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mvar writes "The source code of an older version of 'Kaspersky Internet Security' has been circulated on the internet. The code was created in late 2007 and was probably stolen in early 2008. Names contained in the source indicate that the stolen code was probably a beta version of the 2008 software package – the current release is Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. According to a Russian language report by CNews (Google translation), the code was copied by a disgruntled ex-employee. The thief has reportedly been trying to sell the code on the black market for some time, and Kaspersky says that the code archive already appeared in various private forums last November."

hlovy writes "The profit motive can — yes, shockingly — drive biotech research. But, according to a report by the AFP news agency, this same drive to make money is actually putting the brakes on embryonic stem cell research. With the research already set back years due to government research bans, US scientists now face roadblocks because other universities or companies have secured exclusive rights."

aaardwark writes "After a leaked document from the department of justice showed police will be able to demand extensive private information for minor offenses, some Swedish ISPs have decided to fight back (translated article). By routing all traffic through VPN, they plan to make the gathered data pointless. ISP Bahnhof says they will give you the option to opt out of VPN, but giving up your privacy will cost extra."

AndyAndyAndyAndy writes "In a morning blog post, Google announced the release of a Chrome plug-in called 'Keep My Opt-Outs,' which hopes to block all tracking cookies. Interestingly, it is released as open-source with the hopes that it will gain quick deployment on non-Chrome browsers and find a robust foothold against ads. The story is also covered at Computerworld, which has broader insight into the issue, looking at Google, Mozilla and Firefox, and seems to indicate more rapid change is looming — potentially from the FCC itself."

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "When someone calls 911 in a panic to report an emergency, within seconds the dispatcher knows where the call is coming from, and help is often only moments away. When it comes to computer security incidents, often companies are not as resilient in their ability to quickly respond. Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured. In Computer Incident Response and Product Security, author Damir Rajnovic provides the reader with an excellent and practical guide to the fundamentals of building and running a security incident response team. The book is focused on getting the reader up to speed as quick as possible and is packed with valuable real-world and firsthand guidance." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Computer Incident Response and Product Security author Damir Rajnovic pages 256 publisher Cisco Press rating 8/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1587052644 summary Provides a good overview of the topic of computer incident response and product security Be it a IRT (Incident Response Team), CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team), CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), or CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team); whatever the term used, companies desperately need a process and team to formally respond to computer security incidents. The simple equation is that to the degree the incident is quickly identified, handled and ameliorated; is to the extent that the damage is contained and limited.

At just over 200 pages, the books 13 chapters provides an excellent foundation on which to start a CIRT. The book is divided into two parts. Chapters 1-6 form part 1, Computer Security Incidents, with part 2 being on Product Security.

Chapter 1 provides a basic introduction to the topic on why an organization should care about computer security incident response. This brief chapter touches upon the various business impacts, in addition to the legal and other reasons necessary for establishing a CIRT.

Chapter 2 lays down the 6 steps in which to establish an IRT, which are: defining the constituency, ensuring upper-management support, obtaining funding, hierarchy, team structure and policies and procedures. Each of these steps is crucial, and a mistake too many organizations make is to leave one or more out. Only later when an incident occurs, which often takes an inordinate amount of time to fix, do these companies realize that their IRT was incomplete and inadequate in the first place.

The chapter includes an interesting look at the various types of IRT teams that can be created; namely central, distributed or virtual. The book notes that if you don't have sufficiently strong support from senior organizational executives to form a real IRT (which should be a huge red flag right there), a virtual team is a good option. Virtual teams can be easier to set up as they are less formal with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. While there are benefits to a virtual IRT, companies that are truly serious about computer security will ensure that they have a formal and dedicated IRT in place.

In chapter 3, Operating an IRT, the author details the items needed to successfully operate an IRT. One of the soft skills the author discusses is effective interpersonal skills. The author writes that one situation that can arise when handling an active incident is that the person reporting the incident may say offensive things or become abusive to the IRT analyst. This behavior is generally the consequence of the attack, indicating its urgency. When dealing with such a person, it is imperative that IRT analyst not get caught up in the user's behavior. Rather they must focus on determining the appropriate method to fix the problem.

