Operational security (OPSEC) is a risk and security management process that prevents sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. It is also known as procedural security and is used by companies to determine how to protect sensitive information from exploitation. As a military term, OPSEC described strategies to prevent adversaries or potential adversaries from discovering critical data related to operations. Security controls are countermeasures or safeguards that are used to reduce the chances of a threat exploiting a vulnerability.
Since information management and protection have become important to success in the private sector, OPSEC measures are now common in business operations. To reduce the threats of data breaches, identification system operators must employ state-of-the-art measures to prevent, detect, mitigate and respond reasonably to third-party attacks, unauthorized access, and malicious or fraudulent use. To implement administrative controls, additional security controls are needed for ongoing monitoring and compliance. This is achieved by considering the security of a network from the perspective of an attacker and identifying potential weak points, helping to improve security measures and best practices.
Security controls play a critical role in shaping the actions that cybersecurity professionals take to protect an organization. For example, implementing company-wide security awareness training to minimize the risk of a social engineering attack on the network, people and information systems. Security incidents are an event that actually or potentially jeopardizes the confidentiality, integrity or availability of an information system or of the information that the system processes, stores, or transmits, or that constitutes a violation or imminent threat of violation of security policies, security procedures, or acceptable use policies. By combining controls into several layers of security, you ensure that, if one layer fails to counter a threat, the other layers will help prevent a breach in your systems.
Vulnerabilities are weaknesses or flaws in software, hardware, or organizational processes that, when compromised by a threat, can cause a security incident. Technical controls that monitor the use of email and website for signs of phishing activity can help prevent identity theft. Overall, operational security (OPSEC) is an essential risk and security management process for organizations to protect their data from internal and external threats. It is important for companies to evaluate their operations and systems from the perspective of potential hackers and implement state-of-the-art measures to prevent data breaches.
