Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Way To Thank Users For Reporting Security Issues?
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: I have worked in the IT field long enough to know that many issues can be avoided if users pay attention to pop-ups, security alerts, "from" addresses et al and not just machine gun click their way through things. Unfortunately, most users seem to have the "fuck it" mentality in terms of good security practices. Sometimes I will have users submit a ticket asking if an email is safe to open or if that strange 800 number that popped up in their browser is really Microsoft. When that happens I like to talk to them in person (when possible) to commend them and tell them how much trouble could be avoided if more users followed their example. I'm curious to know if anyone has ever worked somewhere with bug bounty type incentives for corporate users or if you have a unique way of thanking people for not trying to open Urgent_Invoice.exe.
How about just saying, "Thank you!" to them?
You could also give them money.
A bit ironic, but I'm sure it would be appreciated!
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
If they go to the trouble to document and report bugs, you need to fix them quickly. This isn't limited to security bugs -- any kind of bug deserves attention. That's more thanks than they get from most vendors. Nothing will make me quit a vendor more quickly than being ignored when I make substantial, documented bug reports.
I've heard many cases of somebody reporting a security issue, then getting fired, sued, or arrested as a result. In the case of kids in school, suspended or expelled.
They were HONEST here! They found a security problem and rather than exploit it for personal gain, they reported it, and then get in TROUBLE for it??
It's absurd. It means when people hear of this and find security problems in the future, they'll keep quiet about them because they don't want to get in trouble too.
If you demonstrate that you take the report seriously. So just showing a good followup of the report, with progress and fixes.
That means having the resources since without resources nobody'll be happy.
I've been reporting security issues in local businesses that I deal with. One is an ISP that stores and emails users passwords in plain text. Another is a bank exposing credit card numbers in plain text. When I report this shit, I expect actual follow through in fixing them. In the former case, the ISP literally gave me a "not our problem" response, while the bank said they'd contact me back and never did (still need to check to see if this issue has at least been resolved though).
To every congressman in the country, asking them to repel the CFAA or at least heavily reform it, while also making a huge PR stunt about it.
Fix the problem, promptly.
The heat from below can burn your eyes out
Hack directly to their screen and display, "Thanks for reporting the security issue. -Anonymous Coward"
Table-ized A.I.
send them a 500 dollar gift card
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Want to know when somebody finds a XSS vuln in your timesheet app? Give 'em a starbucks gift card. Or a $20 pre-paid gift debit card they can use anywhere.
Sure, employees will try to game the system at first, and you'll find loopholes in your "rules" of the game. But the end result is net positive:
1) Your employees are *paid* and *happy* to notify the company of vulnerabilities, and
2) You. Fucking. Fix. Vulnerabilities.
Seriously, it's a net win for both the company and the employees. Just do it.
da w00t. mtfnpy?
Lawsuit. At least that seems to be industry best practice...
That is all.
Way to miss the point. Sure hope I never work with you.
The deal is, how do you get people to actually follow recommended practices. Some places I've worked IT has had a lock on everything and it was annoying to users, but systems pretty much did what they should. Other places people just did whatever and IT was always playing catch up.
Why is this, and how is compliance achieved? is the question.
We'd just toss them in jail...
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
The best way to reward users is to give them an award that is publicly visible, to encourage others to do the same.
Anecdote: I worked at an organization that, like many others, had a public "share drive." Sometimes I would browse the folders with pictures of coworkers at after-hours events. One time, I decided to see what was on the drive, and I found an Excel spreadsheet with a list of names, last 4 digits of social security numbers, and credit cards. Excel keeps the author's name in the file, so I contacted the author. They replied with "Oh, that file is a temporary file and it gets deleted every 30 days, so don't worry about it." I forwarded the email to the company's head of security, expecting no reply. A month later I was invited to a conference room for something random, and much too my surprise, I was presented with an award in front of 20 or so people in my department. My boss told me it was handed down to him by the head of corporate security, along with an explanation of what I had done. I was in genuinely proud. Because of that event, I was more engaged with the company, and I have taken that security mindset with me. I can only hope that other employees took it to heart as well.
I know the summary is about users reporting internal security concerns. However on a broader note, we need an industry standard fo reporting security issues. Every other day there's some story about an organization that ignored a report, or sued the researcher, or something. We need a standards body to:
1. Create a standard form for submitting vulnerabilities (especially to 3rd-parties.)
2. A standard way to deliver that form.
3. A standard amount of time to wait for a response before disclosing it.
4. A standard form to disclose it publicly, and a list of appropriate organizations to receive it.
5. An industry-accepted expectation that, if you follow these industry standard steps, then you should be safe from lawsuits.
Best way to report security issues and problems? Are you daft?
1. They don't want to be bothered
2. They want to "look good" as cheaply as possibly
3. No liability
Is it worth the expansion? Here on Slashdot? I must be daft, but I'll say a bit more:
As regards #1 and many years of attempting to report problems, I can assure you that they [various organizations who, in theory, might be responsible for protecting your security as customers and users] are NOT grateful. These days the trend has become pigeonholing incoming reports to conveniently shaped holes, and it must be the fault of the black-hat hackers and scammers that they keep violating the RULES and keep failing to fit in the proper holes!
