ISO 27001 Annex : A.12.6 Technical Vulnerability Management

ISO 27001 Annex : A.12.6 Technical Vulnerability Management Its objective is to avoid technological vulnerabilities from being exploited.

A.12.6.1 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities

Control- Information on technological vulnerabilities of information systems used should be obtained in a timely manner, the exposure of the organization to such vulnerabilities should be assessed and appropriate measures taken to address the risk involved

Implementation Guidance – An up-to-date and comprehensive asset inventory is necessary for the effective management of technical vulnerability (see Clause 8). The software vendor, version numbers, current installation status ( e.g. what the software on which systems are installed), and the person(s) within the organization responsible for the software are included in the basic details required to support technological vulnerability management.

In order to identify potential technical vulnerabilities, appropriate and timely action should be taken. To establish an efficient management process for technical vulnerabilities, the following guidelines should be followed:

The organization should define and define technical vulnerability management roles and responsibilities, including vulnerability monitoring, risk assessment of vulnerability, asset patching, asset tracking, and any necessary coordination responsibilities.
Informative resources to identify and raise awareness about the relevant technical vulnerabilities for the software and other technology (based on the asset inventory list, Refer 8.1.1), should be updated based on inventory changes and other new or useful resources;
A timeline to respond to potentially relevant technical vulnerabilities notifications should be defined;
The organization will recognize the associated risks and acts when a potential technological weakness has been identified; these acts may include patching compromised systems, or enforcing other controls;
Actions should be carried out according to changes management protocols or following incident response procedures in information security, depending on the degree to which a technical problem needs to be handled.
The risk of the installation of a patch should be measured (those risks raised by the vulnerability must be compared to the risk of installing the patch) if a patch is available from a valid source;
Before downloading the patch, it must be checked and reviewed to make sure that it is safe and does not lead to side effects that can not be tolerated; other tests, such as:

Switching off vulnerability related services or capabilities;
Adapting or adding network boundary access controls, such as firewalls;
Enhanced surveillance for real attacks;
Increase vulnerability awareness;

.For all procedures undertaken, an audit log should be maintained;
In order to ensure its efficiency and effectiveness, the technical vulnerability management process should be monitored and assessed regularly;
High-risk systems should be addressed first
The incident management activities should be compatible with effective technical vulnerability management processes to relay vulnerability information to the incident response mechanism and provide appropriate procedures that may occur;
Defining a procedure to tackle a situation that has identified a vulnerability, yet no appropriate countermeasure exists. The organization should in this situation assess the risks associated with the known vulnerability and define appropriate detective and corrective measures.

Also Read : ISO 27001 Annex : A.12.5 Control of Operational Software

Other Information – Technical vulnerability management can be viewed as a subfunction of change management and therefore can benefit from the processes and procedures of change management.

Vendors also have to issue patches as quickly as possible under significant pressures. So a patch can not adequately resolve the problem and has negative side effects. It is therefore possible. In some cases, it is not easy to uninstall a patch when the patch is applied.

If it is not possible to adequately test patches, for example, due to costs or lack of resources, a delay in patching can be taken into account to evaluate the associated risks, based on the experience of other users. It may be helpful to use ISO / IEC 27031.

A well-known ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and ISO 27001 Lead Implementer certificate that mainly covers information security clauses and their implementation, i.e., controls which should be implemented by the organization to preserve the CIA triad, Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability to maintain their critical, sensitive information in a secure manner. Infosavvy, a Mumbai- based institute, provides multi-domain certifications and training, which include IRCA CQI ISO 27001:2013 Lead Auditor (LA) and ISO 27001 Lead Implementer (LI) (TÜV SÜD Certification). Infosavvy will help you to understand and recognize the full scope of your organization’s security checks to protect your organization’s activities and information equipment (assets) from attacks, and also to illustrate the backup policy to safeguard if data gets lost due to intentional or natural hazards. It also helps you understand how to control or manage the integrity of the operating system and which software should be functioning in a business operating system. We have trainers with extensive expertise and experience to ensure the efficient handling of the security of information. Consequently, the applicant will gain the necessary skills for the ISMS audit by using commonly agreed audit concepts, procedures and techniques

A.12.6.2 Restrictions on Software Installation

Control- Users should set and implement rules governing software installation.

Implementation Guidance – Strict guidelines on what types of software users can be developed by the organization.

It would follow the concept of less privilege. Users may be able to install software if certain privileges are granted. Identifies what software installation types are permitted (e.g. software updates or security patches) and what installations are forbidden (e.g. software for personal use only and software whose malicious history is unknown or suspect). Taking into account the role of the users concerned, these privileges should be given.

Other Information- Installing software uncontrolled on computer systems may lead to vulnerabilities and information leakage, loss of integrity or other incidents of intellectual property security, or infringement of intellectual property rights.

Questions related to this topic

What are the normal steps to take to remediate a vulnerable system?
How do you implement a vulnerability management program?
What is a vulnerability management process?
How do you do a vulnerability assessment?
ISO 27001 Annex : A.12.6 Technical Vulnerability Management?
What are the controls used in ISO 27001 Annex : A.12.6 Technical Vulnerability Management?

ISO 27001 Requirements

Clause 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context

Clause 4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties
Clause 4.4 Information security management system
Clause 4.3 Determining the scope of the information security management system
Clause 5.1 Leadership and commitment
Clause 5.2 Policy
Clause 5.3 Organizational roles, responsibilities and authorities
Clause 6.1 Actions to address risks and opportunities
Clause 6.1.2 Information security risk assessment process
Clause 6.1.3 Information security risk treatment
Clause 6.2 Information security objectives & planning
Clause 7.1 Resources
Clause 7.2 Competence
Clause 7.3 Awareness
Clause 7.4 Communication
Clause 7.5 Documented information Implementation Guideline
Clause 9.1 Performance evaluation Monitoring, measurement, analysis & evaluation
Clause 9.2 Internal audit
Clause 9.3 Management review
Clause 10.1 Non conformity and corrective action
Clause 10.2 Continual Improvement

ISO 27001 Annex A Controls

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