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Get Your Marshmallows

Rich November 2, 2015 No Comments

Last week we learned that not only did Symantec mess up managing their root SSL certificates, but they also botched their audit so bad Google may remove them from Chrome and other products. This is just one example in a long history of security companies failing to practice what they preach. From poor code development practices to weak internal controls, the only new thing in this instance is the combination of getting caught, potential consequences, and a lack of wiggle room. Share:

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re:Invent Yourself (or else)

Rich October 20, 2015 No Comments

A bit over a week ago we were all out at Amazon’s big cloud conference, which is now up to 19,000 attendees. Once again it got us thinking as to how quickly the world is changing, and the impact it will have on our profession. Now that big companies are rapidly adopting public cloud (and they are), that change is going to hit even faster than ever before. In this episode the Securosis team lays out some of what that means, and how now is the time to get on board. Share:

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Pragmatic Security for Cloud and Hybrid Networks

Rich October 5, 2015 No Comments

One of the bigger issues when migrating to the cloud is translating and extending your existing security controls, especially our old friend, network security. While cloud networking may resemble what we are used to, under the covers it behaves, and is managed, very differently. Over the last few decades we have been refining our approach to network security. Find the boxes, find the wires connecting them, drop a few security boxes between them in the right spots, and move on. Sure, we continue to advance the state of the art in exactly what those security boxes do, and we constantly improve how we design networks and plug everything together, but overall change has been incremental. How we think about network security doesn’t change – just some of the particulars. Until you move to the cloud. While many of the fundamentals still apply, cloud computing releases us from the physical limitations of those boxes and wires by fully abstracting the network from the underlying resources. We move into entirely virtual networks, controlled by software and APIs, with very different rules. Things may look the same on the surface, but dig a little deeper and you quickly realize that network security for cloud computing requires a different mindset, different tools, and new fundamentals. Many of which change every time you switch cloud providers. This report walks you through these differences, and includes specific examples from major cloud providers to show you what it looks like in the real world. Our thanks to Algosec for licensing the research so we can offer it for free. Pragmatic Security for Cloud and Hybrid Networks (pdf) Share:

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EMV Migration and the Changing Payments Landscape

Adrian Lane September 4, 2015 No Comments

October 2015 is the deadline for merchants to adopt EMV-compliant credit card terminals, in exchange for a liability waiver for fraudulent card present transactions. Explaining the EMV shift and payment security is difficult – there is a great deal of confusion about what the shift means, what security it really delivers, and whether it actually offers real benefits for merchants. Part of the problem is that the card brands have chosen to focus all their marketing on a single oversimplified value statement: the liability shift for card present transactions through non-EMV-compliant terminals. But digging into the specifications and working through the rollout process reveals a much larger change underway, with much broader ramifications. Unfortunately the press has failed to realize these implications, so the conversation has focused on liability, and lost sight of what else is going on. We produced this research paper to explain the additional changes underlying the EMV shift, its full impact on merchant security and operations, and where the shift will take the payment ecosystem. The real story is both simpler and more interesting than its coverage to date. Download here Ultimately every paper we write at Securosis has the same core goal: to help security practitioners get their jobs done. It’s what we do. This paper is mostly for those at merchant sites struggling with the rollout and issues it creates. At the end of the paper we offer recommendations for practitioners of EMV and mobile payment; including whether they should adopt EMV terminals and practical considerations to protect themselves from new attack vectors if they do. As always, if you have questions or additional material to add, feel free to post a comment. EMV and the Changing Payment Landscape: download here. Share:

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Network-based Threat Detection

