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Steve Poppe

Steve Poppe

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A FAIR Budget for Disaster Preparedness

[fa icon="calendar'] Aug 29, 2017 9:40:00 AM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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With the massive flooding in Houston from Hurricane Harvey, we're re-publishing this very relevant post from 2016 by Steve Poppe about how local governments can apply FAIR modeling to plan for megastorms. 

 

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Toward a FAIR Notion of Criticality

[fa icon="calendar'] Jul 5, 2017 3:19:58 PM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR

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The idea of the “criticality” of an asset or resource appears in many cyber security standards, including NIST, ISO 27001, and the AICPA’s SSAE 16 criteria. 

Of the standards that define criticality, the best is in NIST SP800-53r4: “A measure of the degree to which an organization depends on the information or information system for the success of a mission or business function.” 

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Interval Estimation – Play a Game You Can Win

[fa icon="calendar'] Mar 6, 2017 8:30:00 AM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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“When will you be home?” 

I have finally learned how to respond to text messages like this – and more pointedly how not to.

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What Is Vulnerability?

[fa icon="calendar'] Jan 23, 2017 8:30:00 AM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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If you are confused by what standards and reputable sources mean by “vulnerability,” or “a vulnerability,” take heart.  You have company.  Our profession has done a great job in confusing itself.  Let’s sort it out.

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How to Make a Business Case for Security Training

[fa icon="calendar'] Aug 22, 2016 4:30:00 PM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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Some people think that administrative controls are weak compared to technical controls because people are relatively unreliable in following policies and procedures.

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How Expected Loss Can Be a Misleading Estimate of Risk

[fa icon="calendar'] Apr 13, 2016 4:00:00 PM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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What is risk?

"Risk is the likelihood of loss times the amount of loss if the event occurs." 

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What Exactly Is a Risk Decision?

[fa icon="calendar'] Apr 8, 2016 1:00:00 PM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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In this note, I’ll dissect and expose exactly is meant by making a decision among risky alternatives, and what we should expect the management of an organization to be able to do in making these decisions.

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How to Bridge the Gap Between Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis

[fa icon="calendar'] Mar 31, 2016 4:30:00 PM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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All the traditional risk management frameworks use “heat maps” or some variant – a color-coded matrix of “likelihood” against “impact.”

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Order of Magnitude Risk Estimations

[fa icon="calendar'] Mar 22, 2016 10:04:56 AM / by Steve Poppe posted in Risk Management

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Estimating unknowns

We often run into the problem of estimating a number about which we seemingly have no idea. For example, how many severe defects probably remain undiscovered in software that is now being deployed to production? 

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Threat Capability and Resistance Strength: A Weight on a Rope

[fa icon="calendar'] Mar 17, 2016 10:07:51 AM / by Steve Poppe posted in FAIR, Risk Management

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The FAIR taxonomy uses the term “vulnerability” in a special way that differs significantly from how it is used by CERT and many network and software scanners.

  • “Vulnerability” in FAIR is “the probability that a threat event will become a loss event.” 
  • The usual meaning of “vulnerability” in information security is a flaw or sub-optimal configuration in software or hardware.
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