While part 1 is around the computer security incident itself, part 2 deals with product security. Most organizations create their IRT around computer security incidents. In chapter 8, the author writes about the need to create a product security team (PST) to deal with security issues related to vendor products.

Every software and hardware product has security flaws, be it Cisco, Juniper, Check Point and others. By understanding this and having a PST to deal with vendor security issues, a company will be adequately protected. In truth, only large companies will have the budget to support an independent PST in addition to an IRT.

In many ways, the PST is simply a specialized section of the IRT, with specific expertise around a specific product set. Many firms already have some sort of PST in place to deal with Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft releases security patches.

Overall, Computer Incident Response and Product Security provides a good overview of the topic. At 215 pages, the book should be seen as an introduction to the topic, not a comprehensive reference. The reason is that a topic such as security incident response requires much broader coverage given the extent of the requirements encompassed. In some ways though, its conciseness is its advantage, as a 750 page tome, while adequate for the subject, may overwhelm many, if not most readers. Also, the author has the ability to adequately discuss topics in a manner while brief, does cover the topic issues.

At $49-, the book is moderately priced, given the value of the content. For those on a limited budget, the Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams from CERT provides a good overview of the topic. While the handbook was last revised in 2003, much of the core concepts around incident response are immutable.

As this title is from Cisco Press and the author an employee of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), the book has a definite Cisco slant. While Cisco products are often referenced, this though is not a book from Cisco marketing. More importantly, as part of the Cisco PSIRT, the author has first-hand knowledge of one of the world's premier IRT.

For those serious about computer security and incident response, Computer Incident Response and Product Security should be one of the required books for every member of the team.

Ben Rothke is an information security professional and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

You can purchase Computer Incident Response and Product Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

xiando writes "Norwegian police were asked by officials in Italy to get personal information about two bloggers who were using a server in Oslo. The police decided the best thing to do would be to take the server's hard drive, along with personal information from about 7,000 other users (Google translation of Norwegian original). Other ISPs say this is standard operating procedure in Norway these days."

Dthief writes with this quote from an Associated Press report: "After 233 days in a locked steel capsule, six researchers on a 520-day mock flight to Mars are all feeling strong and ready to 'land' on the Red Planet, the mission director said Friday. The all-male crew of three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian has been inside windowless capsules at a Moscow research center since June. Their mission aims to help real space crews in the future cope with the confinement and stress of interplanetary travel. The researchers communicate with the outside world via emails and video messages — occasionally delayed to give them the feel of being farther than a few yards away from mission control. The crew members eat canned food similar to that eaten on the International Space Station and shower only once a week. None of the men has considered abandoning the mission, although they are free to walk out at any time, mission director and former cosmonaut Boris Morukov told reporters on Friday."

rsk points out this "review of the $1200 Makerbot Thing-o-Matic 3D printer. After a 16-hour self-assembly and a few weeks of use, a blown PSU was replaced with a higher powered PSU via a mod to the Thing-o-Matic. Video of the Thing-o-Matic printing out little solar panel mounts from Google Sketch-up included in the review. Final thoughts suggest that the Thing-o-Matic is not a great gift for non-engineers: 'You need a decent understanding of robotics, hardware, software, electronics and mechanics, need a little hand dexterity and a ton of patience.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Here's an example of fine Qwest workmanship. In our business park, they just installed a DSL connection for our neighbors, for which we share an exterior utility space. They left: a DSL modem stuffed in a cardboard box, wrapped in a Wal-Mart bag, sitting outside in what will be below-zero (F) temps, on top of a bank of ten natural gas meters in some of the driest air of the year. They also left it plugged into an exposed exterior power outlet above a snowbank, with network cables running around the building, through snowbanks, coupled and protected by zip-lock baggies, and into our neighbors office. Not to mention the hack-job of patching the phone cable directly into the demarcation box. And if you're wondering — I was told upon calling them that this is not their problem, and I need to contact my primary phone service provider."

eldavojohn writes "After working closely with US officials following the lifting of export restrictions, Google has announced that their Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome are now available for download in Iran. US sanctions once prevented this but now Google has created versions of its popular software that block all Iranian government IP addresses from utilizing them — thus satisfying the new restrictions."

