RE: Revising it [Vulnerability Scanning Doesn't Work]

["Steve Armstrong" <stevearmstrong () logicallysecure com>]

Adriel,

This is not meant to be confrontational despite sounding that way, but in
the interest of brevity - 

I thought this was a mail list and not a bloggers hijack point.  I am sure
you blog is interesting to some, but I would rather not get every post
rammed down my inbox, I didn't sign up for that - it wasn't a check box on
the security focus web site signup page.  

And let's think about this, what makes you so special - if everyone auto
emailed their blog posts the mail list would rapidly lose its value.  So as
a suggestion why not keep your blog posts on.... your blog, and leave the
mail list to being a mail list.

Keeping it simple.

Steve A

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On
Behalf Of Adriel T. Desautels
Sent: 08 January 2009 18:54
To: ArcSighter Elite
Cc: me () abegetchell com; pen-test () securityfocus com; 'Security Basics'
Subject: Revising it [Vulnerability Scanning Doesn't Work]

To all of you who have commented:

My last entry/article received a lot of input from a lot of different  
people. Some of the people were emotional, insulting and just not  
constructive but yet still amusing. Others were highly constructive  
and offered their perspective on what it was that I published. My goal  
with the blog is to make it an informational resource that is accurate  
and truthful.  As such, I am going to make a few more modifications to  
the entry as to accommodate some things that I left out.

Would the readers of this list rather that I post the entire blog  
entry to the list? Would the rather that I post a link? Or would they  
rather that I just not post here at all?  I've set up a poll on the  
blog if you're interested in participating. The last thing that I want  
to do is to force my views down anyone's throats.

Anyway, thank you again for the comments, I'm trying to keep it real.



On Jan 8, 2009, at 1:03 PM, ArcSighter Elite wrote:

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> Abe Getchell wrote:
> > Hey Adriel,
> >
> > The title and opening paragraph of your blog post are quite  
> > misleading and
> > rather reckless. There is definitely a false sense of security that  
> > is sold
> > to some organizations by the developers of vulnerability scanning  
> > tools, but
> > that is the fault of the purchasing organization (due to a lack of  
> > education
> > and unqualified individuals making decisions), not those companies  
> > pushing
> > their product. It's a consumer problem, not a technology or process  
> > problem,
> > which you seem to describe it as in the bulk of your blog post.
> > Vulnerability scanning tools can have a wonderfully awesome impact  
> > on your
> > security posture if they're used in a manner in which they function
> > adequately; as a compliance tool. While I understand the sales  
> > aspect of
> > your blog post, what your customers (and any other organization
> > investigating this type of technology) should understand is that  
> > they should
> > not be "using a team of talented hackers for security testing  
> > instead of
> > relying on automated vulnerability scanners", but rather "using a  
> > team of
> > talented hackers AND vulnerability scanners for security testing and
> > compliance".
> >
> > See ya,
> > Abe
>
> I agree.
> IMHO, a pen-testers team is a must-use for any penetration testing
> scenario; they should be experienced people and the matter if they use
> vuln scanners or not, is of their choice.
> I see over and over (even in this list) post such as:
> "I'm doing a penetration test against a company. After running  
> Acunetix,
> it show reports of x sql injection vulnerabilities. How can I probe my
> customer this is a high risk vuln? (...)"
> What company could trust their security to such case?
> I think no-one with a little of common sense.
> Vuln scanners are useful, but as I said, as with most tools, the human
> knowledge is the real factor. When you combine both they you get pen- 
> test.
>
> Honestly.
>
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        Adriel T. Desautels
        ad_lists () netragard com
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