StillSecure, After All These Years

A new blog on the block

This one is not all security related, but is the ScienceLogic Blog. One of my favorite persons in the IT field Dave Link is the CEO and founder of ScienceLogic. Several other friends from Interliant including Louis Dimiglio (sorry if I messed up the spelling Lou!), Richard Chart and Chris Cordray are also part of the team. They have done a great job of creating a network management product and in a hyper-competitive industry carving out a place for themselves. I am running into them more and more at shows, conferences and in the field. Now they have joined the blogging ranks and it looks like there will be several contributers. They are all smart folks and I am sure will have good things to say, so be sure to check out the blog!

In one article responding to a post I did about where is the interoperational in interop, Dave says that he and the ScienceLogic team had a very different experience at Interop this year. Due to their participation in the InteropNet and ILabs project, ScienceLogic was very involved in making sure the network at Interop was up and running and showing off the many different products and vendors working together. Certainly the work of the many people at Interop Labs and Interop Net show how heterogeneous equipment and technology can work together, but where those labs and network used to be the center of the show, I am not so sure that is the case any more. Many folks walk by the NOC at Interop, peak inside at the folks at the stations, smile and move on. How many actually take the tour compared to how many walk the floor or sit in on presentations. I think in Dave's view it is a case of when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

More importantly though Dave challenges me to answer his questions of what StillSecure has done to promote interoperability with other vendors that we can promote. Great question and it deserves an answer. So at the risk of giving StillSecure a shameless plug, let me give you the three foundations that we have built our products on that allow us to excel at interoperability:

1. Using open standard software and hardware - All StillSecure products run on off the shelf x86 hardware or in VMware virtual machines. Additionally, our products all run on top of the StillSecure OS which is a hardened and stripped version of Linux, but still provides that standard command line programs and interoperability that the Linux OS allows. Additionally, we use standard and open databases such as MySQL and PostgresSQL that are SQL and ODBC compliant. Additionally, we have open data base schema's. Also, we use Java webservers and similar types of open standard software that makes it easier for us to work with other products and for our customers to feel comfortable with what is under the hood.

2. Support of industry frameworks and standards - Whether it be TCG/TNC or NAP in the NAC world or CVE and FDCC in vulnerability management, we support industry wide standards and frameworks which allow products to work with each other. SNMP traps, SMTP email alerts are all standard in StillSecure products.

3. Enterprise Integration Frameworks- StillSecure products all ship with our enterprise integration frameworks. These are a complete set of fully documented and functional APIs in XML and Java that allow for the bi-directional exchange of data with many 3rd party products. This is perhaps our greatest means of interoperabitility and integration.

Dave, I hope that answered the question for you. Now that we know about the blog, we will be reading. Good Luck!

You never know whose tomorrow it will be

Beware -Another non-security story. Last week I wrote a story about my son Landon and how proud I was about his experience in baseball.  I used a Yiddish word that I learned from my Grandmother - naches.  As I have gotten older I have developed a deeper admiration and respect for the inherent wisdom that my Grandmother brought to life and the many things I learned from her.  I remember being younger and thinking she was a little bit meshuguna as she would say. But as I now realize she was crazy as a fox and I hope I can be only half as intuitively smart as she was.  She had an intuitive grasp of people and life that cannot be learned in books.  People who think I am outgoing and loud would think me quiet and shy in comparison to her. But enough about my grandma, let me get on with the story. 

