Ryan Naraine just posted an article over at ZDNet about a project I’m extremely excited to be involved with.

Just before RSA I was invited by Window Snyder over at Mozilla to work with them on a project to take a new look at software security metrics. Window has posted the details of the project over on the Mozilla security blog, and here’s an excerpt:

Mozilla has been working with security researcher and analyst Rich Mogull for a few months now on a project to develop a metrics model to measure the relative security of Firefox over time. We are trying to develop a model that goes beyond simple bug counts and more accurately reflects both the effectiveness of secure development efforts, and the relative risk to users over time. Our goal in this first phase of the project is to build a baseline model we can evolve over time as we learn what works, and what does not. We do not think any model can define an absolute level of security, so we decided to take the approach of tracking metrics over time so we can track relative improvements (or declines), and identify any problem spots. This information will support the development of Mozilla projects including future versions of Firefox. … Below is a summary of the project goals, and the xls of the model is posted at http://securosis.com/publications/MozillaProject2.xls. The same content as a set of .csvs is available here: http://securosis.com/publications/MozillaProject.zip This is a preliminary version and we are currently looking for feedback. The final version will be a far more descriptive document, but for now we are using a spreadsheet to refine the approach. Feel free to download it, rip it apart, and post your comments. This is an open project and process. Eventually we will release this to the community at large with the hope that other organizations can adapt it to their own needs.

Although I love my job, it’s not often I get to develop original research like this with an organization like Mozilla. We really think we have the opportunity to contribute to the security and development communities in an impactful way.

If you’d like to contribute, please comment over at the Mozilla blog, or email me directly. I’d like to keep the conversation over there, rather than in comments here.

This is just the spreadsheet version (and a csv version); the final product will be more of a research note, describing the metrics, process, and so on.

I’m totally psyched about this.

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