Ransomware is scary, but not for the reasons you think it is

If you've been paying any attention for the past few weeks, you know what ransomware is. It's a pretty massive pain for anyone who gets it, and in some cases, it was a matter of life and death.

It's easy to understand what makes this stuff scary, but there's another angle most haven't caught on to yet, and it's not a pleasant train of thought.

Firstly, let's consider a few thing.

1. Getting rid of malware is expensive
2. Recovering from a compromise is even more expensive
3. Ransomware has a clear and speedy ROI
4. Normal people don't have a ton of important data

So let's start with #1 and #2. If you are compromised in some way, even if it's just some malware, it's going to cost a lot to clean up the mess. Probably magnitudes more than the current ransom. It's cheaper to pay than to clean up the mess. This will remain true as there isn't an incentive for the authors to price themselves out of business. The ransomware universe is econ 101. If you're an economics PhD student and you want to look impressive, write your thesis about this stuff; you'll probably win some sort of award. We'll get back to the economics of this shortly.

If we think about #3 it's pretty obvious. You write some malware, it literally pays you money. This means there is going to be more and more of this showing up on the market. Regular old malware can't compete with this. Ransomware has a business model, a really good one, except for that whole being illegal and really unethical part. Non ransomware doesn't have such an impressive business model. This is a turning point in the malware industry.

To date most of the ransomware seems to have been targeted at normal people. The price was a bit too high I thought, $400 is probably more than the average person will or can pay. The last few we've heard about hit hospitals though, and they charged a higher fee. This is basic economics. A hospital has more money than a person, and the data and infrastructure means the difference between life and death. Paying the fee will cost less than hiring a security professional. And when you're in the business of keeping people alive, you'll pay that fee if it means getting back to whatever it is you do.

If the ransomware knows where it is and what sort of data it has, the price can fluctuate based on economics. Some businesses can afford a few days of downtime, some can't. The more critical the data and system is to your business, the more you'll be willing to pay. Of course there is a ceiling on this, if the cost of hiring some security folks is less than the cost of paying the ransom, anyone with a clue is going to pay the expert to clean up the mess. This is the next logical step in the evolution of this business model.

If we keep thinking about this and bring the ransomware to its logical conclusion, the future versions are going to request a constant ongoing payment. Not a one time get out of jail free event. Why charge them once when you can charge them over and over again? Most modern infrastructures are complex enough it will be hard to impossible to remove an extremely clever bit of malware. It's going to be time for the good guys to step it up here, more thoughts on that some other day though.

There is even a silly angle that's fun to ponder. We could imagine ransomware that attacks other known malware. If the ransomware is getting a constant ongoing payment, it would be bad if anything else could remove it, from legitimate software to other ransomware. While I don't think antivirus and ransomware will ever converge on the same point, it's still fun to think about.

What do you think? Let me know: @joshbressers

I'm going to do something really cool in 3 weeks! ... Probably.

If you pay attention to the security news, there is something coming called Badlock. It just set off a treasure hunt for security flaws in Samba. Rather than link to the web site (I'd rather not support this sort of behavior), let's think about this as reasonable people.

I can imagine three possible outcomes to the events that have been set in motion.

1. On April 12 a truly impressive security flaw will be disclosed. We will all be impressed.
2. Someone will figure this out before April 12, they have no incentive to act responsibly and will publish what the know right away, better to be first than to be right!
3. Whatever happens on April 12 won't be nearly as interesting or exciting as we've been led to believe. The world will say a collective 'meh' and we'll go back to looking at pictures of cats.

Numbers 1 and 2 rely on the flaw being quite serious. If it is serious, I suspect there is a far greater chance of #2 happening than #1. As an industry we should hope for #3, we don't need more terrible flaws.

The really crazy thing to think about is if the issue isn't actually serious, it probably won't be found. Everyone is looking for a giant problem. They're going to pass up minor issues (if you do find these, please report them, it's still useful work). The prize is a pot of gold we've been told, not some proverbial the journey is the reward nonsense.

