Careers: Interviews Bruce Schneier: World's Foremost
Security Technologist; Celebrated Recipient of the Secure Computing Lifetime
Achievement Award; InfoWorld�s CTO of the Year...
This week, Stephen
Ibaraki, I.S.P., has an exclusive interview with Bruce Schneier, unquestionably
the world�s foremost security technologist, and Founder and Chief Technical
Officer for Counterpane Internet
Security, Inc.
Amongst his many
accomplishments, in 2005, InfoWorld named Bruce a CTO of the Year, and in 2003,
an independent panel of judges awarded Bruce the Secure Computing Lifetime
Achievement Award. Previous winners have included Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman,
the three founders of RSA.
Due to his
world-renowned expertise, Bruce has testified before the Homeland Security
Subcommittee and has provided his elite services to groups as diverse as the
American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Bruce is
at the forefront of security technologies and processes, including inventing
outsourced security monitoring and the Blowfish and Twofish encryption algorithms.
Bruce�s free monthly
e-mail newsletter, Crypto-Gram
is the most widely read security newsletter, with more than 120,000 readers.
Bruce�s first
book, Applied Cryptography, the seminal work in its field, has
sold more than 200,000 copies, and has been translated into five languages. Secrets & Lies: Digital
Security in a Networked World is his book about computer and
network security, a best seller with more than 80,000 copies sold. His most
recent book, published in September 2003, is Beyond Fear: Thinking
Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. It tackles both the big
and small problems of security: home security, homeland security,
counterfeiting, terrorism, etc., and has garnered wide attention and a faithful
following.
The latest blog on the interview can be found on February 7th, 2006 in the Canadian IT Managers forum where you can provide your comments in an interactive dialogue:
http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/ Discussion:
Bruce, you are widely acknowledged as the
world�s top authority in Internet security, so we are indeed privileged you
have taken time out of your schedule to do this interview. Thank you for
sharing your accumulated wisdom with our audience.
Q: �From our last discussion in 2003, can you update us on your work with encryption
algorithms?
A: �Lately I�ve been working on stream ciphers. It seems that on a purely abstract level,
stream ciphers are more efficient than block ciphers. That is, it takes fewer
clock cycles to encrypt a byte of data with a stream cipher than it does with a
block cipher. I have some guesses about why this is true, but nothing concrete
yet.
Two specific designs came out of this work:
Helix and Phelix. Both are stream ciphers
and both have the interesting property of computing a MAC (message
authentication code) at the same time as they encrypt or decrypt data. This
makes them super-efficient when you need to both encrypt and MAC data, which
turns out to be quite a lot of the time.
Q: �Tell us more about Counterpane joining the Sourcefire Certified Snort Integrator
program.
A:� Counterpane has always been a strong supporter of open source programs, as
well as groups that create free utilities that allow for a wider adoption of a
layered security approach. One problem is that sometimes organizations that began
as developing open source programs create and launch commercial companies. When
this happens, they often abandon the open source programs, leaving the user
communities with solutions that cannot continue to grow and expand. Of course,
they hope that the communities buy the new commercial version.
Sourcefire did not do that. They didn�t
abandon the open source community. So they created the "Sourcefire Snort
Integration Program" to engage the larger security community and
organizations that have utilized Snort over the years and built a high level of
support and expertise. Counterpane is proud to continue to contribute to the
Snort efforts and participate with Sourcefire at this professional level.
Q: How do you see digital identity theft evolving into the future and the means for thwarting it?
A:� Identity theft is a terrible name; your identity is the one thing about you that cannot
be stolen. I think of this type of crime as fraud: fraud due to impersonation. It
is a fast-growing area of crime, and likely to continue to grow in the future.
Impersonation fraud is so pervasive for two reasons. One, identity information is easy to obtain. And two, identity
information is incredibly valuable once obtained. Most of the �solutions�
propose focus on the first problem and are not very successful. I think we need
to focus on the second.
And I think we need to fix the underlying economic failure. As long as impersonation fraud is largely an externality to
banks and data brokers, they won�t spend the money to secure their systems. I
support laws that make financial institutions liable for the effects of this
type of fraud.
I have written
extensively about this.
Q: Can you apply the same question to data theft?
A:� Data theft is a more general problem. It includes thefts of large amounts of personal
data from data brokers like ChoicePoint, but it also encompasses industrial espionage
and similar attacks. I see this type of crime continuing for the foreseeable
future, as we don�t have any good means to secure computers and networks. Certainly
those who invest in security products and services can be largely secure from
these types of attacks, but many organizations don�t bother.
Q: You created a worldwide early-warning system for responding quickly to attacks on corporate infrastructure. Can you comment
on how this works and how your processes and technologies will evolve into the
future?
A:� Our early detection capability for zero-day attacks on corporate networks is a
function of our ability to correlate data across 550 networks worldwide; more
specifically, analyze activity patterns down to an individual device (e.g., a
firewall, router, or host). While the activity on any given network can change
based on legitimate or malicious activity, it is uncommon to see similar
changes in behavior across many different networks.
For example, during the Zotob outbreak, we
detected an increase in NetBIOS activity across many networks simultaneously.
What was interesting about Zotob was that the increase in network activity was
very subtle - unlike previous worms - because the method Zotob used to scan for
vulnerable hosts looks like legitimate Windows traffic. But by correlating the
change in activity from many different networks, we can detect this type of
thing. We can actually see the early formation of a worldwide zero-day attack.
Our plans are to do even better. We are currently
working on improving our behavior detection within a variety of business
applications at the user level. We are working on expanding our application
level support, and correlating this information with everything else we see on
the network. This is a type of monitoring that IDSs and IPSs cannot do, because
they are only looking at the identity of network traffic and not its content.
For example, today we can profile the login activity for a given user, such as �administrators�
at each Windows host. We can profile based on certain criteria, such as time of
day and frequency. While it is possible that any given host can deviate from
its historical profile, (e.g., planned maintenance), if we detect a cluster of
activity that is all outside the behavior profile, (especially if we see this
worldwide across different networks), we would have a strong indication that an
attack is in progress. Today we can apply this to some applications (databases,
SAP, etc); we will continue to expand this to include other business
applications as well.
Q: In 2003, Counterpane was rolling out
several new services: a vulnerability scanning service, which provides additional
information about the customer�s network allowing you to monitor them better; a
device management service, which also works in concert with monitoring; and Active
Response, where Counterpane takes defensive actions on behalf of the customer
in the event of a security incident.
What are your future plans for Counterpane in 2006 and 2007?
A.� For 2006, Counterpane is heavily focused on changing the rules on how MSSPs report
data back to customers. Counterpane has always been the acknowledged visionary
in the MSSP space - just ask Gartner - and we will continue to provide services
that benefit our customers while challenging our competitors. In the past,
MSSPs have been very tech-oriented in their reporting; lots of details about
esoteric things, with a healthy measure of why-it's-important analysis.� This works best if the customers at the other
end - the people who actually hired us - are in a position to make use of this
kind of detail. This is definitely a core benefit of our services when we
interact with a technical audience.
Where we want to expand is into business
information reporting. This means fewer individual events with less granular
detail, but more dollars-and-cents information. We will continue to offer
flexibility, so we're working on a lot of different mechanisms for tracking
running incident costs. This is based on factors such as whether or not there's
a positive indication that an attack was �successful� in some way, how quickly
the customer reacted, and what Counterpane could do for that client, based on its
services mix and deployment scope, to reduce the costs for that incident type
in the future.
There are lots of detail updates to existing services planned for 2006 as well. Counterpane has launched numerous
services into the marketplace in the past two years and our general plan is to
deepen the pool of service expertise for the next 12 months � to stay ahead of
our customers' expectations. You�ll see us making announcements about all-new
services as 2006 draws to a close and we can expand the envelope of what a
full-service MSSP should be.
Q: What do you see as the biggest crisis in security for 2006 and how should enterprises prepare?
A:� Crime. The big thing on the Internet is crime. This has been true for about two years
now and will continue to be true through 2006.
Defending against computer crime is not
really any different than defending against hackers. You need good security
products. You need 24x7 security monitoring. You need processes in place. There
are differences in the types of attacks, but they are less important.
I�ve written about the characteristics of criminal
attacks and general attack trends here.
Q: Can you share three case studies illustrating the vulnerabilities of corporations?
Case 1: Sony BMG Root Kit
On 17 November 2005 at 5:30 PM, the Counterpane SOC notified one of its customers, a large global mortgage insurer,
that it saw evidence of the Sony BMG Rootkit active on one of its networks. The customer called back an hour later to confirm the activity. It had been testing
its Trend Micro Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware system to see if it would detect the Sony BMG Root kit. The anti-virus / anti-spyware system failed to detect the
rootkit, but the customer was relieved to receive an alert notification from the Counterpane SOC.
The discovery of this Internet epidemic is credited to one man: Mark Russinovich. On 31 October 2005, Russinovich
published to his Sysinternals web log his discovery of finding the Sony BMG
rootkit residing hidden, within his PC.
Essentially, Sony installed its Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on Russinovich�s computer when he played one
of its music CDs. The music CD installed the DRM software without Russinovich�s
knowledge and hid it from his standard malware detectors, like anti-virus and
spyware, using the same techniques that hackers typically use to install
rootkits.
Russinovich�s subsequent research and web log publication over the next few weeks slowly gained traction in the mass media,
but not with the traditional security companies. I wrote about it in a Wired column:
�But much worse than not detecting it before Russinovich's discovery was the
deafening silence that followed. When a new piece of malware is found, security
companies fall over themselves to clean our computers and inoculate our
networks. Not in this case.�
On 16 November 2005, Counterpane�s Threat Intelligence Group began assessing the risk associated with the Sony Rootkit
and realized that none of the major Intrusion Detection vendors had developed
or deployed standard signatures to detect the rootkit�s presence. ISS published
TRONS rules, and Bleeding Edge Snort published proof of concept rules, but none
were part of the standard IDS packages.
Counterpane�s Device Management group modified the Bleeding Edge SNORT signatures to work best with the Counterpane-deployed
Snort IDS engines. They deployed those rules on 17 November 2005 about the same
time that Counterpane�s Network Intelligence Group published its Risk Assessment.
When the global mortgage insurer customer received the Risk Assessment from Counterpane, it resolved to check if its anti-virus
/ anti-spyware system would catch the presence of the root kit. As stated
before, its systems did not detect it, but because the customer also uses the
Counterpane monitoring service, it was covered.
Counterpane�s ability to detect this type
of security event demonstrates the professionalism and expertise inherent in
the Counterpane system, and just one way in which we do our job.
Case 2: Unannounced Penetration Testing by Customer
On 13 April 2005, a customer complained to the SOC Director that Counterpane had
missed an unannounced Penetration Test during the week of 5�11 Apr. After review of the audit trail, Counterpane showed the customer that the SOC did
indeed warn it of suspicious activity on three separate occasions and even told
it that the attacker might be trying to fly below the radar.
1. At 9:43 AM on 5 April, five minutesafter initial contact, Counterpane contacted the customer regarding the
following alert discovered by its NetRanger Intrusion Detection System (IDS):
�Suspicious Mail Attachment: NetRanger 3110-0. �
The �Suspicious Mail Attachment: NetRanger 3110-0� signature fires when the IDS discovers attachments with the following
file extensions: ".vbs", ".vbe", ".wsf",
".wsh", ".hta". IDS vendors first associated this
vulnerability with the Love Letter VBScript mail worm launched in May of 2000. Although
the Socrates system captured only two alerts within this initial ticket,
Counterpane still wanted the customer to check this event.
2. Two hours later, Counterpane sent another e-mail to the customer, advising it of more peculiar activity.
Counterpane had observed a number of alerts generated from its IDS devicesdirected at its Web server. This kind of activity is typical of a directed scan
against a single internal host. Counterpane captured 25 IDS alerts of this type within two hours.
3. Fifteen minutes later, Counterpane notified the customer again regarding multiple instances of direct probing
against other servers on their internal network.
This activity came from the same external
host IP address as the previous attacks and confirmed that the attacker had
more in mind than just a random scan. The Counterpane analyst reported to the
customer: �Low volume probing events have been originating from the above source
every few/several minutes as if they are attempting to "fly below
radar". That or they just may be slow typers. Please investigate the source.�
After review of the audit trail, the
customer conceded that Counterpane did in fact alert it to the Unannounced
Penetration Test in a timely manner and that it needed to review its internal
procedures more closely to take advantage of the Counterpane service.
Case 3: MS-SQL Worm Attack
On 19 April 2005 at 3:25:07 PM EST, 11
minutes after the initial contact, the SOC contacted a customer regarding an
�MS-SQL version overflow attempt� alert triggered by the customer�s Snort
Intrusion Detection System (IDS). The IDS sent 30 alerts in the first five
minutes. �The MS-SQL version overflow attempt� alert
fires when the Snort IDS engine sees a potential buffer overflow attempt.
Versions of Microsoft�s implementation of
SQL server running the resolution service are subject to multiple buffer
overflows that could result in a Denial of Service (DOS) or remote code execution.
The SQL Slammer (Sapphire) worm exploited these vulnerabilities when attackers
launched it in January of 2003.
Thirty seconds later, Counterpane contacted
the customer again regarding the same MS-SQL Worm propagation activity, after another
32 alerts from the customer-owned IDS engine.�
One minute after that, Counterpane
contacted the customer once again regarding more MS-SQL Worm propagation
activity; this time another 33 alerts were received from the IDS.
Just under an hour later, Counterpane finally
communicated the problem to one of the customer�s security engineers over the
phone, who said that he would look into the problem.
20 minutes later, Counterpane received a
call from a second security engineer requesting more information. He did not
know the pass phrase and therefore received no information from Counterpane.
Three minutes later, the original customer
security engineer called back with the proper pass phrase to verify if
Counterpane was still seeing worm activity. Counterpane confirmed. The customer
said that he was still looking into it.
At 5:16:58 PM EST, the customer called
Counterpane to verify that the worm had stopped. He had identified a home
dial-up user going through the corporate VPN who was the source of the worm
activity. He disconnected that user from the network and the worm stopped.
Q: What do you foresee as the major
competing security technologies in the enterprise space in three years; what
are their strengths and weaknesses? Who will be the big losers? How should businesses
prepare for these changes?
A: Security is no longer about technology.� It�s about people. It�s about economics. Companies
should prepare for a time when they are responsible for security breaches, not
just for their own data, but the data of others.
Q: You have spoken at many forums and
events. Which ones would you recommend our audience to attend, and for what
reasons?
A:� There are a lot of mediocre security conferences out there. Right now, I
think the best is the RSA Conference; but honestly, it�s the best of a mediocre
lot. I�m speaking at the next one in San Jose, February 2006.
Q: You have never been one to avoid
controversy so now choose any topics of your choosing and provide commentary.
A:
Final Comment: Bruce, it is always a real
pleasure and delight in discussing the area of security with you. Your work
continues to be followed by hundreds of thousands of senior security
specialists due to your elite standing. |