Pennsylvania CISO Fired Over Talk At RSA Conference 147
An anonymous reader writes "Pennsylvania's chief information security officer Robert Maley has been fired for publicly talking about a security incident involving the Commonwealth's online driving exam scheduling system. He apparently did not get the required approval for talking about the incident from appropriate authorities."
DANG TPS Reports.. (Score:2, Funny)
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For the last time, we will not read upside downy faxes.
But the paper is as white as the day I bought it, and it smells springtime fresh!
Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
The same reason I don't want nuclear regulators getting fired for admitting when there was a heavy water leak into an aquifer.
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
If this were a private company I'd be of the opinion that their internal security is their concern but this is a government office and the people who pay the bills have a right to know what's going on.
Maybe sometimes, but not always (Score:5, Interesting)
If this were a private company I'd be of the opinion that their internal security is their concern but this is a government office and the people who pay the bills have a right to know what's going on.
If the internal security failure lead to your private information being leaked and the possibility of financial loss to you, I think that you might be of the opinion that there should be legislation which deals with disclosure. Actually, there is such legislation in many jurisdictions. And you also have Sarbanes–Oxley stuff which is supposed to encourage whistleblowing.
Some "internal" things are more internal than others....
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If this were a private company I'd be of the opinion that their internal security is their concern but this is a government office and the people who pay the bills have a right to know what's going on.
True, but as in the private sector, there's a chain of command to follow. I hear things about Illinois state government in the bar I drink at that don't reach the paper, because the state employees aren't suppoosed to talk about government to the media without permission; they have official spokespeople for th
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The same reason I don't want nuclear regulators getting fired for admitting when there was a heavy water leak into an aquifer.
Apples and oranges, one is a health risk, one isn't.
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:4, Insightful)
Apples and near-apples from my perspective. Both types of problems can have negative consequences if allowed to continue due to lack of public scrutiny. And in neither problem type is there a compelling public interest in secrecy.
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
Public outcry over the situation is one way to increase the 'have to' value.
Also, keeping problems secret has always been a major dodge for not having to deal with an issue.
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a distinction between "acknowledgment" of an already known problem and the "announcement" of a brand new one. Hackers know about the problem already, and apparently it was widely known how to game the system, so this was only an acknowledgment. The CISO didn't reveal anything new, although it was apparently new to this particular audience.
By making future CISOs afraid for their job, the governor has poisoned the CISO's ability to actually perform their duties.
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>>>"Secret while it's a security issue until it's fixed. Public after that."
This sounds like something Microsoft would spew..... as they sit on their asses for a year, keeping the users uninformed about a vulnerability in Internet Exploder, or Silverlight, or whatever.
I say the security issue should be open.
And whistle-blowers should be protected from being fired (especially government employees).
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Funny)
Apples and oranges, one is a health risk, one isn't.
Which one is it?! Who knew picking from the fruit basket would be like playing russian roulette?
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:4, Funny)
Simple, take the banana and shoot the guy holding the basket.
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:4, Funny)
But what if he has a pointed stick?
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Funny)
Ooh, ooh, ooh; want to learn how to defend yourself against pointed sticks, do we? Getting all high and mighty, eh? Fresh fruit not good enough for you, eh? Well let me tell you something lad! When you're walking home tonight and some great homicidal maniac comes after YOU with a bunch of loganberries, don't come cryin' to me!
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Don't bring a pointy stick to a banana fight.
Unless you are already up close, then you can probably get inside before the other guy will even get the banana out of its peel.
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Apples and oranges, one is a health risk, one isn't.
Heavy water is not a health risk unless it replaces around 25% or more of your body's total water and I very much doubt that enough heavy water has ever been made to contaminate an aquifer to a level of 25%. Of course heavy water used as a moderator in a nuclear reactor may contain a reasonable amount of tritium which is radioactive as well as other contaminants but heavy water itself is relatively harmless unless you consume enormous quantities of the stuff.
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You also do not want a nuclear regulator spilling his guts about an ongoing investigation.
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CHOICE:
(1) Tell your employers (the citizens) the truth..... or.....
(2) End up like Mussolini.
