That a 'progressive' techie company with an admittedly geeky CEO will not protect its customers' best interests and privacy is indeed lamentable. Apple will not accept cash or even its own gift cards for the purchase of an iPhone.I know there are companies that will restrict the number of items sold to an individual buyer - that's fine, you want everyone to get a chance to buy the product - but explicitly forbidding cash and gift card transactions for a particular product is not only very unusual but very shortsighted as well.Let's hope they change their minds and do their part in protecting privacy (each cash-paying customer = one less credit card record to worry about!)
Be safe (and pay cash for the Zune!)
Just kidding, of course :-)
Showing posts with label database security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label database security. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Privacy Concerns and Google
Quite interesting, the recent concerns over how Google mines data and how it might use it when combined with its recent acquisition, DoubleClick. Plus, now you have street-level, 360-degree, detailed snapshot views of actual happenings on streets that Google has covered.
Somewhat creepy, a little scary, but mostly harmless. For now.
How Google addresses privacy concerns raised by both small privacy groups and organizations like ACLU, EPIC etc is to be seen, but it's quite likely that G, whose main edict is 'Don't be evil' may be forced more and more to live up to its grand statements. Only, you don't want it going the way of 'We don't do finance'...
What is the Security concern here? Plenty, plenty, plenty. Imagine this fantastic goldmine of data that tells you all you want to know about someone's secrets and the makeup of their psyche - right from search terms to visited sites to how long they surfed those sites to your most private communication (email). Imagine this fantastic data in the hands of a hacker. There. You know what I'm saying.
So, G, which employs the most brilliant minds it can afford to buy on the strength of its balance sheet as well as brand name, needs to REALLY tighten up its environment. You do NOT want embarrassments like when someone stole G's own blog and it had to do some red-faced explaining. We don't have to teach G about security and how to protect its data, but we do have a RIGHT to expect that what G knows, only G knows and nobody else. Plus, you also hope (wish, pray, beseech, request, beg, fight) that G also has a bad memory (think data retention policies).
Anyway, the coming few months are going to be very intense as the search, advertising, and portal markets heat up with existing giants waking up and new, disruptive technologies start chipping away at the heels of the Big Ones.
Be safe!
Somewhat creepy, a little scary, but mostly harmless. For now.
How Google addresses privacy concerns raised by both small privacy groups and organizations like ACLU, EPIC etc is to be seen, but it's quite likely that G, whose main edict is 'Don't be evil' may be forced more and more to live up to its grand statements. Only, you don't want it going the way of 'We don't do finance'...
What is the Security concern here? Plenty, plenty, plenty. Imagine this fantastic goldmine of data that tells you all you want to know about someone's secrets and the makeup of their psyche - right from search terms to visited sites to how long they surfed those sites to your most private communication (email). Imagine this fantastic data in the hands of a hacker. There. You know what I'm saying.
So, G, which employs the most brilliant minds it can afford to buy on the strength of its balance sheet as well as brand name, needs to REALLY tighten up its environment. You do NOT want embarrassments like when someone stole G's own blog and it had to do some red-faced explaining. We don't have to teach G about security and how to protect its data, but we do have a RIGHT to expect that what G knows, only G knows and nobody else. Plus, you also hope (wish, pray, beseech, request, beg, fight) that G also has a bad memory (think data retention policies).
Anyway, the coming few months are going to be very intense as the search, advertising, and portal markets heat up with existing giants waking up and new, disruptive technologies start chipping away at the heels of the Big Ones.
Be safe!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Database Security
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1255955,00.html
Quite an interesting article, and it talks about concepts that are very logical, obvious, and yet something that's hard to implement and track.
How so?
Let's say you're the CISO of a company/govt organization that has access to highly sensitive data such as taxes, divorce records, alimony and so on. What would be your first instinct relating to protecting the data? Encryption, RBAC, ACL...?
There are many choices and each comes with its own tradeoffs. 'Mindboggling' is a mild word for the conundrum you just got yourself into.
Believe it or not, people actually abuse power! Hmmm didn't know that one, did you?
Now that you do, start with the basics. Make a list of talented people who can handle the responsibilities that will be given to them. They should be held strictly accountable at all times when it comes to the ownership and privacy of the information entrusted in their hands.
Then define roles and responsibilities that will match those tasks. With the help of commercially available software, you can do that very quickly.
For especially sensitive data, institute authentication codes. Meaning, access to certain types of data should only be possible with the help of a code that's generated by a security officer who oversees the overall security aspects of the data.
Thus, you now have division of roles and a division of how the responsibilities are executed. How does this help? Two words - collusion avoidance (and detection).
Next, logging and audit control.
Make sure the software that you use can log certain types of searches and classify them as inappropriate when applicable. It should alert the manager or supervisor within a time defined by an SLA. This kind of alert is preferred to be real-time so any violation can be stopped immediately.
