Author: Benjamin D. Thomas
gnutls, util-linux, libexif, ethereal, postgresql, gaim, pygtk, GnuTLS, gzip,
TCPDump, libTIFF, HT, and openmotif. The distributors include Debian, Fedora,
Gentoo, and Red Hat.Sarbanes Oxley – Section 404
By: Erica R. Thomas
The section titled 404 corresponds to the requirements for effective internal
controls by corporations falling under the jurisdiction of The Act. According
to the Guardian Digital SOX Whitepaper, “Under Section 404 management must institute
a comprehensive internal control structure which includes appropriated procedures
to ensure accurate and complete financial reporting.” Management must conduct
an annual assessment regarding the effectiveness of this structure and it must
be supported by documented evidence and validation of management’s assessment
by a registered public accounting firm. According to Robert Moeller in his book,
“Sarbanes-Oxley and the New Internal Auditing Rules”, a system or process has
good internal controls if it accomplishes its stated mission, produces accurate
and reliable data, complies with applicable laws and organization policies,
provides for economical and efficient uses of resources, and provides for appropriate
safeguarding of assets. The annual internal controls reports must state the
responsibility of management for establishing and maintaining an adequate internal
control structure and procedures for financial report and must contain an assessment
of the effectiveness of the internal control structure for procedures of the
company for financial reporting.
The Act affects every level of an organization, however much of the
compliance issues will be dealt by the upper-level executives as
well as finance and IT departments. Overall, The Act’s main concern
is the security and integrity of financial information. As stated by
Guardian Digital, “Given that almost all business information today
is created, stored, and shared electronically, information technology,
with special regard to information security, is a significant
component of the effective internal controls mandated by SOX.”
Any aspect of information technology controls which directly affects
the processes or procedures involved in creating and preparing
corporate data, including all hardware, software, and IT policies
relevant to the preparation and retention of information would then
be subject to compliance to the act.
According to SOX, all corporations must pass a set of rules for
every division within a company that may be involved in the generation,
manipulation, and reporting of corporate information. With regard to
IT departments, however, these policies will be created to drive
security and ensure the integrity of all information contained on
the network. Documented policies and procedures set acceptable rules
for employees and executives conduct alike and furthermore, provide
blueprints on how certain situations should most effectively be handled
eliminating guesswork and inadvertent transgressions. Setting
information security policies, properly enforcing them and proactively
evolving existing policies to adjust to corporate growth is the
backbone for SOX compliance and is essential to achieve optimum
performance and security on the system.
Although properly executed acceptable use policies are a good defense against
many of the internal threats facing corporate infrastructure, they cannot protect
the integrity of corporate data alone. A solid infrastructure incorporates numerous
technologies including those that will protect corporate confidentiality, the
continuity of secure network operations, and further assist in enforcing corporate
network and Internet policies. These solutions should include firewalls for
traffic monitoring, comprehensive auditing features to reveal user and system
activity, strong encryption mechanisms to ensure data integrity when transferring
pertinent information, user authentication mechanisms such as passwords and
digital certification, and a system back-up module to provide critical recovery
services. A cohesive collection of all these applications is a step in the right
direction for SOX compliance as well as a chance for organizations to empower
their IT infrastructure through technologically advanced applications. Such
improvements not only provide governmental compliance and greater network protection
but can also result in a dramatic performance increase.
LinuxSecurity.com
Feature Extras:
Getting
to Know Linux Security: File Permissions – Welcome to the first
tutorial in the ‘Getting to Know Linux Security’ series. The topic explored
is Linux file permissions. It offers an easy to follow explanation of how
to read permissions, and how to set them using chmod. This guide is intended
for users new to Linux security, therefore very simple. If the feedback is
good, I’ll consider creating more complex guides for advanced users. Please
let us know what you think and how these can be improved.The
Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection
– To be honest, this was one of the best books that I’ve read on network security.
Others books often dive so deeply into technical discussions, they fail to
provide any relevance to network engineers/administrators working in a corporate
environment. Budgets, deadlines, and flexibility are issues that we must all
address. The Tao of Network Security Monitoring is presented in such a way
that all of these are still relevant.Encrypting
Shell Scripts – Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information
like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure?
If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure
and some user doesn’t have a “ps -ef” loop running in an attempt to capture
that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in “ps” output).
Take advantage of our Linux Security discussion
list! This mailing list is for general security-related questions and comments.
To subscribe send an e-mail to security-discuss-request@linuxsecurity.com
with “subscribe” as the subject.
Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com
weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers
with a quick summary of each week’s most relevant Linux security headline.
| Debian: New squid packages fix ACL bypass | ||
6th, May, 2005
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| Debian: New smail packages fix arbitrary code execution | ||
9th, May, 2005
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| Debian: New XFree86 packages fix arbitrary code execution | ||
9th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: lapack-3.0-26.fc3 | ||
5th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: system-config-bind-4.0.0-12 | ||
5th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: gnutls-1.0.20-3.1.1 | ||
5th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: util-linux-2.12a-24.2 | ||
6th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: libexif-0.5.12-6.fc3 | ||
6th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: ethereal-0.10.11-1.FC3.1 | ||
9th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: postgresql-7.4.8-1.FC3.1 | ||
10th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: gaim-1.3.0-1.fc3 | ||
11th, May, 2005
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: pygtk2-2.4.1-fc3.1 | ||
11th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: Oops! Remote code execution | ||
5th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: Ethereal Numerous vulnerabilities | ||
6th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: GnuTLS Denial of Service vulnerability | ||
9th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: gzip Multiple vulnerabilities | ||
9th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: TCPDump Decoding routines Denial of Service vulnerability | ||
9th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: libTIFF Buffer overflow | ||
10th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: HT Editor Multiple buffer overflows | ||
10th, May, 2005
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| Gentoo: Gaim Denial of Service and buffer overflow vulnerabilties | ||
12th, May, 2005
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| RedHat: Moderate: tcpdump security update | ||
11th, May, 2005
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| RedHat: Moderate: tcpdump security update | ||
11th, May, 2005
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| RedHat: Critical: gaim security update | ||
11th, May, 2005
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| RedHat: Critical: gaim security update | ||
11th, May, 2005
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| RedHat: Moderate: openmotif security update | ||
11th, May, 2005
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