Systems Security
- Effective: 01-01-2009
- Last Revised: 08-01-2016
- Responsible University Administrator: Chief Information Officer
- Responsible University Office: Information Security/Business and Finance
- Policy Contact: Information Security • security@unomaha.edu
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Scope
This policy applies to all university personnel and entities responsible for managing and supporting Payment Card Industry (PCI)-affected systems. This affects those PCI-identified systems along with campus-wide implemented systems. Those systems that are not centrally managed are to use this policy as best practices for information systems security within their respective information systems environments.
Policy Statement
Systems Planning, Acceptance, and Operation
Systems Planning
Advanced planning and preparation will be performed to enable the availability of adequate capacity and system resources. Projections of future system capacity requirements will be made to reduce the risk of the system not being able to support processing or storage requirements. The operational requirements of new systems will be established, documented, and tested prior to their acceptance and use.
For major new developments, the operations function and users are to be consulted at appropriate stages in the development process to ensure the operational efficiency of the proposed system design. Appropriate tests must be carried out to confirm that all acceptance criteria are fully satisfied. The university system development methodology must be followed by applicable parties before a system is implemented in production.
System Acceptance
Acceptance criteria for new information systems, significant upgrades, and new versions must be established and suitable tests of the system must be carried out prior to acceptance. System owners working with the appropriate information technology management ensures that the requirements and criteria for acceptance of new systems are clearly defined, agreed upon, documented, and tested. The following controls will be considered:
- Performance and computer capacity requirements
- Error recovery, restart procedures, and contingency plans
- Preparation and testing of routine operating procedures to defined standards
- Agreed set of security controls in place
- Effective manual procedures
- Installation of the new system will not adversely affect existing systems, particularly at peak processing times
Operating Procedures
To ensure the security of the ongoing operation of implemented systems, documented procedures must be created and maintained for system activities associated with critical processing and communications facilities. The operating procedures are in place to ensure that systems are consistently and securely managed. System administrators and system owners are responsible for developing and maintaining operating procedures. Operating procedures are to include affected operating systems such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and Cisco IOS, as well as firewall software.
- Change management procedures
- Backup procedures
- Job scheduling procedures
- System configuration/security hardening procedures
- System restart and recovery procedures
Such procedures may include those identified by industry practices.
Configuration
Each system connected to the university’s network will be maintained in compliance with a platform security standard for that operating system. System administrators are responsible for ensuring the implementation of an approved security configuration for their associated operating system(s) while Information Security is responsible for the creation and validation of the approved security configuration standard(s). If conflict in a configuration setting exists between the standard(s) and implementation, an appropriate exception request must be filed and documented as an exception to the configuration.
Vulnerability Management
The university identifies, tracks, and mitigates risks associated with vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities may be discovered through internal and/or external risk assessment processes, audits, or incidents. System administrators have the responsibility to mitigate all risks associated with a given vulnerability. In the event that a vulnerability may not be mitigated, an appropriate exception must be filed and approved by. management.
Antivirus (AV)
It is essential that precautions are taken to detect and prevent computer viruses on computers and eradicate them as quickly as possible. Virus protection for all desktop systems and application servers is a requirement for ensuring system uptime and user productivity.
Software
To assure continued uninterrupted service for both computers and networks, all computer users must keep the approved virus detection software enabled on their computers. With virus protection software running, scanning will take place before new data files are opened and before new software is executed. Faculty and staff must not bypass or disable the scanning process since this facilitates the spread or activation of a virus.
Updates
The antivirus system will provide centralized rapid deployment of virus definition updates. University antivirus systems must be configured to check for the latest version of virus protection on a daily basis.
Non-centralized AV systems
As new versions of the antivirus detection and repair software become available, the product updates are to be distributed to multi-platform computer systems and application servers from the vendor or antivirus servers.
All computers accessible directly from the Internet must run the updated antivirus software.
Virus Detection
For virus-infected systems or suspected virus-infected system, refer to the UNO Digital Security Incident Response Policy.
Backups for Servers
To maintain the integrity and availability of the university’s information processing and communication services, routine procedures are established for carrying out the established backup strategy in accordance with business continuity requirements. These procedures include taking backup copies of data and testing their timely restoration, logging events and errors in backups, and, where appropriate, monitoring the equipment environment.
Requirements
To protect university information resources from loss or damage, information owners and custodians are responsible for regularly backing-up their university information. Faculty and/or staff who create and manage critical/regulated data must create the data on appropriate network drives. Network drives provide the necessary backup processes to insure data can be recovered in the event of data loss. Without the data residing on drives which provide a backup process, data could potentially be lost due to errors, omissions, or disk failures.
All backups containing regulated data must be stored at an approved off-site location with either physical access controls or encryption. A contingency plan must be prepared for all applications which handle critical production information. The information owner has the responsibility to verify that the contingency plan is adequately developed, regularly updated, and periodically tested.
Backup copies of essential business information and software are to be taken regularly. Backup copies, accurate and complete records of the backup copies, and documented restoration procedures must be maintained. Adequate backup facilities must be provided to ensure that all essential business information and software can be recovered following a disaster or media failure. A combination of Full backups, Incremental backups, and Differential backups are to be used.
Retention
The retention period for essential information and any requirement for archive copies to be permanently retained must be determined. Information owners are required to identify data that must be kept on a schedule which differs from the standard retention schedule. Some records may need to be securely retained to meet university, statutory, or regulatory requirements, as well as to support essential business activities. A rotation schedule will be established which identifies essential record types, the period of time they are to be retained, and the location where they are stored. Data retention must be conducted in accordance with the university and State of Nebraska Records Retention Guidelines and Policy.
Reason for Policy
The management and operation of the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) network information systems must contain controls for the safe transmission and storage of university information. This policy identifies and defines elements that enable a secure computing systems environment.
Definitions
Virus: An unauthorized program which replicates itself and spreads onto various data storage media (e.g. hard drives, USB sticks, and memory) or across a network, potentially causing damage or compromise to the data or the network. Computer viruses may spread by program files and data files.
Vulnerability: A security weakness or exposure in an operating system or other system software or application software component.
Full Backup: A complete copy of all data to another set of media.
Incremental Backup: A copy only of data that has changed since the last backup of any type.
Differential Backup: A copy only of data that has changed since the last full backup.
Related Information
State of Nebraska Consumer Notification of Data Security Breach Act of 2006
UNO Digital Security Incident Response Policy
This policy covers the following sections of ISO 17799:2005:
- 10.1.1 Documented operating procedures
- 10.3.1 Capacity management
- 10.3.2 System acceptance
- 10.4.1 Controls against malicious code
- 10.4.2 Controls against mobile code
- 10.5.1 Information backup
- 10.6.1 Network controls
- 10.6.2 Security of network services
- 10.7.4 Security of system documentation
- 10.8.5 Business information systems
This policy covers the following sections of PCI-DSS 3.2:
- 3.1 Keep cardholder data storage to a minimum by implementing data retention and disposal policies, procedures and processes.
- 3.3 Mask PAN when displayed, such that only personnel with a legitimate business need can see more than the first six/last four digits of the PAN.
History
This policy is an update to the Systems Security Policy that was previously updated in 2009.