AT&T Plans CNN-style Security Channel

An anonymous reader writes "Infoworld has a story about AT&T's upcoming effort to create a CNN of network security. From the article: "Security experts at AT&T are about to take a page from CNN's playbook. Within the next year they will begin delivering a video streaming service that will carry Internet security news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the executive in charge of AT&T Labs.""

Comments

Early model

[BWJones]

Presumably AT&T is going to go deeper into the security game and this is a good move for them. If they want to build credibility, brand this channel with subtlety and simply report the news. But rather than providing this as a service to their existing customers, stream it live to the Internet for everybody's consumption. That will help to build the AT&T brand for security much more so than limiting the audience. The costs cannot be that much more, right?

Interestingly, the page the article is linked on has a signal to noise ratio for this particular article of about .2. In other words, 80% of the page is noise from advertisements versus 20% actual content that we are interested in by clicking on the link which gets me to thinking.....Given that they are modeling it after the CNN model, hopefully this channel will adhere to the model CNN had in the early days. It was "all news, all the time", kind of like MTVs early days where it was "all music, all the time". Right now CNN has degenerated into talk radio like TV with unbelievably biased commentators, and now they are towing the entertainment news line because they are part of Time Warner and their balance of ads versus news has been going down the tubes for years now. For instance, I had CNN on the other morning from about 9:30 to 10:00 and 60% of the airtime was devoted to commercials. It has been said that with the large conglomerate ownership of media these days, that the Watergate scandal would not have come to light. Think about that for a few minutes and see where it takes you. Scary, is it not?

Re:Early model

[xMilkmanDanx]

On top of that, is streaming video really the way to get security updates? Personally an outline text form lets me go straight to the areas that are applicable to me and what I need to keep secure. I definitely wouldn't want to sit through 15 minutes of (personally) irrelevant crap just to get the security info I need.

In the end, while there are some broad sweep security alerts that affect everyone or nearly so, most updates are probably important to 1 out of 10 people.

Boo....rrah!

[Kwirl]

Wow, at first I was going to laugh at AT&T...disgruntled former employee and all. Then I read the article...and wanted to clap. This is a meritous idea that hopefully will provide content to those of us who want more from this field.

Hopefully they won't outsource the reporting :P

Only for existing customers

[whizkid042]

As a security professional, I was intrigued by the idea until I read:

it will be offered as an additional service to the company's customers

It's only going to be available to AT&T customers. That's too bad. Now it doesn't sound nearly as cool or half as useful to me.

Someone hacks the video feed, hilarity ensues

[n1ywb]

How long do you think it will take for that to happen?

This is ISN.

[Scoria]

Within the next year they will begin delivering a video streaming service that will carry Internet security news 24 hours a day, seven days a week

Seen on a job availability notice for this project:

ANCHOR PREREQUISITES
- Ability to fluently read and speak '1337' while broadcasting

I can see this now

[suitepotato]

95% warnings of new Windows vulnerabilities and ranting about same, 5% advertising the all new Google Commercials.

There are other sites available.

[hal9000(jr)]

Andrew Jaquith, senior analyst with The Yankee Group in Boston. "There is really no good, consistent source for security information on the Internet," he said.

There are already a handful of really good sites out there. How will ATT compete with the likes of: The Internet Storm Center, Security Focus, Packet Storm, and Security Peline which are current and relevant.

Also in the TFA, there were statements that the news serviecs will be offered to ATT customers. Will non-customers also have access to the site for free? If not, how does this compare to other managed services offerings from the likes of Symantec, ISS, and others?

Content provided by...

[Winterblink]

Microsoft :)

Watergate would have been blogged

[PaxTech]

It has been said that with the large conglomerate ownership of media these days, that the Watergate scandal would not have come to light. Think about that for a few minutes and see where it takes you. Scary, is it not?

I thought about it, and I'm not scared in the least.

If the Watergate scandal happened today, Deep Throat wouldn't have NEEDED the large conglomerate media to get the story out, he'd have just started a blog. If you doubt that a blog could have penetrated the cover-up and conspiracy, just ask Dan Rather, he's got some nice Word documents to show you. :)

I agree, mainstream media is a joke these days, luckily there is an alternative. No one needs a big corporate monolith to get news out, we all have access to the biggest printing press there is.

Re:Watergate would have been blogged

[MrAnnoyanceToYou]

BS.

Dan Rather is one thing, Bush is another. If a blog had discredited Bush to that extent, it would either a: be discredited as 'just a blog' or b: be silenced / discredited rather quickly. It took YEARS for the memo from Britain to get around.

The printing press was working in a vacuum. It made social change because it was completely new when it came to distribuation of information. While it COULD be argued that blogs are the same thing, the main people arguing it would be bloggers. Just because the datalink upstream from individuals is wider doesn't mean the datalink downstream to individuals will get any more varied anytime soon.

I'm sorry, but that's the way it's probably going to be for a while. I'd like to believe in this viewpoint, but I don't.

Bar at the bottom

[anandpur]

Windows exploit found .... Windows exploit script available .... Linux kernel exploit found .... Linux kernel patched .... Windows user are waiting for patch .... M$ announced patch will be availabe next month .... XXXX nummber of windows system turned zombies ... Linux kernel exploit found .... Linux kernel patched .... M$ relesed long awaited patch .... 1/2 of the windows useres can not install patch .... Only licenced windows users can install patch .... Linux kernel exploit found .... Linux kernel patched .... ISP disconnected un-patched widows systems from the Internet

Ex-AT&T Employee speaks

[StreetFire.net]

I *WAS* the AT&T Security Sales overlay for Globals and have personally worked for Hussien the AT&T CIO. While I think this is a good move for AT&T to increase brand awareness for their security product offering, I think the SlashDot crowd will be left with an empty feeling as AT&T's security suite focuses almost exclusively on Network based attacks with little to no coverage for application based attacks, spoofs or social engineering. AT&T *does* have some inovative products in their space, but a fairly narrow focus on the total security picture. Because of this, I can only think the "TV-show" will be similarly focused.

-Adam