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Students should use the following table to prepare for examinations. Submit a completed form prior to each examination.  At the end of the semester, you will fill out an online form at the NIATEC site.

CNSSI 4015

The successful student in INFO 4415 demonstrates competency as they address, adhere to, adjust, advise, analyze, appraise, assess, assist, be aware of, categorize, choose, communicate, compare, comply, conduct, confirm, consolidate, define, demonstrate, derive, describe, determine, develop, differentiate, discuss, document, enlist, ensure, establish, evaluate, examine, explain, form, generate, identify, include, influence, initiate, integrate, interpret, justify, list, manage, match, outline, perform, present, prepare, propose, provide, recommend, relate, render, report, research, respond, review, revise, schedule, select, specify, study, summarize, tailor, test, understand, use and/or verify the following via slide shows, modules, written or oral exams

Action Item and Competency Student Checklist
1. Access controls and the criteria established in a SSAA  
2. Access controls for objects (e.g., data, information, and applications)  
3. Access controls for privileged users and/or processes  
4. Access control mechanism implementation and policy  
5. Access control policies  
6. Access control policies and appropriate “umbrella” guidance and policies  
7. Access control policies implementation  
8. Access control policies that are applicable to information security  
9. Access control policy changes and appropriateness for a system being certified  
10. Access control privilege assignment  
11. Access control requirements and user roles and group management  
12. Accreditation boundary of a system  
13. Activities associated with configuration control, i.e., physical and functional audits, inventory of the hardware and software components, etc.,  
14. Adequacy of the implemented access control mechanisms identified in an access control policy  
15. Adherence to the parameters of a certification  
16. Administrative security policies and procedures to limit the impact of system technical security deficiencies  
17. Administrative security procedures appropriate for a system being certified  
18. Adoption of requirements which were previously unspecified, but which may be crucial to secure deployment and operation of the system  
19. Agreements specified in an MOU or other instruments  
20. Alert capabilities provided by audit/intrusion detection tools  
21. Alterations to the parameters of a certification process as the system development progresses and the design is modified  
22. Alternative means to satisfy audit collection requirements  
23. Aperiodic security test and evaluation plans and procedures to test and evaluate agreed upon audit functionality and events  
24. Applicable laws, statutes, and regulations  
25. Appointment of personnel with any level of privileged access identification  
26. Appraisal in support or denial of certification and involved site personnel  
27. Appropriate access controls definitions for the IS under review for subjects (e.g., local and remote users and/or processes)  
28. Appropriate certification analysis level and adjustment of C&A guideline activities to a program strategy and system life-cycle  
29. Appropriate statutory authorities, and the resource and training requirements necessary to conduct a certification  
30. Appropriate requirements for system security  
31. Appropriate risk management methodology for an IS to be certified  
32. Appropriate level of effort  
33. Appropriate types of system development and maintenance environments  
34. Appropriate documentation policies in preparing an SSAA  
35. Appropriate capabilities in a system to mitigate risk from malicious/mobile code contamination  
36. Appropriate hardware and its functions  
37. Appropriate software and its intended use  
38. Aspects of physical security, such as a defined secure work area the means used to protect storage media (e.g., hard drives and removable disks) and protecting access to workstation ports (e.g., communication ports)  
39. Assistance of a contractor team or other government organizations  
40. Audit elements used to capture information that meets specified security requirements  
41. Audit elements and capabilities available on a system being evaluated  
42. Audit retention capability and system security requirements  
43. Audit event characteristics and their granularity (i.e., type of event, success/failure, date/time stamp, user ID)  
44. Audit trail protection from unauthorized alteration and deletion  
45. Audit log overflow policy implementation  
46. Audit collection requirements relative to system certification  
47. Audit collection requirements and a stated authorization policy  
48. Audit processes support of the interpretation of audit data  
49. Audit policy implementation (to include which events are to be recorded, what action should occur when the log fills, how long audits are to be retained, etc.)  