Mike Rothman August 30, 2015 No Comments

The more things change, the more they stay the same. We have been talking about Reacting Faster and Better for years and we will continue to do so, because trying to prevent every attack is and will remain futile. The best path forward is to continue advancing the ability to prevent attacks, while spending as much time on detecting attacks that successfully compromise your defenses. This detection-centric view of the world has been a central theme in our research; it highlights a variety of areas to focus on – including the network, endpoints, and applications. We know many organizations have already spent a bunch of money on detection – particularly intrusion detection, its big brother intrusion prevention, and SIEM. But these techniques haven’t worked effectively either, so now is time to approach the issue with fresh eyes. By taking a new forward look at detection, not from the standpoint of what we have already done and implemented (IDS and SIEM), but instead in terms of what we need to do to isolate and identify adversary activity, we will be able to look at the kinds of technologies needed right now to deal with modern attacks. Times have changed and attackers have advanced, so our detection techniques need to evolve as well. In our Network-based Threat Detection paper, we focus on what kinds of indicators make the most sense to look for on the network, how to prioritize what you find, and then steps to operationalize the process to make detection consistent and reliable. We would like to thank our licensees (in alphabetical order), Damballa, Niara, and Vectra Networks. Our unique licensing model enables us to perform impactful and objective research and still pay our bills, so please thank them too. Download: Network-based Threat Detection (PDF) Share:

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Applied Threat Intelligence

Mike Rothman August 17, 2015 No Comments

Threat Intelligence remains one of the hottest areas in security. With its promise to help organizations take advantage of information sharing, early results have been encouraging. We have researched Threat Intelligence deeply; focusing on where to get TI and the differences between gathering data from networks, endpoints, and general Internet sources. But we come back to the fact that having data is not enough – not now and not in the future. It is easy to buy data but hard to take full advantage of it. Knowing what attacks may be coming at you doesn’t help if your security operations functions cannot detect the patterns, block the attacks, or use the data to investigate possible compromise. Without those capabilities it’s all just more useless data, and you already have plenty of that. Our Applied Threat Intelligence paper focuses on how to actually use intelligence to solve three common use cases: preventative controls, security monitoring, and incident response. We start with a discussion of what TI is and isn’t, where to get it, and what you need to deal with specific adversaries. Then we dive into use cases. We would like to thank Intel Security for licensing the content in this paper. Our licensees enable us to provide our research at no cost and still pay our mortgages, so we should all thank them. Download: Applied Threat Intelligence (PDF) Share:

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MAD Karma

Rich August 12, 2015 No Comments

Way back in 2004 Rich wrote an article over at Gartner on the serious issues plaguing Oracle product security (the original piece is long down, but here is an article based on it). It lead to a moderately serious political showdown, Rich flying out to meet with Oracle execs, and, eventually, their move to a quarterly patch update cycle (due to the botched patch, not Rich’s article). This week, Oracle’s 25-year veteran CISO Mary Ann Davidson published a blog post decrying customer security assessments of their products. Actually, let me rephrase, she pretty much threatened them with legal action for evaluating Oracle products using tools that look at the application code. Then she belittled security research in general, informed everyone to trust them since they find nearly all the bugs anyway (not that they seem to patch them in a timely fashion), and… you get it. Then, and this is the best part, Oracle pulls the post and basically issued an apology. Which, like, never happens. Thus you probably don’t need us to tell you what this Firestarter is about. The short version is the attitudes and positions expressed in that post are very much in line with Rich’s experiences with the organization, and Mary Ann, over a decade ago. Yeah, this is a fun one. Share:

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Living with the OPM Hack

Rich July 16, 2015 No Comments

And yep, thanks to his altruistic streak even Rich is affected. We don’t spend much time on blame or the history of it, but more the personal impact. How do you move on once you know much of your most personal information is now out there, you don’t know who has it, and you don’t know how they might want to use it? Share:

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We Don’t Know Sh—. You Don’t Know Sh—.

Rich May 26, 2015 No Comments

Once again we have a major security story slumming in the headlines. This time it’s Hackers on a Plane, without all the Samuel L goodness. But what’s the real story? It’s time to face the reality that the only people who know are the ones who aren’t talking, and everything else you hear is most certainly wrong Share:

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RSAC wrap-up. Same as it ever was.

Rich May 4, 2015 No Comments

Do bigger numbers mean we are any better than last year? And how can we possibly balance being an industry, community, and profession simultaneously? Not that we answer any of that, but we can at least keep you entertained for 13 minutes. Share:

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