One of the phrases she used to use that I would laugh at was, "my grandson, you never know whose tomorrow it will be".  I was never quite sure what that meant, but had enough of the general gist that I didn't question her.  Today again I heard my Grandmother talking to me and saying that very phrase.  I had contacted an old business partner of mine who I had not spoken to in 3 or 4 years. I knew he had season tickets to the Yankees and wanted to buy a couple of tickets to take my sons to the Stadium in this its last year.  My old partner "Bob" called me back this morning, very early not realizing I was out in California.  Of course I asked how he was and he replied that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a while ago. He has undergone surgery and is receiving chemo at Sloan-Kettering Memorial, but the prognosis is not good.  Bob is just a few years older than me and his youngest child is just 10 years old.  I have known Bob for 20 years.  He was always the kind of guy who did the right thing.  A good family guy, he grew up like I did on the Long Island-Queens border in NY from working class parents. He worked hard and bought a house in Westchester County for  his wife, children and he.  He lived the American dream, working hard and passing on to his children the best of what he knew. What are you supposed to say to someone who tells you this?  Are there any words that provide comfort?  Is going to a frigging Yankee game relevant here?  Of course you try to be brave for their sake.  You say things like "they are doing so much with that disease now.  Keep your head up, attitude is important."  Maybe most of all, I will pray for you. How cruel is fate that this good, decent human being has been chosen to suffer from this death sentence of a disease at such a young age?  Of course Bob is not alone. Unfortunately I know too many good people who have been stricken with terminal illnesses well before their time here should be done.

I was speaking to a friend/family member the other day about the breakup of his marriage and I told him life is rarely what we think it is going to be.  Making lemonade out of lemons seems to be the ultimate and eternal human condition. It also drives home my grandmother's inherent intelligence.  You never know whose tomorrow it will be.  I get it now, you never know for whom the bell tolls.  All we can do is enjoy the good moments that God, fate or whatever grants us, because in an instant that can all be taken away and our lives changed forever.  Bob is in my prayers and I hope for a miracle for him and others who have to face similar challenges. Lesson to you all enjoy the moment, cause you never do know whose tomorrow it will be.

My kids get XO's, I go to the command line

They finally came! My friend Raj Bhargava bought my two sons laptops from the OLPC project around the holiday season. Unfortunately due to the high demand, the project ran out of laptops and we have been waiting 3 months for them to arrive. They finally came on Friday. This was part of the buy one, donate one program so two other lucky children in the world have computers now too thanks to Raj's generosity. For those of you not familiar with the project, this was born out of Nicholas Negroponte's MIT lab to bring a $100 dollar laptop to children the world over. While they have not quite hit the $100 dollar cost, they are under $200. The laptop's are called XO laptops.

The laptops use low power, are extremely rugged and kid friendly and run Linux. The interface is called Sugar and is very different than a Windows type of metaphor. It takes some getting used to, but my kids seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. The wireless networking is great. In addition to regular wireless access points, the computers network in a "mesh" network that allow them to share information and chat with each other with the pre-installed software. My kids discovered chat pretty quickly and now sit next to each other chatting away over the computer. Why they just don't talk to each other I guess is part of the magic of computers. It also has a nice Mozilla based browser, a word processor, video camera and a bunch of other software. The boys are having a blast using the machines and take them everywhere. All of their friends who see them want one too, so maybe it will lead to more folks joining the buy one, give one program.

My kids are also really into webkinz. One of the first things they wanted to do was get on the webkinz site with their new machines. The webkinz site uses flash extensively. The XO laptop though only comes with open software, free is not enough. So they use an open source flash plug in, but it does not play all flash files. You can download and install the flash plug in for Linux, but this takes a little behind the scenes Linux command line work. So Dad told them to go to sleep and when they woke up, their machines would play webkinz in the morning.

It has been years since I had to work on a Linux/Unix system in the command line. Actually since I first started TriStar Web hosting with my partners and a few nights a week, I was the designated graveyard shift technical support dude. Even then, I knew only enough to get myself in trouble. Kill a process, grep files, chmod permissions, stuff like that. These laptops, while they run Linux, have a different kind of file and directory structure as to where they keep and store files and the naming system is weird. Files are truncated into numeric named files that bear no resemblance to the file name that shows up in the Sugar GUI. You have to go by the date created and size to recognize the file you are looking for and then you can rename it. The script I was trying to run got messed up in the word processor that comes with the laptop, so I had to go into Vi and fix that. It has been a while since I have used Vi too. Than the script did not have execute permissions set, so I had to do that. Well I have to tell you that this all took a few hours, but when the boys woke up in the morning, they turned on their computers and went to webkinz world and just as Dad promised, everything worked fine. I wish all of their wishes and wants were solved so easily!

