How to do DevOps – with security not as a bottle neck

As in any good morning, I read a nice article written by George Hulme that got me thinking on this topic; that lead to a discussion with colleagues in the Atlanta office, and resulted in me drawing crazy diagrams on my ipad trying to explain sequencing. Below I share my initial thoughts and diagrams for consumption and critique to improve the idea.

Problem Statement – Is Security a bottleneck to development and likely more so in a continuous delivery culture?

Traditional development cycles look like this …

1. A massive amount of innovation and effort occurs by developers
2. Once everything works to spec, it is sent to security for release to Ops
3. In most cases security “fights” and in a few cases fails the release to ask developers to patch (patching itself implies not a real solution but a fix and not a solution), and then
4. a final push through security to Ops

There are many problems here, but to tackle the first myth – security here is a bottleneck, because that is how it is structurally placed in the development cycle.

On a time (man days; duration; level of work) basis, security is barely even present on the product develop to deploy timeline – this is akin to thinking that man has been on Earth for a long time, but is a mistake when taken relative to the creation of the planet.. but I digress

Solution – In a continuous develop environment – iterate security cycles

As Mr. Hulme highlighted in the article, integration of information security with development through automation will certainly help scale #infosec tasks, but there is more. Integrate through rapid iterations and a feedback (note the attempt at coloring of the feedbacks by infosec & ops, joined and consistent with the in-flight development areas)

While high level, I find that as I work with leadership within organizations – clearly communicating and breaking out the benefits to their security posture; ability to hold market launch dates, and clarity for technology attestations is equally as important as the code base itself. Awareness and comprehension of the heavy work being done by developers, security, Ops, and compliance audit teams allows for leadership to provide appropriate funding, resources, governance, monitoring, and timelines (time is always the greatest gift).

How have I developed my viewpoint?

I have been spending an increasing amount of time these past few years working with service provider organizations and global F100. The common thread I am finding is the acceleration and dependecy of third party providers (Cloud, BPO, integrated operators, etc..) and in the process have had an interesting role with continuous delivery and high deploy partners. Specifically, my teams have audited and implemented global security compliance programs of those running these high deploy environments, and sought to establish a level of assurance (from the audit public accounting perspective) and security (actually being secure and better sustainable operations).

Best,

James

 

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Dedication .. in your pursuits and profession

What is dedication… how do you define it? How are you better for it?

To often people try to raise dedication to a level that seems impossible to achieve, but that is not necessary. Dedication to your passions, pursuits, and life are simple enough. Dedication should not have soft edges, but should happen at intervals.

I find that dedication to training for instance can be achieved when rest days, variety in events, and fun are brought into a sometimes realistically “boring” or mundane and repetitive set of activities. For instance when pursuing Ironman Events the training typically involves 6-8 months of training 16 hours of a week across each skill. Needless to say this can lead to a bit of mental fatigue, but adding short / fun swim, run, and rides can provide the sufficient gap necessary to allow for dedication to continue with stronger mental stamina to raise to the next level.

This concept of interval training is well tested in physical athletes, and I have sought to apply it in my life generally.

Consider how you would apply it in the following areas:

1. Making moments in your life beautiful
2. Living life (feeling like you are in a rut and there is nothing new/exciting?) > seek out new adventure! (I recently, thanks to the Olympics) have been re-introduced to my love for ice skating, and gymnastics thanks to my daughter)
3. Work – variety is the spice of life, inject hands on hard core with cerebral program and management functions (don't lose touch of how the tire meets the road or you'll either lose the rhythm of the industry or have unrealistic expectations across your teams and business.. pretty simple)

How does this relate to business.. well the same as it does for our personal ventures, since the personal venture and dedication of our people is what makes up our business. Without these fundamental pieces there is no business that can succeed.

Information Security, like other fields, requires this type of dedication given the sheer complexity and dependency placed upon these efforts by the individuals behind them. I would challenge you to answer the above questions for yourself personally, and then consider how they apply to your sphere of influence. When you are satisfied, seek out your colleagues and team members .. are they, and if not how can you help them move forward?

