Network Working Group P. Holbrook Request for Comments: 1244 CICNet FYI: 8 J. Reynolds ISI Editors July 1991 Site Security Handbook Status of this Memo This handbook is the product of the Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group (SSPHWG), a combined effort of the Security Area and User Services Area of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This FYI RFC provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Contributing Authors The following are the authors of the Site Security Handbook. Without their dedication, this handbook would not have been possible. Dave Curry (Purdue University), Sean Kirkpatrick (Unisys), Tom Longstaff (LLNL), Greg Hollingsworth (Johns Hopkins University), Jeffrey Carpenter (University of Pittsburgh), Barbara Fraser (CERT), Fred Ostapik (SRI NISC), Allen Sturtevant (LLNL), Dan Long (BBN), Jim Duncan (Pennsylvania State University), and Frank Byrum (DEC). Editors' Note This FYI RFC is a first attempt at providing Internet users guidance on how to deal with security issues in the Internet. As such, this document is necessarily incomplete. There are some clear shortfalls; for example, this document focuses mostly on resources available in the United States. In the spirit of the Internet's "Request for Comments" series of notes, we encourage feedback from users of this handbook. In particular, those who utilize this document to craft their own policies and procedures. This handbook is meant to be a starting place for further research and should be viewed as a useful resource, but not the final authority. Different organizations and jurisdictions will have different resources and rules. Talk to your local organizations, consult an informed lawyer, or consult with local and national law enforcement. These groups can help fill in the gaps that this document cannot hope to cover. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 1] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 Finally, we intend for this FYI RFC to grow and evolve. Please send comments and suggestions to: ssphwg@cert.sei.cmu.edu. Table of Contents 1. Introduction..................................................... 3 1.1 Purpose of this Work............................................ 3 1.2 Audience........................................................ 3 1.3 Definitions..................................................... 4 1.4 Related Work.................................................... 4 1.5 Scope........................................................... 4 1.6 Why Do We Need Security Policies and Procedures?................ 5 1.7 Basic Approach.................................................. 7 1.8 Organization of this Document................................... 7 2. Establishing Official Site Policy on Computer Security........... 9 2.1 Brief Overview.................................................. 9 2.2 Risk Assessment................................................. 10 2.3 Policy Issues................................................... 13 2.4 What Happens When the Policy Is Violated........................ 19 2.5 Locking In or Out............................................... 21 2.6 Interpreting the Policy......................................... 23 2.7 Publicizing the Policy.......................................... 23 3. Establishing Procedures to Prevent Security Problems............. 24 3.1 Security Policy Defines What Needs to be Protected.............. 24 3.2 Identifing Possible Problems.................................... 24 3.3 Choose Controls to Protect Assets in a Cost-Effective Way....... 26 3.4 Use Multiple Strategies to Protect Assets....................... 26 3.5 Physical Security............................................... 27 3.6 Procedures to Recognize Unauthorized Activity................... 27 3.7 Define Actions to Take When Unauthorized Activity is Suspected.. 29 3.8 Communicating Security Policy................................... 30 3.9 Resources to Prevent Security Breaches.......................... 34 4. Types of Security Procedures..................................... 56 4.1 System Security Audits.......................................... 56 4.2 Account Management Procedures................................... 57 4.3 Password Management Procedures.................................. 57 4.4 Configuration Management Procedures............................. 60 5. Incident Handling................................................ 61 5.1 Overview........................................................ 61 5.2 Evaluation...................................................... 65 5.3 Possible Types of Notification.................................. 67 5.4 Response........................................................ 71 5.5 Legal/Investigative............................................. 73 5.6 Documentation Logs.............................................. 77 6. Establishing Post-Incident Procedures............................ 78 6.1 Overview........................................................ 78 6.2 Removing Vulnerabilities........................................ 78 6.3 Capturing Lessons Learned....................................... 80 Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 2] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 6.4 Upgrading Policies and Procedures............................... 81 7. References....................................................... 81 8. Annotated Bibliography........................................... 83 8.1 Computer Law.................................................... 84 8.2 Computer Security............................................... 85 8.3 Ethics.......................................................... 91 8.4 The Internet Worm............................................... 93 8.5 National Computer Security Center (NCSC)........................ 95 8.6 Security Checklists............................................. 99 8.7 Additional Publications......................................... 99 9. Acknlowledgements................................................101 10. Security Considerations.........................................101 11. Authors' Addresses..............................................101 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose of this Work This handbook is a guide to setting computer security policies and procedures for sites that have systems on the Internet. This guide lists issues and factors that a site must consider when setting their own policies. It makes some recommendations and gives discussions of relevant areas. This guide is only a framework for setting security policies and procedures. In order to have an effective set of policies and procedures, a site will have to make many decisions, gain agreement, and then communicate and implement the policies. 1.2 Audience The audience for this work are system administrators and decision makers (who are more traditionally called "administrators" or "middle management") at sites. This document is not directed at programmers or those trying to create secure programs or systems. The focus of this document is on the policies and procedures that need to be in place to support any technical security features that a site may be implementing. The primary audience for this work are sites that are members of the Internet community. However, this document should be useful to any site that allows communication with other sites. As a general guide to security policies, this document may also be useful to sites with isolated systems. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 3] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 1.3 Definitions For the purposes of this guide, a "site" is any organization that owns computers or network-related resources. These resources may include host computers that users use, routers, terminal servers, PC's or other devices that have access to the Internet. A site may be a end user of Internet services or a service provider such as a regional network. However, most of the focus of this guide is on those end users of Internet services. We assume that the site has the ability to set policies and procedures for itself with the concurrence and support from those who actually own the resources. The "Internet" is those set of networks and machines that use the TCP/IP protocol suite, connected through gateways, and sharing a common name and address spaces [1]. The term "system administrator" is used to cover all those who are responsible for the day-to-day operation of resources. This may be a number of individuals or an organization. The term "decision maker" refers to those people at a site who set or approve policy. These are often (but not always) the people who own the resources. 1.4 Related Work The IETF Security Policy Working Group (SPWG) is working on a set of recommended security policy guidelines for the Internet [23]. These guidelines may be adopted as policy by regional networks or owners of other resources. This handbook should be a useful tool to help sites implement those policies as desired or required. However, even implementing the proposed policies isn't enough to secure a site. The proposed Internet policies deal only with network access security. It says nothing about how sites should deal with local security issues. 1.5 Scope This document covers issues about what a computer security policy should contain, what kinds of procedures are need to enforce security, and some recommendations about how to deal with the problem. When developing a security policy, close attention should be made not only on the security needs and requirements of the local network, but also the security needs and requirements of the other interconnected networks. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 4] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 This is not a cookbook for computer security. Each site has different needs; the security needs of a corporation might well be different than the security needs of an academic institution. Any security plan has to conform to the needs and culture of the site. This handbook does not cover details of how to do risk assessment, contingency planning, or physical security. These things are essential in setting and implementing effective security policy, but this document leaves treatment of those issues to other documents. We will try to provide some pointers in that direction. This document also doesn't talk about how to design or implement secure systems or programs. 1.6 Why Do We Need Security Policies and Procedures? For most sites, the interest in computer security is proportional to the perception of risk and threats. The world of computers has changed dramatically over the past twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago, most computers were centralized and managed by data centers. Computers were kept in locked rooms and staffs of people made sure they were carefully managed and physically secured. Links outside a site were unusual. Computer security threats were rare, and were basically concerned with insiders: authorized users misusing accounts, theft and vandalism, and so forth. These threats were well understood and dealt with using standard techniques: computers behind locked doors, and accounting for all resources. Computing in the 1990's is radically different. Many systems are in private offices and labs, often managed by individuals or persons employed outside a computer center. Many systems are connected into the Internet, and from there around the world: the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia are all connected together. Security threats are different today. The time honored advice says "don't write your password down and put it in your desk" lest someone find it. With world-wide Internet connections, someone could get into your system from the other side of the world and steal your password in the middle of the night when your building is locked up. Viruses and worms can be passed from machine to machine. The Internet allows the electronic equivalent of the thief who looks for open windows and doors; now a person can check hundreds of machines for vulnerabilities in a few hours. System administrators and decision makers have to understand the security threats that exist, what the risk and cost of a problem Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 5] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 would be, and what kind of action they want to take (if any) to prevent and respond to security threats. As an illustration of some of the issues that need to be dealt with in security problems, consider the following scenarios (thanks to Russell Brand [2, BRAND] for these): - A system programmer gets a call reporting that a major underground cracker newsletter is being distributed from the administrative machine at his center to five thousand sites in the US and Western Europe. Eight weeks later, the authorities call to inform you the information in one of these newsletters was used to disable "911" in a major city for five hours. - A user calls in to report that he can't login to his account at 3 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. The system staffer can't login either. After rebooting to single user mode, he finds that password file is empty. By Monday morning, your staff determines that a number of privileged file transfers took place between this machine and a local university. Tuesday morning a copy of the deleted password file is found on the university machine along with password files for a dozen other machines. A week later you find that your system initialization files had been altered in a hostile fashion. - You receive a call saying that a breakin to a government lab occurred from one of your center's machines. You are requested to provide accounting files to help trackdown the attacker. A week later you are given a list of machines at your site that have been broken into. - A reporter calls up asking about the breakin at your center. You haven't heard of any such breakin. Three days later, you learn that there was a breakin. The center director had his wife's name as a password. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 6] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 - A change in system binaries is detected. The day that it is corrected, they again are changed. This repeats itself for some weeks. - If an intruder is found on your system, should you leave the system open to monitor the situation or should you close down the holes and open them up again later? - If an intruder is using your site, should you call law enforcement? Who makes that decision? If law enforcement asks you to leave your site open, who makes that decision? - What steps should be taken if another site calls you and says they see activity coming from an account on your system? What if the account is owned by a local manager? 1.7 Basic Approach Setting security policies and procedures really means developing a plan for how to deal with computer security. One way to approach this task is suggested by Fites, et. al. [3, FITES]: - Look at what you are trying to protect. - Look at what you need to protect it from. - Determine how likely the threats are. - Implement measures which will protect your assets in a cost-effective manner. - Review the process continuously, and improve things every time a weakness is found. This handbook will concentrate mostly on the last two steps, but the first three are critically important to making effective decisions about security. One old truism in security is that the cost of protecting yourself against a threat should be less than the cost recovering if the threat were to strike you. Without reasonable knowledge of what you are protecting and what the likely threats are, following this rule could be difficult. 1.8 Organization of this Document This document is organized into seven parts in addition to this introduction. The basic form of each section is to discuss issues that a site might want to consider in creating a computer security policy and setting procedures to implement that policy. In some cases, possible options are discussed along with the some of the ramifications of those Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 7] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 choices. As far as possible, this document tries not to dictate the choices a site should make, since these depend on local circumstances. Some of the issues brought up may not apply to all sites. Nonetheless, all sites should at least consider the issues brought up here to ensure that they do not miss some important area. The overall flow of the document is to discuss policy issues followed by the issues that come up in creating procedures to implement the policies. Section 2 discusses setting official site policies for access to computing resources. It also goes into the issue of what happens when the policy is violated. The policies will drive the procedures that need to be created, so decision makers will need to make choices about policies before many of the procedural issues in following sections can be dealt with. A key part of creating policies is doing some kind of risk assessment to decide what really needs to be protected and the level of resources that should be applied to protect them. Once policies are in place, procedures to prevent future security problems should be established. Section 3 defines and suggests actions to take when unauthorized activity is suspected. Resources to prevent secruity breaches are also discussed. Section 4 discusses types of procedures to prevent security problems. Prevention is a key to security; as an example, the Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC) at Carnegie- Mellon University (CMU) estimates that 80% or more of the problems they see have to do with poorly chosen passwords. Section 5 discusses incident handling: what kinds of issues does a site face when someone violates the security policy. Many decisions will have to made on the spot as the incident occurs, but many of the options and issues can be discussed in advance. At very least, responsibilities and methods of communication can be established before an incident. Again, the choices here are influenced by the policies discussed in section 2. Section 6 deals with what happens after a security violation has been dealt with. Security planning is an on-going cycle; just after an incident has occurred is an excellent opportunity to improve policies and procedures. The rest of the document provides references and an annotated bibliography. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 8] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 2. Establishing Official Site Policy on Computer Security 2.1 Brief Overview 2.1.1 Organization Issues The goal in developing an official site policy on computer security is to define the organization's expectations of proper computer and network use and to define procedures to prevent and respond to security incidents. In order to do this, aspects of the particular organization must be considered. First, the goals and direction of the organization should be considered. For example, a military base may have very different security concerns from a those of a university. Second, the site security policy developed must conform to existing policies, rules, regulations and laws that the organization is subject to. Therefore it will be necessary to identify these and take them into consideration while developing the policy. Third, unless the local network is completely isolated and standalone, it is necessary to consider security implications in a more global context. The policy should address the issues when local security problems develop as a result of a remote site as well as when problems occur on remote systems as a result of a local host or user. 2.1.2 Who Makes the Policy? Policy creation must be a joint effort by technical personnel, who understand the full ramifications of the proposed policy and the implementation of the policy, and by decision makers who have the power to enforce the policy. A policy which is neither implementable nor enforceable is useless. Since a computer security policy can affect everyone in an organization, it is worth taking some care to make sure you have the right level of authority in on the policy decisions. Though a particular group (such as a campus information services group) may have responsibility for enforcing a policy, an even higher group may have to support and approve the policy. 2.1.3 Who is Involved? Establishing a site policy has the potential for involving every computer user at the site in a variety of ways. Computer users Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 9] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 may be responsible for personal password administration. Systems managers are obligated to fix security holes and to oversee the system. It is critical to get the right set of people involved at the start of the process. There may already be groups concerned with security who would consider a computer security policy to be their area. Some of the types of groups that might be involved include auditing/control, organizations that deal with physical security, campus information systems groups, and so forth. Asking these types of groups to "buy in" from the start can help facilitate the acceptance of the policy. 2.1.4 Responsibilities A key element of a computer security policy is making sure everyone knows their own responsibility for maintaining security. A computer security policy cannot anticipate all possibilities; however, it can ensure that each kind of problem does have someone assigned to deal with it. There may be levels of responsibility associated with a policy on computer security. At one level, each user of a computing resource may have a responsibility to protect his account. A user who allows his account to be compromised increases the chances of compromising other accounts or resources. System managers may form another responsibility level: they must help to ensure the security of the computer system. Network managers may reside at yet another level. 2.2 Risk Assessment 2.2.1 General Discussion One of the most important reasons for creating a computer security policy is to ensure that efforts spent on security yield cost effective benefits. Although this may seem obvious, it is possible to be mislead about where the effort is needed. As an example, there is a great deal of publicity about intruders on computers systems; yet most surveys of computer security show that for most organizations, the actual loss from "insiders" is much greater. Risk analysis involves determining what you need to protect, what you need to protect it from, and how to protect it. Is is the process of examining all of your risks, and ranking those risks by level of severity. This process involves making cost-effective Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 10] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 decisions on what you want to protect. The old security adage says that you should not spend more to protect something than it is actually worth. A full treatment of risk analysis is outside the scope of this document. [3, FITES] and [16, PFLEEGER] provide introductions to this topic. However, there are two elements of a risk analysis that will be briefly covered in the next two sections: 1. Identifying the assets 2. Identifying the threats For each asset, the basic goals of security are availability, confidentiality, and integrity. Each threat should be examined with an eye to how the threat could affect these areas. 2.2.2 Identifying the Assets One step in a risk analysis is to identify all the things that need to be protected. Some things are obvious, like all the various pieces of hardware, but some are overlooked, such as the people who actually use the systems. The essential point is to list all things that could be affected by a security problem. One list of categories is suggested by Pfleeger [16, PFLEEGER, page 459]; this list is adapted from that source: 1. Hardware: cpus, boards, keyboards, terminals, workstations, personal computers, printers, disk drives, communication lines, terminal servers, routers. 2. Software: source programs, object programs, utilities, diagnostic programs, operating systems, communication programs. 3. Data: during execution, stored on-line, archived off-line, backups, audit logs, databases, in transit over communication media. 4. People: users, people needed to run systems. 5. Documentation: on programs, hardware, systems, local administrative procedures. 6. Supplies: paper, forms, ribbons, magnetic media. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 11] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 2.2.3 Identifying the Threats Once the assets requiring protection are identified, it is necessary to identify threats to those assests. The threats can then be examined to determine what potential for loss exists. It helps to consider from what threats you are trying to protect your assets. The following sections describe a few of the possible threats. 2.2.3.1 Unauthorized Access A common threat that concerns many sites is unauthorized access to computing facilities. Unauthorized access takes many forms. One means of unauthorized access is the use of another user's account to gain access to a system. The use of any computer resource without prior permission may be considered unauthorized access to computing facilities. The seriousness of an unauthorized access will vary from site to site. For some sites, the mere act of granting access to an unauthorized user may cause irreparable harm by negative media coverage. For other sites, an unauthorized access opens the door to other security threats. In addition, some sites may be more frequent targets than others; hence the risk from unauthorized access will vary from site to site. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT - see section 3.9.7.3.1) has observed that well-known universities, government sites, and military sites seem to attract more intruders. 2.2.3.2 Disclosure of Information Another common threat is disclosure of information. Determine the value or sensitivity of the information stored on your computers. Disclosure of a password file might allow for future unauthorized accesses. A glimpse of a proposal may give a competitor an unfair advantage. A technical paper may contain years of valuable research. 2.2.3.3 Denial of Service Computers and networks provide valuable services to their users. Many people rely on these services in order to perform their jobs efficiently. When these services are not available when called upon, a loss in productivity results. Denial of service comes in many forms and might affect users in a number of ways. A network may be rendered unusable by a Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 12] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 rogue packet, jamming, or by a disabled network component. A virus might slow down or cripple a computer system. Each site should determine which services are essential, and for each of these services determine the affect to the site if that service were to become disabled. 2.3 Policy Issues There are a number of issues that must be addressed when developing a security policy. These are: 1. Who is allowed to use the resources? 2. What is the proper use of the resources? 3. Who is authorized to grant access and approve usage? 4. Who may have system administration privileges? 5. What are the user's rights and responsibilities? 6. What are the rights and responsibilities of the system administrator vs. those of the user? 7. What do you do with sensitive information? These issues will be discussed below. In addition you may wish to include a section in your policy concerning ethical use of computing resources. Parker, Swope and Baker [17, PARKER90] and Forester and Morrison [18, FORESTER] are two useful references that address ethical issues. 2.3.1 Who is Allowed to use the Resources? One step you must take in developing your security policy is defining who is allowed to use your system and services. The policy should explicitly state who is authorized to use what resources. 2.3.2 What is the Proper Use of the Resources? After determining who is allowed access to system resources it is necessary to provide guidelines for the acceptable use of the resources. You may have different guidelines for different types of users (i.e., students, faculty, external users). The policy should state what is acceptable use as well as unacceptable use. It should also include types of use that may be restricted. Define limits to access and authority. You will need to consider the level of access various users will have and what resources will be available or restricted to various groups of people. Your acceptable use policy should clearly state that individual users are responsible for their actions. Their responsibility Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 13] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 exists regardless of the security mechanisms that are in place. It should be clearly stated that breaking into accounts or bypassing security is not permitted. The following points should be covered when developing an acceptable use policy: o Is breaking into accounts permitted? o Is cracking passwords permitted? o Is disrupting service permitted? o Should users assume that a file being world-readable grants them the authorization to read it? o Should users be permitted to modify files that are not their own even if they happen to have write permission? o Should users share accounts? The answer to most of these questions will be "no". You may wish to incorporate a statement in your policies concerning copyrighted and licensed software. Licensing agreements with vendors may require some sort of effort on your part to ensure that the license is not violated. In addition, you may wish to inform users that the copying of copyrighted software may be a violation of the copyright laws, and is not permitted. Specifically concerning copyrighted and/or licensed software, you may wish to include the following information: o Copyrighted and licensed software may not be duplicated unless it is explicitly stated that you may do so. o Methods of conveying information on the copyright/licensed status of software. o When in doubt, DON'T COPY. Your acceptable use policy is very important. A policy which does not clearly state what is not permitted may leave you unable to prove that a user violated policy. There are exception cases like tiger teams and users or administrators wishing for "licenses to hack" -- you may face the situation where users will want to "hack" on your services for security research purposes. You should develop a policy that will determine whether you will permit this type of research on your services and if so, what your guidelines for such research will be. Points you may wish to cover