A new VC on the block

About 10 years ago my partners and I at TriStar Web received a letter in the mail telling us about a new company that was going to do a "roll up" in the web hosting industry. They had come across our company and wanted to know if we were interested in selling. I will spare you all a long but funny story, but about 45 days later we closed on the sale of our business to Sage Networks which eventually became Interliant.  The founders of the company had asked me to work with them on their roll up strategy (we were only the 2nd or 3rd company they had bought).  The founders of that company were Brad Feld, Rajat Bhargava, Len Fassler and Steve Maggs.  Well what a long, strange trip that was - 27 acquisitions in about 2 and half years, IPO, dot com bubble and all the rest. 

Since then and as a result of it, Raj has become one of my closest friends in the world and we work together day by day, shoulder to shoulder building StillSecure into the company we dream of.  Over the same period of time I have been honored to have forged a great friendship with Brad Feld, his wife, his parents, his brother and his family, as well as meeting many of Brad's network of friends and acquaintances.  Along the way I have also learned a ton about business from both of these guys, as we have wrestled through good times and bad times, succeeding some times and failing others, but learning all the time.  Brad is the person responsible for getting me into blogging and podcasting and I love just talking technology and market stuff with him.  It has been a great time working with Brad (he is on StillSecure's BoD) over these years, but it has been even a better time being friends with him. I often vent to Brad whether I am frustrated with business, pleasure or life in general and he always provides a steady ear and sage advice.

For those of you you who don't know Brad, he has been "somewhat" successful in the VC business. Months ago Brad started to begin the next chapter in what he wants to be when he grows up, by building a VC business and fund based in the Boulder area and not as a satellite of a Silicon Valley business.  Brad along with some Mobius folks - Ryan McIntyre, Seth Levine, Jason Mendelson, and Chris Wand - have put together a Boulder based VC called the Foundry Group. Yesterday Brad publicly announced that Foundry Group had closed its first fund - a $225m fund for early stage start ups based in the US.  I hope to have Brad on the podcast soon to discuss the exciting new stuff Foundry Group is involved in.  I was up at their offices in Boulder a few weeks ago meeting Brad for dinner (actually just finger food and salad) and said hello to everyone.  You can feel the energy there and it is a good thing.

Anyway, I am sure Brad and Co will do fine and we will be hearing all about great new companies that Foundry Group is investing in.  But I wanted to take a moment and wish my friend Brad a hearty Mazel Tov on the new (ad)venture!

Do me a favor and check out my Intense Debate comment system

One of my friend Brad Feld's investments is a company called Intense Debate. The guys at ID are trying to bring order to the chaos that is blog commenting.  The guys over at ID are also working with integrating blog comments into the very fabric of the new social networking world order.

Over the last few months I have had fits and starts with trying to make Intense Debate work on my blog. Frankly, I was too busy to really dig in and make it work.  However, I tried activating it again tonight and I think I have it working pretty well.  If you would do me a favor leave a comment to this post and lets see how it scales. 

The idea behind Intense Debate is really pretty cool and I was talking to Brad yesterday about some ideas for using Intense Debate in some of the blogging networking stuff I am involved with.  Hopefully more on that later.  In the meantime check out how it works by leaving a comment if you have a moment and if you are interested you can get it for free on your own blog.

Give my regards to Broadway

Yesterday Mitchell announced on his blog that he has left day-to-day involvement in StillSecure to pursue his goal of "playing on a bigger stage".  While I am sad that Mitchell won't be there to give his all in helping us continue to build StillSecure, I am more sad that I won't be seeing or talking to my friend multiple times a day. As many of you do I bet, we spend more time interacting with our work colleagues than we do with our own family.  That is something that I think people who work from home or have their own single person based business miss.  The comradeship of interaction with co-workers is one of the most rewarding aspects of working in a company, especially in a high-energy, start-up environment. 

