By Jim Hietala, VP Security, and Andrew Josey, Director of Standards, The Open Group
This is the third in our four part blog series introducing the Open FAIR Body of Knowledge. In this blog, we look at how the Open FAIR Body of Knowledge can be used with other Open Group standards.
The Open FAIR Body of Knowledge provides a model with which to decompose, analyze, and measure risk. Risk analysis and management is a horizontal enterprise capability that is common to many aspects of running a business. Risk management in most organizations exists at a high level as Enterprise Risk Management, and it exists in specialized parts of the business such as project risk management and IT security risk management. Because the proper analysis of risk is a fundamental requirement for different areas of Enterprise Architecture (EA), and for IT system operation, the Open FAIR Body of Knowledge can be used to support several other Open Group standards and frameworks.
The TOGAF® Framework
In the TOGAF 9.1 standard, Risk Management is described in Part III: ADM Guidelines and Techniques. Open FAIR can be used to help improve the measurement of various types of Risk, including IT Security Risk, Project Risk, Operational Risk, and other forms of Risk. Open FAIR can help to improve architecture governance through improved, consistent risk analysis and better Risk Management. Risk Management is described in the TOGAF framework as a necessary capability in building an EA practice. Use of the Open FAIR Body of Knowledge as part of an EA risk management capability will help to produce risk analysis results that are accurate and defensible, and that are more easily communicated to senior management and to stakeholders.
O-ISM3
The Open Information Security Management Maturity Model (O-ISM3) is a process-oriented approach to building an Information Security Management System (ISMS). Risk Management as a business function exists to identify risk to the organization, and in the context of O-ISM3, information security risk. Open FAIR complements the implementation of an O-ISM3-based ISMS by providing more accurate analysis of risk, which the ISMS can then be designed to address.
O-ESA
The Open Enterprise Security Architecture (O-ESA) from The Open Group describes a framework and template for policy-driven security architecture. O-ESA (in Sections 2.2 and 3.5.2) describes risk management as a governance principle in developing an enterprise security architecture. Open FAIR supports the objectives described in O-ESA by providing a consistent taxonomy for decomposing and measuring risk. Open FAIR can also be used to evaluate the cost and benefit, in terms of risk reduction, of various potential mitigating security controls.
O-TTPS
The O-TTPS standard, developed by The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum, provides a set of guidelines, recommendations, and requirements that help assure against maliciously tainted and counterfeit products throughout commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) information and communication technology (ICT) product lifecycles. The O-TTPS standard includes requirements to manage risk in the supply chain (SC_RSM). Specific requirements in the Risk Management section of O-TTPS include identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risk from the supply chain. The use of the Open FAIR taxonomy and risk analysis method can improve these areas of risk management.
The ArchiMate® Modeling Language
The ArchiMate modeling language, as described in the ArchiMate Specification, can be used to model Enterprise Architectures. The ArchiMate Forum is also considering extensions to the ArchiMate language to include modeling security and risk. Basing this risk modeling on the Risk Taxonomy (O-RT) standard will help to ensure that the relationships between the elements that create risk are consistently understood and applied to enterprise security and risk models.
O-DA
The O-DA standard ((Dependability Through Assuredness), developed by The Open Group Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum, provides the framework needed to create dependable system architectures. The requirements process used in O-DA requires that risk be analyzed before developing dependability requirements. Open FAIR can help to create a solid risk analysis upon which to build dependability requirements.
In the final installment of this blog series, we will look at the Open FAIR certification for people program.
The Open FAIR Body of Knowledge consists of the following Open Group standards:
- Risk Taxonomy (O-RT), Version 2.0 (C13K, October 2013) defines a taxonomy for the factors that drive information security risk – Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR).
- Risk Analysis (O-RA) (C13G, October 2013) describes process aspects associated with performing effective risk analysis.
These can be downloaded from The Open Group publications catalog at http://www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog.
Our other publications include a Pocket Guide and a Certification Study Guide.
Jim Hietala, CISSP, GSEC, is the Vice President, Security for The Open Group, where he manages all IT Security, Risk Management and Healthcare programs and standards activities. He participates in the SANS Analyst/Expert program and has also published numerous articles on Information Security, Risk Management, and compliance topics in publications including The ISSA Journal, Bank Accounting & Finance, Risk Factor, SC Magazine, and others.
Andrew Josey is Director of Standards within The Open Group. He is currently managing the standards process for The Open Group, and has recently led the standards development projects for TOGAF® 9.1, ArchiMate® 2.1, IEEE Std 1003.1,2013 edition (POSIX), and the core specifications of the Single UNIX® Specification, Version 4. Previously, he has led the development and operation of many of The Open Group certification development projects, including industry-wide certification programs for the UNIX system, the Linux Standard Base, TOGAF, and IEEE POSIX. He is a member of the IEEE, USENIX, UKUUG, and the Association of Enterprise Architects.