Advanced security research should play a role in your security program and be ready when science projects become weaponized attacks

Mike Rothman, Analyst & President, Securosis

June 7, 2013

3 Min Read

Since I'm the new blogger in Dark Reading's Vulnerabilities & Threats Tech Center, it probably makes sense to explain a bit about my views on the role of advanced security research in your general security program. Security research is a critical aspect of your ability to defend yourself. To get a feel for why, go no further than the Great One's quote on a great hockey player:

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." -- Wayne Gretzky

Research and understanding emerging attack vectors help you understand where attackers are going to be. Breach reports and quarterly threat summaries only tell you where attackers have been. If you are trying to stay ahead of the game, then you should not be focusing the short amount of time during the day fighting fires, waging political battles, beating back auditors, and hanging up on vendor sales droids. That's right: Think about where things are going, not where they've been.

To be clear, my perspectives only apply if you do a decent job on blocking and tackling. The fact that a smart researcher will show how you can own an iPhone via the charger matters only if your security program and control set is sufficiently mature. If not, you've got some work to do. But since this is a forward-looking column in a forward-looking Tech Center, I'm not going to tell you what that work is. You can mine the rest of Dark Reading or the Securosis research library for lots of good guidance on security fundamentals.

But if you are ready to systematically factor advanced security research into your program, then I suggest you set up a firm monthly lunch meeting with the security team, ensuring you have something scheduled. You know how it goes with ad hoc meetings, which are always canceled in the wake of some emergency.

In the time between the meetings, use a collaboration tool like Instapaper, Evernote, or (shudder) SharePoint to aggregate interesting links and news items discussing cool, new exploits and/or research findings. It's easy to stay on top of this information because the media loves new attacks; there will be plenty of coverage for anything that's interesting -- and plenty for the stuff that's not.

Once you have your list of things to discuss, ask the team two questions: The first is whether you are exposed to this new attack? Do you have the devices shown to be exploitable by the research? Do you use the applications or technologies in question? If the answer to that question is yes, then ask yourself, what would we do differently to close this exploit? Pretty simple, eh?

You may need to do more research into the attack to understand what's really involved in stopping it. Once you know what's required to address the issue, you can put it on your list of things to address. Understand there may not be a great urgency to fix the issue immediately since a lot of advanced security research is not weaponized yet. But you know what you need to do when the time comes.

And amazingly enough, you'll be where the puck is, and the rest of the industry will be cleaning up the mess. The Great One will be proud.

Mike Rothman is President of Securosis and author of The Pragmatic CSO

About the Author(s)

Mike Rothman

Analyst & President, Securosis

Mike's bold perspectives and irreverent style are invaluable as companies determine effective strategies to grapple with the dynamic security threatscape. Mike specializes in the sexy aspects of security, like protecting networks and endpoints, security management, and compliance. Mike is one of the most sought after speakers and commentators in the security business and brings a deep background in information security. After 20 years in and around security, he's one of the guys who "knows where the bodies are buried" in the space.

Starting his career as a programmer and a networking consultant, Mike joined META Group in 1993 and spearheaded META's initial foray into information security research. Mike left META in 1998 to found SHYM Technology, a pioneer in the PKI software market, and then held VP Marketing roles at CipherTrust and TruSecure - providing experience in marketing, business development, and channel operations for both product and services companies.

After getting fed up with vendor life, he started Security Incite in 2006 to provide the voice of reason in an over-hyped yet underwhelming security industry. After taking a short detour as Senior VP, Strategy and CMO at eIQnetworks to chase shiny objects in security and compliance management, Mike joins Securosis with a rejuvenated cynicism about the state of security and what it takes to survive as a security professional.Mike published "The Pragmatic CSO" in 2007 to introduce technically oriented security professionals to the nuances of what is required to be a senior security professional. He also possesses a very expensive engineering degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. His folks are overjoyed that he uses literally zero percent of his education on a daily basis.

He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @securityincite

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