Sometimes the most technical aspect of our field of business, technology, and information security is the people themselves.

Best,

James

 

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What do major developments in big data, cloud, mobile, and social media mean? A CISO perspective..

Tuesday afternoon the CISO-T18 – Mega-Trends in Information Risk Management for 2013 and Beyond: CISO Views session as presented focused on the results of a survey sponsored by RSA (link below).  It provided a back drop for some good conversation, but more so it gave me a nice environment to elaborate on some personal observations and ideas.  The first tweet I sent, hammered the main slide:

“Major developments with Big Data, Cloud, Mobile, and Social media” – the context and reality here is cavernous.. “

My analysis and near-random break down of this tweet are as follows with quotes pulled from the panel.

First off – be aware that these key phrases / buzz words mean different things to different departments and from each level (strategic executives through tactical teams). Big Data analytics may not be a backend operational pursuit, but a revenue generating front end activity (such as executed by WalMart). These different instantiations are likely happening at different levels with varied visibility across the organization.

“Owning” the IT infrastructure is not a control to prevent the different groups from launching to these other ‘Major developments’.

The cost effectiveness of the platforms designed to serve businesses (i.e., Heroku, Puppet Labs, AWS, etc…) is what is defining the new cost structure. CIO and CISO must

>The cloud is not cheaper if it does have any controls. This creates a risk of the data being lost due to “no controls” – highlighted by Melanie from the panel.  <– I don’t believe this statement is generally true and generally FUD.

Specifically – There is a service level expectation by cloud service providers to compensate for the lack of audit ability those “controls”. There are motions to provide a level of assurance to these cloud providers beyond the ancient method established through ‘right to audit‘.

A method of approaching these challenging trends, specifically Big Data, below as highlighted by one of the CISO (apologies missed his name) w/ my additions:

• Data flow mapping is a key to providing efficient and positive ‘build it’ product development. It helps understand what matters (to support and have it operational), but also see if anything is breaking as a result.
• Breaking = violating a contract, breaking a compliance requirement, or negatively effecting other systems and user requirements.

Getting things Done – the CISO 

Two observations impacting the CISO and information technology organization include:

1. The Board is starting to become aware and seeking to see how information security is woven within ERM
2. Budgets are not getting bigger, and likely shrinking due to expectations of productivity gains / efficiency / cloud / etc…

Rationalization on direction, controls, security responses, must be be fast for making decisions and executing…

Your ability to get things done has little do with YOU doing things, but getting others to do things. Enabling, partnering, and teaming is what makes the business move. CIO and CISO must create positive build-it inertia.

Support and partner with the “middle management” the API of the business if you will.

• We to often focus on “getting to the board” and deploying / securing the “end points” .. Those end points are the USERS and between them and the Board are your API to achieving your personal objectives.

Vendor Management vs procurement of yester-year

Acquiring the technology and services must be done through a renewed and redeveloped vendor management program. The current procurement team’s competencies are inadequate and lacking the toolsets to ensure these providers are meeting the existing threats. To be a risk adaptive organization you must tackle these vendors with renewed. Buying the cheapest parts and service today does not mean what it meant 10 years ago. Today the copied Cisco router alternative that was reverse engineered lacks an impressive amount of problems immediately after acquisition. Buying is easy – it is the operational continuance that is difficult. This is highlighted by the 10,000+ vulnerabilities that exist with networked devices that will never be updated within corporations that must have their risks mitigated, at a very high and constant cost.

Panel referenced the following report:
http://www.emc.com/microsites/rsa/security-for-business-innovation-council.htm

Thank you to the panel for helping create a space to think and seek answers, or at least more questions!

James DeLuccia IV

Passwords are Dead, Part II 2nd False Premise – a collaborative research effort, being presented at RSA 2013

The advent of user created, managed and handled passwords as the sole means of authenticating is coming to an end. The utility of these was defined in an era based on assumptions of brute force capability, system computing power and pro-active security teams.   – After much debate and analysis … there is the thesis

This is Part II of the topic being explored and discussed at my Wednesday session at the RSA Conference in San Francisco (2013).  To see the first thesis and False Premise 1, please see the original post.  Jumping right in – looking forward to more feedback (thanks for a generous emails, but don’t be shy at the comment field below)!

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FALSE PREMISE TWO: Password strength should transcend devices – mobile, tablets (iPad, surface) [Updated 2/12/2013]

MOBILE devices:
What is the intent of the password? To stop high CPU encryption cracking systems .. or prevent inadvertent strangers from accessing the data?  Today we wrap in mobile (BYOD type if that suits you) systems into the corporate password requirement sphere, and in some cases are being more creative than other platforms.

For instance, it is recommended on a popular Apple iOS device site to use “accent characters for creating a super strong password“. Agreed these are more difficult to guess, but is that the threat we are seeking to mitigate?  In the space of X character spaces how creative must we get?

What are the risks to these mobile devices:

• Theft
• Data leakage violating regulatory, contractual, or privacy expectations of customers

If we consider the two threats – Theft is not mitigated by the password, as the device will simply be wiped.

[Updated 2/09/13] Data leakage is only possible if the device is ON and the password guessed before it locks itself permanently.  A feature readily available and easily implemented by the end-user, even more robust with corporate implementation technologies.

• So in this case, the password only needs to not be one of the top 10 most common phone passwords.  At that point the device locks and can self wipe.
• Another scenario is that the password was gleaned through recording / shoulder surfing / or simply left unlocked.  Each case the password strength was not an issue.  Other situations?

As we move into an ever mobile, data everywhere, and always connected scenario an interesting ecosystem of access & authentication appears, that requires continued serious challenge against the assumptions of our security and assurance programs.

Diving in …

Data is mobile – what role does a single password play in accessing sensitive data? Data stored on device (Cloud storage we can address on the integration point below) is at risk to a number of threats:

• The device can be attacked directly (similar to any other computing device with IP addresses and Ports) wirelessly, but typically requires physical proximity (simplest) which is reserved for either random or very targeted attackers.
• The device can be stolen, and if no OS passwords, than the Data itself is attacked/accessed directly. An unlocked device introduces risk mitigation techniques that are harder, so password is EASIEST. A password on the data within an application is a worthless without some form of self-destruct functionality similar to that of the OS level safeguards.

>> Why are passwords WORTHLESS at the application level in this situation?

>>> If the attacker is ON the device (physically or remotely) and our Use Case is an encrypted database – the attacker can copy that encrypted database to their system for local attacking (easy and zero user awareness), or they can access the database locally via brute force until they get in.

The data is at risk regardless without some form of self-destruct and tremendous levels of assurance related to the encryption of the data(base) itself.

• Other thoughts here?
• What is missing?

Passwords plays a significant role at certain tollgates upon the data (when stored on the device), and less the more “access” the attacker gets to the underlying system. A common refrain of attackers is – with “physical” access I can break into anything. We must today deal with ALL ACCESS is PHYSICAL when the data is mobile.

Plethora of devices – Today data is accessed from many devices, some owned by corporations, by end-users, or nobody – kiosks. Single passwords entered into systems allowing single thread authentication where NO assurance is understood of the underlying system and no situational awareness of the User presence seeking authentication results in failed security.

• The reuse of passwords across devices threatens the confidentiality of the password itself (as much as that matters).
• The multitude of devices increases the need to redefine what is “access” and the functions of authorization (I used “functions” instead of “rules” intentionally to draw attention on the necessity for a broader approach to solving this constraint)

Integration with third party service providers – [to be expanded…]

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Conclusion – a preview:

1. Stationarity, is defined as a quality of a process in which the statistical parameters (mean and standard deviation) of the process do not change with time.” – Challis and Kitney November 1991
2. Offline Data level authentication – Offline in an ‘always connected’ world

[Disclaimer: First off this is my research and not anyone else’s. Second, the examples above are meant to illustrate technical realities in a reasonably understood presentation. Lets focus on the problem .. identify weaknesses in the argument; and introduce the mitigation so greatly required in our online world.

I share and seek these answers for the preservation and enhancement for our way of life… as simple as that and I appreciate you being a part of my journey]

Always seek, everything…

James DeLuccia

Twitter: @jdeluccia

Top 3 attributes for businesses to benefit from Data Analytics – an Information Security & Business process perspective

Big Data introduces an opportunity that organizations see when merging silo product operations together forming a service layer or an enhanced hybrid product. Big Data also requires exceptional enterprise intelligence from the perspective of establishing the scaffolding for enterprise grwoth. That scaffolding requires advanced information technology system and business process matrix visibility.  My thesis … let me elaborate below on a single thread here given this is a subject I have been developing on recently…

In order for Big Data to work it requires abundant access to systems, data repositories, and the merging and tweaking of data beyond original data owner expectations or comprehension. The enterprise that balances the advantage of Big Data analytics with superior scaffolding will appreciate higher run rates and profitability without unfunded cost centers and above trend OpEx generally. The opportunity of Big Data without this business intelligence will be squandered and the benefits not realized as a direct result.

The CIO has this ownership and it is the purview of the Audit Committee to ensure that these risks are understood and tackled. The Board of Directors have proven to value equally the aggressiveness of Data Analytics with the ongoing revaluation of the risk tolerance and acceptance points of the business. As one can imagine, this is a familiar yet distinct activity within the executive structure, but three key attributes / activities that indicate a successful approach are as follows:

1. Vertical awareness – product awareness, strategy, and full line of sight for each major revenue center
2. Scrum topical teams – risk assessments and activities linked to the product market research initiatives
3. Senior strategy alignment – what does the Board seek in this DA movement; What does the CEO/CIO envision on these product expansions; What is the audit committee observations (meaning that they must have visibility and mindfulness to the impact)

Think Big Data is not huge business? … consider these figures:

• Gartner: Big Data Market is Worth $3.7 Trillion, Generating Over 4 Million Jobs by 2015 – article
• Good short presentation on value of pattern based strategies, by Gartner
• $29B will be spent on big data throughout 2012 by IT departments.  Of this figure (Forbes)

Or a classic business case example:

“The cornerstone of his [Sam Walton’s] company’s success ultimately lay in selling goods at the lowest possible price, something he was able to do by pushing aside the middlemen and directly haggling with manufacturers to bring costs down. The idea to “buy it low, stack it high, and sell it cheap” became a sustainable business model largely because Walton, at the behest of David Glass, his eventual successor, heavily invested in software that could track consumer behavior in real time from the bar codes read at Wal-Mart’s checkout counters.

“He shared the real-time data with suppliers to create partnerships that allowed Wal-Mart to exert significant pressure on manufacturers to improve their productivity and become ever more efficient. As Wal-Mart’s influence grew, so did its power to nearly dictate the price, volume, delivery, packaging, and quality of many of its suppliers’ products. The upshot: Walton flipped the supplier-retailer relationship upside down.” – Changing The Industry Balance of Power

A good (no paywall) article on Forbes here breaks down the IT spent related directly to Big Data and compares against prior years up to 2012 & by industry.  

Also check out this MIT Sloan article co-developed with IBM entitled Big Data, Analytics and the path from Insight to Value  – most interesting for me was page 23 relating to Analytics trumping intuition.  This relates to EVERY business process, product, sales opportunity, accounting, fraud detection, compliance initiative, security analytics, defense and response capabilities, power management, etc …  A worthwhile read for each executive.

Think strategically act vertically and influence horizontally – scale!

James DeLuccia IV

*See me speak at RSA 2013 on the topic – Passwords are Dead