Akamai’s research team has an interesting post on how attackers now use web proxies to shield their identities when launching DDoS attacks. Using fairly simple web-based tools they can launch attacks, and by routing the traffic through an exposed web proxy they can hide the bots or other devices performing the attacks.
I just finished reading The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford. And wow, what a great book! It really captures the organizational trends and individual behaviors that screw up software & IT projects. And, better yet, it offers some concrete examples for how to address these issues. The Phoenix Project is a bit like a time machine for me, because it so accurately captures the entire ecosystem of dysfunction at one of my former companies that it could have been based…
It was a crummy winter. Cold. Snowy. Whiplash temperature swings. Over the past few weeks, when ATL finally seemed to warm up for spring (and I was actually in town), I rejoiced. One of the advantages of living a bit south is the temperate weather from mid-February to late November.
I have to admit the USAirways porno tweet had me cracking up. Business Insider has good coverage (even including the NSFW link, if you are a glutton for well, whatever). It was funny not because of the picture, but as an illustration of how a huge corporation could have its brand and image impacted by the mistake of one person. Also because it didn’t happen to me. I assure you the executive suite at the company did not think this was funny, at all.
Roles-based access control (RBAC) has earned a place in the access control architectures at many organization. Companies have many questions about how to effectively use roles, including “How can I integrate role-based systems with my applications? How can I build a process around roles? How can I manage roles on a day-to-day basis? And by the way, how does this work?” It is difficult to distinguish between the different options on the market – they all claim equivalent functionality. Our goal…
Yeah, we hit on the Heartbleed vulnerability in this week’s FireStarter, but I wanted to call attention to how Akamai handled the vulnerability. They first came out with an announcement that their networks (and their customers) were safe because their systems were already patched. Big network service providers tend to get an early heads-up when stuff like this happens, so they can get a head start on patching.
You have to love compliance mandates, especially when they are anywhere from 18 months to 3 years behind the threat. Recently the FFIEC (the body that regulates financial institutions) published some guidance for financials to defend against DDoS attacks. Hat tip to Techworld.
In this week’s Firestarter the team makes up for last week and picks three different stories, each with a time limit. It’s like one of those ESPN shows, but with less content and personality.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a marathon rather than a sprint. Most enterprises begin their IAM journey by strengthening authentication, implementing single-sign on, and enabling automated provisioning. These are excellent starting points for an enterprise IAM foundation, but what happens next? Once users are provisioned, authenticated, and signed on to multiple systems, how are they authorized? Enterprises need to very quickly answer crucial questions: How is access managed for large…
Our past two posts discussed network-based Distributed Denial of Device (DDoS) attacks and the tactics used to magnify those attacks to unprecedented scale and volume. Now it’s time to wrap up this series with a discussion of defenses. To understand what you’re up against let’s take a small excerpt from our Defending Against Denial of Service Attacks paper.