Re: Quote cybersecurity unquote

[David Lang <david () lang hm>]

On Tue, 5 Nov 2013, mjr wrote:

> Paul D. Robertson wrote:
> >  I think dedicated security companies testing and remediating is probably
> >  the most likely new model. 
>
> Add to that, The Cloud. I finally realized that The Cloud is a good thing. 
> What it means is that those who cannot do IT are going to stop trying. If they 
> can't do system administration or system operations, they're going to step 
> away from the plate and let Amazon or Google or whoever do it. Overall, this 
> is probably for the best.

unfortunantly you are misinterpreting what they are leaving up to Amazon and 
Google.

They aren't outsourceing the system administration, all they are outsourcing is 
the hardware administration.

In the process they are deciding that system administrators aren't needed and 
just get in the way. The developers can take over doing everything because it is 
easy enough that any developer can get a cloud system online.

This is the same mistake that businesses made about Windows Administration (it 
looks easy, we don't need any specialists)


to solve the security problem two additional steps need to take place.

1. Instead of people getting bare VMs to configure, they need to not have access 
to the systems, only the applications. There are a few hints of this today 
(openstack and similar)

2. the 'application definition' needs to not only include what software to 
install, but also what the allowed communications between pieces (and between 
the application and the outside world) look like. Then the management tools need 
to implement the network security transparently to the application developers.

In many ways, much of what's going on in cloud computing is a step backwards for 
security. While cloud computing can make doing upgrades easier for good admins, 
it also makes it easier to keep running old software without patching it. Look 
at how VMWare is pushing their products for the desktop by advertizing that 
people will be able to keep running Windows XP forever.

David Lang

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