What Does Operationally Critical Threat, Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation Mean?
An Operationally Critical Threat, Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation (OCTAVE) is a security framework for identifying, addressing and managing information security assessments and and risk-based planning. It consists of tools, technologies and procedures for helping organizations identify and evaluate the security risks they face. OCTAVE is primarily targeted at organization-related security risks rather than technological risks.
Techopedia Explains Operationally Critical Threat, Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation
OCTAVE was initially conceived by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University to help the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) address its security risks and challenges. It works around three different phases:
- Building an asset-based threat profile
This involves the identification and selection of different critical assets and the security requirements for each one of them. A threat profile for all identified assets is created. - Indentifying infrastructure vulnerabilities
This phase involves identifying network access paths, classifying technology components related to critical assets and the extent to which those components are secure against network vulnerabilities and attacks. - Develop a security strategy and plan
Based on the data collected in previous phases, a formal plan is created to address the risks associated with each critical asset.