Information Security Research

1
Information Security Research

• Tapping the Blogosphere
• Michael R. Farnum, CISSP, GSEC, DSB
• http//infosecplace.com/blog
• http//www.computerworld.com/blogs/farnum
• m1a1vet_at_infosecplace.com

2
Who is my Audience?

• Security managers / administrators
• Security consultants
• CSO / CISO
• Security analysts
• Others interested in security

3
Who is my Audience?
INFORMATION JUNKIES
4
Information Security Research

• What is the goal?

Better security
5
Traditional Forms of Research

• Trade magazines (online and print)
• Trade analyst services / Security researchers
• Security vendors
• Friends / colleagues

6
Pros and Cons

• Trade magazines (online and print)
• Pros
• Often free (if you qualify)
• Fairly current
• Technology comparisons
• Cons
• Tech reviews often driven by vendors who pay
• Information is scattered (online is getting
  better with RSS)

7
Pros and Cons

• Trade analyst services / Security researchers
• Pros
• Detailed
• Covers wide array of technologies and issues
• Cons
• Can be VERY expensive

8
Pros and Cons

• Security Vendor
• Pros
• Should know their part of the market very well
• Should be able to provide comparative documents
• Cons
• Biased

9
Pros and Cons

• Friends / Colleagues
• Pros
• Real world experience
• May be able to show instead of just tell
• Cons
• Environment may not be similar enough
• Solution bias may turn into religious argument

10
Types of Blogs

• Trade magazines (online)
• Trade analyst services / Security researchers
• Security vendors
• Friends / colleagues

Anything look familiar?
11
So Whats the Difference?

• VOLUME

Availability
Current
12
Volume

• As of April 17, 2007
• Technorati says it is tracking 75.2 million blogs
  (http//technorati.com/about/)
• 6,469 blogs using security as a tag
• 826 blogs using information security as a tag
• 511 blogs using network security as a tag
• 220 blogs using data security as a tag

13
Availability
FREE
14
Organization

• RSS - Really Simple Syndication

Exciting!
Boring
15
RSS Not Just for Blogs!

• Vlogs
• Podcasts
• News

16
RSS Aggregators

• Web-based aggregators
• These are sites that aggregate feeds for reading
  in a browser.
• 24bytesSimple Blog RSS/Atom aggregator
• 24x7 News24x7 Medical News Aggregator
• 24eyesWeb 2.0 RSS aggregator
• AggregatoTag-based RSS/Atom aggregator (R)
• Alesti Feed ReaderWeb 2.0 RSS reader
• AlmondRocksSimple aggregator
• Attensa Onlineis a free AJAX RSS reader that
  works like a dedicated RSS reader application.
• BeanRocketSocial aggregator (R)
• BlogLinesFolder style aggregator (R)
• Blox0rSimple news aggregator
• ClickBioClickBio Biological News Aggregator
• Chrysanth NETime Channel Online RSS/Atom
  aggregator and RSS/Atom preview (R)
• Editaste Aggregator, also enables creating feeds
  comprised of arbitrary items (free)
• FeedBucket RSS/Atom aggregator with River-of-News
  or individual feeds
• FeedFeeds RSS/Atom aggregator that also features
  FeedTV
• FeedLounge Commercial aggregator (N)
• FeedReader.net Your personal web XML/RSS news
  reader

17
More RSS Aggregators

• FeedZilla Dutch online RSS aggregator (N)
• FlipSkipper River-of-news style web based
  aggregator
• Freepress An political-news weblog aggregator
  with a set list of feeds, grouped by political
  party
• Google Reader Google's Atom/RSS aggregator (R)
• Grabline.com India News Aggregator (English and
  Hindi). Aggregates Deals as well.
• Greensboro101.com Community aggregator for
  Greensboro, North Carolina (S)
• HyperSuper Personalized news aggregator
• Inform Advanced news aggregator (R)
• IndiaNews India News Aggregator(R)
• Kinja Kinja, the weblog guide (R)
• metaRSS News aggregator and meta RSS producer (R)
  
• monitor Greek blog aggregator.
• MyNewsbot News aggregator with a twist
• My Yahoo! Most used online RSS aggregator
• Netvibes Highly DHTML-oriented aggregator
• NewsAlloy News aggregator (still in beta, as of 3
  Feb 06, but very usable).
• NewsBurst CNET's news aggregator (R)
• NewsGator News aggregator (R)
• NewsIsFree Folder style news aggregator

18
Even More RSS Aggregators

• Desktop news aggregators
• These can be downloaded and installed on a
  computer.
• Cross-platform
• AmphetaDesk was an open source syndicated news
  aggregator. Although once cutting-edge, in early
  Morbus Iff moved on to other projects. (Mac,
  Windows, Linux)
• BlogBridge is a free, open source reader which
  runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux. The free
  BlogBridge service syncs your feed list between
  desktops.
• RSSOwl is an open source Java RSS news reader.
• RSS2PDF enables you to view RSS feeds as PDF
  files.
• AgileRSS is a java aggregator that runs on
  Windows, Unix, linux and MacOsX.
• Macintosh
• endo. 21 day trial, US18. By the makers of ecto.
  
• News Reader is an RSS widget for Dashboard.
• NetNewsWire
• NewsAccess
• NewsFire
• Pheeder A extensible RSS / XML reader.
• Postino
• shrookShrook users cooperate to monitor feeds.
• Vienna supports RSS and Atom feeds (open source
  hence free).
• Microsoft Windows

19
Just a Few More RSS Aggregators

• SharpReader SharpReader is an RSS/Atom
  Aggregator.
• BlogBridge BlogBridge is an RSS/Atom Aggregator
  that supports Reading Lists (requires Java).
• Awasu is a fully-featured news reader with both
  free and commercial versions.
• CITA RSS Aggregator is a free Windows aggregator
  that also supports podcasts, BitTorrents and
  secure feeds (requires .NET Framework v2).
• FeedDemon is a hybrid online/offline RSS reader.
• FeedExplorer Freeware, Outlook 2003 look and
  feel.
• Fuzzy Duck is a freeware RSS, Atom and RDF news
  reader.
• GreatNews is a powerful RSS reader emphasising on
  usability.
• News Bobbin is a freeware that scrolls the latest
  customizable headlines on the bottom of your
  desktop.
• Nutshell Freeware, multi-window skinnable RSS
  reader with optional Ticker bar.
• RSSBandit is an RSS/Atom aggregator written with
  the .NET Framework.
• Snarfer is a freeware state of the art lightning
  fast RSS/Atom/XML reader.
• wTicker RSS reader. Many Features.
• FeedAmasser A Light Weight RSS Feed Reader.
• WinRSS A freeware RSS/Atom aggregator for
  Windows, which uses your browser to display the
  news, and also balloon tooltips.
• KlipFolio Is a small, smart and very configurable
  RSS Dashboard. KlipFolio can be used to monitor
  anything you want online--like weather, stocks,
  Hotmail, news, RSS feeds and even auctions.
• Feed'n Read Feed'n Read (FnR) is a free Java
  based open source newsfeed reader. It is powered
  by the Sun ROME syndication framework and
  therefore supports all current formats.
• Touchstone Touchstone is a heads-up-display that
  treats RSS less like news and more like an
  alerts/updates mechanism. Stay up-to-date with
  web-based apps (Web 2.0?) while you work without
  having to bury your head in a news reader.
• Investor Vista Webfeed aggregator designed
  specifically for investors. Unique system which
  generates Stock Feed News charts.

