Security Controls: Types with Examples and Best Practices

Security controls are parameters that are put in place to protect various types of data and infrastructure that are important to an organization. A security control is any safeguard or countermeasure used to avoid, detect, counteract, or minimize security risks to physical property, information, computer systems, or other assets.

Data security controls are more crucial now than ever due to the rising number of cyberattacks. According to research from the Clark School at the University of Maryland, one in three Americans are now subject to cybersecurity attacks in the United States, which happen on average every 39 seconds and target small businesses 43% of the time. In the United States, a data breach cost an average of USD 9.44 million between March 2021 and March 2022.

Businesses must strengthen their data protection policies or risk facing fines as a result of the expansion of data privacy regulations. Last year, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations of the European Union went into effect. California's Consumer Privacy Act will go into effect in the United States on January 1, 2020, and several other states are currently debating similar legislation.

Strict penalties are frequently included in these regulations for businesses that fail to comply. For instance, Facebook recently announced that it expects to pay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission more than USD 3 billion in fines for shortcomings in its data protection policies that resulted in numerous data breaches.

Types of security controls

To safeguard hardware, software, networks, and data from actions and events that might result in loss or damage, a variety of security controls can be put in place. For instance:

Physical security controls: Data center perimeter fencing, locks, guards, access control cards, biometric access control systems, surveillance cameras, and intrusion detection sensors are just a few examples of physical security controls.

Digital security controls: Usernames and passwords, two-factor authentication, antivirus software, and firewalls are a few examples of digital security controls.

Cybersecurity Controls: Cybersecurity measures, such as DDoS mitigation and intrusion prevention systems, are anything specifically created to stop data attacks.

Cloud security controls: In order to ensure that data and workloads are properly protected, you can take steps in conjunction with a cloud services provider. If your company utilises the cloud for workloads, you must meet their corporate or business policy security requirements and industry regulations.

Security control frameworks and best practices

Frameworks or standards are used to describe security control systems, including the procedures and supporting documentation that define their implementation and ongoing management.

Frameworks allow an organization to manage security controls consistently across various asset types using a tried-and-true methodology. The following are a few of the most well-known frameworks and standards:

National Institute of Standards and Technology Cyber Security Framework

A voluntary framework was developed in 2014 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to offer organizations advice on how to avoid, recognize, and respond to cyberattacks. In order to ascertain whether the security controls of an organization are correctly implemented, function as intended, and produce the desired result (meeting the security requirements of the organization), assessment methods and procedures are used. The NIST framework is consistently updated to keep pace with cybersecurity advances.

Center for Internet Security controls

Every company looking to prevent cyberattacks should start with the high-priority defensive measures listed by the Centre for Internet Security (CIS), which serve as a "must-do, do-first" guideline. The CIS controls were developed by the SANS Institute, which asserts that "CIS controls are effective because they are derived from the most common attack patterns highlighted in the leading threat reports and vetted across a very broad community of government and industry practitioners."

In order to create their own security framework and IT security policies, organisations can make use of these frameworks as well as others. A strong framework guarantees that an organization follows these guidelines:

• Enforces IT security policies through security controls

• Educates employees and users about security guidelines

• Meets industry and compliance regulations

• Achieves operational efficiency across security controls

• Continually assesses risks and addresses them through security controls.

A security solution is only as strong as its weakest link. You should, therefore, consider multiple layers of security controls (which is also known as a defense-in-depth strategy) to implement security controls across identity and access management, data, applications, network or server infrastructure, physical security, and security intelligence.

Security controls assessments

A security controls assessment is an excellent first step for determining where any vulnerabilities exist. A security controls assessment enables you to evaluate the controls you currently have in place and determine whether they are implemented correctly, operating as intended, and meeting your security requirements. NIST Special Publication 800-53 was created by NIST as a benchmark for successful security control assessments. The NIST guidelines serve as a best practice approach that, when applied, can help mitigate risk of a security compromise for your organization. Alternatively, your organization can also create its own security assessment.

Some key steps for creating a security assessment include the following:

Determine the target systems: Create a list of IP addresses required to be scanned in your network. The list should contain IP addresses of all the systems and devices connected in your organization’s network.

Determine the target applications: List the web applications and services to be scanned. Determine the type of web application server, web server, database, third-party components, and technologies used to build existing applications.

Vulnerability scanning and reporting: Keep network teams and IT teams informed of all assessment activity, because a vulnerability assessment can occasionally create bursts in network traffic when loading the target servers with requests. Also, obtain the unauthenticated pass-through for scanner IPs across the organization network and ensure the IPs are whitelisted in IPS/IDS. Otherwise, the scanner can trigger a malicious traffic alert, resulting in its IP being blocked.