eldavojohn writes "The last time we discussed the Las Vegas Review-Journal and their litigating attorneys at Righthaven LLC, they were suing all the websites that had violated their news copyrights. Well, they've now added seven individual message board posters that they've managed to identify, bringing the number of DMCA-related lawsuits they have launched since March to 203. In one case, LVRJ is upset that a Google Groups user named Jim_Higgins posted a column that cited the columnist but failed to cite the original LVRJ article. But Google Groups is protected from these suits, as the article explains: 'Both the madjacksports and Google sites are somewhat protected from copyright lawsuits because they have posted "DMCA" notices as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These notices, which must be registered with the US Copyright Office, inform copyright holders who to contact if they would like infringing material removed.' The first decision of this cluster of lawsuits was against Righthaven, yet the onslaught continues. Righthaven has publicly dismissed fair use as well."

eldavojohn writes "The old cliche that the rich and corrupt hold all their money in Swiss bank accounts (to avoid taxation) may finally have a bit of transparency, as the news today is that Wikileaks has been handed a list of account holders tendered by Rudolf Elmer, former banker of Julius Baer. Julian Assange promises a 'full revelation' while Elmer cited his motivation as being: 'I want to let society know how this system works. It's damaging society.' This appears to be real, as Mr. Elmer is soon to appear before a Zurich regional court on charges of coercion as well as violations of Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws. The public may soon find out that their favorite celebrity, politician or employer doesn't feel responsible to contribute financially to the commonwealth at the expense of privacy."

asheller writes "The Star Tribune tells us the zodiac signs have shifted. Earth's wobble has shifted the signs, a new one's been added and many of us have changed signs. Formerly a Cancer, I've apparently been upgraded to Gemini and am now married to an Ophiuchus, a new sign. What's yor sign? The new Zodiac Chart is pretty interesting." Here are some priceless reactions to this celestial development. As long as the Chinese Zodiac is unaffected, I'll still be able to accurately judge people based on when they were born, so please indicate in comments your (new) sign and birth year animal, so we'll be able to know where you're coming from.

prostoalex writes "On January 1st 2012, the Russian government will start issuing universal ID cards (Russian original) that will replace current national identification system (Russia has a system of internal passports), medical insurance cards, student IDs, public transport passes, and debit cards. The smart card contains unique personal identifiers and allows for multiple levels of authentication. The Russian government is pushing for local government agencies, transportation providers, banks and retail operators to adopt the government-issued ID to streamline their operations."

Neil writes "Damon Sicore, Senior Director of Platform Engineering at Mozilla, has announced that the company is almost ready to ship Firefox 4. On its mailing list, Mozilla has revealed it has around 160 hard blockers to fix, before proceeding to Release Candidate stage. Both the RC and the final version would arrive in February, according to Sicore. Mozilla was originally planning on having Firefox 4 out by the end of last year, but it had to delay the release till 2011. Last month, Firefox 4 Beta 8 was released for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux 32-bit/64-bit, with support for 57 languages. Mozilla's roadmap says it still wants to release a Beta 9, a Beta 10, and at least one Release Candidate build before the final version."

theodp writes "Google put out an APB Tuesday, looking for young Einstein and Curie wannabes for its new global online Google Science Fair (nice Rube Goldberg YouTube promo, btw). Students between the ages of 13-18 with access to a computer, the Net and a browser can compete for prizes that include a trip to the Galapagos Islands, scholarships, and a five-day trip to CERN. Google hasn't yet figured out a way to web-enable science fair boards, so projects like Crystal Meth — Friend or Foe will have to be created as Google Sites (example). Unlike a typical local school science fair, the judges here are the real deal, so you can forget about blaming scientifically-clueless students, parents and teachers for your loss this time, kids!"

theodp writes "Google put out an APB Tuesday, looking for young Einstein and Curie wannabes for its new global online Google Science Fair (nice Rube Goldberg YouTube promo, btw). Students between the ages of 13-18 with access to a computer, the Net and a browser can compete for prizes that include a trip to the Galapagos Islands, scholarships, and a five-day trip to CERN. Google hasn't yet figured out a way to web-enable science fair boards, so projects like Crystal Meth — Friend or Foe will have to be created as Google Sites (example). Unlike a typical local school science fair, the judges here are the real deal, so you can forget about blaming scientifically-clueless students, parents and teachers for your loss this time, kids!"

