September | 2012 | Branden R. Williams, Business Security Specialist

The Dissolving Perimeter standard

IT and IS professionals have long acknowledged and lamented the dissolution of the network perimeter amid a global economic crisis and shrinking IT budgets. We must do more with less, be more efficient, and create and leverage economies of scale and scope to achieve all of this. But that doesn’t necessarily represent why the perimeter is dissolving, so what is going on? Businesses are exchanging information in real time (both providing and consuming) over public networks as opposed to frame relay or MPLS links behind the scenes. The number of telecommuters ((The State of Telework in the US – Five Year Trend and Forecast.)) in the US grew 61% from 2005-2009. This means more laptops over desktops, and now more ...

RSA Announces Advanced Cyber Defense Service standard

A very long time ago I worked at a company called Internet America. For those that remember, we were the 1-800-Be-A-Geek company. Back on the early side of the Internet explosion (this is 1996) I remember walking into server rooms in absolute awe of the big machines that powered our customers’ experience and the respect I had for those that ran them. One particular guy I remember is Gordon. Gordon was a typical middle-aged geek (before it was chic) and he had a catch phrase that always made me smile. When you asked Gordon how he was doing, he would say, “The bugs are winning today.” Back then, we had a lot of days like that. Over the last two ...

The Only Customer Service Script You Will Ever Need standard

I have had a few run-ins with some customer service departments in the last month that drove me a bit crazy (and one that went QUITE well). There are several indicators that the economy is getting better; one of those being as the economy gets better, customer service gets worse. There is apparently less of a need to deliver service because if I defect, there are others waiting in line to take my spot as a “valued customer.” I’ve always scratched my head when people talk about how big-box retailers kill small businesses. I disagree. I think it forces small businesses to both innovate and fill the service gap left by those big-box retailers. Small business owners that cannot retool ...

PCI DSS Feedback 2012 standard

The PCI Security Standards Council released a statement this morning outlining some of the highlights from the feedback period we just finished this year as part of the PCI DSS lifecycle. If you are going to be at the community meeting next week (or later in October for EU), I strongly suggest you attend the session on the feedback and potential proposed changes to the standard (if they have the ability to turn that around this quickly). Here are a couple of notes from my analysis (note some of the wording is similar to the press release, go read it): Scoping is still an issue. I think we all agree that at some point the framers of PCI DSS will ...

August 2012 Roundup standard

What was popular in August? We sure had our fair share of speculation on Apple products including a big settlement that could have lasting effects on the mobile device industry. We had a new OS released (with a ton of side effects). RSA China came and went (one of the more challenging speaking gigs I’ve ever had), and RSA 2013’s CFP closed. And while summer is winding down, it’s clear that infosec is not done for 2012! Here are the five most popular posts from the last month: Mountain Lion Troubles and Solutions. In a departure from the norm, the top post this month is all about Mountain Lion. Some folks had no problems, others like me had massive issues. ...

Monthly ArchivesSeptember 2012