Alan Calder on IT Governance, information security & ISO 27001

Lots of organisations think they don’t need to worry about theft of credit card data. I don’t know why. Payment card data theft is now big business – the level of professionalism available in this industry includes the development of bespoke software supported by an extremely efficient helpdesk and you don’t usually get this level of specialization until the industry is starting to mature.

Apart from the interesting fact that darkside helpdesks appear to be more efficient than many over on this side, you have to wonder why every organisation that accepts payment card data isn’t already at least PCI DSS compliant? Why hasn’t the PCI Security Council already come up with some form of ‘PCI DSS Compliant’ badge and certification scheme so that paying customers can concentrate all their business on the websites and businesses of those organisations that have actually bothered to do what it takes to protect their card holder data?

The private sector needs to take data privacy more seriously if it is to stop the Information Commissioner’s Office getting the power to audit their information security systems without warning. According to ComputerWeekly, this is the warning from James Alexander, technology security partner at management consulting firm Deloitte.

His comments followed Deloitte’s finding that only 54% of technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) firms will tell customers if their data privacy is breached.

Well, I take the contrary view here. What we NEED is for the ICO to take some action, because the the voluntary approach doesn’t work – just look at how organizations in both the private and public sectors are dragging their feet over PCI DSS compliance! The privacy of individual data requires more stick.

As ample proof, one need only look to the latest cases of lost MoD laptops and Carphone Warehouse’s recent misdeeds.

I rest my case!

Once upon a time, there was only BS7799 for information security – now there are three parts to it, two of which have become internationalised (ISO27001) and are part of a series which has something like 20 numbers reserved for future use – and we also have the PCI DSS to provide a more prescriptive approach to protecting commercially important card holder data. You would have thought that, with all these standards, business would have become more secure.

Perhaps – but, clearly continuity needs have not been adequately recognized. The first part of BS25999 (already published) was just a code of practice – but the arrival of part 2, the management system specification, will make it possible for organizations to get a BS25999 certificate – to go alongside their ISO27001 and ISO20000 certificates, no doubt.

Or will the proliferation of certificates simply lead to confusion in the minds of stakeholders as well as managers and customers?

The recent report from the House of Lords Science and Technology select committee into ‘Personal internet security’ highlights the fact that businesses are not doing enough to protect their customers from the dangers of e-crime and on-line fraud. Clearly this is not exactly a ground breaking conclusion; however it is certainly an important one.

The report emphasises my long held views that organisations need to take action to protect valuable data. ISO 27001, the information security standard, is the benchmark for first-rate information security and certification is the best method of protection an organisation can have. Organisations should get certified to ISO 27001 as soon as possible in order to protect their customers as well as themselves.

Surely it is time that the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was re-banded in order to tackle e-crime effectively and hopefully deter those responsible. Since it was disbanded and absorbed into the new Series Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) there has generally been nowhere that e-crime can be reported to and local police forces are often ill equipped to deal with e-crime especially where the perpetrator is based in some other jurisdiction. For example: e-crime can be committed by people based in Russia, who have stolen the credit card of people in the US and are now using it to purchase from a site owned by a UK company but hosted on a Canadian server. This simple example illustrates just how vitally important a co-ordinated national police approach is to dealing with e-crime. PCI DSS will not be enough, on its own. The complexities of e-crime need a dedicated unit, so bring back the NHTCU!

Meanwhile, whilst organisations are making the necessary changes to protect sensitive information, individuals should also take action to protect themselves and the ‘Internet Highway Code’ is the benchmark here. It sets out ten straightforward, no-nonsense, plain English rules for staying safe online and arms anyone using a computer with the knowledge of how to avoid all the problems that make the newspaper headlines.