Biblio

The security content automation includes configurations of large number of systems, installation of patches securely, verification of security-related configuration settings, compliance with security policies and regulatory requirements, and ability to respond quickly when new threats are discovered [1]. Although humans are important in information security management, humans sometimes introduce errors and inconsistencies in an organization due to manual nature of their tasks [2]. Security Content Automation Protocol was developed by the U.S. NIST to automate information security management tasks such as vulnerability and patch management, and to achieve continuous monitoring of security configurations in an organization. In this paper, SCAP is employed to develop an automated security configuration checklist for use in verifying Apple iOS device configuration against the defined security baseline to enforce policy compliance in an enterprise.

Information security management is time-consuming and error-prone. Apart from day-to-day operations, organizations need to comply with industrial regulations or government directives. Thus, organizations are looking for security tools to automate security management tasks and daily operations. Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) is a suite of specifications that help to automate security management tasks such as vulnerability measurement and policy compliance evaluation. SCAP benchmark provides detailed guidance on setting the security configuration of network devices, operating systems, and applications. Organizations can use SCAP benchmark to perform automated configuration compliance assessment on network devices, operating systems, and applications. This paper discusses SCAP benchmark components and the development of a SCAP benchmark for automating Cisco router security configuration compliance.