Re: what we REALLY learned from WMF

["Susan Bradley, CPA aka Ebitz - SBS Rocks [MVP]" <sbradcpa () pacbell net>]

It's easy for us on this side to Monday morning quarterback and say "oh 
make it so".  There are times too that I go...okay ...come on ...how 
many days has it taken for that to get fixed?  But then again, I don't 
write code, I don't track back dependencies, I don't ensure umpteem 
languages still work and all the other interconnectivity between 
programs and code still function.

It's easy to say this stuff on this side.... but understand that the 
mere release of a beta patch puts in jeopardy all of the consumer home 
machines and small businesses that have no admin to protect them and 
take mitigation measures.

What "I" really learned from this is to decide my "OWN" risk tolerance 
and stop listening to all the sites and blogs and news reports and what 
not that spread a lot of FUD and misinformation and used this many times 
as a PR vehicle.  Only I know what risk I will tolerate.  That's what I 
learned from this.

Susan

Gadi Evron wrote:

> Susan Bradley, CPA aka Ebitz - SBS Rocks [MVP] wrote:
>
> > Don't release a beta patch ....
> >
> > 1. it would get patches into reverse engineering faster [hello look 
> > what happened to the leaked patch]
> >
> > and 2.
> >
> > Don't ask for an untested patch if you are not willing to be there in 
> > the newsgroups, communities and listserves helping the dead bodies 
> > after a bad patch sir.
> >
> > Do you do/handle change management in your firm?  Even in my small 
> > firm I could not handle the 'any time/any day' that patches used to 
> > come out before.
> >
> > Be careful of what you ask for sir...because if you get what you 
> > want.... ensure your firm has the resources to test/deploy/change 
> > management on a 24 hours a day 7 days a week schedule because 
> > exploits can be built in less than 20 minutes.
> >
> > If the security issue has been responsible disclosed, there is a 
> > process that is needed to build a patch and test the patch.  Some 
> > issues take more than 'days' sir.  And testing takes time as well, sir.
> >
> > For my community I want tested patches sir, and I will argue until 
> > doomsday on that point.  Don't hurt my community with a bad patch or 
> > a beta patch, sir.
>
>
> I quite agree, I disagree on the amount of time it currently takes for 
> any vendor to release patches. Apparently we "Got used" to slowness, 
> false positives and many other ills. Maybe it's time that changed?
>
>     Gadi.

--
Letting your vendors set your risk analysis these days?  
http://www.threatcode.com

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