A little off topic - New China

Today is the first day that I see a real possibility of the United States someday falling under the ownership of China. Let's just call it 'New China'. It's a good thing I'm Jewish. Jews just love Chinese food!

From NewsRoomAmerica.com

"In its attempt to shed brands on its way to a smaller, more efficient company, General Motors Corp. (a.k.a., Government Motors) announced it has sold its Hummer brand to a Chinese company.

The announcement Tuesday came a day after GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York, adopting a strategy that gives the federal government 60 percent ownership. GM officials said they hope to emerge from bankruptcy leaner and more efficient within 60 to 90 days.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company bought the Hummer brand, marking the company's first foray into the automobile industry.

Reports said the sale would save about 3,000 jobs in the U.S., at Hummer plants and dealerships."

I think I need to get a copy of Rosetta Stone and start learning the language.

Communication Breakdown

Besides being a fantastic song from one of my all time favorite English rock bands, Led Zeppelin, today's blog title describes one of the things I have seen around Application Security and why stuff slips through the crack. Nothing surprises me more than to see a developer make assumptions about something and then come to the realization just before release that the stuff just doesn't work... Keep in mind, this 'just before release' should never occur if AppSec is plugged into the SDLC properly, but when an AppSec program is in its infancy, this is just one of many things to overcome.

Communication (or lack of) seems to be a problem in a lot of areas in business. If we would all just open up a bit and make sure we understand what is being told to us or communicate more clearly, ourselves, many of these problems would not exist in the first place.

It just amazes me that something so simple could be one of the biggest problems in industry today.

API 3rd Annual IT Security Conference

Besides getting to play a pimp and embarrass myself in front of the upper management of several oil and natural gas companies, it was very exciting for me to get to spend time talking with Jeremiah Grossman about Application Security. Having him go through explaining one of his most recent discoveries (Clickjacking) was eye opening. We were a little worried that the potential attendees would not be technical enough to appreciate the talk. Thank goodness, we were wrong. The questions started pouring in at the end about how to protect themselves, etc.

If you ever get a chance to hear Jeremiah speak, take the opportunity. You will not be disappointed.