Is there a security mindset?

Geez how did I miss this one?

pktsniffer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:39:37 +0000

While writing the previous post I stumbled across this article over at the NYTimes. Gah! This makes a great Anti two factor argument. Why bother to deploy two factor RSA tokens….if they are already ‘broken’. Sheesh. Must think on this…..

Why does Malware not get the attention it deserves?

pktsniffer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:33:57 +0000

It’s kind of a strange statement to make but let me elaborate. It seems to me that most people perceive malware as the annoying ‘stuff’ that gets ‘accidentally’ installed on their family or friends computers. You know the stuff that makes their PC slow or worse. Outside of the ‘computer industry’ people don’t truly seem to grasps the concepts behind a bot net and what its purpose is. Case in point. Today’s threatpost has an interesting post regarding the more sophisticated threats that are appearing in the wild.

I sometimes wonder how people can NOT get this. The constant escalating ‘arms race’ when it comes to computer security is now a given. Has been for years. If the ‘bad guy’ is using a tool to make money because that is what it is all about. Oh, sorry you didn’t know that it is now a money thing? Not the geeky kid in the basement hacking into the WOPR. Sorry, I digress. Back to the point. Um….oh right. The attackers are now MORE sophisticated than ever. They are combining attacks. What is the current weakest link in the Corporate Enterprise? The desktop. It’s a much easier target. Softer, squishier and well there are a heck of a lot of them.

I could keep going but I won’t.

More to follow.

Nortel is DEAD people move on.

pktsniffer — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:54:29 +0000

Given that Nortel is now basically a defunct company can anyone explain why you would go ahead with purchasing equipment from them. If it’s enterprise VoiP you want surely it would make more sense to switch to Cisco or Avaya. When the Avaya purchase is complete does it make sense for them to maintain Nortel’s Equipment? Highly unlikely. Forklift upgrade path to their equipment.

Why then are we purchasing an deploying Millions of dollars of Nortel equipment? As if this wasn’t a predictable outcome even six months ago. The question was asked but because no one listens to Architecture (that’s another blog post) the Telephony folks went ahead. Politics, job insecurity, lack of foresite, blind faith in a vendor, all of these and more.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. Total waste of money and time. Nobody gets fired for buying…IBM, Nortel, Cisco…um time to reconsider.

Nortel is DEAD people move on.

Oh yeah….

pktsniffer — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:55:36 +0000

I wish I was at #blackhat and #defcon. Ooops I put the twitter hash tags in there by reflex….*sigh*

Information Sharing

pktsniffer — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:53:35 +0000

It’s nice to sit and talk to other Security folks who share your same pains. It’s even better when they are in the same industry. Case in point today. I attended a very useful meeting where 7 or so companies spared they’re respective security types for 3hrs. We talked about some common pain points and talked about what some people were doing about compliance. It was very refreshing to get some different opinions and perspectives on topics that I struggle with everyday.

I’m looking forward to the next meeting. Should prove to be just as informative.

For obvious reasons I have left out the industry and the companies in question.

TOGAF and Security Part…x

pktsniffer — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:17:36 +0000

I don’t remember where I left off with TOGAF and Security. However a lot of things have changed in the last 6 months. TOGAF 9 came out and expanded the security (one page) section in version 8 to a whole chapter. A much needed improvement. Also since then I have attend the Opengroups Enterprise Architecture Practioners Conference in Toronto. And yes I crossed over on the Wednesday to sit in on a couple of the security sessions. I have to say that I was very impressed with the quality of the Panelist in the Cloud Security debate.

What I will say about all this ‘stuff’, is that there seems to be a convergence of sorts on the way. I’m seeing Cloud Security(CSA), TOGAF, COBIT, NIST, ITIL, PCI and a couple of other acronyms start to coalesce into something more tangible. Could be very interesting.

Ouch….a Month (ok and a bit).

pktsniffer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:54:22 +0000

Well things have been flying along around here. To many things to mention in a single post. Lots of great stuff. Now the big question is, to blog or not to blog? Most of the blogoshpere seems to have moved to Twitter. Now while I like twitter I don’t think I will abandon the blog (such as it is). I think I will keep it to post relevant info that I can reference back to. Which I think was the whole idea in the first place. So…..

Privacy and the ‘Next Generation’

pktsniffer — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:14:47 +0000

I was lucky enough to see Bruce Schneier speak recently. I was to say the least impressed. Not because he is a ‘Security Guru’. He communicates is a very clear and easy to understand style. Very refreshing for someone who is a security professional. Now I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says but I do admire his clarity and whit. If you ever have a chance to see him speak I highly recommend that you do. He spoke about privacy and technology.

Now it got me thinking about how the ‘current youth’ population see privacy and technology differently from us…um…older kids. Now I’m not going to get into a discussion regarding the differences that exist. However I’m going to pose a new(ish) question. If the current generation perceive things differently then how exactly will my son’s generation (he’s 2.5) see things?

I wonder what it will be like…….?

Very Busy lately….

pktsniffer — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:55:01 +0000

OK so I haven’t posted anything lately. My apologies. I’ve been busy with a couple of different things.

So…..now what? OK, I’ll be posting a bunch of stuff later this week. Stay Tuned.

Success

pktsniffer — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:24:22 +0000

I think my presentation went reasonably well. Nobody got up and walked out!!

The material flowed well, however, if I were to do it again I might change a couple of things. But overall I was happy with the end result.

I’ll probably post the presentation tomorrow or Friday. I haven’t check if there are any file hosting limitations yet. I’m sure I can figure out something.

Thanks to everyone who attended. I appreciate you letting me talk at you for an hour. Thanks.