Mitchell and I over the past 7 years have grown to be great friends both on a professional and personal level.  At first glance based on our backgrounds, our close friendship would not be obvious.  Mitchell is an engineer from Nebraska, with mid-west values and personality, very involved in his church and music.  Me a typical New York'er from Long Island, loud and more involved in sales and marketing, Jewish and not very mid-west at all.  But Mitchell and I hit it off pretty quickly and we have become very close.  Bonnie and I always look forward to spending time with Mitchell and his wife Mary Ellen. Mitchell's kids have babysat for my kids when we are in Colorado and we are always in touch.  I am sure that our friendship can survive his not working at StillSecure.

One of the three biggest lies (I will let you guess the other two) is when a co-worker leaves, we all stay good luck and lets make sure "we keep in touch".  In the case of Mitchell and I there is no doubt that we will keep in touch.  We will continue to do our podcast together (we will probably have to change the SSATY name, how about "still crazy after all these years), collaborate on other projects and do family stuff together.  In the meantime, I wish Mitchell the wind at his back as sets sail to pursue his dreams!

Security Mike rides to the rescue

For too many of us Internet Security is about keeping corporate assets safe and keeping the bad guys out, for a price of course.  How many of us though actually worry not about our work or corporate customers, but about the consumer. Yes thats right, you brother the lawyer or doctor or your sister the architect using their computers at home.  Even worse their children using the computers at home.  For too long consumer level security has been left to the likes of Symantec and McAfee who have provided the bloatware that is clogging up these machines.  What is worse, consumers are paying a lot of money for this.  So who is riding to the rescue?  Why its none other than security's own John Wayne, riding high in the saddle, Mike Rothman!

Thats right, "Security Mike" is here to save the day to help you secure your computer, avoid identity theft, talk to your children about internet security (it is not going to be this is your brain not secure, this is your brain secure type of talks, is it Mike?) and help you delete that expensive, crappy bloatware, once and for all!

You can read more about Security Mike on Mike's new website or start at Mike's Security Incite page.  Not sure what effect this will have on the Pragmatic CSO stuff and Mike's other business interests, but wish him the best of luck with this new venture.

The time of your life

One of the nice things about being the old fart at the office is watching the young people who I work with grow up before my eyes.  Sometimes that means watching them leave to take their careers to a new level. I know it means I probably won't see them again too much and we will never have the day to day contact that we had before. I know it is best for them in the long run and I try to be happy for them. But my favorite times in working with people younger than I, is being there to see them live through the "times of their lives".  Whether it be buying their first home, having their first child or getting married, I take great joy in watching these people who I spend so much time with move along life's path. In some small way I try to help by being there to offer my experience and advice. But also it just makes me feel good seeing the good times.

So it is with great happiness that I take a moment to wish a good friend of mine, Sonya Hausafus, PR director at StillSecure, all the best on her marriage this week to her husband to be, John.  They are going back to Boston to John's family for a big wedding. I have listened to Sonya tell me how she did not need the "big wedding" for over a year now.  But this week she was glowing. It made my week to see her so happy and excited.  Having been married for over 17 years, I know that marriage is something that both people have to work at, but my wish for Sonya and John is that the road ahead is a long and happy one and they remember it is the journey that counts not the destination.  This Green Day video is dedicated to Sonya and John.  Good thoughts to you both and congratulations!

A special birthday for Bonnie

Yesterday was my wife Bonnie's birthday. We had a great day, starting with the boys and I giving her flowers and presents in the morning. Then going to down to Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach for lunch and playing in the park on the intercostal. Then we came home to get ready for her special night out. 

We went with some good friends, Bill and Dori Gerstein, down to Sunny Isles Beach in Miami Beach.  The beautiful Acqualina resort there recently opened and it has an Il Mulino from New York restaurant. Bonnie and I used to go to the NY location years ago when we lived in NY for special occasions. That was before they opened several restaurants all over the world. Since we moved to Florida, Bonnie has not been back though.  I went a few times to the one in Ceasars in Las Vegas, but without my wife, it just wasn't the same.

The Miami outpost of Il Mulino is every bit as good as the original in NYC.  We had a great meal, great wine, service, great company, everything.  The resort is right on the beach and is gorgeous. It was a very special night for a very special wife.  Happy Birthday Bonnie and many, many more!

