For me this is the time of the year that I go into reflection mode. This is the time of year that Jews ask tough question about how they are doing in there relationship to g-d. But there is a lesson for all here in regards to information security. We are constantly evolving and changing so a process of continuous monitoring isn't much different to the process of identifying faults in ones self and atoning.
Most organizations are reasonable good at identify cyber incidents but few if any atone for there mistakes to keep them from happening again. Atonement rally is a process of not allowing past transgressions to happen again.
With that said what can you do as a user to make the next 12 months better for your company or organization? To not repeat the information security sins of the past and keep the barbarians at the gate.
Friday, October 07, 2011
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Thank you Steve...
Matt Galligan wrote: “R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful.”. This is one of the most true quotes I've seen today about Steve Jobs. Before Steve all computers were these ugly boxes you did work at. Then the iMac came and the entire industry began a 20 year shift to what we have today. Steve Jobs made computing a personal experience and believed in the power that people can have when they have freedom to access information anywhere at any time. I think he leaves the world a better place and hope the team at Apple is up to the challenge of honoring his legacy by pushing computing beyond our wildest imaginations.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Happy New Year!
Well it's a new year and time for resolutions. What cyber security resolutions will you make? Better trained employees, more automation, or just getting security program up and running?
Friday, August 07, 2009
Life on the Dark Side
As some of you may know back in March I took a position working as a Federal Civil Service employee. In the past I have railed against what I've called the dark side. Now I find myself being the dark side. One of the most profound things I've learned is that one should never criticize anything that one has not experienced.
Being a federal contractor and being a Government Full Time Employee (GFTE) are two completely different experiences. So life on the dark side of the force is pretty awesome. But then again maybe I'm just drunk with power?!?!?!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Animatrix meet Iran. Iran meet Animatrix
Holy Sh#t this is good stuff! All too often we submit to being sheep and believing what ever the media or authority figures tell us to believe without question. It's easy to demonize people you've never met or talked too. All I ask is get both sides of a issue before forming an opinion.
Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.
Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Tis the Season to get Jacked!
It’s the season to be jolly and grateful but also, sadly, the time to get ripped off (if you’re not careful).
US CERT reported the following on Monday:
Malware Spreading via Social Networking Sites
added December 8, 2008 at 02:48 pm
US-CERT is aware of public reports of malware spreading via popular social networking sites. The reports indicate that this malware is spreading through spam email messages appearing to come from Myspace.com, Facebook.com, and Classmates.com. The email contains a message indicating that there is a YouTube video available and instructs the user to follow the link to view the video. If users click on this link, they will be prompted to update Adobe Flash Player. This update is not a legitimate Adobe Flash Player update--it is malicious code.
US-CERT encourages users and administrators to do the following to help mitigate the risks:
* Install antivirus software and keep the virus signatures up to date.
* Do not follow unsolicited links.
* Use caution when downloading and installing applications.
* Obtain software applications and updates directly from the vendor's website.
* Configure your web browser as described in the Securing Your Web Browser document.
* Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
* Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.
The majority of the time the goal of the attacker is to get your credit card number or personal identifiable information. With more and more folks finding at the end of the day a pink slip waiting cyber crime (as with all forms of crime) is on the rise so in the immortal words of Hill Street Blues “Let’s be careful out there”. If you plan to do most of your holiday shopping online this season I recommend using PayPals’ security key so your credit card information isn’t sent over the net. (https://www.paypal.com/securitykey)
Most, if not all, users have Adobe flash installed on their desktops and/or laptops so I thought I’d pass this along to the community as a friendly reminder to always “trust but verify.”
US CERT reported the following on Monday:
Malware Spreading via Social Networking Sites
added December 8, 2008 at 02:48 pm
US-CERT is aware of public reports of malware spreading via popular social networking sites. The reports indicate that this malware is spreading through spam email messages appearing to come from Myspace.com, Facebook.com, and Classmates.com. The email contains a message indicating that there is a YouTube video available and instructs the user to follow the link to view the video. If users click on this link, they will be prompted to update Adobe Flash Player. This update is not a legitimate Adobe Flash Player update--it is malicious code.