50. Audit procedures to implement a policy (i.e., data reviews, audit retention and protection, response to alerts, etc)  
51. Availability of audits including recovery from permanent storage  
52. Available security analysis tools used to find security anomalies  
53. Available tools to test system capabilities in order to identify residual risk  
54. Best security engineering practices as defined by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP).  
55. Boundaries of a certification process  
56. Budget elements related to the certification process  
57. C&A guideline (e.g., NIACAP, DITSCAP) activities to fit a program strategy  
58. C&A guideline activities to meet a system schedule (for example, if the system has already completed preliminary design, all C&A guideline phase one activities should be completed as soon as possible)  
59. C&A guideline plan and SSAA review by the DAA, CA, PM, and user representative  
60. C&A team formation after the CA knows the certification level and tasks required  
61. C&A process agreement with the SSAA  
62. C&A guideline process and the system life-cycle at the current system phase or activity  
63. Capabilities of add-on audit analysis and intrusion detection tools  
64. Capabilities employed to enforce the protection of the operating system by preventing programs or users from writing over system areas  
65. Certification process boundaries  
66. Certification team's roles and responsibilities  
67. Certification boundaries  
68. Certification milestones  
69. Challenges to an MOU or other instruments  
70. Change in the security processing mode  
71. Changes to a previously approved system configuration and/or operating environment and determination if an assessment of impact is required  
72. Changes, to include additions for improving the roles and responsibilities, and accountability for personnel with various levels of access to information systems  
73. Changes that may affect an existing certification  
74. Changes to original documentation policies  
75. Changes to the SSAA  
76. Changes to implemented access control mechanisms to meet requirements identified in access control policies.  
77. Components which are not to be included in an evaluation  
78. Comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of the IS and other safeguards  
79. Conditions under which certification activities are accomplished  
80. Conditions upon which an accreditation decision is to be made, including the technical evaluation of security features, as well as other safeguards  
81. Configuration control and compliance with required INFOSEC policy and technology  
82. Configuration control changes  
83. Configuration control deficiencies  
84. Configuration control for continued applicability  
85. Configuration control in place versus that which has been specified in the current SSAA  
86. Conformance/non-conformance to specified system certification documentation requirements  
87. Connections of systems to networks or to each other and following a defined set of requirements as found in the SSAA  
88. Constraints, assumptions, and dependencies of an implemented C&A process  
89. Contents of a user registry and access control tables  
90. Contingency planning activities  
91. Contingency planning process  
92. Contingency planning  
93. Coordination among related security disciplines, e.g., physical, emanations, personnel, operations, and cryptographic security.  
94. Coordination among the various offices responsible for related disciplines  
95. Corrective approaches as potential mitigating factors  
96. Countermeasures defined in the SSAA for physical security, personnel security, all aspects of INFOSEC, etc.  
97. Criteria for generating alerts provided by audit/intrusion detection tools  
98. Criteria for personnel selection for a certification team  
99. Critical contingency elements  
100. Critical contingency elements and IS requirements in relation to mission accomplishment to assure system recovery and reconstitution  
101. Critical elements of mission contingency planning identification in relation to a specific operational environment  
102. DAA, program manager (PM), and user and understanding of security policies and procedures  
103. Data ownership and responsibilities with access control rights  
104. Data sensitivity and labeling requirements to determine system classification  
105. Data which supports trend analysis  
106. Deficiencies in system documentation (missing documents or inadequate detail in the existing documentation)  
107. Deficiencies/discrepancies in a configuration control policy  
108. Deficiency and alternative safeguards and procedures that could be employed to limit the impact of system deficiency  
109. Developers and maintainers and system security engineering principles  
110. Development of an MOU or other appropriate instruments  
111. Development team's approach to life-cycle system security planning  
112. Development of configuration control policies  
113. Development and inclusion of a comprehensive system security policy  
114. Diagrams or text that clearly delineate the components that are to be evaluated as part of the C&A task  
115. Discrepancies or deficiencies in contingency plans  
116. Documentation adequacy of detail   
117. Documentation policies for continued applicability  
118. Documentation policies for updates  
119. Documentation of security-related function parameters, defaults and settings  
120. Documentation and system configuration of security function defaults and settings, ensuring that all inappropriate factory defaults have been changed  
121. Documentation policies that apply to the preparation of the SSAA  
122. Documenting mission need elements identification in the critical system contingency plan  
123. Effectiveness of all security features, such as password aging and internal labeling, and document the results  
124. Effectiveness of applications security mechanisms and their interactions with other systems and network security mechanisms  
125. Effectiveness of password management implemented to enforce policies and procedures  
126. Effectiveness of password management software in enforcing policies and procedures  
127. Effectiveness of intrusion detection capabilities  
128. Effectiveness of the contingency plan as described in the SSAA  
129. Effectiveness of the disaster recovery plan as described in the SSAA  
130. Effectiveness of a contingency plan  
131. Elements of life-cycle activity versus the risk management process components of mission, vulnerabilities, threat, and countermeasures to determine if system development activity is ready for certification.  
