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At WePay - no, we don't have our own data centers just yet. In a couple large companies I worked before - yes (and we did encrypt the traffic as much as possibl

by lsh123 13y ago

At WePay - no, we don't have our own data centers just yet. In a couple large companies I worked before - yes (and we did encrypt the traffic as much as possible). Some types of encryption are pretty cheap actually. I used to use special SSL cards in the servers 10-15 years ago but today my laptop would outperform these cards and wouldn't even get hot :) Plus you need to remember that relatively expensive public key encryption needs to be done only for key exchange. After that you run block or stream cyphers and those algorithms tend to be really fast. So far I haven't seen any evidences that there was cable splicing. Thus using occam's razor I would assume that the hack was much simpler than that. To detect the issue, I would start from reviewing the visitors log to the data center (assuming there is a visitor log). I'll re-iterate that security should be built on defense-in-depth principle. Every single protection layer will fail or someone will go around it. The assumption that a data center is "safe" is a bad assumption period. You have to play "what-if" game and think for the attacker.

kllrnohj 13y ago
> So far I haven't seen any evidences that there was cable splicing. Thus using occam's razor I would assume that the hack was much simpler than that. What? The evidence totally points to cable splicing. What hack involves getting all the inter-DC packets but nothing else? Obviously the machines weren't compromised, or they wouldn't have cared about reverse-engineering the wire protocol. So what are you proposing was hacked? > I'll re-iterate that security should be built on defense-in-depth principle. Every single protection layer will fail or someone will go around it. The assumption that a data center is "safe" is a bad assumption period. You have to play "what-if" game and think for the attacker. And I'll re-iterate that you're asking for a goddamn magical pony. Side note, if your data center isn't safe go get a new one. Seriously. Most DCs have tons of security to make them safe. That's not an assumption.
- lsh123 13y ago
  > The evidence totally points to cable splicing. I don't think there are any evidences at all. As far as I know, the only known thing is that NSA was able to obtain the un-encrypted google traffic. For example, it could have been backdoor in the router, one extra cable in the switch, or a few other similar low-tech options. > Most DCs have tons of security to make them safe. Don't disagree. But this doesn't make them invincible from other attack vectors (e.g. rogue employees). I actually heard the same argument from quite a few people during interviews and I usually don't hire them because you have to be paranoid to get security right :)

by lsh123 13y ago

kllrnohj 13y ago

> So far I haven't seen any evidences that there was cable splicing. Thus using occam's razor I would assume that the hack was much simpler than that. What? The evidence totally points to cable splicing. What hack involves getting all the inter-DC packets but nothing else? Obviously the machines weren't compromised, or they wouldn't have cared about reverse-engineering the wire protocol. So what are you proposing was hacked? > I'll re-iterate that security should be built on defense-in-depth principle. Every single protection layer will fail or someone will go around it. The assumption that a data center is "safe" is a bad assumption period. You have to play "what-if" game and think for the attacker. And I'll re-iterate that you're asking for a goddamn magical pony. Side note, if your data center isn't safe go get a new one. Seriously. Most DCs have tons of security to make them safe. That's not an assumption.

lsh123 13y ago
> The evidence totally points to cable splicing. I don't think there are any evidences at all. As far as I know, the only known thing is that NSA was able to obtain the un-encrypted google traffic. For example, it could have been backdoor in the router, one extra cable in the switch, or a few other similar low-tech options. > Most DCs have tons of security to make them safe. Don't disagree. But this doesn't make them invincible from other attack vectors (e.g. rogue employees). I actually heard the same argument from quite a few people during interviews and I usually don't hire them because you have to be paranoid to get security right :)