Enterprise Security Policy

Each enterprise has users and assets .  Within each game scenario , the enterprise security policy is defined in terms of which users are authorized to access which assets.  Some assets have a lot value to the enterprise, others are of relatively little value.  And assets have different values to attackers, resulting in different levels of motivation for attackers to compromise assets.  Some assets have value because they are secret (e.g., proprietary manufacturing data).  Other assets have value because of their integrity (e.g., authoritative accounting records).  To protect the secrecy and integrity of its assets, the enterprise has up to two kinds of security policies: discretionary and mandatory .  The discretionary security policies vary by asset and identify specific users or groups of users that are granted or denied specific kinds of access (e.g., read, write) to which assets.   The mandatory policies are fixed by the enterprise and generally are not up to the discretion of users.  Additionally, each enterprise has an availability policy the describes the potential loss should specific assets become unavailable to users who need them.

Discretionary Access Control (DAC) Policy
The DAC policy defines which users are authorized access to each specific named asset.  Each asset has a defined list of users who are authorized to access the asset.  Each such list describes the type of authorized access, and this can include "read", "write", "execute" or "control" (the ability to grant other users access to the asset).   Note that these lists represent the intended protections for each asset.  Whether or not the assets on components are actually protected per the intended protections depend on a variety of player choices, including the use of operating systems that enforce DAC polices (e.g., via access control lists.)   The lists that define the intended DAC protections for each asset can identify individual users, and/or groups of users.  Each enterprise includes a number of named groups of users. For example, some scenarios might include an "engineering" group or a "accounting group".  Each user is a member of one or more groups. The player can examine users via the User Screen in order to determine which groups they belong to. Note that users of different groups can be subject to different degrees of background checks .  The player can view the intended discretionary protections for each asset via the Asset screen.  These intended protections are presented to the player as lists of permitted or denied forms of access.  For example, one list entry might specify that anyone in the engineering group is intended to have both read and write access to an asset.  Another entry might specify that a user named Mary should have no access to the asset.  If an asset's intended discretionary protections are compromised, the enterprise suffers a loss that depends in part on who compromised the asset.  For example, if an asset that is intended to only be read by an "engineering" group is in fact read by the "marketing" group, the cost to the enterprise could be greater than if the asset were read by the "human resources" group.  The costs associated with compromises to the intended discretionary protections of an asset can be seen by viewing the attributes of that asset.

Mandatory Access Control (MAC) Policy
Some scenario enterprises have a MAC policy that constrains user access to different kinds of information as opposed to specific named assets.   These policies are defined in terms of secrecy and integrity labels that are assigned to assets and users.  The player can view the mandatory policy via the briefing screen.  The mandatory policies are expressed as relationships between labels.  For example, a mandatory secrecy policy might be: only users having a "Proprietary" clearance can view proprietary assets.  An integrity policy might be: only users which an "Accounting" clearance are permitted to modify the authoritative accounting information.  If an asset's intended mandatory secrecy or integrity protections are compromised, the enterprise suffers a loss defined for the specific secrecy or integrity label within the briefing screen.  An attacker's motive to compromise assets of a given mandatory secrecy or integrity is also described in the briefing screen. The player can view the secrecy and integrity clearances of users via the User screen. The player can view the secrecy and integrity labels associated with assets via the Asset screen.   Note that different secrecy and integrity clearances can be subject to different degrees of background checks .  

Availability Policy
In addition to the secrecy and integrity policy enforcement defined by the enterprises MAC and DAC policies, enterprise assets also have an availability policy.  Each asset has an associated cost that the enterprise suffers if the asset is not available to the users that need to access it.  Each asset also has an associated value reflecting an attackers motive to make the asset unavailable.  Also, different users have different needs to access different assets, defined as the user's goals .  If a user cannot access assets necessary to achieve the user's goals, the enterprise incurs costs resulting for lost productivity.




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