Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

3Com to Buy Security Flaws?

Posted by Hemos on from the trying-new-models dept.

Zonoprh writes "CNET reports that 3Com's TippingPoint division is starting a pay-for-vulnerability program called the Zero Day Initiative. It seems 3Com plans to use the vulnerabilities they purchase to fuel signatures in their protection technologies, in addition to sharing the same data with other security vendors. From the article, "Money has increasingly become an incentive for hackers. Program's such as TippingPoint's offer a legitimate way for them to get paid for their bug hunting. There is also an underground market for vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals pay top dollar for previously undisclosed flaws that they can then exploit to break into computer systems, experts have said.""

9 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. "Will deal only with reputable researchers" by xmas2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the article: Bugs can be reported to TippingPoint through the Zero Day Initiative Web site. TippingPoint investigates all reports and will deal only with reputable researchers, Endler said. "We need to know exactly who we are working with," he said. "We don't want to work with black hats or illegal groups." The term "black hat" is used to describe criminal hackers.

    So I gotta wonder how they are gonna determine who is reputable and who is not ...

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
    1. Re:"Will deal only with reputable researchers" by cnettel · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Well, for a start, it could indicate that they won't be making any anonymous payments, or payments through proxies.

      Give us your identity, and your bug, we give you the money. Sounds fair.

  2. Good idea by dmurray14 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Much better way to deal with bugs, I'm surprised no one thought about this before. I guess the real test will be to see how they deal with the bugs they "buy"

  3. Wow by truckaxle · · Score: 4, Funny

    I knew 3COM was big, but big enough to buy Microsoft? Wow!

  4. Simple solution by Sierpinski · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If someone is able to break into your system offer to pay them to keep it secure from others like themselves.

    What was the famous counterfeiters name that the FBI hired to spot fakes? He was the basis for the movie 'Catch me if you Can'.

    Allow them to use their powers for good, because if you don't, they will continue to use their powers, in whichever direction (good or bad) that they can. The big companies might as well use them as a tool (and pay them) to create/maintain better secured software.

    --
    And they said zombies weren't real!
    1. Re:Simple solution by kfg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Frank Abagnale was the Kevin Mitnick of his time, and although he was a master counterfeiter his chief skill was in "social engineering."

      Brazen, fearless and with a personality to charm the socks right off of you, if he had stuck to cons he might well never have been caught (bad paper leaves a paper trail). Having once caught him keeping him caught proved to be a bit of a problem and on one occasion he simply talked his way out of prison

      It isn't listed in his IMDB entry (which he has by virtue of being the author of Catch Me if You Can), but he once made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and so impressed me that it is one of the few Tonight Show interviews that has always stuck with me.

      I haven't read the book, so it may well be the blurb that is at fault, but certain discrepencies between the book blurb at Amazon and things he said in that interview suggest to me that he's never really given up the con game and we'll never know what is the truth and what is the self generated myth about him.

      He should have gone into politics.

      KFG

  5. Clearing house for bugs Nice idea however by infonography · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They don't share the info on the exploits. With CERT the bug is known even if crucial details are not. With 3Com, it's a murky secret. According to their own data they will sit on them until they have notified every security company first. Only then will they tell the public putting everybody at risk. Worst yet from a business standpoint they can pay of a exploit only to have somebody else notify the world the next day. That's money lost. Unless they want to go an copyright the exploit they are assed out.

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  6. DIY funding by James+McGuigan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How long till someone finds a security flaw in 3com's online payment system and assigns themselves a financial reward for discovering the security flaw.

  7. Are they building up Intellectual Property by uid000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If they "buy" a software vulnerability, and build a signature for it, will somebody else who builds a signature (e.g., snort) for it be violating some IP right like copyright or patent?