Biblio

Mitigation of dangers posed by authorized and trusted insiders to the organization is a challenging Cyber Security issue. Despite state-of-the-art cyber security practices, malicious insiders present serious threat for the enterprises due to their wider access to organizational resources (Physical, Cyber) and good knowledge of internal processes with potential vulnerabilities. The issue becomes particularly important for isolated (air-gapped) computer networks, normally used by security sensitive organizations such as government, research and development, critical infrastructure (e.g. power, nuclear), finance, and military. Such facilities are difficult to compromise from outside; however, are quite much prone to insider threats. Although many insider threat taxonomies exist for generic computer networks; yet, the existing taxonomies do not effectively address the issue of Insider Threat in isolated computer networks. Thereby, we have developed an insider threat taxonomy specific to isolated computer networks focusing on actions performed by the trusted individual(s), Our methodology is to identify limitations in existing taxonomies and map real world insider threat cases on proposed taxonomy. We argue that for successful attack in an isolated computer network, the attack must manifest in both Physical and Cyber world. The proposed taxonomy systematically classifies different aspects of the problem into separate dimensions and branches out these dimensions into further sub-categories without loss of general applicability. Our multi-dimensional hierarchical taxonomy provides comprehensive treatment of the insider threat problem in isolated computer networks; thus, improving situational awareness of the security analyst and helps in determining proper countermeasures against perceived threats. Although many insider threat taxonomies exist for generic computer networks; yet, the existing taxonomies do not effectively address the issue of Insider Threat in isolated computer networks. Thereby, we have developed an insider threat taxonomy specific to isolated computer networks focusing on actions performed by the trusted individual(s), Our methodology is to identify limitations in existing taxonomies and map real world insider threat cases on proposed taxonomy. We argue that for successful attack in an isolated computer network, the attack must manifest in both Physical and Cyber world. The proposed taxonomy systematically classifies different aspects of the problem into separate dimensions and branches out these dimensions into further sub-categories without loss of general applicability. Our multi-dimensional hierarchical taxonomy provides comprehensive treatment of the insider threat problem in isolated computer networks; thus, improving situational awareness of the security analyst and helps in determining proper countermeasures against perceived threats. The proposed taxonomy systematically classifies different aspects of the problem into separate dimensions and branches out these dimensions into further sub-categories without loss of general applicability. Our multi-dimensional hierarchical taxonomy provides comprehensive treatment of the insider threat problem in isolated computer networks; thus, improving situational awareness of the security analyst and helps in determining proper countermeasures against perceived threats.

Hardware-assisted isolation technology provide a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) of a system. Since there is no standardization for such systems, many technologies using different approaches have been implemented over time. Before selecting or implementing a TEE, it is essential to understand the security architecture, features and analyze the technologies with respect to the new security vulnerabilities (i.e. Micro-architectural class of vulnerabilities). These technologies can be divided into two main types: 1) Isolation by software virtualization and 2) Isolation by hardware. In this paper, we discuss technology implementation of each type i.e. Intel SGX and ARM TrustZone for type-1; Intel ME and AMD Secure Processor for type-2. We also cover the vulnerability analysis against each technology with respect to the latest discovered attacks. This would enable a user to precisely appreciate the security capabilities of each technology.