Creating and Managing a Security Policy

Each Trusted Extensions site is unique and must determine its own security policy. Perform the following tasks when creating and managing a security policy.

• Establish a security team. The security team needs to have representation from top-level management, personnel management, computer system management and administrators, and facilities management. The team must review Trusted Extensions administrators' policies and procedures, and recommend general security policies that apply to all system users.

• Educate management and administration personnel about the site security policy. All personnel involved in the management and administration of the site must be educated about the security policy. Security policies must not be made available to regular users because this policy information has direct bearing on the security of the computer systems.

• Educate users about Trusted Extensions software and the security policy. All users must be familiar with the Trusted Extensions User’s Guide. Because the users are usually the first to know when a system is not functioning normally, the user must become acquainted with the system and report any problems to a system administrator. A secure environment needs the users to notify the system administrators immediately if they notice any of the following:

  • A discrepancy in the last login time that is reported at the beginning of each session

  • An unusual change to file data

  • A lost or stolen human-readable printout

  • The inability to operate a user function

• Enforce the security policy. If the security policy is not followed and enforced, the data contained in the system that is configured with Trusted Extensions is not secure. Procedures must be established to record any problems and the measures that were taken to resolve the incidents.

• Periodically review the security policy. The security team must perform a periodic review of the security policy and all incidents that occurred since the last review. Adjustments to the policy can then lead to increased security.