132. Evaluation techniques, e.g., documentation review, automated tools, and written test plan and procedures, etc., in the conduct of the security test and evaluation  
133. Evaluation technique(s) to exercise and evaluate security countermeasures or capabilities documented in the SSAA  
134. Findings and the overall level of residual risk in a system  
135. Flow of critical information from one component to another  
136. Formal approvals for other systems and networks for which interconnectivity is sought  
137. High level overview of the types of hardware, software, firmware, and associated interfaces envisioned for the completed system.  
138. How technical and non-technical security requirements are derived  
139. How access privileges are set  
140. How a system handles error conditions  
141. How a system will operate according to legal mandates  
142. How system operating policies and procedures define the implementation of the security requirements  
143. Identification of anomalies which indicate successful violation/bypass of security capabilities  
144. Identification of audit requirements  
145. Identification and authentication mechanisms which identify users and/or processes  
146. Impact of audit requirements on system operation requirements  
147. Impact of network vulnerabilities  
148. Impact of policy and procedures on risk and operations  
149. Impact and residual risk of the absence of security features that are necessary for secure systems operations  
150. Impact of the mission statement on security requirements  
151. Implementation of the change control management processes  
152. Implementation of user privileges and group management assignments  
153. Improvements to the plans developed by site personnel  
154. Information access and configuration control issues for a system  
155. Information security planning for life-cycle system security  
156. Information security policy  
157. Information security policy for the secure operation of the system  
158. Inherent audit capabilities of a proposed implementation  
159. Inherent and residual risks and the potential corrective approaches  
160. Insider threat, including the good intentions of a trusted employee who circumvents security in order to accomplish their job  
161. Integrity of an MOU or other instruments  
162. Interactions between different security domains in support of system mission and functions  
163. Internal system structure including anticipated hardware configuration, application software, software routines, operating systems, remote devices, communications processors, networks, and remote interfaces  
164. Interpretation of mission critical elements in support or denial of certification with involved site personnel  
165. Intrusion detection mechanisms work as outlined in an SSAA  
166. Labeling in accordance with the requirements documented in an SSAA  
167. Life-cycle processes and procedures compliance with accreditation  
168. Life-cycle processes and procedures to support mission accomplishment  
169. Life-cycle processes and procedures discussions with cognizant site personnel  
170. Life-cycle security planning  
171. Life-cycle security planning and requirements, directives and laws  
172. Life-cycle security planning with respect to certification requirements  
173. Life-cycle system security planning  
174. Life-cycle system security attributes to involved site personnel  
175. Life-cycle system security planning accomplishment  
176. Life-cycle system security planning proposed by the development team  
177. Maintenance of configuration documents  
178. Maintenance of configuration documents for conformance to an SSAA  
179. Maintenance procedures needed to ensure physical security protection against unauthorized access to protected information or system resources  
180. Managed and default file permission settings and factory settings  
181. Management of the access control tables and lists  
182. Media in use being marked as appropriate, based on the requirements defined in the SSAA  
183. Milestone relations to roles and responsibilities  
184. Mission critical elements identification (e.g., operational procedures and classification requirements)  
185. Mission critical elements, to include system mission, functions, and system interfaces  
186. Mission operational environment (e.g., charter, scope of authorities, activation call-up procedures, Information Warfare Condition (INFOCON) processes).  