Friends who blog - new Security Blogger Network member

Sorry for taking so long to get around to this but I wanted to shout out my friend Michael Mongold.  Michael works for a partner of ours at StillSecure. I am not sure Michael is saying where he works, so I won't mention it either.  Anyway Michael is a professional security engineer and an all around good guy.  He has started a blog a little while back called Technology Security and has recently joined the SBN.  He seems to be off to a good start, writing some good stuff on all sorts of security issues.  If you get a moment check it out.  Welcome to blogging Michael and good luck!

A Purpose Driven Life

No, I am not going born again and this is not a post about religion or anything like that.  But there comes moments in all of our lives where we stop and want to bookmark where we are and reflect on who, what and why we do what we do.  I am having a weekend like that this weekend.  I guess it says something about how "mature" I am that I at least recognize these moments.  At times like this I am always reminded of a line in the movie Wall Street.

“Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.” —Hal Holbrook, Wall Street

Not that I am facing what Bud in the movie was, but I just feel like it is one of those times to take stock.  What is driving me to this self-reflective navel gazing?  Well first of all tomorrow is Bonnie's and mine 17th wedding anniversary.  Can it really be that long already?  Where does the time go.  So many of our friends have had their marriages fall apart over the last few years.  Those of you married or in long term relationships know that maintaining one for that period of time is not the easiest thing in the world.  My wife has put up with much from me over the years and I can honestly say that even after all this time we still are learning about each other and how to be closer than ever.  Happy Anniversary Bonnie!

Another thing driving my self-reflection was that this was playoff day in flag football.  I coach both of my sons teams in soccer, baseball and football.  We were lucky enough to win the division in soccer last season and today we won in football.  However, for the second time in 5 years of coaching I lost my cool on the field.  Just like the first time, it involved one of the kids on my team laying on the grass crying after being crushed by the other team.  Today, it was the second play in a row where on of my boys was hurt by the same player on the other team on the first two plays of the game.  Obviously this player from the other team was out to play hard and make a statement.  On reflection (that is what this post is about), I probably over reacted and made it a bigger deal than I should have.  The coach of the other team is actually one of my best friends.  Though the parents on my team appreciated that I was sticking up for their children and trying to make sure they were not getting hurt, I felt like I could have done better.  I apologized to the refs and the other coach and rallied my team and we won by a touchdown.  I will be honest.  It felt good to be the winning football coach.  I can almost imagine how Tony Dungy felt :-)  Anyway, tomorrow it is baseball for both of my boys teams so I will be coaching again all day and will try to be a good coach and keep my cool.

I look at my life on this weekend and realize looking into the abyss, I see a very lucky man staring back.  A beautiful wife who loves him, 2 great boys that I am proud of, a successful company that I feel I have helped give life to.  A full plate of activities and adventure that keep me moving forward, learning and growing. There is much still to do, but these are the things that keep me going day after day and give purpose to my life.

Empty Nest Syndrome

One of the hardest things about founding a company and being a little older than some of the people working there is saying good bye.  Unfortunately I have learned the hard way that sometimes great young people come into your organization and in order for them to continue growing along their career path it becomes necessary for them to move on.  Recently we had two people in our company that have moved on to hopefully bigger and better things.  First was Jeannine our marketing manager.  She has moved onto another company to pursue her dream of working in business development and channels.  We had no openings for her here and she felt it was time for her to go to the next level.  We wished her luck and were thankful for the all of the good things she did for our company.  Now today was the last day for a young gal we hired probably a year or more ago.  Courtney Smith from our PR team has been a great asset to the company and watching her become a real "PR Pro" under the guidance of our director of  PR Sonya Hausafus has been spectacular.  Now all grown up, Courtney is moving on to work in a PR agency to further round out her experience.  Again we wish her well and will miss her and all of the hard work and great things she did here.

I know that this is just the natural way of things but still will miss not working with these great folks on a daily basis anymore.  The good news is that we will hire two new people to take their place and watching them do their jobs and become part of the fabric of our company will be equally exciting.  Plus this month, we are adding someone else to our team who I have known for some time and I am really pumped about.  You will have to wait on that one though.  Until then, Courtney best of luck in your new job and keep us posted on your progress.

