Paper #4: Compare / Contrast the ENISA and Commonwealth Approaches to Developing National Cybersecurity Strategies

Scenario:

Your company has assigned you to serve as an industry subject matter expert and advisor for a cyber policy competition team for a local university. This year, the team will be competing in an international Cyber Policy competition in Washington, DC. The policy question for this year’s competition is: what is the best approach for developing a national cybersecurity strategy? The competition will have one U.S. team and nine additional teams from Europe (4 teams) and the Commonwealth nations (5 teams).

The university students have asked you to help them understand the problem space and the likely approaches that competing teams will take. To accomplish this goal, you have decided to prepare a white paper in which you compare the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) guidance document for cybersecurity strategies to a similar document prepared by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO). ENISA provides cybersecurity guidance for member states of the European Union (http://europa.eu/index_en.htm ). CTO provides cybersecurity guidance for members of the Commonwealth of Nations (http://www.commonwealthofnations.org/).

Your starting point for your analysis will be outlines of the two documents (Table 1 and Table 2) which were provided to the teams by the competition’s organizers.

Research:

1. Review the document outlines provided in Tables 1 and 2 (at the end of this document).
2. Download and review the full documents
   1. CTO: http://www.cto.int/media/fo-th/cyb-sec/Commonwealth%20‌Approach%20‌for%20‌National%20‌Cybersecurity%20Strategies.pdf
   2. ENISA: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/national-cyber-security-strategies-ncsss/national-cyber-security-strategies-an-implementation-guide/at_download/fullReport
3. Develop five or more points which are common across the two documents. (Similarities)
4. Identify and review at five or more unique items in each document. (Differences)
5. Research three or more national cybersecurity strategies from EU or Commonwealth nations which were written in or available in English (see the list in Appendix 1 of the CTO document). How comprehensive are these documents when compared to either the ENISA or the CTO guidance? From these documents and the ENISA / CTO guidelines, develop an answer to the question: Why should every nation have a cybersecurity strategy?

Write:

Write a five (5) to eight (8) page white paper in which you summarize your research and discuss the similarities and differences between the two guidance documents. You should focus upon clarity and conciseness more than length when determining what content to include in your paper. At a minimum, your white paper must include the following:

1. An introduction or overview of national cybersecurity strategies. Explain the purpose of a national cybersecurity strategy and how it is used. Answer the question: why should every nation have a cybersecurity strategy? (Make sure that you address the importance of such strategies to small, resource-poor nations as well as to wealthy, developed nations.)
2. A separate section in which you discuss the common principles and guidelines (similarities) found in both guidance documents (ENISA & CTO).
3. A separate section in which you discuss the unique aspects of the CTO principles and guidelines for national cybersecurity strategies.
4. A separate section in which you discuss the unique aspects of the ENISA principles and guidelines for national cybersecurity strategies.
5. A section in which you present your recommendations to the competition team as to the approach (next steps) they should take in further refining their answer to the competition question: what is the best approach for developing a national cybersecurity strategy?
6. A separate section in which you summarize your research and recommendations.

Submit For Grading

Submit your white paper in MS Word format (.docx or .doc file) using the Compare/Contrast Cybersecurity Strategy Guidelines Assignment in your assignment folder. (Attach the file.)

Additional Information

1. Consult the grading rubric for specific content and formatting requirements for this assignment.
2. Your 5-8 page white paper should be professional in appearance with consistent use of fonts, font sizes, margins, etc. You should use headings and page breaks to organize your paper.
3. Your paper should use standard terms and definitions for cybersecurity. See Course Content > Cybersecurity Concepts Review for recommended resources.
4. The CSIA program recommends that you follow standard APA formatting since this will give you a document that meets the “professional appearance” requirements. APA formatting guidelines and examples are found under Course Resources > APA Resources. An APA template file (MS Word format) has also been provided for your use CSIA_Basic_Paper_Template(APA_6ed,Nov2014).docx.
5. You must include a cover page with the assignment title, your name, and the due date. Your reference list must be on a separate page at the end of your file. These pages do not count towards the assignment’s page count.
6. You are expected to write grammatically correct English in every assignment that you submit for grading. Do not turn in any work without (a) using spell check, (b) using grammar check, (c) verifying that your punctuation is correct and (d) reviewing your work for correct word usage and correctly structured sentences and paragraphs.
7. You are expected to credit your sources using in-text citations and reference list entries. Both your citations and your reference list entries must follow a consistent citation style (APA, MLA, etc.).

Table 1. Outline for Commonwealth Approach for Developing National Cybersecurity Strategies (Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, 2015).

3 CREATING AND USING A NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY 3.1 Development of the Strategy 3.1.1 An approach to design of the strategy: risk-based and outcome-focused 3.1.2 The use of a maturity model 3.1.3 Key performance indicators 3.1.4 Resources and market forces 3.1.5 Communicating its concepts and ideas 3.2 Delivering the Strategy 3.3 Reviewing the Strategy 4 KEY ELEMENTS OF A CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY 4.1 Introduction and background section 4.2 Guiding principles section 4.3 Vision and strategic goals section 4.4 Objectives and priorities section – using a risk-based approach 4.5 Stakeholder section 4.6 Governance and management structure 4.7 Strategy implementation section 4.7.1 Legal and regulatory framework 4.7.2 Capacity Building 4.7.3 Awareness 4.7.4 Local technical capability 4.7.5 Incident response 4.8 Monitoring and evaluation

Table 2. Outline for National Cyber Security Strategies: Practical Guide on Development and Execution (European Network and Information Security Agency, 2012).

2 National cyber security strategy lifecycle 3 Develop and execute the national cyber-security strategy 3.1 Set the vision, scope, objectives and priorities 3.2 Follow a national risk assessment approach 3.3 Take stock of existing policies, regulations and capabilities 3.4 Develop a clear governance structure 3.5 Identify and engage stakeholders 3.6 Establish trusted information-sharing mechanisms 3.7 Develop national cyber contingency plans 3.8 Organise cyber security exercises 3.9 Establish baseline security requirements 3.10 Establish incident reporting mechanisms 3.11 User awareness 3.12 Foster R&D 3.13 Strengthen training and educational programmes 3.14 Establish an incident response capability 3.15 Address cyber crime 3.16 Engage in international cooperation 3.17 Establish a public–private partnership 3.18 Balance security with privacy 4 Evaluate and adjust the national cyber-security strategy 4.1 Evaluation approach 4.2 Key performance indicators

References:

Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation. (2015). Commonwealth approach for developing national cybersecurity strategies. London, UK: Author. Retrieved from http://www.cto.int/media/fo-th/cyb-sec/Commonwealth%20‌Approach%20‌for%20‌National%20‌Cybersecurity%20Strategies.pdf

European Network and Information Security Agency. (2012). National cyber security strategies: Practical guide on development and execution. Heraklion, Crete, Greece: Author. Retrieved from https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/national-cyber-security-strategies-ncsss/national-cyber-security-strategies-an-implementation-guide/at_download/fullReport