Securosis

Menu

Research

Elephants, the Grateful Dead, and the Friday Summary – June 12, 2009

Rich June 12, 2009 No Comments

Back before Jerry Garcia moved on to the big pot cloud in the sky, I managed security at a couple of Dead shows in Boulder/Denver. In those days I was the assistant director for event security at the University of Colorado (before a short stint as director), and the Dead thought it would be better to bring us Boulder guys into Denver to manage the show there since we’d be less ‘aggressive’. Of course we all also worked as regular staff or supervisors for the company running the shows in Denver, but they never really asked about that. I used to sort of like the Dead until I started working Dead shows. While it might have seemed all “free love and mellowness” from the outside, if you’ve ever gone to a Dead show sober you’ve never met a more selfish group of people. By “free” they meant “I shouldn’t have to pay no matter what because everything in the world should be free, especially if I want it”, and by mellow they meant, “I’m mellow as long as I get to do whatever I want and you are a fascist pig if you tell me what to do, especially if you’re telling me to be considerate of other people”. We had more serious injuries and deaths at Dead shows (and other Dead-style bands) than anywhere else. People tripping out and falling off balconies, landing on other people and paralyzing them, then wandering off to ‘spin’ in a fire aisle. Once we had something like a few hundred counterfeit tickets sold for the same dozen or so seats, leading to all sorts of physical altercations. (The amusing part of that was hearing what happened to the counterfeiter in the parking lot after we kicked out the first hundred or so).   Running security at a Dead show is like eating an elephant, or running a marathon. When the unwashed masses (literally – we’re talking Boulder in the 90s) fill the fire aisles, all you can do is walk slowly up and down the aisle, politely moving everyone back near their seats, before starting all over again. Yes, my staff were fascist pigs, but it was that or let the fire marshal shut the entire thing down (for real – they were watching). I’d tell my team to keep moving slowly, don’t take it personally, and don’t get frustrated when you have to start all over again. The alternative was giving up, which wasn’t really an option. Because then I wouldn’t pay them. It’s really no different in IT security. Most of what we do is best approached like trying to eat an elephant (you know, one bite at a time, for the 2 of you who haven’t heard that one before). Start small, polish off that spleen, then move on to the liver. Weirdly enough in many of my end user conversations lately, people seem to be vapor locking on tough problems. Rather than taking them on a little bit at a time as part of an iterative process, they freak out at the scale or complexity, write a bunch of analytical reports, and complain to vendors and analysts that there should be a black box to solve it for them. But if you’ve ever done any mountaineering, or worked a Dead show, you know that all big jobs are really a series of small jobs. And once you hit the top, it’s time to turn around and do it all over again. Yes, you all know that, but it’s something we all need to remind ourselves of on a regular basis. For me, it’s about once a quarter when I get caught up on our financials. One additional reminder: Project Quant Survey is up. Yeah, I know it’s SurveyMonkey, and yeah, I know everyone bombards you with surveys, but this is pretty short and the results will be open to everyone. (Picture courtesy of me on safari a few years ago). And now for the week in review: Webcasts, Podcasts, Outside Writing, and Conferences A ton of articles referenced my TidBITS piece on Apple security, but most of them were based on a Register article that took bits out of context, so I’m not linking to them directly. I spoke at the TechTarget Financial Information Security Decisions conference on Pragmatic Data Security. Favorite Securosis Posts Rich: I flash back to my paramedic days in The Laws of Emergency Medicine—Security Style. Adrian: How Market Forces will Affect Payment Processing. Other Securosis Posts Application vs. Database Encryption Database Encryption, Part 2: Selection Process Overview iPhone Security Updates Facebook Monetary System Project Quant Posts Project Quant: Acquire Phase Project Quant: Patch Evaluation Phase Details: Monitor for Advisories Favorite Outside Posts Adrian: Rsnake’s RFC1918 Caching Problems post. Rich: Rothman crawls out from under the rock, and is now updating the Daily Incite on a more-regular basis again. Keep it up Mike! Top News and Posts Microsoft Office Security Updates. iPhone 3G S. I smell another Securosis Holiday coming up. T-Mobile Confirms data theft. Snow Leopard is coming! No penalty apparently, but the Sears data leak fiasco is settled. Black Hat founder appointed to DHS council. Congrats Jeff, well done. VM’s busting out. Symantec and McAfee fined over automatic renewals. China mandating a bot on everyone’s computer. Maybe that isn’t how they see it, but that’s what’s going to happen with the first vulnerability. Security spending is taking a hit. Critical Adobe patches out. Mike Andrews points us to a Firefox web app testing plugin set Bad guys automating Twitter phishing via trending topics. Blog Comment of the Week This week’s best comment comes from Allen in response to the State of Web Application and Data Security post: … I bet (a case of beers) that if there was no PCI DSS in place that every vendor would keep credit card details for all transactions for every customer forever, just in case. It is only now that they are forced to apply “pretty-good” security restrictions

Share:
Read Post
dinosaur-sidebar

Research

view all

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Totally Transparent Research is the embodiment of how we work at Securosis. It’s our core operating philosophy, our research policy, and a specific process. We initially developed it to help maintain objectivity while producing licensed research, but its benefits extend to all aspects of our business.

Going beyond Open Source Research, and a far cry from the traditional syndicated research model, we think it’s the best way to produce independent, objective, quality research.

Here’s how it works:

  • Content is developed ‘live’ on the blog. Primary research is generally released in pieces, as a series of posts, so we can digest and integrate feedback, making the end results much stronger than traditional “ivory tower” research.
  • Comments are enabled for posts. All comments are kept except for spam, personal insults of a clearly inflammatory nature, and completely off-topic content that distracts from the discussion. We welcome comments critical of the work, even if somewhat insulting to the authors. Really.
  • Anyone can comment, and no registration is required. Vendors or consultants with a relevant product or offering must properly identify themselves. While their comments won’t be deleted, the writer/moderator will “call out”, identify, and possibly ridicule vendors who fail to do so.
  • Vendors considering licensing the content are welcome to provide feedback, but it must be posted in the comments - just like everyone else. There is no back channel influence on the research findings or posts.
    Analysts must reply to comments and defend the research position, or agree to modify the content.
  • At the end of the post series, the analyst compiles the posts into a paper, presentation, or other delivery vehicle. Public comments/input factors into the research, where appropriate.
  • If the research is distributed as a paper, significant commenters/contributors are acknowledged in the opening of the report. If they did not post their real names, handles used for comments are listed. Commenters do not retain any rights to the report, but their contributions will be recognized.
  • All primary research will be released under a Creative Commons license. The current license is Non-Commercial, Attribution. The analyst, at their discretion, may add a Derivative Works or Share Alike condition.
  • Securosis primary research does not discuss specific vendors or specific products/offerings, unless used to provide context, contrast or to make a point (which is very very rare).
    Although quotes from published primary research (and published primary research only) may be used in press releases, said quotes may never mention a specific vendor, even if the vendor is mentioned in the source report. Securosis must approve any quote to appear in any vendor marketing collateral.
  • Final primary research will be posted on the blog with open comments.
  • Research will be updated periodically to reflect market realities, based on the discretion of the primary analyst. Updated research will be dated and given a version number.
    For research that cannot be developed using this model, such as complex principles or models that are unsuited for a series of blog posts, the content will be chunked up and posted at or before release of the paper to solicit public feedback, and provide an open venue for comments and criticisms.
  • In rare cases Securosis may write papers outside of the primary research agenda, but only if the end result can be non-biased and valuable to the user community to supplement industry-wide efforts or advances. A “Radically Transparent Research” process will be followed in developing these papers, where absolutely all materials are public at all stages of development, including communications (email, call notes).
    Only the free primary research released on our site can be licensed. We will not accept licensing fees on research we charge users to access.
  • All licensed research will be clearly labeled with the licensees. No licensed research will be released without indicating the sources of licensing fees. Again, there will be no back channel influence. We’re open and transparent about our revenue sources.

In essence, we develop all of our research out in the open, and not only seek public comments, but keep those comments indefinitely as a record of the research creation process. If you believe we are biased or not doing our homework, you can call us out on it and it will be there in the record. Our philosophy involves cracking open the research process, and using our readers to eliminate bias and enhance the quality of the work.

On the back end, here’s how we handle this approach with licensees:

  • Licensees may propose paper topics. The topic may be accepted if it is consistent with the Securosis research agenda and goals, but only if it can be covered without bias and will be valuable to the end user community.
  • Analysts produce research according to their own research agendas, and may offer licensing under the same objectivity requirements.
  • The potential licensee will be provided an outline of our research positions and the potential research product so they can determine if it is likely to meet their objectives.
  • Once the licensee agrees, development of the primary research content begins, following the Totally Transparent Research process as outlined above. At this point, there is no money exchanged.
  • Upon completion of the paper, the licensee will receive a release candidate to determine whether the final result still meets their needs.
  • If the content does not meet their needs, the licensee is not required to pay, and the research will be released without licensing or with alternate licensees.
  • Licensees may host and reuse the content for the length of the license (typically one year). This includes placing the content behind a registration process, posting on white paper networks, or translation into other languages. The research will always be hosted at Securosis for free without registration.

Here is the language we currently place in our research project agreements:

“Content will be created independently of LICENSEE with no obligations for payment. Once content is complete, LICENSEE will have a 3 day review period to determine if the content meets corporate objectives. If the content is unsuitable, LICENSEE will not be obligated for any payment and Securosis is free to distribute the whitepaper without branding or with alternate licensees, and will not complete any associated webcasts for the declining LICENSEE. Content licensing, webcasts and payment are contingent on the content being acceptable to LICENSEE. This maintains objectivity while limiting the risk to LICENSEE. Securosis maintains all rights to the content and to include Securosis branding in addition to any licensee branding.”

Even this process itself is open to criticism. If you have questions or comments, you can email us or comment on the blog.