The best security program is at the business with the happiest customers.

There's a fine line between happy customers and playing piano in a bordello.

Sees a lot
Can tell the king he has no clothes
Can tell the king he really is ugly
Does not get killed by the king
Nice to have around but…how much security improvement comes from this ?

Changes happened faster that he was able to move
Did not read the signs
Good intentions went unfulfilled
A brutal way to ending a promising career
Sad to have around but…how much security improvement comes from this ?

Obviously these models of CISOs are not solving our information security problems. Instead Dr. Garigue points us to Charlemagne as a better model

King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor; conqueror of the Lombards and Saxons (742-814) - reunited much of Europe after the Dark Ages.

He set up other schools, opening them to peasant boys as well as nobles. Charlemagne never stopped studying. He brought an English monk, Alcuin, and other scholars to his court - encouraging the development of a standard script.

He set up money standards to encourage commerce, tried to build a Rhine-Danube canal, and urged better farming methods. He especially worked to spread education and Christianity in every class of people.

He relied on Counts, Margraves and Missi Domini to help him.

Margraves - Guard the frontier districts of the empire. Margraves retained, within their own jurisdictions, the authority of dukes in the feudal arm of the empire.

Missi Domini - Messengers of the King.

This is the way forward! Find software security champions in the architecture and development groups,help them understand the real security issues. They will find solutions you have not thought of. Same for DBAs, same for business analysts even. Its all about beating the bushes, education, and decentralizing security services. Specifically, he points out this important mandate for IT security

Knowledge of risky things is of strategic value

How to know today tomorrow’s unknown ?
How to structure information security processes in an organization so as to identify and address the NEXT categories of risks ?

To me this is our mandate and measure of effectiveness. Empower our customers, educate, and create business value. If I am a CISO  I don't want 20 people reporting to me who do firewall ruleset changes. I want one champion in 20 different groups - development teams, architects, DBAs, business analysts.

A concrete example, infosec can continue to go along with the herd and follow the "what everyone else is doing architecture" meanwhile developers are connecting every single thing in your business to the Web. I have been doing integration and new technology projects for a long time, and let me tell you - Change does not always create happy customers in the short run. But the chart below shows that information security is maybe more concerned with not causing waves rather than adapting.

The best security program is at the business with sustainable competitive advantage.

Setting the Web Application Security Agenda for 2009: OWASP Invites You to Join Our Summit in Portugal

http://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_EU_Summit_2008

With the theme ‘Setting the AppSec agenda for 2009′, the OWASP Summit will be a worldwide gathering of OWASP leaders and key industry players to present and discuss the latest OWASP tools, documentation projects, and web application security trends. Join us in Portugal in just a few short weeks! This venue hosts a diverse selection of training courses along with technical and business tracks, making it THE place to learn about web application security and the resources OWASP has available for use today.

OWASP is a not-for-profit organization with the purpose of supporting the Web Application Security community around the world, and has granted $250,000 USD for web application security research. In addition to over 40 presentations from the OWASP Leaders and grant recipients, the OWASP Summit will host multiple Working Sessions designed to improve collaboration, achieve specific objectives and identify roadmaps for OWASP projects, chapters, and the OWASP community itself.

To facilitate this event, OWASP is investing $150,000 USD which will be used to cover air travel and accommodation expenses for OWASP leaders, active contributors, and select key industry leaders. With their confirmed presence, the OWASP Summit will provide a relaxed but professional environment to meet, discuss, influence and contribute to OWASP projects.

There are still funds available! If you are interested in attending and you meet the profile of the current OWASP supported attendees (see list here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pAX6n7m2zaTVLrPtR07riBA) contact Paulo Coimbra (paulo.coimbra@owasp.org). Please note that you should do so only if you meet the paid attendance criteria (see herehttps://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_EU_Summit_2008_paid_participation_rules) and are unable to get corporate support to attend this event (for other corporate sponsorship opportunities see http://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_EU_Summit_2008_Sponsors).

The OWASP Summit will also host a large and diverse selection of training courses, covering multiple OWASP specific and Web Application Security Topics.

The remarkable impact of OWASP is made possible only by the collaboration of many dedicated people and organizations worldwide. In that spirit of cooperation, OWASP invites all its members (who have 20% discount + 1 VIP Ticket) and interested individuals and companies to attend this thrilling event. Please join us and help to set the Web Application Security Agenda for 2009!

Please see below for additional details about the OWASP Summit or visit the OWASP Summit website: http://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_EU_Summit_2008.

