Secure Infrastructure Management Architecture (SIMA)

The ION Networks SIMA blueprint provides a solid security-focused foundation for the management of critical infrastructure resources. SIMA ensures that security policies, baseline controls, and management processes can be implemented for the secure management of critical infrastructure based on specific business needs. SIMA keeps "the barbarians at the gate" by securing the management touch points of critical infrastructure.

The Perimeter

• Ensures the secure access to infrastructure resources by remote users.
• Ensures that information cannot be read and understood while in transit.
• Ensures that unauthorized access to the infrastructure through its externally-facing access points is prevented.
• Ensures that security breaches at all externally-facing access points to the infrastructure are identified in a real-time manner and repudiated.

The Interior

• Ensures that users are appropriately identified before gaining access to infrastructure resources.
• Ensures that an authenticated user can only access administrator-approved infrastructure resources.
• Ensures that all security violations and sensitive activities are documented and can be easily retrieved for investigation and management purposes.

Users and Actions

• Ensures that no information leaves an organization without authorization, and that information received from external sources does not violate policies.
• Ensures that actions are securely logged so that no user can deny the actions they take.
• Ensures safe management of private keys that provide authentication, authorization, message integrity and non-repudiation services for users.
• Ensures that user access requests are processed in accordance with the stated directions of the administrator.
• Ensures that users are authenticated once and then granted access programmatically to all infrastructure resources to which they need to perform their job function.