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Kaspersky Duqu research - tech evangelism done right
From: Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org>
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:48:30 +0200
I wrote a blg today for Dark Reading, so I will just quote my own text. I find Kaspersky's work here on the evangelism front fascinating.
How to do tech evangelism right - the Kaspersky Duqu case study Something very interesting happened yesterday in the world of security which relates to how tech evangelism works, and underlines the importance of communication between the technical and marketing experts. Kaspersky released research into Duqu (a supposed Stuxnet variant) at Cebit. Their claim is that a part of it was written with a programminglanguage not seen before - or as they say, that they at least can't identify:
http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/667/The_Mystery_of_the_Duqu_Framework While interesting technologically - what could it be used for? Reliability? Task-specific needs? And interesting operationally - who would want to learn to code in yet another language? Is this to avoid detection by changing things up for the Anti Viruses? If you work to weaponize a Trojan horse - the possibilities this could be used for are endless. The important aspect of this release is that they present a mystery, make it a geek puzzle which techies love, and engage with the community. "Compiled in a programming language we haven't seen before." The comments section in their short research blog on the subject is going crazy with guesses. The community is fully engaged over this relatively small detail - and Kaspersky is seen as a leader in innovation and bleeding edge threat detection "from the trenches". They do the research which is interesting, and done well. They release it to the press. They engage with the community. And they make it engaging. The release has the "from the trenches" feel - which is important. Most techies crave the feeling of being involved, the chasm between the bits and bytes and any actual "action" is quite impressive. This gives them an option to be on the front lines - and they would be. Further, Kaspersky offers to (a) share bits of code, which makes them benevolent, and (b) give people a potential for much more involvement and engagement as they will look at things themselves, all under the guidance of Kaspersky. Some side effects: 1. They may locate new potential strong employees through this challenge. 2. They manufactured a "Wave" of what people will speak of for the next 1-3 weeks in the security world. 3. They build credibility for information sharing - people will ask them for data, and they will get data in return.4. They will be invited to speak on this at every conference this coming year.
5. They will re-release this news for main-stream media and make The New York Times. I bet this started as a coffee break conversation, which one of their press-savvy people heard. It emphasizes how information flow between R&D and Marketing can be utilized. As a side-bet, this doesn't *have* to [necessarily] have technological significance - maybe a programmer was bored, or just got out of studying a compilers couse at University. This is a case study to be replicated. I've written on the subject of press engagement and tech evangelism before, in the Dark Reading Security PR series of blogs, which I review here: http://gadievron.blogspot.com/2010/02/security-pr-article-series.html -- Gadi Evron, ge () linuxbox org. Blog: http://gevron.livejournal.com/ _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Kaspersky Duqu research - tech evangelism done right Gadi Evron (Mar 08)
- Re: Kaspersky Duqu research - tech evangelism done right Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah (Mar 09)