Overview of technical security assessment techniques

- There are a wide variety of ways…to find out how secure systems and networks are,…and they fall into three general categories of techniques,…review, target identification and analysis,…and target vulnerability validation.…Review techniques are often manual examinations of systems,…applications, networks, policies, and procedures…to ensure they meet minimum security requirements.…These techniques include reviewing…system and network documentation,…firewall and switch rulesets,…and system configurations.…

Conducting network sniffing…to examine the current state of the network…and using file integrity checking…to ensure that key files haven't been modified…are also considered review techniques.…I'll describe these techniques…in the Technical Security Assessment Reviews chapter.…Target identification and analysis techniques…are used to identify and analyze systems, networks,…and security vulnerabilities…which may be relevant to the assessment.…

These techniques are often performed using automated tools…or systems which can conduct network discovery,…