DON'T piss off the citizens.
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He wasn't blowing a whistle, he was making conversation.
As an employee, he's required to follow the organization's policies, one of which is that releases of information go through information-release channels, at least for approval.
If he'd asked for approval, and been denied, but decided it was an ethical problem that could only be resolved by releasing the info anyway, he might be protected by whistleblower laws. If merely applying for approval might have compromised his safety or rights, he might be pro
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...He just yapped without checking.
Which is just sloppy corporate citizenry.
Except his employer isn't "corporate", they're a U.S. state, funded by taxpayers. As a taxpayer, I demand to know if there are security (or "configuration") holes that have been actively exploited at the institutions my taxes fund, unless the dissemination of such knowledge would hurt an ongoing police investigation. There is no mention in the story of such a request from the police, just a general indication that the police are investigating.
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He was the "Chief Information Security Officer"
It's a government. His title puts him in line behind the 5000 other Czars and Rulers and Gods and Donors and Nephews and...
Er, that's his job, you know (Score:2)
A C-level executive is expected to speak at conferences, and in the case of security conferences, to talk about security.
His management probably didn't realize they had authorized him to speak about matters that might make them look bad.
As it happens, if the case has gone beyond investigation and is before the courts, it's now a matter of public record
--dave
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
The firing seems heavy-handed. Don't you want your Chief Information Security Officer participating in industry security conferences, selectively sharing the experiences of your organization with security professionals so as to help find long term solutions? Who knows... maybe he shared some sort of special classified/secret/private data that he really ought not to have, but it sounds like good old bureaucracy + control freaks at the top who think it's all about militaristic need-to-know.
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The firing seems heavy-handed. Don't you want your Chief Information Security Officer participating in industry security conferences, selectively sharing the experiences of your organization with security professionals so as to help find long term solutions?
Do you want this happening while there is apparently an on going investigation? There are reasons why there are approval rules and they aren't about old bureaucracy and control freaks
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I consider him a martyr. How are we to learn anything is no one talks about how they dealt with security issues.
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The shareholders (taxpayers) have a right to know such information. If it were a private company I'd maybe agree with you, but this is different.
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CORRECTION: He worked for the people. We have a right to know what goes on inside the dark corridors of the buildings we fund with OUR tax dollars.
If you disagree, we'll just dissolve the government, fire all the staff, and create a new one.
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You really don't see the story? This is a security breach involving a public computer system THERE SHOULD BE NO SECRETS WHEN TAXPAYERS' MONEY IS INVOLVED.
Do you really want the taxpayers having the root password?
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really want the taxpayers having the root password?
I'll give them to you. There are actually two root passwords to the Constitution: "terrorism" and "child pornography". By using either password, you can bypass any of the security protections or protocols built into the document, and you can invalidate its signatures.
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Just a practical note from personal experience. Screaming "child pornography" at the top of my lungs did not let me undo the Constitutionally granted power of the Executive Branch to create law enforcement agencies to enforce federal laws while agents of said agencies were hauling me away. Quite the opposite in fact.
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Do you really want the taxpayers having the root password?
I'll give them to you. There are actually two root passwords to the Constitution: "terrorism" and "child pornography". By using either password, you can bypass any of the security protections or protocols built into the document, and you can invalidate its signatures.
Four actually:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Infocalypse
Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is probably one of the most specious arguments anyone ever trots out about someone breaking (or overlooking) a rule, especially in organizations known for coming up with rules for every single thought or action one engages in (e.g. a bureaucracy). Unless the incident was actually ongoing, or had the potential to risk the security or integrity of the systems it was his job to oversee, talking about a past incident germane to the topic of the conference is what people do at conferences. That's the entire point. Yes, he violated a minor rule. "Oh lordy lordy, who will he kill next?" is not really the best response to the situation.
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I wonder what more there is to this story. Was this his third strike or something, or just they just up and abruptly fire him without so much as a warning? Or was that the pretext to cover up some sort of personal issue someone had with him? Perhaps a vendetta? Or an attempt to cover up something? The article makes it sound like PA was completely unreasonable about it. Certainly possible, but I'm skeptical. It's like being executed for littering. Every time the media has reported on something I knew
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I agree 110%. The stories I've seen broadcast about events I had personal knowledge of made it so I trust the media story about as much as I'd trust a junkie with the safekeeping of a kilo of heroin.
I was mostly responding to the theory that if someone screws up once in a (seemingly) minor way they are untrustwort
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It's not completely specious. "What people do at conferences" is talk about things that they are authorized to talk about. It's not the most important rule in the world, but it's not "minor" either, and it's not the sort of thing you "overlook". Anyone who works for a bureaucracy knows there are rules about what you are allowed to talk about and what you aren't. I certainly could say honest, non-embarrassing things about my employer that would get me fired instantly, just on general principles, and I kn
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Yes, I made assumptions about what happened, though not necessarily any more likely to be out of line than the assumptions made by the OP. Whether and what actually happened aside, the argument put forward by the person I was replying to (He made mistake X, therefore is highly likely to make other discharge-worthy mistakes) is still completely unwarranted.
For the rest of what you said, I completely agree.
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If the CISO treats one rule casually, what is the dolt liable to ignore next?
Not every slope is a slippery one.
Good job... (Score:5, Insightful)
His story is NOTHING to my story (Score:5, Funny)
(had to make sure I hit the "Post Anonymously" button...)
I'm one of many server administrators for LUTX, the (US) Federal Government IT "swat team" that was put in place during the Clinton Administration. One day I was working on a code-blue 456 system using the X-K-Red-27 technique and suddenly a bunch of drunken Canadian's broke in and try to SSH the HTTPS server. Well, as you can imagine, all hell broke loose and we had to double-slot the uranium deuteride fast on the flip-flop before the Russkies could notice.
I hope I don't get fired for sharing this amazing story with Slashdot
Re:His story is NOTHING to my story (Score:4, Funny)
(had to make sure I hit the "Post Anonymously" button...) I'm one of many server administrators for LUTX, the (US) Federal Government IT "swat team" that was put in place during the Clinton Administration. One day I was working on a code-blue 456 system using the X-K-Red-27 technique and suddenly a bunch of drunken Canadian's broke in and try to SSH the HTTPS server. Well, as you can imagine, all hell broke loose and we had to double-slot the uranium deuteride fast on the flip-flop before the Russkies could notice. I hope I don't get fired for sharing this amazing story with Slashdot
Its times like this that I really want to apply a Post Humously moderation
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did you catch my Fish Called Wanda reference?
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a bunch of drunken Canadian's
-1: redundant
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I'm one of many server administrators for LUTX, the (US) Federal Government IT "swat team" that was put in place during the Clinton Administration. One day I was working on a code-blue 456 system using the X-K-Red-27 technique and suddenly a bunch of drunken Canadian's broke in and try to SSH the HTTPS server.
What a load of bullshit. We all know that Canada doesn't actually exist.
He is hitting "legacy" PR control (Score:1)
reasonable? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seeing as careless talk can lead to image problems and/or lawsuits (or harming your case if prosecuting them). If you're in a senior position and you talk publicly in a work-related context, you talk on behalf of the organisation whether you intend to or not. OTOH if you are "blowing the whistle" on wrongdoing, there is a specific procedure for that which offers protection.
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"image problems and/or lawsuits"
This is a government operation, paid for with taxpayer dollars. They have no product to sell, and no investors to satisfy. They DO however, have many stakeholders in the form of the taxpaying public who deserve to know how their dollars are spent.
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People giving authority are usually doing so within boundaries. You don't get given authority to say what you please, you get given authority to apply policy. Everyone has their boss.
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"You don't get given authority to say what you please, you get given authority to apply policy."
Point being he was the CISO. He is the very one not to apply but to *create* the policy in regards to IT security incidents.
If you don't want somebody to have such power you don't get to create the role.
Kill the Messenger (Score:1)
except on windows xp...
hmm (Score:1)
Are they hiring now?
C Level Sec Exec is Fired? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Obviously, his manager doesn't read /.
He was fired by Brenda Orth, CIO in the OA (Score:5, Informative)
Who fired him?
According to public records having to do with reporting structure, he would have been fired by Brenda Orth, CIO (Chief Information Officer) in the OA (Office of Administration, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). The reporting chain is easily verifiable using either the Google cached copy of their page, or the Internet Way Back Machine.
She basically reports to the state Governors staff, so there's no telling how far up hill you'd have to go to find the source of the firing, but as his immediate supervisor, whe would have been the one to pull the trigger.
-- Terry
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I guess the next question is, isn't disclosure the sort of thing the CISO signs off on?
Good move dumbasses! (Score:5, Insightful)
Now all your remaining security issues will fix themselves. But, don't worry, I'm sure Robert Maley will be happy to help you out - at 5 times what you were paying him.
The key paragraph (Score:5, Informative)
The important paragraph in TFA:
"Maley's dismissal comes amid ongoing budget and staff cuts at Pennsylvania's IT security organization, the source said. Over the past 18 months to two years, the administration has cut information security budgets by close to 38%, and staff by 40%. They also put a "lockdown" on talking about cybersecurity, the source claimed."
Now there's a good plan: If you don't talk about it, no one will know you have a problem, and you can save all that money you were spending on those annoying security types.
Re:The key paragraph (Score:5, Insightful)
Howard County, Maryland (back when I was living there -- might be many other places like this, too) decided to make the local parks "trash free." By removing the trash cans. I leave the results as an exercise for the reader ;)
timothy
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Oh I lived near a park like that. They did it because they noticed that trash tended to pile up around trash cans. Also, the maintenance workers were complaining about the heavy bags in the full trash cans.
I'm sure the two issues were unrelated....
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""Maley's dismissal comes amid ongoing budget and staff cuts at Pennsylvania's IT security organization, the source said. Over the past 18 months to two years, the administration has cut information security budgets by close to 38%, and staff by 40%. They also put a "lockdown" on talking about cybersecurity, the source claimed.""
So basically staff was cut so much that security could now be compromised. So lets also make a rule of not talking about cyber security to cover our cuts and protect senior official
Easy fix? (Score:4, Insightful)
So instead of paying people to fix our security holes, we're just not allowed to talk about them?
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So instead of paying people to fix our security holes, we're just not allowed to talk about them?
It's a hell of a lot cheaper that way. (Except for the parts where the bad guys break-in and steal your stuff; yeah, those are kind of expensive, but fixing them doesn't come out of the CIO's paycheck.)
Therefore this is all your fault for complaining about your taxes. You said to your lawmakers "we want less state services and lower quality workers" and there you go! You got exactly what you voted for.
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It's a case of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"
Spill the rest of the beans (Score:5, Interesting)
If I were him, I'd start spilling all the info I ever had on security for the state. No amount of money or threats would stop me.
I mean any and every item. I'd expose every stupid supervisory move that compromised security and my ability to protect the network. EVERYTHING would be exposed.
Nothing worse than people getting their panties all in a wad over a "talk" about a well publicized incident, of which all the bad guys already knew about.
There is only one thing these people understand, and that is how to look good. Ruin it for them.
Re:Spill the rest of the beans (Score:4, Insightful)
Compromising your own ethics for revenge is a net loss. A vengeful, spiteful CISO would have about 0.00% chance of a new job that paid anything above "volunteer" wages.
Remember, CIO already jokingly stands for "Career Is Over." I don't think he needs to pile on "Career Is So Over" limiting moves by acting like a 13-year-old dumped by his first girlfriend.
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Compromising your own ethics for revenge is a net loss. A vengeful, spiteful CISO would have about 0.00% chance of a new job that paid anything above "volunteer" wages.
Remember, CIO already jokingly stands for "Career Is Over." I don't think he needs to pile on "Career Is So Over" limiting moves by acting like a 13-year-old dumped by his first girlfriend.
True enough, but then again ... he could just post anonymously.
Compromising your own ethics for revenge (Score:2)
And exactly how do you think most whistleblowers get their start?
Every whistleblower ever gets painted first as a "disgruntled employee crying for attention." When that doesn't stick, they move on to "violating security by disclosing classified information."
The problem is, we never find out about bad behavior covered by secrecy from people who are happy and secure within the organization. Criminal enterprises both in and out of government usually get uncovered when they try to screw over one of the lower gu
Re:Compromising your own ethics for revenge (Score:4, Insightful)
A whistleblower reveals secret information to right a wrong. Perhaps there's a safety issue that is going uncorrected, or an unfair pay gap, or workplace racism, or where the bodies are buried. Those are kept secret to keep costs down at the expense of human health, or to protect the criminally negligent or guilty.
The GP said:
If I were him, I'd start spilling all the info I ever had on security for the state. No amount of money or threats would stop me. I mean any and every item.
There are plenty of legitimate secrets a CISO is expected to keep. Plans for upgrades that reveal current deficiencies but can't be implemented yet due to budget constraints. Ongoing operational security tasks. Or command and control structures: a list of the three key people without whom an emergency response would fail would provide a juicy target list for a serious attack. The identities of sting or honeypot operations. Those are all perfectly legitimate security items that should be kept secret.
A whistleblower is trying to correct an inequity. A traitor provides secret information only to damage an organization. See the difference?
From the article (Score:2)
"Maley's dismissal comes amid ongoing budget and staff cuts at Pennsylvania's IT security organization, the source said. Over the past 18 months to two years, the administration has cut information security budgets by close to 38%, and staff by 40%. They also put a "lockdown" on talking about cybersecurity, the source claimed."
They're gutting my budget and staff, cracking us wide open to attacks such as this one, and putting a gag-order on us to hide their downright malicious mismanagement.
Sounds like a whi
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Depending on the issue, those NEED to be exposed.
Imagine the outcry you'd get, if it turns out that the ADX Florence/a> had been built with paper mache, but due to budget issues, there was no way of fixing it, because it'd be too expensive. Should we wait for a hundred convicted murderes to walk out before doing anything? [wikipedia.org]
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If you read the whole post, and not cherry picked the one statement, you'd have a better understanding of what I was saying.
But pedantry is easy. I said I'd expose EVERY stupid decision that compromised security. IF there was a deficiency that was being address that would not be a "stupid" decision.
You see how that qualifies the original statement? However, If I said that as CISO I recommended using IE 8 or Firefox or other browser because of some unpatched exploit in IE6 and 7 out in the wild, and the peop
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True. Anger is almost always counterproductive in almost every circumstance.
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"No amount of money or threats would stop me."
You hold onto that thought when no one will hire you.
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If I were him, I'd start spilling all the info I ever had on security for the state. No amount of money or threats would stop me.
Tut. Not sure how it is in your part of the world but some of us sign confidentiality agreements. I've worked for the British home office, some 30 years ago. I'm still bound by the "Official Secrets Act" that I signed then.
I'm not saying that some stories shouldn't be blabbed, but we're professionals. We do what we're paid to. If we're not happy, move on. But don't air dirty laundry. Especially not someone else's.
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In any large organization whether its government or private you will have the same problem. Part of the job is to help the owners look good. If you do that you get promoted. When you do not you get fired. Its a fact of life when you work. You can have a place with great management who may not do this as much but you wont get anywhere if you are a whistler blower or labeled a whiner.
sounds like an invitation (Score:2, Informative)
Cluetrain... (Score:3, Insightful)
Cluetrain Manifesto.... Dead. Slashdot Confirms.
I'm personally not interested in what comes out of any organization's public orifice because it always looks and smells like BS.
When they shut down their non-public orifices they become more and more useless. They lose value. real, actual dollars value.
In a way I'm more worried about this from a public organization because they have a monopoly on governance
and when they're doing it wrong they can keep doing it wrong a lot longer than a private company.
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They may not get the government they need, but they'll always get the government they deserve. The citizens always have the option to "t'row da bums out!"
Not that the bums on the other side of the fence are somehow better bums, but at least they're not the same bums.
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"and when they're doing it wrong they can keep doing it wrong a lot longer than a private company."
No, private companies do the same thing. It happens in any bureaucracy.
With a public organization, at least you individual has power.
