Securosis Blog

Friday Summary: May 16, 2014

Adrian Lane · May 16, 2014

It’s odd, given the large number of security conferences I attend, how few sessions I get to see. I am always meeting with clients around events, but I rarely get to see the sessions. Secure360 is an exception, and that’s one of the reasons I like to go. I figured I’d share some of better ones – at least sessions where I not only learned something but got to laugh along the way:

Incite 5/14/2014: Solo Exploration

Mike Rothman · May 14, 2014

Is it possible to like interacting with people, yet need time alone? To really enjoy working in a team, yet cherish a night of solitude? I have always defined myself as an introvert. It provided a convenient excuse when I just didn’t want to deal with people. Though I do need my solo time to recharge, that’s for sure. But I also need to be social. Not all the time and not for extended periods of time, but a life of solitude doesn’t really appeal to me either. It’s an interesting contrast.

A lot is going on in security land, so Rich, Mike, and Adrian return with another 3 for 5 episode. Three stories, five minutes each, all the sarcastic bite in a convenient package.

Summary: Thin Air

Rich · May 9, 2014

Rich here. A quick mention: I will run a security session at Camp DevOps in Boulder on May 20th. I am looking forward to learning some things myself.

Incite 5/7/2014: Accomplishments

Mike Rothman · May 7, 2014

Yesterday I was in Winnipeg. By choice! I was invited to speak at the Western Canada Information Security Conference, and there isn’t much I like better than giving talks in Canada. Folks are nice. They appreciate when you come up to their towns to talk. They don’t say much during the pitch, but they come up after the session or in the coffee line and make it clear that they were listening. Just like in the Northeast. OK, not so much.

Anti-virus is basically dead, at least according to the biggest anti-virus vendor. The good news is that signature-based AV has actually been dead for a long time; even the big players have been broadening their capabilities to assess, prevent, detect, and investigate advanced malware on endpoints and servers. There has been a tremendous amount of activity and innovation in protecting endpoint and servers, driven by necessity:

Adrian is off at the altar of Buffett (the other one – not the one I wear a coconut bra for), so Mike and I delved into SecDevOps, triggered by a post from Andrew Storms over at DevOps.com. This is where the world is heading folks – you might as well prepare yourselves now.

Friday Summary: Biased Analysis Edition

Adrian Lane · May 2, 2014

Glenn Fleishman (@GlennF) tweeted “Next month’s Wired: ‘We painstakingly reconstructed Steve Jobs’ wardrobe so you can wear it, too.’” A catty response to Wired Magazine’s recent reconstruction of Steve Jobs’ stereo system. Unlike Mr. Fleishman I was highly interested in this article, and found it relevant to current events. For people who love music and quality home music reproduction, iTunes’ disgustingly low-resolution MP3 files seem at odds with Jobs’ personal interest in HiFi. The equipment…

Incite 4/30/2014: Sunscreen

Mike Rothman · April 30, 2014

After a mostly miserable winter, at least in terms of the weather, spring is here. And some days it feels like summer. This past weekend was awesome. A little hot, but nice. Sun shining. Watching the kids play LAX. Dinner/drinks to celebrate two of my best friends completing a trail marathon. Yes, they ran 26.2 miles through the woods. I didn’t say my friends were overly bright, did I?

XP Users Twisting in the Wind

Mike Rothman · April 29, 2014

Windows XP’s recent end of life has garnered a bit of industry recognition. Mostly from vendors pushing controls to lock down the ancient operating system. Folks who are stuck on XP are, well, stuck. And now there is a new exploit in the wild that takes advantage of IE, so what are XP users to do?