US-CERT encourages users and administrators to do the following to help mitigate the risks:
* Install antivirus software and keep the virus signatures up to date.
* Do not follow unsolicited links.
* Use caution when downloading and installing applications.
* Obtain software applications and updates directly from the vendor's website.
* Configure your web browser as described in the Securing Your Web Browser document.
* Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
* Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.
The majority of the time the goal of the attacker is to get your credit card number or personal identifiable information. With more and more folks finding at the end of the day a pink slip waiting cyber crime (as with all forms of crime) is on the rise so in the immortal words of Hill Street Blues “Let’s be careful out there”. If you plan to do most of your holiday shopping online this season I recommend using PayPals’ security key so your credit card information isn’t sent over the net. (https://www.paypal.com/securitykey)
Most, if not all, users have Adobe flash installed on their desktops and/or laptops so I thought I’d pass this along to the community as a friendly reminder to always “trust but verify.”
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Oh what the he77...
I feel like I posted this before but what the heck... Nobody reads this anyways!! Ha Ha Ha!
In WWII carpet bombing laid waist to most of Europe leaving little to nothing behind. In contrast today a FAC can sight an insurgent truck with GPS positioning binoculars to call in an orbiting B-52 to prosecute the target. The correlation between the history of modern warfare and the development and maturization of malicious code could be viewed as striking.
A concern seen expressed on INFOSEC blogs is that threats to a theoretical or “typical” enterprise could operate with impunity due to the security controls in place not having the ability to adapt and respond to new and emerging threats. I think the Federal IT space is at a point now that from a modern warfare perspective could be equated to the time before the GiG came into being an integral part of the warfighters toolset. I see great possibilities to transform federal information security through cost effective risk management.
In WWII carpet bombing laid waist to most of Europe leaving little to nothing behind. In contrast today a FAC can sight an insurgent truck with GPS positioning binoculars to call in an orbiting B-52 to prosecute the target. The correlation between the history of modern warfare and the development and maturization of malicious code could be viewed as striking.
A concern seen expressed on INFOSEC blogs is that threats to a theoretical or “typical” enterprise could operate with impunity due to the security controls in place not having the ability to adapt and respond to new and emerging threats. I think the Federal IT space is at a point now that from a modern warfare perspective could be equated to the time before the GiG came into being an integral part of the warfighters toolset. I see great possibilities to transform federal information security through cost effective risk management.
Bad Blogger
Okay I'm just going to admit it and stop being in denial: I'm a bad blogger! There I feel better now. With that said I offer the following jem.
How Security Became an Issue
It is interesting to pick up various computer books and see that there is usually a history section that sets the stage for where society is today pertaining to computing and data processing. Unlike histories that tell of times long past, the history of computing typically begins in the 1960s. A lot has happened in a short period of time, and computer security is just starting to reach its time in the limelight.
Roughly twenty-five years ago, the only computers were mainframes. They were few and far between and used for specialized tasks, usually running large batch jobs, one at a time, and carrying out complex computations. If users were connected to the mainframes, it was through “dumb” terminals that had limited functionality and were totally dependent on the mainframe for their operations and processing environment. This was a closed environment with little threat of security breaches or vulnerabilities being exploited. This does not mean that things were perfect, that security vulnerabilities did not exist, and that people were in a computing utopia. Instead, it meant there were a handful of people working in a “glass house” who knew how to operate the computer. They decided who could access the mainframe and when. This provided a much more secure environment, because of its simplicity, than what we see in today’s distributed and interconnected world.
In the days of mainframes, web sites describing the steps of how to break into a specific application or operating system did not exist. The network stacks and protocols being used were understood by very few people relative to the vast number of people that understand stacks and protocols today. Point-and-click utilities that can overwhelm buffers or interrogate ports did not exist. This was a truly closed environment that only a select few understood.
