About those degrees…

There is a meme going around related to the Equifax hack that points out an executive in charge of security doesn’t have a degree related to security.
Surprise! A lot of the folks who currently keep us safe on the internet don’t have degrees in security. They just didn’t exist when we were in school. I think Paul summed it up best:

[T]alking about Susan Mauldin’s music degree is a socially acceptable way for men (and they’re almost all men) to vent about a woman who they don’t feel belongs in their workplace – especially not in a senior role. That truth is simply unavoidable.

Paul’s article over on Security Ledger is well worth a read looking at security professionals and what their credentials are. Also, a summary of the discussions happening in various online fora about her and the breach.
On my Facebook feed, there have been a lot of discussions. It’s interesting because many of my friends are experts in security and/or internet technology. Some have degrees in relevant studies, but a lot are self taught. They are the embodiment of Chris Robert’s quote in Paul’s article.

“So many of us in security have worked our way in and clawed our way up and we stand on the experience that we have and build on the experience of others,” noted security expert Chris Roberts (@sidragon1) told [Paul]. “This realm we’ve created over the last 20+ years has only recently lent itself to certification and most of us have the scars and bruises from so many years of experience which arguably counts for as much if not more in some cases.”

Anti-abuse and deliverability are even newer field than security and they don’t have much in the way of certification, either. But most of us working in the field do have the scars and bruises from experience.
We are living in the future. Those of us who are creating the future are doing the best we can. Sometimes that means we have a degree in music. This doesn’t make us unqualified.
 

Related Posts

Security, safety and the cavalry

In some ways it’s been really hard to focus on email for the last few months. There are so many more important issues in the world. Terrorism, Brexit, the US elections compromised by a foreign government, nuclear threats from multiple countries, the repeal of ACA, mass deportations and ICE raids here in the US.  I find myself thinking about what to blog. Then I glance at the news and wonder if there’s any value in another blog post about deliverability.
Generally I’ve tried to keep politics and world events mostly off the blog. But sometimes events are such that I need to talk about them.
Last October I had the chance to speak at the Email Innovations Summit in London. Steve and I took the chance to spend some time doing tourist things in London – including a photo walk along the Thames.

As an American I’m always a little surprised by the security in London. I grew up a few miles outside of DC. I could talk about prohibited airspace and security measures before I was 10. London is so much more open than even the DC of my youth. The surprise there is that London has been a much bigger target and attacked more than any city in the US.
The last few times we were in London I noticed a bit more visible security. In 2013 it was armed security walking through Tube stations. Last year it was Underground trains that were one long car. They were a bit weird and visually disconcerting. The part that really made me think, though, was this was a way to stop people hiding explosives between cars and to facilitate evacuations if something happened.
Last night Steve and I were talking and I mentioned the attack in London didn’t seem like terrorism to me. And it didn’t, not really. He then pointed out that explosives and guns are difficult to come by in the UK and this was classic terrorism. Oh. Sometimes our cultural differences come out in the strangest places.
Thinking about bigger issues like this make it hard to focus on email. There’s a regularly shared joke in deliverability, “There’s no such thing as a deliverability emergency.” And there isn’t, not really. Yes, even if a whole range of IPs is listed on Spamhaus, it’s still not an emergency and there’s no fast response team to deal with it.
There are abuse issues that are higher stakes than getting to the inbox. Child abuse materials. Harassment. Privacy issues. Terror threats. Every online services company, particularly the social media companies, have to deal with these kinds of things. Many of them are dealing poorly. Others have employees who are doing their best, but lack the tools, support, and training to do it well. Many companies don’t understand why they need to police their customer base.
The reality is, though, that abuse on the net (as opposed to abuse of the net) is a huge issue that needs to be dealt with. These are not small issues. The Internet is global and there’s no internet police. Law enforcement in different jurisdictions have to work together with technology experts to address crime and harassment on the internet.
It may surprise you to hear that the people who create spam filters and try and protect your inbox are the same people who fight crime on the internet. Spam and email are a vital part of online crime, so it falls on the abuse team to work with and educate law enforcement about tracing the source of email. The people you never see in ops, and abuse and support are vital to protecting folks online.
During the closing talk at MAAWG the chair was discussing how we can protect our online spaces. He stated “There is no cavalry; no second wave. It’s us or no one.” That’s a huge thing. My friends and colleagues are the people who stand protecting users online. It feels like a huge burden, but it’s something we can do to make the world a better and safer place.
 
 

Read More

Email address as identity

A few months ago I was talking about different mailbox tools and mentioned email addresses are the keys to our online identity. They are, email addresses are the magic key that authenticates us and opens access to different accounts.
The bad guys know this too. The Justice department recently announced a plea deal related to compromised email accounts. The individual in question gained access to faculty, staff and student email accounts. They then used access to these accounts to access Facebook, iCloud, Google, LinkedIn and Yahoo accounts.
https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings/status/897930523120738304
https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings/status/897931383431061504
https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings/status/897932050111406081
Mediapost published an article this week referencing a survey performed at this year’s BlackHat conference.

Read More

OTA joins the ISOC

The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) announced today they were joining forces with the Internet Society (ISOC). Starting in May, they will operate as an initiative under the ISOC umbrella.
“The Internet Society and OTA share the belief that trust is the key issue in defining the future value of the Internet,” said Internet Society President and CEO, Kathryn Brown. “Now is the right time for these two organizations to come together to help build user trust in the Internet. At a time when cyber-attacks and identity theft are on the rise, this partnership will help improve security and data privacy for users,” added Brown.

Read More