A Framework for Internet Security Assessment and Improvement Process

Abstract

Internet security is paramount in today’s networked systems, especially when they provide wireless application access and enable personal and confidential data to be transmitted across the networks. Numerous tools and technologies are available to ensure system security, however, external threats to computer systems and applications are also becoming more and more sophisticated. This chapter presents a framework that consists of two components: (1) an assessment model to look at the existing security infrastructure of an organisation to determine its security maturity level; and (2) a process improvement maturity model to suggest an improvement mechanism for the organisation to progress from one maturity level to the next higher level. The intention is to provide a framework to improve the organisation’s Internet and network security so that it becomes more efficient and effective than before. The improvement process model is a 5-stage framework, which has the potential to be established as a standard maturity model for assessing and improving security levels in a manner similar to other software process improvement framework such as CMMI. Preliminary results, based on looking at the existing security measures of one particular organisation, reveal that there is indeed a need for an appropriate model such as the one being proposed in this chapter.