in this area: Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 14] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 o Whether it is permitted at all. o What type of activity is permitted: breaking in, releasing worms, releasing viruses, etc.. o What type of controls must be in place to ensure that it does not get out of control (e.g., separate a segment of your network for these tests). o How you will protect other users from being victims of these activities, including external users and networks. o The process for obtaining permission to conduct these tests. In cases where you do permit these activities, you should isolate the portions of the network that are being tested from your main network. Worms and viruses should never be released on a live network. You may also wish to employ, contract, or otherwise solicit one or more people or organizations to evaluate the security of your services, of which may include "hacking". You may wish to provide for this in your policy. 2.3.3 Who Is Authorized to Grant Access and Approve Usage? Your policy should state who is authorized to grant access to your services. Further, it must be determined what type of access they are permitted to give. If you do not have control over who is granted access to your system, you will not have control over who is using your system. Controlling who has the authorization to grant access will also enable you to know who was or was not granting access if problems develop later. There are many schemes that can be developed to control the distribution of access to your services. The following are the factors that you must consider when determining who will distribute access to your services: o Will you be distributing access from a centralized point or at various points? You can have a centralized distribution point to a distributed system where various sites or departments independently authorize access. The trade off is between security and convenience. The more centralized, the easier to secure. o What methods will you use for creating accounts and terminating access? From a security standpoint, you need to examine the mechanism that Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 15] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 you will be using to create accounts. In the least restrictive case, the people who are authorized to grant access would be able to go into the system directly and create an account by hand or through vendor supplied mechanisms. Generally, these mechanisms place a great deal of trust in the person running them, and the person running them usually has a large amount of privileges. If this is the choice you make, you need to select someone who is trustworthy to perform this task. The opposite solution is to have an integrated system that the people authorized to create accounts run, or the users themselves may actually run. Be aware that even in the restrictive case of having a mechanized facility to create accounts does not remove the potential for abuse. You should have specific procedures developed for the creation of accounts. These procedures should be well documented to prevent confusion and reduce mistakes. A security vulnerability in the account authorization process is not only possible through abuse, but is also possible if a mistake is made. Having clear and well documented procedure will help ensure that these mistakes won't happen. You should also be sure that the people who will be following these procedures understand them. The granting of access to users is one of the most vulnerable of times. You should ensure that the selection of an initial password cannot be easily guessed. You should avoid using an initial password that is a function of the username, is part of the user's name, or some algorithmically generated password that can easily be guessed. In addition, you should not permit users to continue to use the initial password indefinitely. If possible, you should force users to change the initial password the first time they login. Consider that some users may never even login, leaving their password vulnerable indefinitely. Some sites choose to disable accounts that have never been accessed, and force the owner to reauthorize opening the account. 2.3.4 Who May Have System Administration Privileges? One security decision that needs to be made very carefully is who will have access to system administrator privileges and passwords for your services. Obviously, the system administrators will need access, but inevitably other users will request special privileges. The policy should address this issue. Restricting privileges is one way to deal with threats from local users. The challenge is to balance restricting access to these to protect security with giving people who need these privileges access so that they can perform their tasks. One approach that can be taken is to grant only enough privilege to accomplish the necessary tasks. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 16] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 Additionally, people holding special privileges should be accountable to some authority and this should also be identified within the site's security policy. If the people you grant privileges to are not accountable, you run the risk of losing control of your system and will have difficulty managing a compromise in security. 2.3.5 What Are The Users' Rights and Responsibilities? The policy should incorporate a statement on the users' rights and responsibilities concerning the use of the site's computer systems and services. It should be clearly stated that users are responsible for understanding and respecting the security rules of the systems they are using. The following is a list of topics that you may wish to cover in this area of the policy: o What guidelines you have regarding resource consumption (whether users are restricted, and if so, what the restrictions are). o What might constitute abuse in terms of system performance. o Whether users are permitted to share accounts or let others use their accounts. o How "secret" users should keep their passwords. o How often users should change their passwords and any other password restrictions or requirements. o Whether you provide backups or expect the users to create their own. o Disclosure of information that may be proprietary. o Statement on Electronic Mail Privacy (Electronic Communications Privacy Act). o Your policy concerning controversial mail or postings to mailing lists or discussion groups (obscenity, harassment, etc.). o Policy on electronic communications: mail forging, etc. The Electronic Mail Association sponsored a white paper on the privacy of electronic mail in companies [4]. Their basic recommendation is that every site should have a policy on the protection of employee privacy. They also recommend that organizations establish privacy policies that deal with all media, rather than singling out electronic mail. They suggest five criteria for evaluating any policy: 1. Does the policy comply with law and with duties to third parties? 2. Does the policy unnecessarily compromise the interest of Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 17] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 the employee, the employer or third parties? 3. Is the policy workable as a practical matter and likely to be enforced? 4. Does the policy deal appropriately with all different forms of communications and record keeping with the office? 5. Has the policy been announced in advance and agreed to by all concerned? 2.3.6 What Are The Rights and Responsibilities of System Administrators Versus Rights of Users There is a tradeoff between a user's right to absolute privacy and the need of system administrators to gather sufficient information to diagnose problems. There is also a distinction between a system administrator's need to gather information to diagnose problems and investigating security violations. The policy should specify to what degree system administrators can examine user files to diagnose problems or for other purposes, and what rights you grant to the users. You may also wish to make a statement concerning system administrators' obligation to maintaining the privacy of information viewed under these circumstances. A few questions that should be answered are: o Can an administrator monitor or read a user's files for any reason? o What are the liabilities? o Do network administrators have the right to examine network or host traffic? 2.3.7 What To Do With Sensitive Information Before granting users access to your services, you need to determine at what level you will provide for the security of data on your systems. By determining this, you are determining the level of sensitivity of data that users should store on your systems. You do not want users to store very sensitive information on a system that you are not going to secure very well. You need to tell users who might store sensitive information what services, if any, are appropriate for the storage of sensitive information. This part should include storing of data in different ways (disk, magnetic tape, file servers, etc.). Your policy in this area needs to be coordinated with the policy concerning the rights of system administrators versus users (see section 2.3.6). Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 18] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 2.4 What Happens When the Policy is Violated It is obvious that when any type of official policy is defined, be it related to computer security or not, it will eventually be broken. The violation may occur due to an individual's negligence, accidental mistake, having not been properly informed of the current policy, or not understanding the current policy. It is equally possible that an individual (or group of individuals) may knowingly perform an act that is in direct violation of the defined policy. When a policy violation has been detected, the immediate course of action should be pre-defined to ensure prompt and proper enforcement. An investigation should be performed to determine how and why the violation occurred. Then the appropriate corrective action should be executed. The type and severity of action taken varies depending on the type of violation that occurred. 2.4.1 Determining the Response to Policy Violations Violations to policy may be committed by a wide variety of users. Some may be local users and others may be from outside the local environment. Sites may find it helpful to define what it considers "insiders" and "outsiders" based upon administrative, legal or political boundaries. These boundaries imply what type of action must be taken to correct the offending party; from a written reprimand to pressing legal charges. So, not only do you need to define actions based on the type of violation, you also need to have a clearly defined series of actions based on the kind of user violating your computer security policy. This all seems rather complicated, but should be addressed long before it becomes necessary as the result of a violation. One point to remember about your policy is that proper education is your best defense. For the outsiders who are using your computer legally, it is your responsibility to verify that these individuals are aware of the policies that you have set forth. Having this proof may assist you in the future if legal action becomes necessary. As for users who are using your computer illegally, the problem is basically the same. What type of user violated the policy and how and why did they do it? Depending on the results of your investigation, you may just prefer to "plug" the hole in your computer security and chalk it up to experience. Or if a significant amount of loss was incurred, you may wish to take more drastic action. Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 19] RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991 2.4.2 What to do When Local Users Violate the Policy of a Remote Site In the event that a local user violates the security policy of a remote site, the local site should have a clearly defined set of administrative actions to take concerning that local user. The site should also be prepared to protect itself against possible actions by the remote site. These situations involve legal issues which should be addressed when forming the security policy. 2.4.3 Defining Contacts and Responsibilities to Outsi