187. Mission description relationship to documented IS needs, including system life cycle  
188. Mission statement and applicable security certification requirements in the SSAA  
189. Mission-specific discipline relationships and IS requirements with involved site personnel  
190. National security classification of data using the mission  
191. Nation-state security laws, treaties, and/or agreements  
192. Nation-state security laws, treaties, and/or agreements with involved site personnel  
193. Nation-state security laws, treaties, and/or agreements in relation to mission needs and accomplishment  
194. Need for access control policies  
195. Need for contingency planning  
196. Need for coordination with related disciplines  
197. Need for recertification and reaccreditation  
198. Network architecture and what security mechanisms are used to enforce the CIA security policy  
199. Network vulnerabilities corrective measures  
200. Network vulnerabilities for the system developers and maintainers  
201. Network connectivity policy and the proposed implementation for connection  
202. Network security posture in light of the CONOPS and the abilities of the expected users and system administrators.  
203. Network vulnerabilities that are present during the development of the system  
204. Network vulnerabilities  
205. Non-technical and technical test/evaluation results, the impact of any countermeasures, and residual risk  
206. Operating system and application system security features  
207. Operating system integrity capabilities present in the information system management and functionality and their definitions in the SSAA  
208. Operating system integrity capabilities and confirming their presence in the information system by incorporating operating system configuration management guidelines, including installing the latest patches and consulting with available experts  
209. Organizational point of contact for legal advice  
210. Organizations, individuals, and titles of the key authorities involved in the C&A process  
211. Parameters of a certification   
212. Parameters of a certification and those of similar systems or parallel certifications  
213. Parameters of a certification that ensure mission accomplishment  
214. Periodic review of the system/product life-cycle.  
215. Periodic review of the system/product life-cycle and conformance to the SSAA  
216. Personnel selection for the certification team based on the requisite skills  
217. Pertinent logical, sequential, and coherent document which will support the DAA’s decision to approve or disapprove  
218. Physical support features of a facility, including air conditioning, power, sprinkler system, fences, and extension of walls from true-floor to true-ceiling construction, sensitive space, work space, and the building  
219. Physical environment in which a system will operate, including the physical, administrative, developmental, and technical areas and known or suspected threats  
220. Physical, environmental, technical, and procedural security disciplines  
221. Policy conformation to applicable laws and directives and data owner requirements  
222. Post-accreditation periodic compliance validation reviews in the SSAA or as requested by the DAA  
223. Potential threats based upon an analysis of the operating environment, and the system development environment inclusion in the certification reports for the DAA  
224. Potential avenues of corrective action  
225. Potential threats that can affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of a system  
226. Presence of a disaster recovery plan as documented in the SSAA  
227. Presence of and the appropriate use of application security features  
228. Presence of change control policies in an SSAA  
229. Presence of documentation or a manual used by the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO) to set up the system security configuration.  
230. Presence of intrusion detection capabilities as defined in the SSAA  
231. Presence of system standard operating procedures  
232. Principles and practices of information security  
233. Procedures needed to counter potential threats that may come from inside or outside of the organization  
234. Processes for analyzing audit information  
235. Process for an assessment of the impact of changes to the existing SSAA  
236. Process diagram of system life-cycle activities and identification of the current phase of life-cycle activity  
237. Process review management  
238. Process tailoring to an incremental development strategy (if one is used)  
239. Protections to prevent audit trails from being modified by any means, including direct edits of media or memory  
240. Protections to prevent configuration files and pointers that can run in a supervisory state from unauthorized access or unauthorized modifications, deletions, etc.  
241. Protections to prevent the operating system kernel from being modified by any process, program or individual except through an approved organizational configuration management procedure.  
