from any direction has a very high probability of being detected, resulting in the immediate deletion of all plaintext CSPs. Security Level 4 cryptographic modules are useful for operation in physically unprotected environments. Security Level 4 also protects a cryptographic module against a security compromise due to environmental conditions or fluctuations outside of the module's normal operating ranges for voltage and temperature. Intentional excursions beyond the normal operating ranges may be used by an attacker to thwart a cryptographic module's defenses. A cryptographic module is required to either include special environmental protection features designed to detect fluctuations and delete CSPs, or to undergo rigorous environmental failure testing to provide a reasonable assurance that the module will not be affected by fluctuations outside of the normal operating range in a manner that can compromise the security of the module.
[view]

(1) The process, generally employing unique machinereadable names, that enables recognition of users or resources as identical to those previously described to the computer system. (2) The assignment of a name by which an entity can be referenced. The entity may be high level (such as a user) or low level (such as a process or communication channel). Process an information system uses to recognize an entity. The process by which a subject professes an identity and accountability is initiated. The identification process can consist of a user providing a username, a logon ID, a PIN, or a smart card or a process providing a process ID number.
[view]

(1) The party, or his designee, responsible for the security of designated information. The user works closely with an ISSE. Also referred to as the customer. (2) Person or process accessing an AIS either by direct connections (i. e. , via terminals), or indirect connections (i. e. , prepare input data or receive output that is not reviewed for content or classification by a responsible individual). Any person who has access to the secured system. A user’s access is tied to their work tasks and is limited so they have only enough access to perform the tasks necessary for their job position (in other words, principle of least privilege). Also referred to as an end user and employee. Individual or process authorized to access an information system. (PKI) Individual defined, registered, and bound to a public key structure by a certification authority (CA).
[view]

There are no comments yet.

Authentication required

You must log in to post a comment.