Audits should be performed on a regular basis, and at least 3 times a year on a surprise! basis. That will keep any potentially devious employees somewhat honest and probably catch those that have crossed the line before they could do more damage.
Rewards - any quarter/6 months/year when there have been no violations, every employee in the security team should be congratulated and rewarded for saving the CISO's reputation and bonus.
Continuous improvement -- this phrase is used so much it's almost near meaningless, but because it's almost meaningless, if I use it just once or twice it won't hurt.
But let me define it slightly differently -- CI means new ways of figuring out how to keep secure data secure (think new hacking methods, new forms of spyware/malware/adware/badware, spam, viruses, trojans - boy you have your hands full). How to keep employees from stealing data or misusing their newfound power. How to maintain the integrity of the system and its value.
How to have business running 24/7 with no bottlenecks from the DB department. How to maintain the system's authority as the final arbiter of the correctness of data that resides within.
Needless to say most of these have strong security angles, but the top rank goes to getting employees to keep the data secure and keeping themselves honest. Very honest.
Remember: Encrypted databases and password-protected sites are powerless to stop an employee with the proper key and password, but relevant training dealing in ethics and company policies pertaining to correct use and access of records, coupled with rewards for excellent and spotless conduct, should go a long way. Combined necessarily and mandatorily with the latest technology to keep data visible to only those that need to see it, this approach should be quite foolproof.
It's quite difficult, if not downright impossible, to expect 100% adherence to policy (otherwise we wouldn't have any scandals). So, the next best step to remedy and fix a potentially devastating violation in the future is to ENCOURAGE and REWARD good habits than simply discourage and penalize bad ones. This is not to say that the bad eggs should not be disciplined/terminated/penalized, but that good behavior should be recognized and made worthwhile.
Be safe!
Quite an interesting article, and it talks about concepts that are very logical, obvious, and yet something that's hard to implement and track.
How so?
Let's say you're the CISO of a company/govt organization that has access to highly sensitive data such as taxes, divorce records, alimony and so on. What would be your first instinct relating to protecting the data? Encryption, RBAC, ACL...?
There are many choices and each comes with its own tradeoffs. 'Mindboggling' is a mild word for the conundrum you just got yourself into.
Believe it or not, people actually abuse power! Hmmm didn't know that one, did you?
Now that you do, start with the basics. Make a list of talented people who can handle the responsibilities that will be given to them. They should be held strictly accountable at all times when it comes to the ownership and privacy of the information entrusted in their hands.
Then define roles and responsibilities that will match those tasks. With the help of commercially available software, you can do that very quickly.
For especially sensitive data, institute authentication codes. Meaning, access to certain types of data should only be possible with the help of a code that's generated by a security officer who oversees the overall security aspects of the data.
Thus, you now have division of roles and a division of how the responsibilities are executed. How does this help? Two words - collusion avoidance (and detection).
Next, logging and audit control.
Make sure the software that you use can log certain types of searches and classify them as inappropriate when applicable. It should alert the manager or supervisor within a time defined by an SLA. This kind of alert is preferred to be real-time so any violation can be stopped immediately.
Audits should be performed on a regular basis, and at least 3 times a year on a surprise! basis. That will keep any potentially devious employees somewhat honest and probably catch those that have crossed the line before they could do more damage.
Rewards - any quarter/6 months/year when there have been no violations, every employee in the security team should be congratulated and rewarded for saving the CISO's reputation and bonus.
Continuous improvement -- this phrase is used so much it's almost near meaningless, but because it's almost meaningless, if I use it just once or twice it won't hurt.
But let me define it slightly differently -- CI means new ways of figuring out how to keep secure data secure (think new hacking methods, new forms of spyware/malware/adware/badware, spam, viruses, trojans - boy you have your hands full). How to keep employees from stealing data or misusing their newfound power. How to maintain the integrity of the system and its value.
How to have business running 24/7 with no bottlenecks from the DB department. How to maintain the system's authority as the final arbiter of the correctness of data that resides within.
Needless to say most of these have strong security angles, but the top rank goes to getting employees to keep the data secure and keeping themselves honest. Very honest.
Remember: Encrypted databases and password-protected sites are powerless to stop an employee with the proper key and password, but relevant training dealing in ethics and company policies pertaining to correct use and access of records, coupled with rewards for excellent and spotless conduct, should go a long way. Combined necessarily and mandatorily with the latest technology to keep data visible to only those that need to see it, this approach should be quite foolproof.
It's quite difficult, if not downright impossible, to expect 100% adherence to policy (otherwise we wouldn't have any scandals). So, the next best step to remedy and fix a potentially devastating violation in the future is to ENCOURAGE and REWARD good habits than simply discourage and penalize bad ones. This is not to say that the bad eggs should not be disciplined/terminated/penalized, but that good behavior should be recognized and made worthwhile.
Be safe!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
