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The Internet is for Pr0n

Mike Rothman January 29, 2013 No Comments

Apparently the folks at Twitter forgot the first rule of the Internet. As Avenue Q so elegantly stated, The Internet is for Porn. NetworkWorld points out a minor unintended consequence of Twitter’s new Vine video sharing application, Sex and NSFW clips flood new Vine app from Twitter. Will Apple respond? The Vine app, much like Twitter, lets users explore and discover content via hashtags. However, it didn’t take long at all for hashtags for words like #sex and #porn to take center stage. Indeed, any NSFW term one can think of likely already has a listing via Vine. While the Vine app has functionality that enables users to flag videos as inappropriate, this only serves to provide a warning to users before a video begins playing. So you’re telling me no one in a product management meeting at Twitter suggested that some enterprising user would upload pictures of their, uh, equipment? I find that hard to believe. Chatroulette, anyone? Of course, Apple is pretty sensitive to their apps being used to serve up NSFW content. I’d assume they’ll put up the 17+ gate when downloading the app, but besides that I don’t think there is much they can do. They could kick it out of the App Store, but that seems a bit heavy handed. And it’s not like kids can’t get around the protections and view the app on the web if they want to. When there’s a will there’s a way. And for 14-year-old boys there is a will. Not that I’d know anything about that. Share:

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Gartner on Software Defined Security

Rich January 29, 2013 No Comments

Neil MacDonald on Software Defined Security: Here’s what I propose: “Software defined” is about the capabilities enabled as we decouple and abstract infrastructure elements that were previously tightly coupled in our data centers: servers, storage, networking, security and so on. I believe to truly be “software-defined”, these foundational characteristics must be in place Abstraction – the decoupling of a resource from the consumer of the resource (also commonly referred to as virtualization when talking about compute resources). This is a powerful foundation as the virtualization of these resources should enable us to define ‘models’ of infrastructure elements that can be managed without requiring management of every element individually. Instrumentation – opening up of the decoupled infrastructure elements with programmatic interfaces (typically XML-based RESTful APIs). Automation – using these APIs, wiring up the exposed elements using scripts and other automation tools to remove “human middleware” from the equation. This is an area where traditional information security tools are woefully inadequate. Orchestration – beyond script-based automation, automating the provisioning of data center infrastructure through linkages to policy-driven orchestration systems where the provisioning of compute, networking, storage, security and so on is driven by business policies such as SLAs, compliance, cost and availability. This is where infrastructure meets the business. I will surely quibble on the details when I publish my own research on the topic, but Neil’s take is excellent. The key piece we need ASAP is security product APIs. You don’t want to know the ugliness which security abstraction and automation startups need to go through for even the most mundane tasks. Share:

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The Graduate: 2013 Style

Mike Rothman January 29, 2013 No Comments

When in doubt, throw money at the problem. From the Washington Post, Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force: The Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold to bolster the nation’s ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries, according to U.S. officials. Of course US adversaries have allegedly tasked 100,000 folks to cybersecurity activities, but this clearly indicates the reality of nation-state behavior in 2013. Evidently a couple different kinds of kung fu will be valued by the military-industrial complex. And when they inevitably remake The Graduate, plastics won’t be the can’t-miss occupation. And Mrs. Robinson will be going after the pen tester – tattoos, earrings, and all. Share:

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