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People are still buying into that crap?
orifice cluetrain manifesto? (Score:2)
You are totally right, I'm also not personally interested what comes out of any organizations public ORIFICE. It's smelly business at its finest!
"Lockdown" is the problem with Security (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm simply rehashing the same thing I wrote over at SC Magazine's site:
We do not know all the facts behind the termination, but if was based primarly on his RSA appearance, that's a shame. There are so many variants of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment, that regular meetings with your peers seems to be just as critical with regards to understanding the important controls which need to be put in place. The days of leading with FUD appears to be in our rear view mirror, and building up a positive outlook in security by learning from the past and attempting to stay ahead of the curve is imperative to our support of the business or the public entity. What was the common theme with all the CISO's at RSA? Information sharing is critical and we're way behind. We don't share information, we put ourselves on "lockdown" and don't get invited to the table anymore as security professionals. We're seen as roadblocks, as negative drags on the bottom line. Something has to change or else we're going to lose ground as a country. In fact we already have.
Sharing information with other professionals is now critical to any InfoSec career. We do need to account for privacy, so a balance must be achived. Maley may have violated a confidentiality component of his employment, but that doesn't make the spirit of what he did wrong in any way. If anything, some clear guidance on what types of information is shared behind closed doors at peer review and group meetings at RSA should be discussed. You can't vette everyone who attends the meetings, but openness is a good thing, not a bad thing. More transparency is needed across the public and private sectors. More openness is needed among security professionals. The state of PA has it wrong. Lockdown is not a way to progress forward out of this losing battle with regards to properly securing the infrastructure while allowing the inevitable growth of technology and information.
Re:"Lockdown" is the problem with Security (Score:4, Interesting)
Except this is an ongoing police investigation. There is a difference. And a panel discussion isn't necessarily the best way to network with peers on issues like this. He made a mistake and paid for it. It was a bit harsh, but not totally out of line.
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If "lockdown" means disconnecting the machines from all network access, then you've got a point. If it means something else...??? what DOES it mean? I doubt that it means anything effective.
lucky not to be in jail as other who have (Score:2)
lucky not to be in jail as other who have came out with info on security incidentes / holes have been locked up.
Broke the Golden Rule of Conferences (Score:4, Funny)
Didn't he know that you're only supposed to talk at conferences when A) you have something to sell, or B) you're being paid in a round-about way to promote a product while appearing to have no conflicting interest?
No one does a post-mortem of ACTUAL issues that matter to ACTUAL people, anymore.
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Huh? What are you jabbering about?
hack or not to hack (Score:2, Interesting)
However, she contested several media reports that have described the incident as a hacking attack, and said that as far as the the department was aware, there had been no hack or breach of the system.
Don't you hate it when people imply that their system was not "hacked" simply because they didn't provide the proper precautions to stop the leaking of internal data or changing database information in a way it was not intended?
According to our current definitions... IT WAS A HACK. Whether something is a hack is not determined by the ease in which they are preformed or the impact size of the damage no matter how minimal.
She is describing "hack" in terms of ramifications.
This is concept is almost as silly as
First rule (Score:5, Funny)
The first rule of Commonwealth's online driving exam scheduling system is: You don't talk about Commonwealth's online driving exam scheduling system.
Anyone think (Score:2)
-dB
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Greetings and Salutations...
Yea, this was about the first thing that came to my mind when I read the story. While in Gov. his salary might have been fixed, if he annoyed the wrong folks by complaining too much, there is a long history of building a portfolio of reasons that he should be terminated. It is quite possible that they will leave the position "pending", too, which would ensure that the cash they were handing over to him would stay in the treasury.
security conference (Score:2)
I went to one geared towards security for people in physics. Essentially only the people from CERN were willing to give talks where they discussed actual incidents. Everyone from DOE labs was unable. I had the sense that other labs were under rules like that as well. It was ridiculous because of that nothing could be shared, hence nothing could be learned. We were all admin types at the labs, it was not open to the public or anything of that sort.
More info in my journal (Score:2)
What I have linked to is both the original article from our local paper as well as two other articles from blogs which covered this subject.
As you can see from some of the comments in the original article, there are those who have some inside information to what went on as well as what type of person he was.