As regards #2 the main goal is to do as little as possible while claiming as much credit as possible. Control the costs and regard it as a marketing issue, but (just in case you haven't noticed) the marketing people don't know much and care even less about security.
As regards #3, I think the primary blame goes to Microsoft. They didn't invent liability evasion, but I think they perfected it with the EULA and related licenses. If the companies selling you software had any real liability for bugs (and especially for contagiously and outrageously harmful security flaws), then you can be assured they would stop selling so much pretty garbage.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Litterally, just fix them ASAP.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Send them a threatening letter from your legal team, along with a DMCA takedown notice.
My workplace has many security "features". I am a long time IT worker above level III.
From cold boot to being productive takes longer than 10 minutes due to the security feature of being able to use the 2FA token exactly once, then having to wait for the next one (90 seconds on average). This is really a "nice" feature when your infrastructure is completely down and you have C level execs screaming to get it back up. (Yes, it's load balanced and it has HA pairs all over the joint, but while rare, the whole thing can pack it in sometimes. Budget constraints.)
If your users are taking a "fuck it" attitude, that can at times be put down to them. Other times, put it down to security for the sake of security and becoming an obstacle, rather than meaningful procedure.
As for thanking a user, I find a simple "Wow. Holy cow. Thanks, we need to fix that!" and keeping them in the loop if they want is best.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Your attitude clearly demonstrates you care about the end users in your network. As a former corporate peon, this is refreshing.
Let them keep their job.
By prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law?
Teach them to never, ever do it again.
A coupon for an espresso and a blowjob in Switzerland.(and the flight perhaps)
http://www.eater.com/2016/6/24...
This is one of the few useful answers posted.
... was to send out an email to firm@..... that actually did hit all members of the firm, including the partners, to brag on a person who asked me if, "the UPS link," was OK or not.That way, I got a chance to:
Make a coworker (fuck the "user" mentality) feel good ..." crap
Make a coworker look good to peers and management
Lecture the entire work universe about security (again, and again, and again)
Head off the, "Well, no one ever told me
I was a broken record, and sometimes a person would screw up (I kept that between the two of us) but it was about the best I could come up with.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
The small amount we spend on thanks was more than repaid by the savings created by a community of alert, careful internet skeptics.
What we do is send a letter to their commander commending them (the commander) and the person who identified the problem. Commanders love getting their egos stroked, and love handing out letters in big meetings. Like full formal ceremony bullshit, major blah blah blahs, private walks up to the front, gets presented the letter just the same as a medal, shake hands, pose for a photo, salute. It's fucking hilarious, but they eat this shit up.
Currently the way to thank users who report security issues is: "Fuck off!"
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
What's wrong with the way it is now?
why would i want 10s ?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
1) Send email thanking for the report, and solicit them to visit a site for getting more info.
2) When they browse the site grab at once user's IP address.
3) Exploit the vulnerability they reported by hacking into their system.
4) Delete everything you can.
Your software is perfect
If your company does not aid you with an official reward system, create your own within the limits of your ability.
I was working in risk management and security assessment a while ago. Basically our job was to find security problems and decide whether we can carry the risk if we find one or whether a service has to go. As you can imagine, that does give you a bit of a wiggle room concerning the severeness of a problem. And we soon made it a public secret that reporting a problem you find in your own system yourself gives you usually a way lower assessment than one that was found by someone else, and if we find out you tried to cover it up, we would make CERTAIN to find a reason that your service has to be shot down NOW.
People were VERY cooperative, to say the least.
Of course that doesn't mean we could let serious security risks simply ride, and neither had we services shut for trivial bullshit (though, as you can imagine, when someone tried to keep stuff hidden from us it was something that was a "shut down NOW" reason anyway, like, e.g., storing credit card numbers in plain text in an unencrypted database that is publicly accessible, just to fabricate a completely impossible example...). But it did serve to give people a good incentive to work with us instead of trying to keep stuff hidden from us.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
At my company, IT sends out an email or phone paging message when there's something people really need to know about. The person who originally found or reported it is given a mention for helping the company out. It makes them feel VERY special and well-pet.
It's sad but just a mention of a person's name to a large group of people for having done something that was smiled upon is enough to make most feel like a god/goddess. Human nature, I guess. It works. More people report suspicious things because they're hoping to get a mention.
It's a lot like moderation on /. - I expect no moderation because I'm answering a question, but if I discovered the latest malware that's easy to identify but only if you know what to look for, I would hope for an up-mod. Same with people in the office; they l-hu-uuuuuuuuuve the up-mod if they've helped and everyone sees/hears their name.
Goku's spirit bomb needs it more. Be logica(Score: -1, Discrimination)
Lincoln is on the 5. Ben is on the 100.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+