What happened to day 3 of our RSA podcast?

Well the answer can be summed up in 3 bullets:

1. Mitchell is lucky most of his necessary organs and appendages are attached to his body.  First he lost his Motorola Q phone on the shuttle bus from the show.  Luckily he had phone insurance and was able to get a replacement. Of course he lost all of the numbers and info stored on the phone.  Then at the bloggers party (more on that later) after a full day of recording some great interviews (including a fantastic discussion on booth babes with Ross, Rothman, the Phantom Blogger and me), Mitchell leaves the damn, brand new portable recorder at the place and it is now gone!  They don't have portable podcaster machine insurance so Mitchell is out on that one.  Frankly, I wouldn't have been quite so heartbroken if we had at least downloaded the audio files on there.  I am going to start bringing a tag with Mitchell's name and phone number as well as the hotel he is staying at for Mitchell to wear at these events, in case he gets lost too.

2. In the immortal words of Dean Wormer in Animal House, "fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life". I try not to get too crazy at shows and make sure I get a good nights sleep, as my schedule at these things are usually packed.  Well, I was so excited about meeting so many virtual friends in person at the bloggers party, I went to three more places drinking with the boys and stayed out until almost 3am.  Even with Mitchell losing the podcasting equipment, I still could have put an update on the days activities up. I didn't when I finally got to my room, because I was afraid at what drunken ramblings would find there way on to the blog.  I guess Mitchell was not as worried about that. Instead I threw my clothes all over the room and went right to bed.  Four hours later, I woke up still buzzing and headed over to the show before going back to pack and finally flying home.  I think for the next show, I am going to go on a diet, so I will just be drunk and stupid.

3. The Blogger/Podcaster party- As Martin, Michael Farnum, Rothman, Mitchell and I don't know how many others have mentioned, the party even exceeded our expectations. I have not had this much fun in a long time.  I was really looking forward to this event for a long time. I really felt like I knew most of these folks already.  Some of them like Farnum, Martin, Rothman and even Ross, I count on as my blogger family (maybe posse is a better word).  I can't wait for next years show and have some ideas I will be blogging and discussing later.  One fact that was really heartening to me was that most of the folks there were also part of the Security Bloggers Network.  The network has really picked up and if anyone security blogger/podcaster wants to join, drop me a line at podcast@stillsecure.com. Also, Rich Mogul is someone I was really looking forward to meeting. I think we will continue to keep in touch and become fast friends.  As a result of the good will and free drinks (thanks Microsoft and Fortinet), it resulted in me continuing on a binge for the rest of the night. As Michael mentioned I did have an altercation with a cab driver, but it was all in a nights work. I am not going to rehash it here, Mitchell and Michael can if they want.  Just another moment with Shimel, as far as I am concerned.

So, I have no update for day 3, the dog did not eat my homework and now you know why.  If I can ever get around to it, I will try to

New security blog

There are lots of new security blogs making their debuts out there.  Too many for me to call them out individually here.  Many are now members of the Security Bloggers Network, that I set up with Feedburner.  However, one I do want to mention that I just came across (actually, they tracked back to my blog) is En Garde!, the new blog from the folks at ConSentry.  Dan Leary who is VP of Marketing over there is a friend of mine. In addition I have met many of the other ConSentry folks over the years and have a lot of respect for what they are doing.  I am sure Dan and company will have lots to add to the security blogging world and am looking forward to reading.  Of course I have also sent them an invite to the network, I hope they will join!

Speaking of security blogs, Mitchell has been playing with java script on his blog and has done some stuff with his pictures.  Click here to check it out.

The more things change, the more they stay the same or As time goes by

Yesterday was my birthday, so my wife Bonnie and the kids made it a special weekend.  I spent all day with the kids yesterday doing things and coaching them in Soccer today.  Last night Bonnie and I went out with our friends David and Leisa for dinner and then to see Peter Frampton in concert at the Bank Atlantic Center's Frank Sinatra Theatre.  We went to the Bone Fish Grill, but had to get there early in order to be out in time for the concert.  Now going to dinner early on a Saturday night in South Florida is a trip in and of itself.  At some level, I was thinking great, is this what it means to be my age, dining with the early bird crowd in Florida. Where did the years go, is life over as I know it? 

After dinner we went down to the arena and saw Peter Frampton.  It was about 25 or so years ago that I saw Frampton at Madison Square Garden.  Well he doesn't look the same.  The long flowing hair is gone replaced by a very thin head of gray hair.  But then again, who am I to talk, my hair is not what it was 25 years ago either.  However, Peter Frampton is still a great musician and entertainer.  We all had a great time, singing all of his old hits from Frampton Comes Alive (or as he calls it, that double album that you used to use to clean seeds (extra bonus points if you smile remembering that)), as well as listening to a few songs from his new CD.  It made me realize that I may not be 20 years old anymore, but life is as sweet as ever.  With my family and friends, loving what I do for work, I have much to be grateful for.  I am looking forward to more concerts and good times as the years go on.  Rock on! Here is some You tube video from Peter Frampton on this present tour.

A catalyst for security

With all of my running around the last two months I have been remiss in mentioning a new community forming of which I am part of.  Michael Santarcangelo of the Security Catalyst blog and podcast, as well as a founding member of the Security Roundtable, not to mention a consumate security professional and teacher, has been building an impressive team of security folks to found the Security Catalyst community and the Trusted Catalysts program. Michael was gracious enough to invite me to come on board as well as some of the other members of the Security Roundtable and a bunch of other folks, who know a lot more about security than I do.  The group has some worthy and lofty goals and I hope to help Michael and company to get this off the ground.  I will be hooking up and re-engaging this week to see what is up.  In the meantime, if you are interested in getting involved with a group of folks who want to do something about security check out what the Catalyst Community is about. 

Friends (and competitors) who blog

I was pleased to find on line today another newcomer to the blogging community.  Marty Roesch, founder of Sourcefire and father of Snort, has started his own blog which you can reach here. I have known Marty for a few  years now and obviously Sourcefire and StillSecure compete somewhat in the IDS/IPS area.  However, StillSecure is also a VRT partner of Sourcefire and I serve on the board of directors of the OSSRC (open source snort rules consortium) along with Marty.  Marty is an interesting personality and I am sure he will have lots to say.  He is already ranting about the limitations of the configuration of the personal firewall on his Apple.

Welcome to blogging Marty and we will be watching!

Friends who blog

So some people talk to you and don't tell you they blog ;-)  My friend Joel Esler, who knows a thing or two about IDS/IPS, especially Snort, has been blogging for a while as it turns out.  Though Joel and I just exchanged emails recently, I only came across his blog because Technorati showed a link from my blog to his.  Joel works over at Sourcefire and is a good guy for a Phillies fan.  I am sure you will pick up something useful from reading Joel's rants. You can get to it here.

Lets get ready to RRRRuummmble!

So my little diatribe regarding Richard Stiennon seems to have taken on a life of its own. I guess when I wrote it, I did not realize that I was being so hard on Richards views (I just disagree with them).  Of course I can always count on my meek, mild-mannered buddy, Mike Rothman to keep things in perspective. His comment on Shimel KO's Stiennon got the ball rolling.  Then Chris Hoff chimed in with his blow by blow recount that calls it a draw and interjects himself into a three-way donnybrook (personally I thought reading Hoff's recap, I easily won this one on points).  Rothman not to be outdone, fires back with his retort here, that is actually very well reasoned.  Richard then says enough and comments back to our remarks here. He wisely thought it better to comment on Rothman's, a fellow analysts blog, then venture into the lions den of the vendors lair ;-)  Of course Rothman, showing no mercy, then picks apart Richards arguments, yet again, showing no love for his fellow analyst. 

