I realize I am getting old

by Michael Davis on February 1, 2010

So I was talking with a client last week and they mentioned that they haven’t seen any new blog posts from me in a while. I said that was weird because I had just posted yesterday.When i get back to the office, I go online to this site from another PC and low and behold, no blog post.

Apparently, I was logging into and using our beta site because I had my hosts file specifically pointed to a different server that hosted our beta site. So…there are a bunch of blog posts that you will see coming that were actually posted months ago!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn

Related posts

Email This Post Email This Post Print This Post Print This Post

{ 0 comments }

Cyberwarfare Peacekeeping and Terrorism Prevention Similarities

by Michael A. Davis on February 1, 2010

Since the Christmas Day underpants bomber revitalized our terrorism fears, I have been thinking about the similarities between preventing terrorists from physically attacking us and protecting our digital information from hackers and cyberwarfare groups.

The Department of Homeland is reluctant to admit that there are no amount of measures that can be taken to guarantee 100% safety at all times from terrorist attacks. engineers must also be aware of this fact. Cyberdefenses can never fully guarantee protection. What can be done in both cases is to make it as difficult as possible for the enemy to bypass the cyber and physical defenses we do create. We analyze their current attacks and schemes to make sure that existing attacks will not breach defenses. We also attempt to understand what future attacks will look like, always trying to be one step ahead of the enemy.

The enemy in both cases consists of small, agile groups that operate within networks. Whether it is an Al Qaeda branch or the Ukranian Fan Club, both organizations are small and nimble enough to promote faster organization than their adversaries. Most IT teams as well as the Department of Homeland are large, powerful organizations whose greatest weaknesses is their slow response time due to their sizes and internal bureaucracies. As we have seen from the underpants bomber, the DHS has perhaps become too large and slow to connect disparate pieces of information that would have prevented the bomber from boarding the plane.

In both struggles, the main problem is the issue of safety versus freedom, or protection versus convenience. How many airport measures will people endure in order to improve their safety? IT professionals struggle with the idea of promoting safety without impeding the freedoms of the business. Social networking and file sharing can be very useful tools for businesses, but they also greatly increase the chances of malware infections and cybercrime hacks.

It would be unreasonable to eliminate freedom entirely for the sake of safety in both scenarios. After all, if you never take your business online then you will never be hacked – just like if you never go on a plane you will never attacked by a terrorist passenger.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn

Related posts

Email This Post Email This Post Print This Post Print This Post

{ 0 comments }

Predictions on Cybercrime for 2010

by Michael A. Davis on December 20, 2009

With the end of 2009 approaching, cybersecurity engineers as well as cybercriminals are looking to next year to see what the future of internet security holds. Where will current cybercrime trends go and what new ones will emerge? Well, here are a few of my predictions on what virtual mines the Internet landscape will have in 2010.

Emboldened Social Engineering – This should be no surprise to anyone in cybersecurity or who has read this blog before. In 2009 cybercriminals realized that social engineering is the easiest way to obtain sensitive information from users. And while social engineering was big this year, it will continue to grow exponentially next year. Expect social engineers to become more organized and bolder in their methods. There may be more incidents where social engineers visit sites physically to gain trust and information that no software can physically protect.

Social Networking Sites Will Become a Bigger Target – Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are only gaining popularity and no amount of security warnings are going to keep users away. Cybercriminals will use these sites to their advantage in two ways. While I believe the sites themselves will become more proactive in creating security defenses, the third party applications made for these sites will have exploitable vulnerabilities. Additionally, social networking site users will increasingly become the victims of social engineering. These sites give social engineers a terrific medium for contacting, communicating with, and taking advantage of users.

Ransomware Will Replace Scareware – Hijacking a users PC and holding it for ransom may seem outrageous, but it’s happening now and proving to be more profitable than scareware tactics that users are now growing wise to. Expect cybercriminals to go where the money is – users would rather pay a small price to regain control of their PCs than go through the trouble of manually removing malware – or nuking their PCs.

Mobile Devices Will Be Hit Hard – Mobile phones have enjoyed their short lives mostly free of threats while continuing to propagate. But now that they have increased in complexity, becoming mini notebook computers, the likelihood of vulnerabilities has also increased. 2009 saw the Sexy Space botnet and the iPhoneOS.Ikee – what awaits our precious smartphones in 2010?

Organized Cybercrime – The cybercrime underground has evolved into an elaborate economy where, in 2009, cybercriminals have begun to network, collaborate, and pool resources for mutual gain. Malware infected PCs and botnets are bought and sold like commodities. I expect this trend will continue in 2010, and it may be the most dangerous prediction. Combating such cybercrime organizations will require the same organization among security experts.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn

Related posts

Email This Post Email This Post Print This Post Print This Post

{ 0 comments }

Cyber-warfare is overrated, Cyber-Crime is the real issue we need to address

September 2, 2009

So why is there so much concern about “cyber-terrorism”? Answering a question with a question: who frames the debate? Much of the data are gathered by ultra-secretive government agencies—which need to justify their own existence—and cyber-security companies—which derive commercial benefits from popular anxiety.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →

Can I see your CyberSecurity License # please?

August 29, 2009

There is a bill, S.773, floating around the Senate that will require cybersecurity professionals in the future to be licensed, similar to how a general contractor, electrician etc is licensed. Furthermore, according to CNET News, “[the bill] appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.”

Will this bill pass? Or even more important, is it a good idea?

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →

Government Mulls Over P2P Regulation

August 18, 2009

Many companies have already taken this step and banned P2P use by their employees. Businesses have their own sensitive data that they must secure, including customer credit card numbers, private emails, etc. By intentionally allowing file sharing, P2P essentially undoes everything IT security is trying to do.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →

SOX May Be Overturned by Supreme Court

August 17, 2009

The lawsuit claims the Sarbanes-Oxley Act violates constitutional requirements since it gives the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regulatory powers over the accounting industry, and yet its members are not appointed by the President. They argue that this is a violation of the separation of powers specified in the constitution that leaves the President with insufficient control over what could be considered an executive function.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →

Yes…I am alive!

August 14, 2009

Sorry for the lack of posts the past two weeks, I was in Vegas for  BlackHat and Defcon, took a couple day break, and then Boston but now I am back in action! More posts to come in the next few days.

Share and Enjoy:

Related posts

No related posts.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →

3 Reasons Against Patch Tuesday

July 28, 2009

Ultimately, whether you participate in Patch Tuesday or not depends on the nature of your unique enterprise. Some organizations cannot afford the risks of waiting to patch and require more vigilant updating to protect their systems. Other organizations may value the fluidity of operations over security and prefer a monthly scheduled time for patching.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →

Compliance Complaints: Rethinking PCI

July 27, 2009

Many are unsatisfied with the “checklist” format of PCI compliance. They commonly point out how this switches the goal from overall security and risk management to simply compliance. Some of these standards don’t seem to help security at all, such as configuration management. PCI compliance should not be the goal, but it ought to serve as a jumping off point towards promoting better security practices. But too many organizations either have a purely audit-based mentality while others regard the compliance as a frustrating burden.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • De.lirio.us
  • email
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
Read the full article →