Stay Classy, San Diego!

Stay Classy, San Diego!

2009 was an interesting year for all of us in information security.  We lived through one of the largest breaches in our short history on this spinning blue ball eclipsed only by the inauguration of a unique president-elect.  Anton Chuvakin & I published a book.  I moved my blog here amidst a divestiture of my business at VeriSign.  Apple released a new version of their operating system and a new iPhone.  MasterCard went all crazy on us.

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you for an amazing 2009, and I’m looking forward to fantastic things in 2010!

Here are the five most popular posts in 2009:

  1. Upgrading to Snow Leopard. Ironically enough, the most popular post in 2009 was my brief discussion on my upgrade to Snow Leopard.  I think most of the community was expecting some flashy new operating system from Apple, but what we got was a faster, leaner version of Leopard.  Sure, there are some pretty fancy new features, but then again, it was only $29 to upgrade!
  2. MasterCard/Visa Remove Reciprocity. MasterCard sure had a rough year.  This post details changes made on payment brand websites that appear to remove level reciprocity on merchants.  MasterCard updated its stance since this post and now only shows reciprocity with Visa (externally), though it is unclear if the operating regulations match what is available for public consumption.  Regardless of your level, most acquirers (or acquiring functions of payment brands) will accept an on-site assessment performed by a QSA in lieu of a Self-Assessment Questionnaire.  That brings us to our next one:
  3. The Final Word On MasterCard’s New Levels. It’s obsolete now, because this entire exercise was recently flipped back around to requirements similar to the beginning of 2009.  This was a very popular reference post that listed the new, short lived requirements.
  4. The Problem with Logging. Which category do you fall into?  Under or over logging?  This particular post referenced a Wired article about Walmart, and a reported breach from the 2005/2006 time frame.  BTW, people “shocked” at the lack of logging are probably guilty of a poor logging strategy themselves.
  5. And finally, To New Beginnings. It definitely was the end of an era this year!  This post talks about my change in employment—a move that will drive lots of excitement in 2010!

Thanks for stopping by, San Diego!

This post originally appeared on BrandenWilliams.com.

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