If networks were connected, it was done in a crude fashion for specific tasks, and corporations did not totally depend on data processing as they do today. The operating systems of that time had problems, software bugs, and vulnerabilities, but not many people were interested in taking advantage of them. Computer operators were at the command line and if they encountered a software problem, they usually just went in and manually changed the programming code. All this was not that long ago, considering where we are today.
As companies became more dependent on the computing power of mainframes, the functionality of the systems grew and various applications were developed. It was clear that giving employees only small time slices of access to the mainframes was not as productive as it could be. Processing and computing power was brought closer to the employees, enabling them to run small jobs on their desktop computers while the big jobs still took place within the “glass house.” This trend continued and individual computers became more independent and autonomous, only needing to access the mainframe for specific functionality.
As individual personal computers became more efficient, they continually took on more tasks and responsibilities. It was shown that several users accessing a mainframe was inefficient and that some major components needed to be more readily available so that users could perform their tasks in an efficient and effective way. This thinking led to the birth of the client/server model. Although many individual personal computers had the processing power to compute their own calculations and perform their own logic operations, it did not make sense that each computer held information that was needed by all other computers. Thus, programs and data were centralized on servers, with individual computers accessing them when necessary and accessing the mainframes less frequently.
How Security Became an Issue
It is interesting to pick up various computer books and see that there is usually a history section that sets the stage for where society is today pertaining to computing and data processing. Unlike histories that tell of times long past, the history of computing typically begins in the 1960s. A lot has happened in a short period of time, and computer security is just starting to reach its time in the limelight.
Roughly twenty-five years ago, the only computers were mainframes. They were few and far between and used for specialized tasks, usually running large batch jobs, one at a time, and carrying out complex computations. If users were connected to the mainframes, it was through “dumb” terminals that had limited functionality and were totally dependent on the mainframe for their operations and processing environment. This was a closed environment with little threat of security breaches or vulnerabilities being exploited. This does not mean that things were perfect, that security vulnerabilities did not exist, and that people were in a computing utopia. Instead, it meant there were a handful of people working in a “glass house” who knew how to operate the computer. They decided who could access the mainframe and when. This provided a much more secure environment, because of its simplicity, than what we see in today’s distributed and interconnected world.
In the days of mainframes, web sites describing the steps of how to break into a specific application or operating system did not exist. The network stacks and protocols being used were understood by very few people relative to the vast number of people that understand stacks and protocols today. Point-and-click utilities that can overwhelm buffers or interrogate ports did not exist. This was a truly closed environment that only a select few understood.
If networks were connected, it was done in a crude fashion for specific tasks, and corporations did not totally depend on data processing as they do today. The operating systems of that time had problems, software bugs, and vulnerabilities, but not many people were interested in taking advantage of them. Computer operators were at the command line and if they encountered a software problem, they usually just went in and manually changed the programming code. All this was not that long ago, considering where we are today.
As companies became more dependent on the computing power of mainframes, the functionality of the systems grew and various applications were developed. It was clear that giving employees only small time slices of access to the mainframes was not as productive as it could be. Processing and computing power was brought closer to the employees, enabling them to run small jobs on their desktop computers while the big jobs still took place within the “glass house.” This trend continued and individual computers became more independent and autonomous, only needing to access the mainframe for specific functionality.
As individual personal computers became more efficient, they continually took on more tasks and responsibilities. It was shown that several users accessing a mainframe was inefficient and that some major components needed to be more readily available so that users could perform their tasks in an efficient and effective way. This thinking led to the birth of the client/server model. Although many individual personal computers had the processing power to compute their own calculations and perform their own logic operations, it did not make sense that each computer held information that was needed by all other computers. Thus, programs and data were centralized on servers, with individual computers accessing them when necessary and accessing the mainframes less frequently.
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