242. Purpose of a system and its capabilities in the SSAA  
243. Purpose, scope, and contents of a particular MOU or other instruments  
244. Related security disciplines and how they apply to the certification of the system  
245. Related disciplines needed for a certification team  
246. Related disciplines required for accomplishing IS certification  
247. Relationship between security policy and procedures and the security requirements  
248. Report generation capability  
249. Representative processes which must use appropriate identification and authentication mechanism  
250. Required security evaluation documentation  
251. Requirement for discretionary/mandatory access controls (DAC/MAC)  
252. Requirements of a system certification MOU or other instruments  
253. Requirements for additional countermeasures based on the security policy being implemented (e.g., routers, firewalls, guards, intrusion detection devices)  
254. Requirements that are applicable to a system under certification and accreditation  
255. Requirements for disaster recovery/continuity of operation  
256. Requirements for emergency destruction procedures  
257. Requirements for respective access control features  
258. Resource requirements necessary to accomplish the certification process  
259. Respective parties and their roles  
260. Responsibilities and requirements for team members with specialized knowledge defined via an MOU or other instrument  
261. Restrictions needed to reduce the risk of operating the system to an acceptable level  
262. Results of automated security analysis  
263. Results of changes to the SSAA  
264. Results of related security discipline testing  
265. Results of testing to support a system residual risk analysis  
266. Results and recommendations, based on findings, in support or denial of continued certification   
267. Results of an ST&E access control tests  
268. Results of the verification of a disaster recovery plan  
269. Results of the ST&E pertaining to operating system integrity  
270. Results/findings and technical personnel who would be responsible for correcting the findings.  
271. Risk management methodology appropriate to the certification of the system.  
272. Risk management methodology and threat mitigation examples and explanations  
273. Role of related security disciplines in the overall protection of the system  
274. Roles and responsibilities of personnel assigned access to a system  
275. Roles and responsibilities of a certification team  
276. Roles and responsibilities of individual certification team members  
277. Scope and parameters of certification  
278. Security laws and system development activities  
279. Security countermeasures provided by application security mechanisms  
280. Security policies and procedures not covered under the laws, agency-specific procedures, etc.  
281. Security requirements and a requirements traceability matrix (RTM)  
282. Security solutions and implementations that meet specified system security requirements.  
283. Security test and evaluation plans and procedures to test and evaluate agreed upon security countermeasures provided by application security mechanisms  
284. Security test and evaluation plans and procedures to test and evaluate agreed upon security countermeasures for access control  
285. Security test and evaluation plans and procedures to test and evaluate agreed upon security countermeasures documented in the SSAA.  
286. Security test and evaluation plans and procedures to test and evaluate agreed upon security countermeasures for network connectivity.  
287. Security test and evaluation plan/procedures to test and evaluate agreed upon security countermeasures enforced by the operating system  
288. Security tools  
289. Security relevant changes found by tools  
290. Security requirement collection process  
291. Security countermeasures documented in an SSAA  
292. Security requirements for the specific mission, environment, data classification level, and architecture  
293. Security requirements for interconnectivity with other systems/networks  
294. Security requirements that develop a common understanding among the DAA, PM, and Certification Authority  
295. Security processing mode identification  
296. Security attributes of both data and users accessing the connected system  
297. Security clearances of the user population and the access rights to restricted information  
298. Security engineering principles that are applicable to information security  
299. Security engineering principles and practices  
300. Security engineering principles and practices compliance with information security policies  
301. Security certification requirements  
302. Security certification requirement inclusion in the ST&E plan  
303. Security certification test procedures  
304. Security certification test plan documentation  
305. Security features that will be necessary to support site operations (the physical security description should consider safety procedures for personnel operating the equipment)  
306. Security activities to system development activities to ensure that security activities are relevant to the process and provide the required degree of analysis  
307. Security countermeasures that implement effective access control  
308. Security policies and procedures (i.e., audit policies, access control policies) as minimum requirements into the ST&E plan   