The thing everyone always should remember in a situation like this is there are a lot of really smart people on the planet. If you think of something clever or discover something new, there are huge odds someone else did too. 3 weeks almost guarantees someone else can figure out whatever it is you found. It's especially interesting in this case since we have a name "Badlock" so we know it probably involves locking. We know it affects Samba and Windows. And we know who it was found by so we can look at which bits of Samba they've been working on lately. That's a lot of information for a clever person.

The real thing we need to think about here though is what's actually happening. There is a bigger story for us to think about around all these named issues.

If you name an issue, you are making a claim that it's very serious. There are literally thousands of security issues per year, and maybe ten gets fancy names. A name suggests this is something we should care about. That this issue is special. Except that's not really the case all the time. There have been a lot of named issues that weren't very impressive.

What happens in situations like this, when there is a near constant flow of information that's not really important? People stop listening. The human brain is really good at filtering out noise. Named security issues are going to become noise at the current rate things are going. I'm not opposed to this, I think you should name your pets not your security issues.

Send your comments to Twitter: @joshbressers

Everything is fine, nothing to see here!

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I've been talking about soft skills in security for quite some time now. I'm willing to say it's one of our biggest issues at the moment, a point which I get a lot of disagreement on. I have sympathy for anyone who thinks this stuff doesn't matter, I used to be there. Until I had to start talking to people. As soon as you talk to most anyone outside the security echo chamber, you see what's actually going on, and it's not great.

I won't say the security industry is one fire, but nobody is going to disagree many of the things we're looking after aren't in great shape.Outside of a few very large successful companies, most organizations have serious and significant security problems that could result in a massive breach, it's just that nobody has tried, yet. I see a few reasons for many of our trouble, I always seem to come back to soft skills.

There is a skills shortage
But there's training, look at all the training, there's so much training everything is fine!

There is training. Some is good, some is bad (like anything). It's not that training in itself is bad, I would encourage anyone to go get training. It's not great though either. Most training today focuses on the symptoms of our problems. Things like pen testing, secure coding (which doesn't exist), network defense. Things that while important, aren't the real problems. I'll talk more about this in a future post, but chew on this. There are about 96,000 CISSP holders, and about 5 million security jobs. That's messed up.

Today everyone who is REALLY, I mean REALLY REALLY good at security got there through blood sweat and tears. Nobody taught them what they know, they learned it on their own. Many of us didn't have training when we were learning these things. Regardless of this though, if training is fantastic, why does it seem there is a constant march toward things getting worse instead of better? That tells me we're not teaching the right skills to the right people. The skills of yesterday don't help you today, and especially don't help tomorrow. By its very definition, training can only cover the topics of yesterday.

How do we skill up for the needs of today and tomorrow? The first thing we have to do is listen to the people running, building, and using the technology of today. They know things we don't just as we know things they don't. Security is still almost always an afterthought, even with everyone claiming it's the most important thing ever. This is our failing, not theirs.

We build our skills by being an industry that doesn't complain and belittle everyone who tries anything. We are notorious for being brutal to the new guys. Everyone starts somewhere, don't be a jerk. I know a lot of people who are afraid to do almost anything in the security space because they know if they're not 100% correct, they will have to deal with a torrent of negative comments. It's not worth talking to us in many instances.

As an industry we are failing our customers
Things aren't that bad, sure there are some breaches but in general everything is going pretty good!

If you read any news stories, you know things aren't OK. There are loads of breaches and high profile security issues. Totally broken devices, phones that can't be updated, light bulbs that can join a botnet. As an industry we like to stick to our echo chamber circles where we spin news and events into something that isn't our fault. We laugh at the stupid people doing stupid things. We find a person or event that can explain away the incident as a singular event, not a systematic problem. The problems are growing exponentially, our resources are growing linearly, this means that our resources are actually decreasing every year.

Most organizations don't have proper security and won't even have a proper conversation until they end up on the wrong side of a major compromise. It's our fault nobody is talking about this stuff, even if the breach isn't technically our fault.

What advice are we giving people they can actually use? In almost every organization the security group is feared and hated. We're not peers, we're enemies, and they are ours. This isn't helpful to anyone. How many of you actually sit down and have honest real discussions with those you are supposed to help. Do you actually understand their problems (not our problems with them, their actual problems, the ones they have to route around security to solve). Security shouldn't be something bolted on later, we're lucky if it's even that in most cases.