theodp writes "Google put out an APB Tuesday, looking for young Einstein and Curie wannabes for its new global online Google Science Fair (nice Rube Goldberg YouTube promo, btw). Students between the ages of 13-18 with access to a computer, the Net and a browser can compete for prizes that include a trip to the Galapagos Islands, scholarships, and a five-day trip to CERN. Google hasn't yet figured out a way to web-enable science fair boards, so projects like Crystal Meth — Friend or Foe will have to be created as Google Sites (example). Unlike a typical local school science fair, the judges here are the real deal, so you can forget about blaming scientifically-clueless students, parents and teachers for your loss this time, kids!"

theodp writes "Google put out an APB Tuesday, looking for young Einstein and Curie wannabes for its new global online Google Science Fair (nice Rube Goldberg YouTube promo, btw). Students between the ages of 13-18 with access to a computer, the Net and a browser can compete for prizes that include a trip to the Galapagos Islands, scholarships, and a five-day trip to CERN. Google hasn't yet figured out a way to web-enable science fair boards, so projects like Crystal Meth — Friend or Foe will have to be created as Google Sites (example). Unlike a typical local school science fair, the judges here are the real deal, so you can forget about blaming scientifically-clueless students, parents and teachers for your loss this time, kids!"

theodp writes "Having already assembled a private Air Force, Google's top execs now seem to be turning their attention to building a personal Navy. At last count, CEO Eric Schmidt's wife had assembled a stable of three classic racing boats — the Swan 80 Selene, the 46-foot W-class Equus and the Alerion Mischief. Perhaps not to be outdone, the press is reporting that Google founder Larry Page just snapped up a $45 million superyacht called Senses from New Zealand businessman Sir Douglas Myers, who referred to the ostentatious-yet-awesome yacht as his 'adventure boat.' As Google likes to say, 'just the latest steps in Google's commitment to a clean and green energy future.' So, do Google execs eat their own carbon footprint calculator dogfood?" All I know is if Larry wants to go fishing, I'll bring bait — or he can come here and fish on Zen's pontoon boat. It only leaked once, the engine usually starts right up, and while there's no helipad, I'd love to watch someone try.

theodp writes "Having already assembled a private Air Force, Google's top execs now seem to be turning their attention to building a personal Navy. At last count, CEO Eric Schmidt's wife had assembled a stable of three classic racing boats — the Swan 80 Selene, the 46-foot W-class Equus and the Alerion Mischief. Perhaps not to be outdone, the press is reporting that Google founder Larry Page just snapped up a $45 million superyacht called Senses from New Zealand businessman Sir Douglas Myers, who referred to the ostentatious-yet-awesome yacht as his 'adventure boat.' As Google likes to say, 'just the latest steps in Google's commitment to a clean and green energy future.' So, do Google execs eat their own carbon footprint calculator dogfood?" All I know is if Larry wants to go fishing, I'll bring bait — or he can come here and fish on Zen's pontoon boat. It only leaked once, the engine usually starts right up, and while there's no helipad, I'd love to watch someone try.

eldavojohn writes "Thinking about developing a game involving a 'database driven online distributed tournament system?' Well, you had better talk to Walker Digital or risk a lawsuit, because Walker Digital claims to have patented that 'invention' back in 2002. The patent in question has resulted in some legal matters for the makers of 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War, Blur, Wolfenstein, DJ Hero 2, Golden Eye 007, World of Warcraft and its expansions, Mafia Wars, and many others.' Walker Digital (parent company of Priceline.com) said it's not sure how much damages are going to be, and requested that through discovery in the court. If you think Walker Digital is not a patent troll, check out their lawsuit from two months ago against Facebook for using privacy controls Walker Digital claims to have patented. It would seem that any online competitive game that uses a database to select and reward contestants in a tournament could potentially fall under this patent — of course, those with the deepest coffers will be cherrypicked first."