309. Security requirements and assisting in the development of ST&E plans and procedures  
310. Security requirements  
311. Setting certification boundaries   
312. Setting of certification boundaries as part of the SSAA.  
313. Skills needed to perform an analysis and produce the supporting documentation  
314. Source of the security requirements  
315. Source of the security requirements for use during negotiations, development of the SSAA, and compliance validation  
316. Specific security domains as they apply to system mission and function  
317. Specific findings, including risk analysis/mitigation.  
318. SSAA accordance with the configuration changes.  
319. SSAA revision  
320. SSAA validation from the DAA/CA perspective  
321. SSAA and other policy development though and MOU or other instrument  
322. ST&E evaluation report documentation  
323. ST&E testing results for access controls  
324. ST&E results  
325. Stated system requirements for confidentiality, integrity, and availability in the system design/SSAA documentation  
326. Status reporting of MOUs or other instruments  
327. Status of a system's current risks  
328. Strengths and weaknesses of access control policies  
329. Support or denial of certification explanations to involved site personnel  
330. System CONOPS and security CONOPS in the SSAA  
331. System functions and capabilities  
332. System development approach and the environment within which a system will be developed and maintained  
333. System recovery capability during loss of power situations  
334. System user's characteristics and clearances  
335. System description consistency with documented mission needs  
336. System configuration control  
337. System configuration control plan assessment against policy  
338. System operating environment and threat descriptions in mission documentation  
339. System maintenance and upgrade procedures and compliance with configuration management procedures (e.g., remote software updates).  
340. System mission focusing on the security relevant features of the system required for the SSAA  
341. System criticality in an SSAA  
342. System architecture including the configuration of any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, etc.  
343. System concept of operations (CONOPS)  
344. System acquisition strategy and system life-cycle phase  
345. System resources to log all required events  
346. System criticality and its impact on the level of risk that is acceptable  
347. System external interfaces and the relationship between the interfaces and the system  
348. System internal interfaces and data flows  
349. System ability to produce viable, inclusive audit data for review and analysis (e.g., selection capabilities for review of audit information)  
350. Team members and their composite expertise in the whole span of activities required, and their independence from the system developer or PM  
351. Technical finding translation into comprehensible language for non-technical managers  
352. Technical aspects of a system meeting the technical security requirements for its intended use  
353. Testing tools  
354. Threats, such as penetration attempts by hackers, damage or misuse by disgruntled or dishonest employees, and misuse by careless or inadequately trained employees  
355. Tools and compliance with accreditation  
356. Topics that security policies and procedures must address as part of the certification process  
357. Training procedures matching the users’ levels of responsibility, and providing information on potential threats and how to protect information  
358. Types of data and data sensitivity  
359. Types of data and the general methods for data transmission  
360. Unacceptable network vulnerabilities  
361. Unintentional human error, system design weaknesses, and intentional actions on the part of authorized, as well as unauthorized users  
362. Unique certification analysis documentation requirements  
363. Use of audit information to identify attempts to violate/bypass the proper operation of system security capabilities  
364. Use of audit information to validate the proper operation of automated system security capabilities  
365. Variance between documented and actually installed software and operating systems  
366. Various details of an MOU or other instruments  
367. Vulnerabilities inherent to a system's specific operating system, applications, and network configuration  
368. Where to focus the analysis and testing  
369. Whether the audit trail meets the requirements as defined in the SSAA and document the results  
370. Whether a disaster recovery mechanism adequately addresses the needs of a site  
371. Whether identification and authentication mechanism can correctly identify users and/or processes  
372. Whether or not automated security tools produce expected results  
373. Whether or not a defined security processing mode is adequate for approving system certification  
374. Whether or not application security features produce expected results  
375. Whether a plan sufficiently protects the security of information and the investment made in life-cycle security processes  
376. Who in a system has access to information views, who grants access authorization, and the parameters used to validate access authorization  
377. Tool compliance with accreditation  
378. Results of the verification of change control policies  
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