30 minutes every week on data security, privacy, and the law…..(plus or minus ten)

On this week’s program:

* Is there is a Russian connection to the “Climategate” attack?

* ‘Take Back Your Privacy’ — A new nation-wide effort ramps up

* Our take on this week’s news.

–> Stream This Week’s Show with our Built-In Flash Player:

–> Scroll down to see links and show notes for this week’s show

–> Stream, subscribe or download Episode 84 – Listen or subscribe to the feed to automatically get the latest episode sent to you to your Google, Yahoo, iTunes, or other popular sites.

–>Tune into the show directly on iTunes, you can also subscribe to the program on iTunes.

–> A simple way to listen to the show from with stricter firewalls: Listen from Odeo. This site works better if you are behind a more restrictive enterprise firewall.

Please visit our sponsors, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast:

• Vipre Anti-Virus, the complete Antimalware solution by Sunbelt Software. If you TRY the enterprise version, you get the home version for FREE! Go to: http://www.testdrivevipre.com .

• GamaSec Web App Scans: Spots cyber-hazards on your web site, and has advanced zero-day protection. GET YOUR FREE BASIC WEB APP SCAN, plus a special offer just for listeners to The Data Security Podcast. Go here to sign up, and add the offer code: Podcast.

• SonicWall;  Get the super fast UTM firewall that’s rated Five Stars (the Best rating) by Secure Computing Magazine.  Data Clone Labs is the premier SonicWall Medallion Partner for all your security needs.

• DeviceLock; Software that controls, manages and helps encrypt USB drives and other removable media. Get a free trial on their site, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast.

Show Notes for Episode 84 of the Data Security Podcast

* Samantha has a conversation with Leslie Harris, president and CEO of The Center for Democracy and Technology. They are a D.C. group launching a consumer privacy campaign. They want to educate consumers, pressure businesses, and push for a new law. Read more at the “Take Back Our Privacy” area of their site.

* Tales From The Dark Web:  What, if any connection is there between Russian and the “Climategate” attack? Read more in the The UK Daily Mail story. And, Adobe to release critical security patches tomorrow .

* From Our Take on The News: SC police academy IT chief nabbed in Web sting;  ‘Accidental’ Download Sending Man To Prison.

* From Our Take on The News:  Department of Defense misses its own deadline for removing social security numbers from military ID cards. Read about it at Stars and Stripes.

* From Our Take on The News: Sprint received 8 million requests from Law Enforcement for GPS location data. EFF is on the case, but this story has a fascinating origin… and an almost instantaneous rebuttal from Sprint. (Which doesn’t deny the 8 million figure, but attempts to give it some context… The company is, of course, a regulated industry stuck in the middle, between the demands of its customers and the demands of congress, law enforcement and FTC… ). Read more at EFF.

* From Our Take on The News: The economics of security advice; a very interesting MSFT research paper, and a related SANS posting. Read more at The SANS Internet Storm Center.

* The Wrap:  Many More Government Records Compromised in 2009 than Year Ago, Report Claims. Read more at databreaches.net .

Episode 82 of the Data Security Podcast is scheduled to post Monday over night/Tuesday early morning, Greenwich Mean Time.  In the meantime listen to Ira Victor’s two-part infosec special interviews on fighting web drive-by downloads. We posted a two part special edition last Thursday and Friday, Episode #80 and #81.

For Thursday November 19th, and Friday November 20th, we depart from our regular format for those with an advanced understanding of information security technologies.

These two special editions feature technical conversations with newsmakers on new counter measures to fight web drive-by downloads. Part one (this episode) features Pedro Bustamante, Senior Security Researcher with PandaSecurity. Part two will post tomorrow, with an EXCLUSIVE interview with the creators of a new hardware sandbox approach to this vexing security issue.

We will return to our regular format of the latest news on data security, privacy, and the law with Episode 82.  Episode 82 is scheduled to post Sunday night /Monday morning, November 23rd, 2009 at ~12.01am Greenwich Mean Time. That is our regularly scheduled show posting time.

On Episode 80:  InfoSec Conversation with Pedro Bustamante on countering web drive-by downloads.

–> Stream This Special Episode with our Built-In Flash Player:

–> Scroll down to see links and show notes for this week’s show

–> Stream, subscribe or download Episode 80 – Listen or subscribe to the feed to automatically get the latest episode sent to you to your Google, Yahoo, iTunes, or other popular sites.

–>Tune into the show directly on iTunes, you can also subscribe to the program on iTunes.

–> A simple way to listen to the show from with stricter firewalls: Listen from Odeo. This site works better if you are behind a more restrictive enterprise firewall.

Please visit our sponsors, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast:

• Vipre Anti-Virus, the complete Antimalware solution by Sunbelt Software. If you TRY the enterprise version, you get the home version forFREE! Go to: http://www.testdrivevipre.com .

• GamaSec Web App Scans: Spots cyber-hazards on your web site, and has advanced zero-day protection. GET YOUR FREE BASIC WEB APP SCAN, plus a special offer just for listeners to The Data Security Podcast. Go here to sign up, and add the offer code: Podcast.

• SonicWall;  Get the super fast UTM firewall that’s rated Five Stars (the Best rating) by Secure Computing Magazine.  Data Clone Labs is the premier SonicWall Medallion Partner for all your security needs.

• DeviceLock; Software that controls, manages and helps encrypt USB drives and other removable media. Get a free trial on their site, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast.

Show Notes for Episode 80 of the Data Security Podcast

Ira has an extended, technical conversation with Pedro Bustamante, Senior Security Researcher with PandaSecurity. Ira and Pedro will discuss web drive-by downloads. Here is the link that Pedro mentions in the segment.

30 minutes every week on data security, privacy, and the law…..(plus or minus ten)

On this week’s program:

* Why are web drive-by downloads proliferating like cockroaches?

* Sixty Minutes just covered a data security story. We rate the coverage.

* Our take on this week’s news.

–> Stream This Week’s Show with our Built-In Flash Player:

–> Scroll down to see links and show notes for this week’s show

–> Stream, subscribe or download Episode 78 – Listen or subscribe to the feed to automatically get the latest episode sent to you to your Google, Yahoo, iTunes, or other popular sites.

–>Tune into the show directly on iTunes, you can also subscribe to the program on iTunes.

–> A simple way to listen to the show from with stricter firewalls: Listen from Odeo. This site works better if you are behind a more restrictive enterprise firewall.

Please visit our sponsors, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast:

• Vipre Anti-Virus, the complete Antimalware solution by Sunbelt Software. If you TRY the enterprise version, you get the home version for FREE! Go to: http://www.testdrivevipre.com .

• GamaSec Web App Scans: Spots cyber-hazards on your web site, and has advanced zero-day protection. GET YOUR FREE BASIC WEB APP SCAN, plus a special offer just for listeners to The Data Security Podcast. Go here to sign up, and add the offer code: Podcast.

• SonicWall;  Get the super fast UTM firewall that’s rated Five Stars (the Best rating) by Secure Computing Magazine.  Data Clone Labs is the premier SonicWall Medallion Partner for all your security needs.

• DeviceLock; Software that controls, manages and helps encrypt USB drives and other removable media. Get a free trial on their site, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast.

Show Notes for Episode 78 of the Data Security Podcast

* Conversation:  Ira talks with Georg Hess, CEO and Co-Founder, Art of Defence, about network scans versus web application scans. OWASP AppSec DC 2009 takes place this week,  November 10-13th, in Washington, DC. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a worldwide free and open community focused on improving the security of application software. Their mission is to make application security visible,  so that people and organizations can make informed decisions about true application security risks.

* Tales From The Dark Web:  Our take on the 60 Minutes segment Sabotaging The System:  Could hackers get into the computer systems that run crucial elements of the world’s infrastructure, such as the power grids, water works or even a nation’s military arsenal? Be sure to watch this video segment with the highest level non-technical boss in your organization. Also, make sure you, and your non-technical boss watch the “Web Extras” from this segment.  One of the stunning parts of the segment was the claim that private companies are more vulnerable because the companies only care about profit. Unlike government networks, which are more secure (uh?).  If that was the case, how can that be squared against the portion of the segment that revealed that the Feds lost 12TB of data from the DOD, DOE, DOC and possible NASA, in 2007? Where was the profit motive that stopped good security in those organizations? Security expert Robert Graham explores this, and other issues, in this posting: Brazil outage NOT caused by hackers.

* From Our Take on The News:  New open-source voting technology – the developer is looking for jurisdictions to try it for free.  Read the Wired account.

* From Our Take on The News:  A technical overview of the newly discovered SSL vulnerabilities and possible mitigation. Ben Laurie has excellent, technical blog postings about the SSL protocol flaw.

* From Our Take on The News:  Voters hate traffic surveillance cameras — proven in three U. S. cities in last week’s elections. (As if we still need proof.) Great coverage of traffic surveillance and related matters in Maryland. (But the topic is universal).

* From The Wrap:  First iPhone worm found, details at F-Secure.  A how-to for changing the SSH default password in your jailbroken iPhone; one uses a computer connected to your iPhone to change the SSH settings.  Note: If you are not using a jailbroken iPhone, you don’t need to make changes to be protected from this particular attack.

For Thursday November 5th, we depart from our regular format for those with an advanced understanding of information security technologies. This episode is a one-topic special edition, providing coverage of a major man-in-the-middle flaw discovered in the SSL protocol (see, we told you it was for security geeks).

We will return to our regular format of the latest news on data security, privacy, and the law with Episode 78.  Episode 78 is scheduled to post Sunday night /Monday morning, November 8th, 2009 at ~12.01am Greenwich Mean Time. That is our regularly scheduled show posting time.

On Episode 77:  Conversation with Marsh Ray, discoverer of the new SSL flaw

–> Stream This Special Episode Show with our Built-In Flash Player:

–> Scroll down to see links and show notes for this week’s show

–> Stream, subscribe or download Episode 77 – Listen or subscribe to the feed to automatically get the latest episode sent to you to your Google, Yahoo, iTunes, or other popular sites.

–>Tune into the show directly on iTunes, you can also subscribe to the program on iTunes.

–> A simple way to listen to the show from with stricter firewalls: Listen from Odeo. This site works better if you are behind a more restrictive enterprise firewall.

Please visit our sponsors, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast:

• Vipre Anti-Virus, the complete Antimalware solution by Sunbelt Software. If you TRY the enterprise version, you get the home version forFREE! Go to: http://www.testdrivevipre.com .

• GamaSec Web App Scans: Spots cyber-hazards on your web site, and has advanced zero-day protection. GET YOUR FREE BASIC WEB APP SCAN, plus a special offer just for listeners to The Data Security Podcast. Go here to sign up, and add the offer code: Podcast.

• SonicWall;  Get the super fast UTM firewall that’s rated Five Stars (the Best rating) by Secure Computing Magazine.  Data Clone Labs is the premier SonicWall Medallion Partner for all your security needs.

• DeviceLock; Software that controls, manages and helps encrypt USB drives and other removable media. Get a free trial on their site, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast.

Show Notes for Episode 77 of the Data Security Podcast

Breaking news with an extended interview with Marsh Ray,  Senior Software Developer and Engineer with multi-factor security company PhoneFactor.

SSL lock engaged, but is the connection secure?

Marsh Ray discovered a major security flaw in the SSL protocol.   SSL is the most widely used encryption protocol on the internet.

Marsh Ray keeps a blog at extendedsubset.com.  He works for PhoneFactor, where you can read more about this vulnerability in SSL.

30 minutes every week on data security, privacy, and the law…..(plus or minus ten)

On this week’s program:

* Placing an online bet for the World Series? Employees of online betting sites might be selling customer data online.

* Google Book Search: What data is Google storing about readers of online books?

* Our take on this week’s news.

–> Stream This Week’s Show with our Built-In Flash Player:

–> Scroll down to see links and show notes for this week’s show

–> Stream, subscribe or download Episode 76 – Listen or subscribe to the feed to automatically get the latest episode sent to you to your Google, Yahoo, iTunes, or other popular sites.

–>Tune into the show directly on iTunes, you can also subscribe to the program on iTunes.

–> A simple way to listen to the show from with stricter firewalls: Listen from Odeo. This site works better if you are behind a more restrictive enterprise firewall.

Please visit our sponsors, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast:

• Vipre Anti-Virus, the complete Antimalware solution by Sunbelt Software. If you TRY the enterprise version, you get the home version for FREE! Go to: http://www.testdrivevipre.com .

• GamaSec Web App Scans: Spots cyber-hazards on your web site, and has advanced zero-day protection. GET YOUR FREE BASIC WEB APP SCAN, plus a special offer just for listeners to The Data Security Podcast. Go here to sign up, and add the offer code: Podcast.

• SonicWall;  Get the super fast UTM firewall that’s rated Five Stars (the Best rating) by Secure Computing Magazine.  Data Clone Labs is the premier SonicWall Medallion Partner for all your security needs.

• DeviceLock; Software that controls, manages and helps encrypt USB drives and other removable media. Get a free trial on their site, and be sure to let them know you heard about them on The Data Security Podcast.

Show Notes for Episode 76 of the Data Security Podcast

* Conversation:  Samantha talks with Rebecca Jeschke  of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). There are lots of privacy objections to the Google book search settlement… EFF is leading the way on the privacy objections. Read about it here. And here’s the legal document filed by EFF… the settlement hearing has been indefinitely postponed.

* Tales From The Dark Web:  Are online casinos leaking information about their customers? Hard to say, as we saw the original web posting about this is only available in the Google Cache. Here is a story from TightPoker.com about the original posting. That story lists the original site at AustralianGambling.au, but the URL should be AustralianGambling.com.au .

* From Our Take on The News:  Lobbyists beware: judge rules metadata is public record. This story also talks about the Google metadata leak.

* From Our Take on The News: A MUST READ – Samantha writes at the ReasonableReporter.com about social engineering and how the technique is used in real life, and in the new movie Law Abiding Citizen:

* Wrap: Ira talked about the launch of Digital Forensics Magazine.