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Research

Project Quant Survey Results and Analysis

This document includes our analysis of the Project Quant open patch management survey. The survey is an ongoing project, and we will continue to release updated analysis and data as new responses are available. You can participate by clicking this link to take the survey. Click here for the current survey analysis report. We will be releasing the raw results the week of August 3rd once we have time to anonymize the results. We are sorry we couldn’t get them up immediately, but we’re currently deep in preparation for issuing the final report and the Black Hat security conference. Attachments quant-survey-report-072709.pdf [874KB] Share:

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Web Application Security Program

Web Application Security is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and one of the papers we are most proud of is this one: Building a Web Application Security Program (attached below). Web Applications not only have many of the same threats and issues as traditional applications, but by their nature, have a whole additional set of issues to worry about as well. They require a different approach and analysis, and we hope that you will follow the use cases and adapt the technologies and process improvements suggested to meet your organizational needs. As the science of web application security is advancing very quickly, and as the attacks against web applications and platforms continues to evolve, our approach and recommendations will change. As we anticipate periodic updates to the content, we recommend that you periodically re-visit this section for alterations and amendments. This pages is provided to allow you a place to participate with comments, recommendations or critiques in the comment fields below. As always, we research and write the content, and sponsors choose to participate only after the content was made publicly available on the blog. We would like to thank Core Security, Imperva and Qualys for their sponsorship of this paper. (Version 1.0, July 2009) Building a Web Application Security Program. (PDF) Attachments WebAppSec_Programv1.pdf [1.3MB] Share:

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Content Discovery Whitepaper

Content Discovery and DLP: Best Practices for Stored Data Discovery and Protection. By: Rich Mogull This paper outlines some of the techniques and technologies for content discovery as used by Data Loss Prevention Platforms, and the trade offs each provides. (Version 1.0) Content Discovery Best Practices for DLP. (PDF) Attachments DLP-Content-Discovery-Best-Practices.pdf [87KB] Share:

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Best Practices for Endpoint DLP

Data Loss Prevention This paper covers our recommendations for using endpoint DLP- including major features, what to look for, and deployment recommendations. Since we generally recommend full-suite DLP solutions over endpoint only solutions, you will notice the paper focuses more on endpoint DLP as part of a larger DLP program. Thanks to Symantec for sponsoring (as always, the content was developed completely independently of any sponsorship). (Version 1.0) Best Practices for Endpoint DLP Usage. (PDF) Attachments BestPracticesforEndpointDLP.pdf [1.2MB] Share:

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Selecting a Database Activity Monitoring Solution

Understanding and Selecting a Database Activity Monitoring Solution white paper. This paper examines the business requirements for monitoring databases, as well as the technologies that assist in capturing and analyzing that activity. Rich discusses the compliance and security issues that organizations face, and the options they have at their disposal to identify and report on transactions that fail to meet business best practices. As there are many ways to collect information in and around relational databases, and still more methods to analyze and report on the findings, Rich digs into the nuts and bolts to offer the reader a comparative analysis of the technology options available, and how they address end user requirements. This research is recommended to be used in conjunction with other application security tools, as many web and traditional applications rely upon database technology to store, manage, and report on data – linking the compliance and security requirements together. (Version 1.0, March 2008) Understanding and Selecting a Database Activity Monitoring Solution. (PDF) Attachments DAM-Whitepaper-final.pdf [1.5MB] Share:

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Securing Enterprise Applications

We cover application security extensively on this blog, but normally we are trying to demystify a specific technology area to help companies understand what to look for in products, and how to differentiate real capabilities from marketing fluff. But in light of recent conversations with large enterprises it has become clear that most of these firms have gaps in their security program, specifically in and around the major enterprise applications which are core to their business. This is surprising because platforms like SAP and Oracle have been in place for over a decade, so you might expect that every facet of security to have some coverage by now. And they are surprised to hear these gaps exist, after thinking their tools and processes provided complete coverage. So we decided to take a look at application platforms and highlight the common deficiencies we see. Here is an except from our paper: Supply chain management, customer relationship management, enterprise resource management, business analytics, and financial transaction management, are all multi-billion dollar application platforms unto themselves. Every enterprise depends upon them to orchestrate core business functions, spend tens of millions of dollars on software and support. We are beyond explaining why enterprise applications need security to protect these investments – it is well established that insiders and persistent adversaries target these applications. Companies invest heavily in these applications, hardware to run them, and teams to keep them up and running. They perform extensive risk analysis on their business implications and the costs of downtime. And in many cases their security investments are a byproduct of these risk profiles. Application security trends in the 1-2% range of total application investment, so we cannot say large enterprises don’t take security seriously – they spend millions and hire dedicate staff to protect these platforms. That said, their investments are not always optimal – enterprises may bet on solutions with limited effectiveness, without a complete understanding of the available options. It is time for a fresh look. We are happy Onapsis reached out to sponsor this research paper, and embraced our Totally Transparent Research model. You can download a PDF directly: SecureEnterpriseApps_FINAL.pdf Share:

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The Business Justification for Data Security

The Business Justification for Data Security is one of our more important pieces of research. It describes how to evaluate data security investments, map the potential investment to your business needs, then build a business justification case. It starts with a discussion of data security issues, then reviews alternative models (and their flaws), and finishes presents our justification methodology. Attached is the Whitepaper. Thanks to our sponsor, McAfee. (Like all our research, this was developed independently from our sponsor). Please feel free to add comments or make suggestions, which we will consider for any upcoming revisions to the paper. (Version 1.0; February 2009) Attachments TheBusinessJustificationForDataSecurityV10.pdf [199KB] Share:

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