Research

As I mentioned in the Incite yesterday, Symantec announced DLP support for the iPad. I have been meaning to talk about this for a while, as various products have been popping onto the market, and now seems like the time. Note: I’m focusing on the iPad because that’s what most people are interested in, but much of what I’m going to talk about also applies to the iPhone. The iPad is an extremely secure device; odds are it is much more secure than any laptop or desktop you let your users on. The main reason is that it is locked down so tightly with a combination of hardware and software controls. This is also a challenge for security, because you can’t run any background tasks. For the record, I really like this approach – it eliminates the need for things like antivirus in the first place. For data security, that means we are limited in what we can do. No DLP running in the background, for example. To fill this gap, a spectrum of approaches and tools have hit the market. I like to list them as a spectrum from least control to most. Most control doesn’t mean it’s better – which of these to use depends heavily on the needs of both your organization and your users. As a baseline I assume you allow access to corporate assets in some way using the device. I’m skipping the “do nothing” and “don’t let them in at all” options: Here we go: ActiveSync and device profiles. You allow users access to corporate email, but enforce a basic device profile to require a passcode/password and enable remote wiping if the device is lost. This enables basic encryption of the entire device (easier to crack), with data protection for email attachments. Server-side DLP. You create DLP policies that restrict the email/files going to an otherwise approved device. Websense offers this – not sure who else. Walled-garden applications. These are apps like Good for Enterprise, the new Zenprise SharePoint client for iPad, Watchdox, and GroupLogic mobilEcho. All access to documents is purely through the approved app, and the app can restrict opening or usage of that document elsewhere on the device. Remember, if you don’t totally wall the content off, any standard document format can be opened in another app – thus losing any security controls. These usually offer viewing but not editing, because that would require building in a complete editor. There is a very broad range of variation between these apps. Fully-managed device with always-on VPN. You use mobile device management (MDM) to enforce an always-on VPN connection and block unmanaged network traffic. Then you use DLP on your network to manage traffic and content. This is how Symantec works. They use an app on the device to enforce the VPN, and made changes on the DLP gateway to improve the user experience with the device. For example, the iPad doesn’t handle failed email connections well (it tends to stall), so they had to play games to block protected content from going to Gmail without ruining the device experience. Each of these models has its own advantages, and there are different levels of control within each tier. But these should give you a good idea of the options. Someday I might write a paper with more detail, but hopefully this is enough for now. Share:

This week Amazon announced that S3 now supports server side encryption. You can encrypt S3 items through either the API or web management console, or you can require encryption for S3 buckets. A few details: They manage the keys. This is full transparent AES-256 encryption, and you only manage the access controls. Encryption is at the object level, not the bucket level. You can set a policy to require any uploads into a bucket to be encrypted. You can manage it via API or the AWS Management Console. It’s interesting, but from a security perspective only protects you from one thing – hard drives lost or stolen from Amazon. Going back to my Three Laws of Data Encryption, you would use this if you are worried about lost/stolen drives or if someone says you have to encrypt. It doesn’t protect from hacking attacks or anything like that. Client-side encryption is more important for improving security. This isn’t really much of a security play, but it’s a big assurance/compliance play. Since I like bullet lists and clear advice, you should use S3 server side encryption: If you are required to encrypt data at rest, and said requirement does not also require you to segregate keys from Amazon. You want to market that you are encrypting the data, but still don’t have a requirement to lock out Amazon. That’s about it. If you are worried about drive loss/theft it’s probably due to a compliance or disclosure requirement, and so I recommend client side encryption instead, for its greater security benefit. This is a checkbox. Sometimes you need them, but if security is that important you have other options which should be higher priority. Share:

Time is a funny thing. You don’t really think about it until it’s running out. Deadlines. Mortality. It’s all the same. Time just sneaks up on you, and then it’s gone. Yeah, I’m a little nostalgic this week because my birthday is Friday. And yes, there is some fodder for you social engineers out there. The kids get more excited about my birthday than I do. They want to know about cakes, parties, and the like. Personally, I’d take a day to sleep in, but who has time for that? There are things to do and places to be. We at Securosis hit a milestone this week, unveiling the Securosis Nexus on Monday night. Honestly, I’m both exhilarated and terrified. We (especially Rich) have spent many hours conceiving, building, and populating our new online research ‘product’. I joke that building the Nexus took twice as long and cost 3 times as much as we expected. I’m probably understating it. But all of us have built software before, so we knew what to expect. What’s a little different this time is that we funded the project out of cash flow. So every check we wrote to our developers and designers could have been used to pay my mortgage. That really makes the investment real. Rich, Adrian, and I aren’t really gamblers. We all go to Vegas a few times a year for conferences, and you’ll find us hanging out at a bar – not the tables. We live conservative lifestyles (even if Adrian drives a Corvette). On the other hand, we’re making a huge bet folks who don’t have the word Security in their titles will pay for impactful, actionable security research. And that even some folks who do have Security in their titles will find enough value to make a modest investment. But what if we are wrong? It’s not like anyone has ever successfully delivered a research product to this market segment. Are we nuts? Compound that with the fact that we have built a pretty good business. We’re very busy writing blog series, pontificating, and doing strategy work, all of which I love. So why take the risk? Why make the investment? Why not just sit on our hands, keep pontificating, and enjoy the lifestyle? I’ll tell you why. Because time waits for no one. Rich and I decided back in 2006 that this market opportunity was real, and we believe it. Just because no one has tried it before doesn’t mean we are wrong. We want to build leverage into our business and be bigger than just Rich, Mike, and Adrian showing up and waving our hands. Ultimately we want to make a difference and believe the Nexus provides a great opportunity to help folks who can’t afford Big IT research. But we aren’t kidding ourselves – it’s scary. Fear is no excuse. It won’t hold us back. The train has left the station and now we will see where it takes us. The only thing we can’t get is more time, so we plan to make the most of it. Check out the Nexus. Sign up for the beta. Help us make it great. –Mike Photo credits: “Time” originally uploaded by Jari Schroderus Share: