Rational Survivability

I was very interested and excited to learn what NIST researchers and staff had come up with when I saw the notification of the “Draft Interagency Report 7904, Trusted Geolocation in the Cloud: Proof of Concept Implementation.”

It turns out that this report is an iteration on the PoC previously created by VMware, Intel and RSA back in 2010 which utilized Intel’s TXT, VMWare’s virtualization platform and the RSA/Archer GRC platform, as this one does.

I haven’t spent much time to look at the differences, but I’m hoping as I read through it that we’ve made progress…

You can read about the original PoC here, and watch a video from 2010 about it here.  Then you can read about it again in its current iteration, here (PDF.)

I wrote about this topic back in 2009 and still don’t have a good firm answer to the question I asked in 2009 in a blog titled “Quick Question: Any Public Cloud Providers Using Intel TXT?” and the follow-on “More On High Assurance (via TPM) Cloud Environments”

At CloudConnect 2011 I also filmed a session with the Intel/RSA/VMware folks titled “More On Cloud and Hardware Root Of Trust: Trusting Cloud Services with Intel® TXT”

I think this is really interesting stuff and a valuable security and compliance capability, but is apparently still hampered with practical deployment challenges.

I’m also confused as to why RSA employees were not appropriately attributed under the NIST banner and this is very much a product-specific/vendor-specific set of solutions…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a NIST-branded report like this.

At any rate, I am interested to see if we will get to the point where these solutions will have more heterogeneous uptake across platforms.

/Hoff

Besides a panel or two and another circus-act talk with Rich Mogull, I’m thrilled to be invited to present again at the Cloud Security Alliance Summit at RSA this year.

One of my previous keynotes at a CSA event was well received: Cloudersize – A cardio, strength & conditioning program for a firmer, more toned *aaS

Normally when negotiating to perform at such a venue, I have my people send my diva list over to the conference organizers.  You know, the normal stuff: only red M&M’s, Tupac walkout music, fuzzy blue cashmere slippers and Hoffaccinos on tap in the green room.

This year, understanding we are all under pressure given the tough economic climate, I relaxed my requirements and instead took a deal for a couple of ace warm-up speakers to goose the crowd prior to my arrival.

Here’s who Jim managed to scrape up:

9:00AM – 9:40AM // Keynote: “Cloud 2: Proven, Trusted and Secure”
Speaker: Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com

9:40AM – 10:10AM // Keynote: Vivek Kundra, CIO, White House

10:10AM – 10:30AM // Presentation: “Commode Computing: Relevant Advances In Toiletry – From Squat Pots to Cloud Bots – Waste Management Through Security Automation”
Presenting: Christofer Hoff, Director, Cloud & Virtualization Solutions, Cisco Systems

…

I guess I can’t complain 😉

See you there. Bring rose petals and Evian as token gifts to my awesomeness, won’t you?

/Hoff

Related articles

• Cloud Security Alliance Summit 2011 at RSA Conference (365.rsaconference.com)
• RSA Guide 2011: Key Themes (securosis.com)
• RSA Conference 2011: Association Events on Monday (365.rsaconference.com)
• George Carlin, Lenny Bruce & The Unspeakable Seven Dirty Words of Cloud Security (rationalsurvivability.com)

At the RSA security conference last week I spent some time with Tom Gillis on a live uStream video titled “Securing the Network.”

Tom happens to be (as he points out during a rather funny interlude) my boss’ boss — he’s the VP and GM of Cisco‘s STBU (Security Technology Business Unit.)

It’s an interesting discussion (albeit with some self-serving Cisco tidbits) surrounding how collaboration, cloud, mobility, virtualization, video, the consumerizaton of IT and, um, jet packs are changing the network and how we secure it.

Direct link here.

Embedded below:

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• Cisco outlines new plan for securing mobile, cloud apps at RSA (computerworld.com)
• Cisco beefs up VPN and cloud security (v3.co.uk)
• Virtual Networking/Nexus 1000v Virtual Switch Blogger Roundtable/WebEx Logistics – March 2nd. (rationalsurvivability.com)
• Cisco rolls out mobile VPN trifecta (go.theregister.com)

I don’t pay much attention to lists or awards, other than to usually make fun of them (especially when I’m put on one.)

However, this time I’ll make an exception. I was nominated this year for the RSA Security Bloggers Awards in the category of “Most Entertaining blog” and was voted “most likely to do something stupid” (in other words, I won.)

I was up against some stiff competition from the likes of Mike Rothman, Jack Daniel, Erin Jacobs and Adam Shostack (et. al) All these folks are fantastic bloggers and I’m lucky enough to call them all my friends.  In between ejecting party crashers and making fun of Rich Mogull during my acceptance speech (the whole one sentence,) it was great to chill with people I only get to see in person at conferences.

Thanks very much to all who voted for me and thanks to the hard work by the judges and those who organized the bloggers meetup. Next year I hope they have a category for “best bouncer for the meetup.” 😉

I’d like to congratulate the winners in the other categories, also:

Best Technical Security Blog – The SANS Internet Storm Center Blog

Best Non-technical Security Blog – Krebs on Security by Brian Krebs

Best Podcast – Pauldotcom

Best Corporate Blog – Jeremiah Grossman, White Hat Security

Thanks again.

/Hoff

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• Social Security Blogger Awards 2010 (stillsecureafteralltheseyears.com)

My youngest, Olivia, was interested in a video promo I was filming today for the RSA Security Conference on Cloud Computing.  She mentioned that she wanted to film a spot on Cloud, too.  Who am I to argue?

Direct link here.  Embedded below.

…she gets rather upset about people’s poor password practices around 6:25 or so.  Way to make a security daddy proud! 😉

Next up, virtualization!

/Hoff