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

brothke writes "Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security, authors Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse provide a comprehensive and first-rate overview of smart grid technology and what is needed to ensure that it is developed and deployed in a secure and safe manner. An issue is that smart grid has significant amount of hype around it, including the promise that it will make energy more affordable, effective and green. With that, promises around security and privacy are often hard to obtain." Read on for the rest of Ben's review. Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security author Tony Flick and Justin Morehouse pages 320 publisher Syngress rating 9/10 reviewer Ben Rothke ISBN 1597495700 summary Excellent overview on smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues While the books notes early on that there is no singular definition of what defines smart grid, a generally accepted definition is that it is a "network of technologies providing real-time two-way communication that delivering electricity from utilities to consumers".

Most importantly, it is crucial to understand that the smart grid is an evolving environment, not a single entity or technology.

As important as the smart grid and security is, roughly 80% of Americans claim to know little or nothing about the smart grid, while 76% lack knowledge or understanding of smart meters, according to results of the latest Market Strategies International E2 Study.

From a security perspective, securing the smart grid is a complex endeavor. When you combined this with a public that is oblivious to the security and privacy issues, it gets worrisome quite fast.

The books 14 chapters provide a good overview of the various aspects of smart grid, energy and utility transmission, security, privacy attack vectors and more. The book offers a good balance of the topics, in a very readable format.

In chapter 1, the authors note that a smart grid is not a single device, application, system network, or even idea. And that there is no single authoritative definition for what a smart grid is. With that, the initial chapter sets and defines the various aspects to smart grid.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the threats and impacts of smart metering at the consumer level. A large part of smart grid technologies is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is a set of systems that measure, collect and analyze energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media. Once smart grid is ubiquitous, AMI will be a hacker's platform of choice.

With all those benefits of AMI come security and privacy issues, and those open the metering infrastructure to smart thieves, stalkers, and a broad range of other threats and attacks. AMI also opens up a new set of privacy issues in that the AMI devices will be collecting significant amounts of personal energy data, which may or may not be transmitted over a secure channel.

Unfortunately, leaving security to vendors of home-based products has traditionally not been met with much success. Let's hope the smart grid vendors learn from the security debacles of the past and build effective and strong security into their products.

Chapter 4 notes that smart grid security is a matter of national security and that the US government is playing a large role in directing the effort. Numerous groups have efforts in place to secure smart grids, including DOE, FERC, DoC, DHS and more.

An important group working on this is the NIST Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG). The primary goal of the CSWG is to develop an overall cyber security strategy for the smart grid that includes a risk mitigation strategy to ensure interoperability of solutions across different domains/components of the infrastructure. This strategy addresses prevention, detection, response, and recovery.

The CSWG recently created NISTIR 7628 — Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which complement everything detailed in this book. It also has the added benefit of being free. At 577 pages, it is also much more comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is especially fascinating, which deals with the topic of social networks and smart grid. While smart grid can leverage the power of social networking, it is inevitable that people will start tweeting about their energy usage. While that energy data may seem like an innocuous tweet, that information can be used to determine if the people are at home, on vacation, using specific appliances, etc.

For example, the Lyceum is the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. The Lyceum also has a twitter feed about its energy usage. While this is more informational, when individuals start sharing their energy usage, without effective social media controls, the security outcome is quite predictable. With that level of information disclosure, it is quite easy to determine if a family is home, not home, sleeping, entertaining guests, etc.

As to users who in the future will integrate tweets and other energy data into their social networking, the chapter illustrates how much of a security risk this can pose by detailing vampire energy cost estimates for over 75 different types of electronic products. Attackers can use the energy data and extrapolate what products are in use, when, and more.

The chapter concludes with a smart grid social networking security checklist. The smart grid social networking security checklist contains five categories for implementing basic security controls, name around: identity, authentication, information sharing, networking and usage.

The book also includes a number of sidebar Epic Fail stories, which detail major failures and catastrophes in various energy topics.

Overall, Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security provides an excellent overview on the state of smart grid technology and its related security, privacy and regulatory issues. The book provides an excellent introduction for anyone looking to understand what smart grid is all about, and its security and privacy issues.