Well now, none other than Martin McKeay has joined in with an offer to be a special guest referee in a battle royal between the 4 of us.  I think we are going to try and record a podcast Thursday night, when it will be posted I am not sure.  I am sure that all of us will point to it off of our blogs.  It should be quite a brouhaha, but we all promise to keep it civil (yeah right).  I invite you all to listen, with all proceeds going to the security analysts retirement home (where all security analysts go when they make to many wrong predictions (and you thought they just were sentenced to start-up hell)).  Feel free to send in your comments and best wishes.  For now, I am going into training, to make sure I am at my best with these dangerous fellows ;-)  Mitchell Ashley, who was an innocent non-combatant, until Hoff took a swipe, has volunteered to be my second and cut man in helping me get ready.  Wish me luck!

PS- I hope you all realize this is all in jest with no hard feelings among any of the parties.   But it will be a good chance to talk security!

Friends (and competitors) who blog

In the spirit of being balanced, I wanted to acknowledge that my friend, Ron Gula over at Tenable Network Security has joined the ranks of bloggers. StillSecure competes with Tenable in the vulnerability management arena and I have written about the many companies using Tenable's Nessus scanner for NAC (some within the correct usage of the license, some not). Ron and I have built up an interesting relationship over the years.  Obviously as competitors, it is not easy and frankly we do not always see eye-to-eye.  However, over time, I have come to respect his outlook on things, even if I don't always agree.  I hope that feeling is mutual.

Anyway, Ron and Tenable gang, good luck on the blog and we will be reading!

Friends (and co-workers) who blog

For a long time now I have been the only blog in town over at StillSecure (except of course for Ricky's Lunch blog). I am pleased to announce that my fellow StillSecure exec, Mitchell Ashley has joined the ranks of bloggers and soon podcasters.  Mitchell is our CTO and VP of customer experience.  He has appeared on my podcast and has written a bunch of stuff in the past. Mitchell's blog is The Converging Network and he will be writing about the ongoing convergence of security and networking among other things.  You can read his opening comments here and get in at the beginning.

Good luck with the blog Mitchell and we will all be reading!

Friends who blog/podcast

A friend I met through blogging, Chris Harrington, has recently started a blog and soon to be podcast at http://www.infosecpodcast.com.  I have met Chris through his comments on my blog and have been exchanging emails with him for a while. Chris was one of the main folks at NitroSecurity and before that was with the NSA, among other places.  Chris is a guy who gets security from both the technical and business angles.  I am sure he is going to have some good stuff to say, you may want to check him and out and have a listen or a read.

Good work Chris!

A new friend through blogging

I was up in the Boston area yesterday and had a chance to meet with Chris Hoff. Chris is the Chief Security Strategist at Crossbeam Systems.  Chris actually had written to me after reading my blog for a while.  We made up to get together the next time I was up on Boston.  Chris is a really sharp fellow, who knows the security business inside and out, from both a technical and business perspective.  We had a great time over lunch at Papa Razzi, in Concord and I had an up close look and lesson on the Crossbeam Systems line up.  Crossbeam by the way, is doing some great things with UTM and best-of-breed security.  It was a pleasure to meet Chris and I think we will be friends for a long time to come.  Just another example of real world connections and people you meet while blogging!  BTW, Chris has just started a blog and as soon as I get the URL I will post it up here.  I am sure he will have some good stuff to add on security.

Editors note:  Chris just started a new blog at http://rationalsecurity.typepad.com/.

Friends who blog

Another blogger joins the ranks today.  William Gerstein, a well known immigration attorney here in Boca Raton, has taken the plunge and debuted his new blog, Coming to America: An Attorney's Commentary on US Immigration Law.  Bill will utilize his blog to create a great resource for those seeking answers on immigration law issues and procedures.  I am sure he will do a fantastic job and many people will find his blog an awesome resource. His first substantive article is the first in a series on immigration through marriage.

I first met Bill and his wife Dori (they are both attorneys practicing together) when we moved to Boca Raton about 4 years ago.  Our children attended pre-school with theirs and we have been fast friends ever since.  Most of us think of immigration lawyers as representing people who sneak into our country at night.  However, Bill's practice is geared more to business people who have legitimate business reasons for coming to the US or spouses of citizens from foreign countries.  He is a dedicated, knowledgeable and extremely professional immigration attorney.  If you ever have a question on any immigration issue, he is the guy with the answer.  Welcome to the word of blog Bill!