Securosis Blog

Incite 10/29/2014: Short Memory

Mike Rothman · October 29, 2014

Sometimes a short memory is very helpful. Of course as you get older, it may not be a choice. But old guy issues aside, there are times you need to forget what just happened and move on to the next thing. Maybe it’s a deal you lost, or a project you couldn’t get funded, or a bungled response to an incident. If you live to fight another day then you need to learn, put it in the past, and move forward.

The concept of Data Centric Security is not new, but its advantages are only now becoming clear. As customers embrace disruptive technologies – cloud, mobile, NoSQL – where the availability and effectiveness of security controls are in question, Data Centric Security is an approach to securing data regardless of where it is moved. DCS is a way to leverage these new technologies without compromising data security, integrity, or compliance.

Over the last couple months I have had many similar conversations on enterprise application security: customers identify gaps in their security program, are unaware of the availability of certain types of solutions, or simply don’t believe that certain solutions deliver their advertised value. But I expect issues when speaking to a company who wants to implement advanced security on a Hadoop database, where technology simply may not exist to deliver the security and performance required. It is…

Firestarter: It’s All in the Cloud

Rich · October 27, 2014

Adrian is out, so Rich and Mike cover the latest Amazon Web Services news as their big re:Invent conference closes in. We start with the new Frankfurt datacenter, and how a court case involving Microsoft could kill off the future of all US-based cloud companies (it’s always the little things). Then we discuss directory services in the cloud, and how this indicates increasing cloud adoption and maturity at a pace we really haven’t ever seen before.

Old School (Computer)

Mike Rothman · October 26, 2014

Lots of folks talk lovingly about their first computers. Mine was a Timex Sinclair I ran through my 10” black-and-white TV. But that wasn’t the first computer I played with. My Dad was pretty early into the word processing world as part of his law practice. So when we went to the computer show down in NYC and checked out all the new wares, I was like a kid in a candy store.

Summary: Roamin’

Rich · October 23, 2014

Rich here.

Last night I arrived home around 11pm from the totally awesome SecTor conference in Toronto. It took about 11 hours to wend my way home through the air system, which has a certain beauty.

Incite 10/21/2014: Running Man

Mike Rothman · October 22, 2014

There were always reasons I wasn’t a runner. I was too big and carried too much weight. I was prone to knee pain. I never had good endurance. I remember the struggle when I had to run 3 miles as a pledge back in college. I finished, but I was probably 10 minutes behind everyone else. Running just wasn’t for me. So I focused on other methods of exercise. I lifted weights until my joints let me know that wasn’t a very good idea. Then I spent a couple years doing too many 12-ounce curls and eating…

Hindsight is 20/20

Mike Rothman · October 19, 2014

It won’t happen to you, right? After every breach you see all sorts of former employees and others crawl out from under their various rocks to talk about how screwed-up their former employer was. And how the breach was inevitable. It is a bit comical at this point. The latest example is a bunch of former Home Depot employees talking about their old shop.

An Example of Gratitude

Mike Rothman · October 15, 2014

This is off topic, but this post from Daniel Miessler is a great example of how I want to reorient my world view.

Friday Summary: October 17, 2014

Adrian Lane · October 15, 2014

Ever tried to count to a billion? Don’t bother. The average human lifespan is about 2.5 billion seconds, so you’d waste half your life trying. But that may help put into perspective Databrick’s latest announcement that they were able to sort 10 trillion records in four hours with the Spark platform. That’s three times faster than the previous record, with one-tenth the number of server nodes. Or perhaps you noticed that Amazon added full JSON support to DynamoDB, so you can easily inject JSON…