You can purchase Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

nonprofiteer writes "Mark Jensen's home computer revealed Internet searches for botulism, poisoning, pipe bombs and mercury fulminate. A website was visited that explained how to reverse the polarity of a swimming pool — the Jensens had a pool — by switching the wires around, likening the result to the 4th of July. The State pointed out the absence of Internet searches on topics like separation, divorce, child custody or marital property. Julie Jensen died as a result of ethylene glycol in her system, an ingredient found in antifreeze. On the morning of her death, someone attempted to 'double-delete' (apparently unsuccessfully) the computer's browsing history, which included a search for 'ethylene glycol poisoning.'" What if searches for devious, undetectable methods of murder were in everyone's history?

theodp writes "Screw that eHarmony Compatibility Matching System nonsense. 'Physical appearance is generally considered one of the most important search criteria among users of online dating services,' according to a patent granted Tuesday to five Microsoft Research Asia inventors. Its Image-Based Face Search technology not only allows people to specify the 'gender, age, ethnicity, location, height, weight, and the like' of their prey, explains Microsoft, it also allows them to 'provide a query image of a face for which they would like to search for similar faces.' So, even though you can't have the real Angelina Jolie or Natalie Portman, Microsoft will fix you up with a look-alike."

hackingbear writes "In an interview published in Sina.com.cn, Chinese rail engineers gave a detailed account of the history, motivation, and technologies behind the Chinese high-speed rail system. More interestingly, they blatantly revealed the strategies and tactics used in acquiring high-speed rail tech from foreign companies (Google translation of Chinese original). At the beginning, China developed its own high-speed rail system known as the Chinese Star, which achieved a test speed of 320km/h; but the system was not considered reliable or stable enough for operation. So China decided to import the technologies. The leaders instructed, 'The goal of the project is to boost our economy, not theirs.' A key strategy employed is divide-and-conquer: by dividing up the technologies of the system and importing multiple different technologies across different companies, it ensures no single country or company has total control. 'What we do is to exchange market for technologies. The negotiation was led by the Ministry of Railway [against industry alliances of the exporting countries]. This uniform executive power gave China huge advantage in negotiations,' said Wu Junrong, 'If we don't give in, they have no choice. They all want a piece of our huge high speed rail project.' For example, [Chinese locomotive train] CRH2 is based on Japanese tech, CRH3 on German tech, and CRH5 on French tech, all retrofit for Chinese rail standards. Another strategy is buy-to-build. The first three trains were imported as a whole; the second three were assembled with imported parts; subsequent trains contain more and more Chinese made parts."

theodp writes "Reports from Engadget and others suggest that Tiger Woods and Brett Favre might want to avoid Android for the time being. It seems Android's default text messaging app still has horrible text messaging bugs that can that intermittently send texts to the wrong person. 'This is ticking me off like no other technology glitch that I experienced in recent years,' reads one unhappy camper's post on a lengthy Help Forum thread opened on March 16th. 'If a bank deposited my paycheck into another person's account I wouldn't stress so much cause I can always get the money back. How the hell do you take words back? "Oh sorry boss you had to find out that I think you're an idiot, can I still keep my job, please please please?"' Over at Google Code, Issue 9392 — SMS are intermittently sent to wrong and seemingly random contact — carries a priority of 'Medium,' even though it has 600+ comments and has been starred by 3,600+ people."

theodp writes "Reports from Engadget and others suggest that Tiger Woods and Brett Favre might want to avoid Android for the time being. It seems Android's default text messaging app still has horrible text messaging bugs that can that intermittently send texts to the wrong person. 'This is ticking me off like no other technology glitch that I experienced in recent years,' reads one unhappy camper's post on a lengthy Help Forum thread opened on March 16th. 'If a bank deposited my paycheck into another person's account I wouldn't stress so much cause I can always get the money back. How the hell do you take words back? "Oh sorry boss you had to find out that I think you're an idiot, can I still keep my job, please please please?"' Over at Google Code, Issue 9392 — SMS are intermittently sent to wrong and seemingly random contact — carries a priority of 'Medium,' even though it has 600+ comments and has been starred by 3,600+ people."