Projects

OWASP projects selected for Summit presentation include new documentation and innovative tools to help developers, architects, and security specialists ensure that applications are secure:

• Application Security Verification Standard,
• Code review guide, V1.1,
• Ruby on Rails Security Guide v2,
• Securing WebGoat using ModSecurity,
• Testing Guide v3,
• GTK+ GUI for w3af project,
• Access Control Rules Tester,
• AntiSamy .NET,
• Live CD & DVD Project,
• OpenPGP Extensions for HTTP,
• Orizon Project,
• Python Static Analysis,
• WebScarab-NG,
• And many, many others.

Working Sessions

Expecting the presence of the application security industry key players, the Working Sessions will cover a wide range of issues such as:

• OWASP Top 10 2009,
• Browser Security,
• Web Application Framework Security,
• Enterprise Security API Project,
• Best Practices for OWASP Chapter Leaders,
• OWASP Documentation Projects,
• OWASP Tools Projects,
• OWASP Education Project,
• OWASP Strategic Planning for 2009,
• OWASP Certification,
• OWASP Winter of Code 2009
• Two-way Internationalization of OWASP Content
• And many more.

Training

These 2-day, 1-day or 1/2-day training courses cover a wide range of OWASP specific and Web Application Security Topics:

• OWASP Top 10 - What Developers Should Know on Web Application Security
• Uncovering WebScarab’s Secret Treasures
• Securing WebGoat with ModSecurity
• Secure Programming with Java
• Advanced Web Application Security Testing
• Building Secure Web 2.0 Applications
• Building Secure Web Services
• Building Secure Web Applications with OWASP’s Enterprise Security API (ESAPI)
• Classic ASP Security using OWASP tools
• Web Application Assessments
• Hacking Owasp Orizon Project v1.0
• Ajax Security
• Practical Penetration Testing: Think Like an Attacker to Stop Attacks
• Linux Software Exploitation
• Web server/services hardening using SELinux

Main Contact:

Kate Hartmann
OWASP Operations Director
9175 Guilford Road, Suite 300
Columbia, MD 21046, USA
Phone: +1-301-575-0189
Facsimile: +1-301-604-8033
Email: kate.hartmann@owasp.org

Springfield, Mich., puts in its first antennas for a city-wide network: The network is being built with a $750,000 grant from a state development corporation to extend access and improve the business climate. Access will cost $10 per month for residents after an initial free period while the service powers up.

I know many of you think I am like a pavlovian dog the way I respond to Richard Stiennon's anti-NAC vitirol.  After my last article, I really decided to just lay off Richard.  But just to show you that it is not me, I wanted to point out Richards recent attack on Grant Hartline, CTO of Mirage Networks.  Grant blogs and put up an article regarding the latest exchange between Richard and I.  Both Richard and I commented.  Check out Richards expective laced reply that I think shows just how unhinged he has become on this subject.  Richard rambles and stumbles taking shots at anyone he can.  I am telling you, he is really losing it.

In the meantime based on this, I am going to change my prediction on the great debate and say Joel Snyder in 2!

Future presidents can learn a lot from all this -- do exactly what the Bush Administration did! If the law holds you back, don't first go to Congress and try to work something out. Secretly violate that law, and then when you get caught, staunchly demand that Congress change the law to your liking and then immunize any company that might have illegally cooperated with you. That's the lesson. You spit in Congress's face, and they'll give you what you want. The past eight years have witnessed a dramatic expansion of Executive Branch power, with a rather anemic push-back from the Legislative and Judicial Branches. We have extensive surveillance on a mass scale by agencies with hardly any public scrutiny, operating mostly in secret, with very limited judicial oversight, and also with very minimal legislative oversight. Most citizens know little about what is going on, and it will be difficult for them to find out, since everything is kept so secret. Secrecy and accountability rarely go well together. The telecomm lawsuits were at least one way that citizens could demand some information and accountability, but now that avenue appears to be shut down significantly with the retroactive immunity grant. There appear to be fewer ways for the individual citizen or citizen advocacy groups to ensure accountability of the government in the context of national security. That's the direction we're heading in -- more surveillance, more systemic government monitoring and data mining, and minimal oversight and accountability -- with most of the oversight being very general, not particularly rigorous, and nearly always secret -- and with the public being almost completely shut out of the process. But don't worry, you shouldn't get too upset about all this. You probably won't know much about it. They'll keep the dirty details from you, because what you don't know can't hurt you.

The Weekly also mentions Palo Alto considering fiber to the home, which the city incorrectly calls "Fiber to the Premise" (not "premises") in their request for proposal. Palo Alto installed an early city-owned fiber ring in the mid-1990s. That 40-mi. ring cost just $1.9m (in 1996 dollars) to build. The new effort would be entirely funded by partners, who would receive certain assets and contracts to anchor the project.