Scenario
You are an IT security intern working for Health Network, Inc. (Health Network), a fictitious health services organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Health Network has over 600 employees throughout the organization and generates $500 million USD in annual revenue. The company has two additional locations in Portland, Oregon and Arlington, Virginia, which support a mix of corporate operations. Each corporate facility is located near a co-location data center, where production systems are located and managed by third-party data center hosting vendors.
Company Products
Health Network has three main products: HNetExchange, HNetPay, and HNetConnect.
HNetExchange is the primary source of revenue for the company. This service handles secure electronic medical messages that originate from its customers, such as large hospitals, which are then routed to receiving customers such as clinics.
HNetPay is a web portal used by many of the company’s HNetExchange customers to support the management of secure payments and billing. The HNetPay web portal, hosted at Health Network production sites, accepts various forms of payments and interacts with credit-card processing organizations.
HNetConnect is an online directory that lists doctors, clinics, and other medical facilities to allow Health Network customers to find the right type of care at the right locations. It contains doctors’ personal information, work addresses, medical certifications, and types of services that the doctors and clinics offer. Doctors are given credentials and can update the information in their profile.
Health Network customers, which are the hospitals and clinics, connect to all three of the company’s products using HTTPS connections. Doctors and potential patients can make payments and update their profiles using Internet-accessible HTTPS websites.
Information Technology Infrastructure Overview
Health Network operates in three production data centers that provide high availability across the company’s products. The data centers host about 1,000 production servers, and Health Network maintains 650 corporate laptops and company-issued mobile devices for its employees.
Threats Identified
Upon review of the current risk management plan, the following threats were identified:
Loss of company data due to hardware being removed from production systems
Loss of company information on lost or stolen company-owned assets, such as mobile devices and laptops
Loss of customers due to production outages caused by various events, such as natural disasters, change management, unstable software, and so on
Internet threats due to company products being accessible on the Internet
Insider threats
Changes in regulatory landscape that may impact operations
Management Request
Senior management at Health Network has determined that the existing risk management plan for the organization is out of date and a new risk management plan must be developed. Because of the importance of risk management to the organization, senior management is committed to and supportive of the project to develop a new plan. You have been assigned to develop this new plan.
Additional threats other than those described previously may be discovered when re-evaluating the current threat landscape during the risk assessment phase.
The budget for this project has not been defined due to senior management’s desire to react to any and all material risks that are identified within the new plan. Given the company’s annual revenue, reasonable expectations can be determined.
Senior management at Health Network allocated funds to support a risk mitigation plan. They have requested that the risk manager and team create a plan in response to the deliverables produced within earlier phases of the project.
The risk mitigation plan should address the identified threats described in the scenario for this project, as well as any new threats that may have been discovered during the risk assessment. You have been assigned to develop a draft of this new plan.
Full Answer Section
This risk mitigation plan identifies the key threats to Health Network's IT infrastructure and outlines the steps that the company will take to mitigate those threats. The plan is based on the results of a risk assessment that was conducted by the company's IT security team.
Threats
The following are the key threats to Health Network's IT infrastructure:
- Loss of company data due to hardware being removed from production systems. This threat could be mitigated by implementing data loss prevention (DLP) controls that prevent unauthorized users from removing data from production systems.
- Loss of company information on lost or stolen company-owned assets, such as mobile devices and laptops. This threat could be mitigated by implementing mobile device management (MDM) and laptop management (LM) solutions that allow the company to track and secure these assets.
- Loss of customers due to production outages caused by various events, such as natural disasters, change management, unstable software, and so on. This threat could be mitigated by implementing disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) plans that ensure that the company can continue to operate even in the event of a major disruption.
- Internet threats due to company products being accessible on the Internet. This threat could be mitigated by implementing a web application firewall (WAF) that protects the company's web applications from malicious traffic.
- Insider threats. This threat could be mitigated by implementing user access controls that limit the access that employees have to sensitive data and systems.
- Changes in regulatory landscape that may impact operations. This threat could be mitigated by staying up-to-date on the latest regulatory requirements and implementing controls to ensure that the company is compliant.
Mitigation Strategies
The following are the mitigation strategies that Health Network will implement to address the threats identified above:
- Data loss prevention (DLP) controls. The company will implement DLP controls that prevent unauthorized users from removing data from production systems. These controls will include file encryption, data masking, and user access controls.
- Mobile device management (MDM) and laptop management (LM) solutions. The company will implement MDM and LM solutions that allow the company to track and secure mobile devices and laptops. These solutions will include remote wipe capabilities, location tracking, and password policies.
- Disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) plans. The company will implement DR and BC plans that ensure that the company can continue to operate even in the event of a major disruption. These plans will include data backup and recovery procedures, and contingency plans for critical business functions.
- Web application firewall (WAF). The company will implement a WAF that protects the company's web applications from malicious traffic. This will help to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems.
- User access controls. The company will implement user access controls that limit the access that employees have to sensitive data and systems. This will help to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems.
- Regulatory compliance. The company will stay up-to-date on the latest regulatory requirements and implement controls to ensure that the company is compliant. This will help to protect the company from regulatory penalties.
Conclusion
This risk mitigation plan outlines the steps that Health Network will take to mitigate the key threats to its IT infrastructure. The company is committed to protecting its data and systems from security threats, and this plan is an important step in that process.
Implementation
This risk mitigation plan will be implemented over a period of six months. The first three months will be focused on the assessment and remediation of the most critical risks. The remaining three months will be focused on the assessment and remediation of the remaining risks.
Monitoring and Review
The risk mitigation plan will be monitored and reviewed on a quarterly basis. This will help to ensure that the plan is effective and that it is updated to reflect changes in the threat landscape.
Communication
The risk mitigation plan will be communicated to all employees. This will help to ensure that employees are aware of the risks to the company's IT infrastructure and the steps that are being taken to mitigate those risks.