THE SECURITY STACK: A Model for Understanding The Cybersecurity We Need
This paper proposes a four-layer model called the "security stack" as a
means to visualize the complexity of cybersecurity problems and see through
to comprehensive, effective solutions. The authors use the term "stack"
strictly as having similarities to other well accepted stacks where layers
deliver services and exchange information to achieve a higher level
service. The notion of a "security stack" serves the proposition that
security must be an integrated set of services.
The paper defines each layer, offers examples of enabling technologies, related standards, and types of professional security services that implement the enabling technologies. It also notes where adequate enabling technologies or standards still need to be developed, or where policies need to be set and implemented to allow information to be exchanged between layers fast enough to keep up with the speed of emerging threats.
Read this whitepaper to:
- Understand of the model we need for cybersecurity;
- Learn that cybersecurity is an integral part of an ecosystem in which ICT architectures are made secure and sustainable by design;
- Discover the benefits of the security stack: serves as a guide for integration efforts; creates forcing-pressures for collaboration; and, establishes that no single layer can effectively contend with the sophisticated attacks of our present day and into the future.
