funsec mailing list archives

Re: Citizen cyber-protectors?


From: Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:57:54 +0100 (BST)

If someone can't be bothered to write their thoughts down, and require me 
to spend 20 minutes to watch a video giving views that I could have read 
in one minute, then I'm not going to devote my time to listen to them.

Since I haven't heard what he has to say, I cannot comment on his views. 
Except to point out that 99% of people are as interested in computer 
security as they are in beetle collecting. And anything that depends on 
them being more interested than that, or better informed, is doomed.

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012, Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah wrote:

Marc Goodman (who I believe is https://twitter.com/FutureCrimes and 
http://www.futurecrimes.com/ ) gave a recent TED talk on trends in the use of 
high technology in crime:

http://www.ted.com/talks/marc_goodman_a_vision_of_crimes_in_the_future.html

The 20 minute talk is frightening, with very little in the way of comfort for the 
protection or security side.  He ends with a call for crowdsourcing of protection.

Now as a transparent society/open source/full disclosure kind of guy, I like the 
general idea.  But, as someone who has been involved in education, security 
awareness, and professional security training for some time, I see a few problems.  
For crowdsourcing to work, you need a critical mass of at least minimally capable 
people.  When you are talking about a weather reporting app, that minimal 
capability isn't much. When you are talking about detecting cyberwar or 
bioweapons, the capability levels are a bit different.

Just yesterday the PNWER (Pacific NorthWest Economic Region 
http://www.pnwer.org/ ) conference became the latest to bemoan the lack of 
trained employees.  I rather suspect these constant complaints, since I see lots of 
people out of work.  But the people who are whining about employees are just 
looking for network admins and such.  We need people with more depth and more 
breadth in their backgrounds.  I get CISSP candidates in my seminars who are 
network admins who simply want to know a few ACLS for firewalls.  I have to 
keep telling them that security professionals need to know more than that.

Yes, I am privileged to be able to meet a number who *are* interested in learning 
everything possible in order to meet any need or problem.  But, relatively 
speaking, those are few.  And my sample set tends to be abnormal, in that these 
are people who have already shown some interest in training (even if only job 
related).  What Goodman is talking about is the general public.  And those of us 
who have actually tried security awareness know how little conceptual awareness 
we have to build on, let alone advanced technical knowledge.

I think awareness, self-protection, and crowdsourcing is probably the only good 
way to approach the problems Goodman outlines.  I just worry that we have a long 
way to go.

http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/1793

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
On Friday, January 23rd, 2004, in a speech at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates stated `Two years from
now, spam will be solved.'
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://www.infosecbc.org/links
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
http://twitter.com/rslade
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.


_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.


Current thread: