3 ms·

Computer security : A swarm of many stripes

8 points by yan 16y ago

tptacek 16y ago
Come on, Yan. Really? Look at the m-team at "InZero Systems", who placed this PR story in the Economist: http://www.inzerosystems.com/company/principals/ http://www.inzerosystems.com/company/principals/ * A "well-known international investor" * A former president at Lockheed Martin * A Russian inventor (of "medical, biotech, electric vehicles" &c) * A "member of the board of the National Bank of Ukraine" * A Russian tech entrepreneur, former founder of an online computer repair and support company. This A-Team of computer security talent devised a cunning plan to set up a "honeypot" (it being 2002 --- oh wait) and then challenging the shadowy hacker underground to recover "a document" from it. Yeah, I'm sure the Advanced Persistant Threat guys writing zero-day browser malware are gonna get right on that.
- NateLawson 16y ago
  Yet another PR submarine (press release masquerading as a story). Surprising that The Economist fell for the "we held a hacking contest and no one succeeded" story, but maybe the reporter is new. The "honeypot" is the extremely thin tidbit that "whoa, there are hackers in Brazil!" The rest is about how their product can handle opening attachments from lots of self-selected challengers without compromise. Blast from the past: remember the 1995 Sidewinder hacking contest? At least that was a product somewhat deserving. 15 years later, we're still seeing the slow roll-out of MAC in commodity operating systems.
  - maukdaddy 16y ago
    Sidewinder...now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. The Economist fell for the PR submarine because Infosec is completely outside of their realm of knowledge. The "story" sounded intriguing and would get them views.
- yan 16y ago
  You're absolutely right. This was the result of semi-blind redirection of my rss reader.
eli 16y ago
I'm surprised anyone even bothered. A "challenge" from some no-name security company isn't exactly going to bring out the best and the brightest.
- tptacek 16y ago
  The value of a reliable mass-market zero-day exploit may be in the high tens of thousands of dollars before you start overtly breaking the law, so the notion that any company is going to get actionable intel from a 'hacking contest' is... naive.
deleted 16y ago
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8 points by yan 16y ago

Come on, Yan. Really? Look at the m-team at "InZero Systems", who placed this PR story in the Economist: http://www.inzerosystems.com/company/principals/ http://www.inzerosystems.com/company/principals/ * A "well-known international investor" * A former president at Lockheed Martin * A Russian inventor (of "medical, biotech, electric vehicles" &c) * A "member of the board of the National Bank of Ukraine" * A Russian tech entrepreneur, former founder of an online computer repair and support company. This A-Team of computer security talent devised a cunning plan to set up a "honeypot" (it being 2002 --- oh wait) and then challenging the shadowy hacker underground to recover "a document" from it. Yeah, I'm sure the Advanced Persistant Threat guys writing zero-day browser malware are gonna get right on that.

NateLawson 16y ago
Yet another PR submarine (press release masquerading as a story). Surprising that The Economist fell for the "we held a hacking contest and no one succeeded" story, but maybe the reporter is new. The "honeypot" is the extremely thin tidbit that "whoa, there are hackers in Brazil!" The rest is about how their product can handle opening attachments from lots of self-selected challengers without compromise. Blast from the past: remember the 1995 Sidewinder hacking contest? At least that was a product somewhat deserving. 15 years later, we're still seeing the slow roll-out of MAC in commodity operating systems.
- maukdaddy 16y ago
  Sidewinder...now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. The Economist fell for the PR submarine because Infosec is completely outside of their realm of knowledge. The "story" sounded intriguing and would get them views.
yan 16y ago
You're absolutely right. This was the result of semi-blind redirection of my rss reader.

eli 16y ago

I'm surprised anyone even bothered. A "challenge" from some no-name security company isn't exactly going to bring out the best and the brightest.

tptacek 16y ago
The value of a reliable mass-market zero-day exploit may be in the high tens of thousands of dollars before you start overtly breaking the law, so the notion that any company is going to get actionable intel from a 'hacking contest' is... naive.

deleted 16y ago

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