Infosec: Jericho Forum publishes security model

Infosec Europe 2008

The Jericho Forum has published its first plans for a secure computer architecture which it claims will protect companies more effectively.

The Forum, which comprises security officers in national and international companies, used the Infosecurity Europe show to publish its Collaboration Oriented Architectures (COA) framework.

The group said that this will ensure that companies can interoperate without causing security problems.

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The Forum was set up as a response to some in the industry becoming dissatisfied with security vendors giving poor advice, and the COA plan has been rigorously tested in the real world, according to the group.

"The old risk model simply does not cut it anymore," said Adrian Seccombe, senior enterprise information architect at Eli Lilly and Jericho Forum board member.

"Unless organisations transform the way they perceive, execute and manage risk, they will not only leave themselves exposed to growing security threats, but will be left standing in the competitive business stakes.

"We need to move away from an economic model based on the standalone enterprise to a collaborative model based on guilds where competence is the driving force."

The COA plan is a step forward from service orientated architectures and is designed around the concept of "deperimeterisation" where businesses accept that they cannot shelter behind firewalls but must defend key data.

The Jericho Forum is now working on a set of open protocols that will allow network architects to use current technology more efficiently.

"All the technologies we are suggesting are backed by products and procedures that are already working in commercial environments," said Paul Simmonds, Jericho Forum board member and former chief information security officer at ICI.

"We are simply presenting an effective way of bringing them altogether."