Security is seen as a business prohibitor, not a business enabler
I know what needs to be done, nobody wants to listen!

We've all been here before. We suggest something to the group, they ignore us. We are the problem here, not the people we are supposed to help. We blame them for not listening when the real issue is we're not talking to them properly. We throw information at people, complex hard to understand information, then rather than hold their hand when they don't understand, we declare them stupid and go find someone who agrees with us, then we complain about how dumb everyone else is and how smart we are.

They aren't stupid.

Neither are we.

The disconnect is one of talking. We have to talk to people, we have to engage with them. We have to build a relationship. You can't expect to show up and be listened to if you're not respected. People trust those they respect. If you're in that circle of respect, you won't be taken seriously. On a regular basis I hear security tell me "they'll know I was right when we get hacked!" That doesn't even make sense. It's your failure for not creating a level of understanding for the issue, it's not their fault for ignoring you.

Soft skills are hard
You don't even know what you're talking about, my skills are fine!

Maybe. I won't say I'm an expert. I am constantly thinking about the state of things and how interactions go. What I do know though is the things I discuss here are based on my real world lessons. Every day is a new journey into being a new and better security person. I know how the technology works, what I don't know is how people work. It's a journey to figure this out. I'm pretty sure I'm on to something because people I respect are encouraging, yet there are some who are trying very hard to discourage this conversation. As the old saying goes, if nobody is complaining about what you're doing, you're not doing anything interesting.


Here's what I do honestly believe. You can disagree with me or anyone you want. The industry isn't solving the problems it needs to solve. Those problems will be solved eventually, there are many industry groups forming to start talking about some of these problems, the groups mostly talk though, that's not a skill we're good at. Even then I see a lot of criticism toward those groups. Problems won't be solved quickly by doing the same thing we do today. I'm confident a big part of our future is humanizing security. Security today isn't for humans, security tomorrow needs to be. We get there by cooperating, not by arguing and insulting.

Think I'm an idiot, let me know: @joshbressers

Containers are like sandwiches

During the RSA conference, I was talking about containers and it occurred to me we can think about them like a sandwich. Not so much that they're tasty, but rather where does your container come from. I was pleased that almost all of the security people I spoke with understand the current security nightmare containers are. The challenge of course is how do we explain what's going on to everyone else. Securtiy is hard and we're bad at talking about it. They also didn't know what Red Hat was doing, which is totally our own fault, but we'll talk about that somewhere else.

But containers are sandwiches. What does that mean? Let's think about them in this context. You can pick up a sandwich. You can look at it, you can tell basically what's going on inside. Are there tomatoes? Lettuce? Ham? Turkey? It's not that hard. There can be things hiding, but for the most part you can get the big details. This is just like a container. Fedora? Red Hat? Ubuntu? It has httpd, great. What about a shell? systemd? Cool. There can be scary bits hidden in there too. Someone decided to replace /bin/sh with a python script? That's just like hiding the olives under the lettuce. What sort of monster would do such a thing!

So now that we have the image of a sandwich in our minds, let's think about a few scenarios.

Find it on a bench
If you're walking through the park and you see a sandwich just laying on a bench what would you do? You might look around, wondering who left this tasty delight, but you're not going to eat it. Most people wouldn't even touch it, who put it there, where did it come from, how old is it, does it have onions? So many questions and you honestly can't get a decent answer. Even if someone could answer the questions, would you eat that sandwich? I certainly wouldn't.

Finding a sandwich on a bench is the public container registry. If this is all you know, you wouldn't think there's anything wrong with doing this, but like the public registry, you don't always know what you're getting. I wonder how many of those containers saw update for the glibc flaw from a few weeks ago? It's probably easier not knowing.

Get it from a scary shop with questionable ingredients
A long time ago I was walking around in New York and decided to hop into a sandwich shop for a quick bite. As I reached for the door, there was a notice from the health department. I decided to keep walking. Even if you can get your sandwich from a shop, if the shop is scary, you could find yourself in trouble.

