Security controls are crucial in influencing cybersecurity professionals' actions in safeguarding organizations. There are three fundamental types of IT security controls, including administrative, technical, and physical controls. The primary goal of executing a security control could be detective, preventative, compensatory, corrective, or deterrent measures.
Security controls also protect employees and organizations, as in the case of social engineering awareness training and policies.
Without critical controls, the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of sensitive information at risk. These risks also extend to the safety of employees and software assets within an organization.
What Is A Security Control?
Security controls are countermeasures executed to protect various types of infrastructure and data crucial to an organization. A security control is any type of parameter or safeguards that detects, prevents, reduces, or counteracts security threats to computer systems, information, physical property, or other assets.
Given the increasing rate of cybersecurity attacks, security controls are more crucial than ever. A study at the University of Maryland shows that cyberattacks in the United States now happen every 39 seconds on average. These cyberattacks affect 33% of Americans annually, and 43% of those attacks affect small businesses. From March 2021 to March 2022, the average cost of data breaches in the US was $9.44 million.
Data privacy regulations are advancing, making it crucial for organizations and individuals to shore up their data protection practices or face massive fines. In May 2018, the European Union introduced strict General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). In the United States, California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) took effect on January 1, 2020, with other states considering implementing similar measures.
These regulations include stiff fines and penalties for organizations that don’t meet requirements. For instance, in 2022, companies were fined $890 million for violating GDPR, with Meta paying 80% of those fines.
Although it’s impossible to prevent all cyberattacks, implementing risk mitigation measures can help you lower the risk by reducing the chances that a data breach will exploit a vulnerability.
Risk mitigation is accomplished by executing various types of security controls based on the following:
- The goal of the countermeasure or parameter.
- The level to which you need to reduce the risk.
- The severity of damage the breach can cause.
What Are the 3 Types of Security Controls?
You can implement three primary types of security controls to protect your networks, software, hardware, and sensitive data from actions and events that can cause loss or damage. These include:
1. Technical security controls
These security controls, also called logic controls, leverage technology to limit vulnerabilities in software and hardware. You only need to install and configure automated software to safeguard these assets. Examples of technical security controls include:
- Firewalls
- Encryption
- Anti-malware software and antivirus
- Intrusion Detection Systems and Intrusion Prevention Systems
- Security Information and Event Management systems
2. Administrative Security controls
Administrative controls are procedures, guidelines, or policies that define business or personnel security practices per the company’s security goals. Today, many companies have an onboarding process to introduce new employees and provide them with the company's history.
New employees are asked to review and acknowledge the company's security policies during the onboarding process. By acknowledging they have read the company’s security policies, they’re expected to adhere to its corporate policy. However, to execute the administrative controls, additional security controls are needed for continuous enforcement and monitoring.
The processes that enforce and monitor the administrative security controls include:
- Operational controls. These security measures are typically implemented and executed by people rather than systems.
- Management controls. These security control measures focus on managing risk and information system security.
For instance, security policies are management controls, but their security requirements are enforced by systems (technical controls) and people (operational controls).
3. Physical security controls
These security controls encompass the implementation of security policies and measures in a defined structure to prevent or deter unauthorized access to confidential material. Physical controls include:
- Thermal or motion alarm systems
- Closed-circuit surveillance systems
- Picture IDs
- Security guards
- Dead-bolt and locked steel doors
- Biometrics, such as voice, fingerprints, face, handwriting, iris, and other automated methods that identify individuals
Other security controls include preventative controls, detective controls, corrective controls, and deterrent controls.
What Are Types of Security?
There are five key types of cybersecurity:
- Application security
- Critical infrastructure security
- Network security
- Internet of Things (IoT) security
- Cloud Security
To cover all the bases, you should develop an extensive plan that includes the five types of security and the three elements that play a crucial role in a cybersecurity posture: technology, processes, and people.
How Many Security Controls Are There?
The Federal Information Processing Standard 200 identifies 17 broad security control families, namely:
- Audit and Accountability AU
- Access Control AC
- Security Assessment and Authorization CA
- Identification and Authentication IA
- Media Protection MP
- Maintenance MA
- Awareness and Training AT
- Configuration Management CM
- Planning PL
- Risk Assessment RA
- System and Communications Protection SC
- System and Services Acquisition SA
- System and Information Integrity SI
- Contingency Planning CP
- Incident Response IR
- Physical and Environmental Protection PE
- Personnel Security PS
What Are Examples of Security Controls?
IT security controls are actions organizations take to reduce cybersecurity risks, including procedures, processes, or automation. For example, these actions might be part of a security audit or part of projects or continuous risk assessment. Here are nine examples of IT security controls:
- Authentication: Employees need to pass multi-factor authentication before accessing company assets.
- Audit trail: A website server records URLs and IP addresses for every login and stores such information for periodic audit trails.
- Training: Employees are trained in defensive computing annually.
- Incident management: Employees who lose electronic devices used for work must report such incidents immediately.
- Cryptography: Data in storage media must be encrypted on all devices.
- Passwords: Systems conduct validation to ensure employees have strong passwords.
- Automation: A site places a four-hour freeze, for instance, on a customer's account if they get their password wrong three times. This significantly reduces brute force attacks.
- Configuration management: Updates on firewall rules require an approved change request.
- Security testing: Major system software releases should undergo rigorous security testing.
How Often Should You Perform a Network Vulnerability Scan?
According to industry standards, companies should scan their internal and external systems every three months. So, preferably, it’s wise to perform network vulnerability scans monthly. However, compliance requirements often stipulate how often network vulnerability scans must be done. For instance, here are a few examples of how often you must scan your systems to meet compliance requirements:
- PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry) - Quarterly.
- cyberSecurity Maturity Model Certification - weekly to quarterly, depending on auditor requirements.
- Health Information Protection Accountability Act - network vulnerability scans aren’t necessary, but you must have a detailed assessment process.
- The National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) requires organizations to perform quarterly to monthly scans based on a governing framework.
Further, scanning your systems frequently improves your chances of identifying weaknesses early. Thus, you must perform a vulnerability assessment anytime you make new changes to your networks. This ensures a new vulnerability isn’t introduced to your systems during the change process and offers an up-to-date analysis.
What Are Key Security Controls?
Critical security controls that can help you safeguard your systems include:
- Physical controls include locks, biometric access control systems, data center perimeter fencing, and surveillance cameras.
- Digital security controls include passwords, usernames, two-factor and multi-factor authentication, firewalls, and antivirus software.
- Cloud security controls include countermeasures you and your cloud service provider take to protect your workloads and data. In addition, if your company operates on the cloud, you must meet business or corporate policy security requirements and industry regulations to protect sensitive material.
- Cybersecurity controls include measures and parameters designed to prevent data breaches, including intrusion prevention systems and DDoS mitigation.
Why Are Security Controls Important?
Regardless of the type of organization you run, chances are you have, or will have, some sort of sensitive material in your possession. For example, you may store customer records electronically or accept credit card payments online and must adhere to the Health Information Protection Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security and Privacy regulations. If you work with the state or federal government, the odds are you're already handling unclassified information the government wants to protect. Further, you may have architectural diagrams, customer profiles, and other vital artifacts you don’t want your competitors to get access to.
Thankfully, security controls can help you safeguard the sensitive data your company holds. Security controls can also help you limit the risk of data loss or breach. They can also help you enforce policies and best practices to protect your networks, hardware, software, and sensitive information, ultimately avoiding potential fines and penalties in case of data breaches.
How Can RiskRecon Help?
At RiskRecon, a Mastercard company, we can help you streamline your third-party security risk management software, saving your cybersecurity team time and money.
In addition, RiskRecon offers you instant visibility of each third-party vendor’s compliance with your personalized risk policy requirements. Sign up for a demo to see why we’re the leading solution for managing third-party cybersecurity risks.