20
Holy Crap thats a lot of RSS Aggregators

• Built-in aggregators
• Web browsers, plugins and other software with
  built-in aggregators.
• Attensa Toolbar for Internet Explorer Detect,
  preview and read RSS feeds and articles from a IE
  toolbar.
• Chrysanth NETime Channel is a free software that
  transforms your IE (Internet Explorer) into a
  powerful RSS aggregator, thus enabling you to
  view any RSS, RDF or ATOM feeds directly inside
  your web browser as a nicely formatted web page.
• eDIY Web Hosting CMS Software Built in
  aggregration plugin for CMS websites.
• Internet Explorer 7 currently in beta. Reads Atom
  and RSS.
• Madicon RSS Reader, an RSS/Atom reader for the
  groupware platform IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 6.x (or
  higher).
• Mozilla Firefox is a free-software web browser
  that can display feeds as bookmark folders.
• Mozilla Thunderbird is a free-software email and
  newsgroup client that can also read RSS and Atom
  feeds.
• My RSS Toolbar is toolbar for Internet Explorer.
  Contains pre-defined list of feeds combined into
  categories.
• Built-in RSS Client its a Internet Explorer
  plug-in for handling with RSS feeds.
• Opera web browser detects RSS links and
  integrates it with its email client
  functionality.
• While technically not an aggregator, the RSS
  Visualizer Quartz screen saver that comes with
  Mac OS X will display the ten most recent updates
  to any given RSS feed that you select in System
  Preferences.
• Safari, is a Mac OS X browser from Apple, comes
  with built-in support for RSS aggregation.
• Yoono A social bookmarking application with
  integrated news reader. (Microsoft Windows)
• Firefox extensions
• Aggreg8, an open source Mozilla/Firefox extension
  licensed under the Mozilla Public License. The
  developer stopped working on it in 2004 and now
  recommends the use of Habari Xenu.
• Attensa RSS Firefox Extension Detect, preview and
  read RSS feeds and articles from the Firefox
  toolbar.

21
Does this friggin list ever end?

• Email based aggregators
• These are sites that aggregate feeds and email
  them.
• Blog Alert
• Feed2Imap (uploads items as mails on an IMAP
  server)
• FeedBlitz.com
• Feednation
• Queoo (email and IM)
• RssFwd
• R-mail
• Squeet.com (100 FREE)
• Yahoo! Alerts RSS alerts delivered via email, IM,
  and SMS
• Command Line based aggregators
• These allow feed to be read in a command line
  without graphical user interface
• Centericq - instant messenger client that allows
  feed reading
• snownews - is a simple, open source, aggregator
  for the command line
• raggle - an open source ruby/ncurses based news
  reader
• theyoke - an ultra-simple, polite aggregrator
  designed for use on the command line
• Aggregators that require web server installation

22
FINALLY!

• Aggregators for mobile devices
• Newstouch Fast and customizable RSS reader for
  Symbian and Java phones. Feeds and images are
  compressed by a remote server. Articles are
  stored on the phone for offline viewing.
• FreeRange Communications Advanced RSS News and
  Blog Reader for mobile phones and PDAs. Supports
  off-line reading, built-in text browser, email.
  Works on nearly all phones - Java, Symbian,
  Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile.
• Go Mobile Solutions RSSToGo is an easy-to-use RSS
  reader for the Windows Mobile Platform
• Attensa Mobile RSS reader for phones and PDAs
  synchronizes with Attensa for Outlook and Attensa
  Online
• News Lite Free RSS reader for flash-enabled
  devices
• Resco News RSS/Atom aggregator for Symbian S60
  phones
• Yahoo! Mobile allows you to read RSS feeds from
  your My Yahoo page
• ZapTXT Uses SMS messages to send updates from RSS
  feeds you specify
• FeederReader FeederReader is a full-featured RSS
  Aggregator with podcast listening and enclosure
  support, running on Windows Mobile
• NomadReader
• List came from
• http//www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators

23
Some Popular Aggregators

• Bloglines (Online)
• BlogBridge (Application)
• NewsGator (Online and Application)
• My Yahoo! (Online)
• Rojo (Online)
• Firefox browser (Application via Live Bookmarks
  feature)
• Netvibes (Online)

24
Example of an Aggregator
25
Current

• Security Alert Blogs
• Bugs, Patches, etc.
• Security News Sites
• Big security events as they happen
• Security Practitioner Sites
• http//www.bloglines.com/public/m1a1vet

26
Some Recommended Reading

• http//www.bloglines.com/public/m1a1vet

27
Special Guests

• Martin McKeay
• Army
• StillSecure / Cobia Product Evangelist
• http//www.mckeay.net
• http//www.computerworld.com/blogs.mckeay
• Cutaway (you can ask him his real name)
• Marines
• Security Ripcord Blog - http//www.cutawaysecurity
  .com/blog/