There are loads of containers available out there you can download that aren't trusted sources. Don't download random containers from random places. It's no different than trying to buy a sandwich from a filthy shop that has to shoo the rats out of the kitchen with a broom.

Get it from a nice shop that uses old ingredients
We've all seen those places selling sandwiches that look nice. The sign is painted, the windows are clean. When you walk in the tables are clean enough to eat off of! But then you order and it's pretty clear everything is old and dried out. You might be able to sneak out the back door before the old man putting it together notices you're not there anymore.

This is currently a huge danger in the container space. Containers are super hip right now so there are plenty of people doing work in this space. Many of these groups don't even know they have a problem. The software in your containers is a lot like sandwich meat. After a few weeks it probably will start to smell, and after a month it's going to do some serious damage to anyone who consumes it.

Be sure to ask your container supplier what they're shipping, where it came from and how fresh it is. It would not be reasonable to ask "If this container was a sandwich would you eat it?"

Get it from a nice shop that uses nice ingredients
This is the dream. You walk into a nice shop. The nice person behind the counter takes your order and using the freshest ingredients possible constructs a sandwich shaped work of art. You take pictures and post them to all your friends explaining this sandwich is what your life was always missing and you didn't know it before now.

This is why you need a partner you can trust when it comes to container content. The closer to the source you can get the better. Ask questions abut the content. Where did it come from? Who is taking care of it? How can I prove any of this? Who is updating it? Containers are a big deal, they're new and exciting. They're also very misunderstood. Only use fresh containers. If the content it more than a few months old, you're eating a sandwich off a park bench. Don't each sandwiches off park benches. Ask hard questions. If your vendor can't answer them, you need to try the shop across the street. Part of the magic of containers is they are the result of truly commoditizing the operating system, you can get container content from a lot of sources, find a good one.

If we think about our infrastructure like we think about public health, you don't want to be responsible for making everyone sick. You need to know what you're using, where it came from, how fresh it is, who put it together, and what's in it. It's not enough to pretend everything is fine. Everything is not fine.

The interesting things from RSA are what didn't happen, and containers are sandwiches

The RSA conference is done. It was a very long and busy show, there were plenty of interesting people there and lots of clever ideas and things to do.

I think the best part is what didn't happen though. We love talking about the exciting things from the show, I'm going to talk about the unexciting non events I was waiting to happen (but thankfully they did not).

The DROWN issue came and went. It wasn't very exciting, it got the appropriate amount of attention. Basically SSLv2 is still broken, don't use it for any reasons. If you use SSLv2, it's like licking the handrail at the airport. Nobody is going to feel bad for you.

There were keynotes by actors. The world continues to turn (pun intended). But really, these keynotes are about being entertaining, I didn't go, because well, they're actors :) But I suspect they were entertaining. No doubt this will happen more and more as there are more and more security conferences, finding good keynotes will only get harder. They should hire that guy from the Hackers movie next.

There weren't any exciting hacking events. Not that stunt hacking is a thing for RSA, I'm glad nobody tried anything new. I'm sure Blackhat will be a very different story. We shall wait and see.

And most importantly, I wasn't booed off the stage :P
I was pleased with how my talk went. Attendance was light but that's expected on a Friday morning. The thing that made the happiest is that they had to kick our group out of the room for the next talk, not because I rambled on but because I got everyone in the room talking to each other. It was fantastic.

On to the interesting bit of the trip though. I found the most interest when I was talking about Red Hat's concept of a trusted container registry. Today if you're using the public registry it's comparable to finding a sandwich on a bench at the park. You can look at it, you can tell it has ham and lettuce, but I mean, it's a sandwich you found on a bench. Are you going to eat that?

If you want a nice sandwich you're going to go to a sandwich shop, order a sandwich, and watch someone make it for you. You can then go and sit on the bench if you want.

The idea behind Red Hat's trusted registry is we have a container registry for Red Hat customers. We control all the content in the registry, we know exactly what it is. We know where it came from. We control the sandwich supply chain from start to finish. No mystery meats here!

All the security people I talked to know that containers are currently a bit of a security circus. None of them knew what Red Hat was doing. This is of course a great opportunity for Red Hat to spread the word. Stay tuned for more clever sandwich jokes.