Dark Reading is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Database Security
Authentication
Mobile
Privacy
Compliance
Careers and People
Identity & Access Management
Security Monitoring
Advanced Threats
Insider Threats
Vulnerability Management
Comments
NSS Labs Files Antitrust Suit Against Symantec, CrowdStrike, ESET, AMTSO
Newest First  |  Oldest First  |  Threaded View
pdcz
pdcz,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/7/2018 | 6:36:46 AM
Re: NSS Antitrust Law Suit
Exactly. I do not see any problem. And if there IS some problem with standard (which really is actually just guideline) then why they do not publish openly what are the problematic parts and how they would like to change them. As somebody said alrerady this brings questions what NSS has to hide by not accepting this open "standard".
HardenStance
HardenStance,
 User Rank: Strategist
9/21/2018 | 6:57:24 AM
It's important that the NSS Labs Suit should not succeed.
 

Can't say I'm in the least bit surprised.

It's important that the NSS Labs suit against AMTSO should not succeed, in my view.

What AMTSO is trying to achieve is self-evidently a 'good thing'. Its goals - as supported by a who's-who of pretty much anybody who's anybody in endpoint security - are entirely consistent with bringing more open, transparent, security testing standards to consumers and businesses.

Has AMTSO somewhere in its articles of incorporation or operating practices left some kind of miniscule loophole - some missing word, some un-crossed 't' or some upside down full-stop - that a lawyer can seize upon as a 'gotcha' for their client? I haven't the faintest idea. You have to hope not.

Something else. IT security professionals have long complained about lack of transparency in endpoint security testing. Many look at independent test house results based on proprietary test methods and the first thing the eyes do is look to the clouds (if they don't glaze over first).

You get the politicians you deserve? I don't altogether go along with that. But do enterprise IT organizations get the security testing standards they deserve? Yeah, they do. AMTSO needs support from its lawyers and its members, right now. But it needs a lot more support from enterprise users too.
tdsan
tdsan,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/20/2018 | 5:17:18 PM
Thank you for your insight
I appreciate the background information you provided, it seems that NSS is going after a number of companies (not just Crowdstrike), this seems to be backlash from other encounters they have had outside of this specific incident:

→ Cybersecurity vendors CrowdStrike, ESET, and Symantec

However, the question still remains, if Crowdstrike has nothing to hide and if they have confidence in their product, then why is there such resistance, seems to me that Crowdstrike has something to hide (also, per the recommendation from the courts). NSS labs uses tools from the wild that will more resemble attacks as opposed to running simple tests that don't really give the user a clear indication of how their product will fair when it is attacked using surreptious and/or zero-day attack methods.

In addition, I would like to know which methods they thought did not meet their approval, in the wild, there will be numerous things that don't meet their approval, especially after spending $150K.

I am curious what the courts will rule, again, time will tell.

Todd
Kelly Jackson Higgins
Kelly Jackson Higgins,
 User Rank: Strategist
9/20/2018 | 3:20:33 PM
Re: NSS Antitrust Law Suit
@tdsan,

That's a good question and there a few things going on here. NSS Labs maintains that the AMTSO is skewed to the vendors and not independent, and that its own testing is more independent than one approved by vendors (AMTSO's). There also appears to be some bad blood between NSS Labs and CrowdStrike, publicly dating back to 2017 when CrowdStrike attempted (and failed) to get a restraining order to prevent NSS from publishing test results. According to CrowdStrike, it found NSS's testing methods questionable and the results based on incorrect and incomplete information. So it pulled out of the test, and then NSS accessed CrowdStrike's Falcon product via reseller in a violation of CrowdStrike's EULA. CrowdStrike said the test didn't have all of the product's features enabled, so it wasn't an accurate asssessment: https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/crowdstrike-fails-in-bid-to-stop-nss-labs-from-publishing-test-results-at-rsa/d/d-id/1328154

CrowdStrike called NSS Labs' antitrust suit "baseless" this morning, and now NSS is firing back and calling out CrowdStrike's "smear tactics" and dismissing AMTSO as a "pay to play" thing. 

So...I really don't think NSS Labs has any plans to go AMTSO. 
tdsan
tdsan,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/20/2018 | 2:35:15 PM
NSS Antitrust Law Suit
What I am confused about is as follows:

→ Why can't NSS Adopt the ATMSO protocol/methodology as part of their overall testing strategy?

→ Why don't they provide ATMSO and their independent testing concept and compare the two?

If they did this, then they would be the defacto standard when it comes to security pentesting.

I think it is about pride and money as opposed to anything else.

Oh well, time will tell.

Todd


Edge-DRsplash-10-edge-articles
I Smell a RAT! New Cybersecurity Threats for the Crypto Industry
David Trepp, Partner, IT Assurance with accounting and advisory firm BPM LLP,  7/9/2021
News
Attacks on Kaseya Servers Led to Ransomware in Less Than 2 Hours
Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer,  7/7/2021
Commentary
It's in the Game (but It Shouldn't Be)
Tal Memran, Cybersecurity Expert, CYE,  7/9/2021
Register for Dark Reading Newsletters
White Papers
Video
Cartoon
Current Issue
The 10 Most Impactful Types of Vulnerabilities for Enterprises Today
Managing system vulnerabilities is one of the old est - and most frustrating - security challenges that enterprise defenders face. Every software application and hardware device ships with intrinsic flaws - flaws that, if critical enough, attackers can exploit from anywhere in the world. It's crucial that defenders take stock of what areas of the tech stack have the most emerging, and critical, vulnerabilities they must manage. It's not just zero day vulnerabilities. Consider that CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog lists vulnerabilitlies in widely used applications that are "actively exploited," and most of them are flaws that were discovered several years ago and have been fixed. There are also emerging vulnerabilities in 5G networks, cloud infrastructure, Edge applications, and firmwares to consider.
Flash Poll
Twitter Feed
Dark Reading - Bug Report
Bug Report
Enterprise Vulnerabilities
From DHS/US-CERT's National Vulnerability Database
CVE-2023-1172
PUBLISHED: 2023-03-17
The Bookly plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the full name value in versions up to, and including, 21.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that w...
CVE-2023-1469
PUBLISHED: 2023-03-17
The WP Express Checkout plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the ‘pec_coupon[code]’ parameter in versions up to, and including, 2.2.8 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenti...
CVE-2023-1466
PUBLISHED: 2023-03-17
A vulnerability was found in SourceCodester Student Study Center Desk Management System 1.0. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function view_student of the file admin/?page=students/view_student. The manipulation of the argument id with the input 3' AND (SELECT 2100 FROM (SELECT(...
CVE-2023-1467
PUBLISHED: 2023-03-17
A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in SourceCodester Student Study Center Desk Management System 1.0. Affected is an unknown function of the file Master.php?f=delete_img of the component POST Parameter Handler. The manipulation of the argument path with the input C%3A%2Ffoo.txt le...
CVE-2023-1468
PUBLISHED: 2023-03-17
A vulnerability classified as critical was found in SourceCodester Student Study Center Desk Management System 1.0. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the file admin/?page=reports&date_from=2023-02-17&date_to=2023-03-17 of the component Report Handler. The manipula...