Kaspersky Duqu research - tech evangelism done right

[Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org>]

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 programming
language 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/
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