Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

How Much Fun Was It When You Hit the "Go" Button for Stuxnet?

July 18, 2013

John Dickson of The Denim Group wrote an irreverent but fun blog post which, with permission, I am reposting. Enjoy!

John Dickson small

In less than three weeks, security geeks will once again invade Las Vegas and the spaciousconfines of Caesars Palace conference center to hear three days worth ofvulnerability announcements, boasting, and war stories.  There will alsobe some drinking.

BlackHat will bepacked with security gurus – some good guys, some bad guys, and a lot of folkssomewhere in between.   Gone mostly will be the bearded UNIX guyswith suspenders, but you’ll see the occasional old school security guy mumblingabout the Morris Worm or wardialing the entire (404) area code in the 80’s.There will also be legions of security guys decked out in jeans and blackt-shirts, “security casual” so to speak.  Some t-shirts will have cleversayings, and others will be borderline offensive.  Standing out in thecrowd will be a slightly older, stately gentleman who also might be wearingjeans and a black t-shirt like he did at DefCon 2012, or he might be wearing acrisply ironed military uniform, that of the United States Army.  Hisuniform will be bedecked with military ribbons and four shining stars on bothepaulettes.   For those of you who have been under a rock for most ofthis summer, that person will be General Keith Alexander, Director of theNational Security Agency (DIRNSA for those in the community) and Commander ofthe US Cyber Command.   Given that there are, shall we say,diminished expectations of cooperation between the hacker community and NSAthis go around, trying to fit into the t-shirt and jeans crowd might gounappreciated.

Suffice it tosay, General Alexander is a major player in the community (that would be theintel community, not the underground community).  He has guts.  He’sgoing into the belly of the beast – hacker central – right in the midst of theEric Snowden leak story.  You might bump into him, and if you do, be readywith a question.  To get you thinking, I came up with a handful ofquestions to have in your back pocket should you have a chance encounter withthe US’s #1 cyberspy…

  1. Seriously, how much fun was it when you hit the “Go” button for Stuxnet?
  2. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas is a total myth, right?
  3. How anonymous is Anonymous?
  4. What’s more fun, being a spook or a hacker?
  5. How quickly did you unfriend Eric Snowden on Facebook when he boogied to Hong Kong?
  6. Can you please limit the use by the military of the term “cyber” to only one million times a day?
  7. After APT was outted, is referencing Sun Tzu is every security PowerPoint still cool?
  8. Can NSA collect personal information faster than Facebook gives it away?
  9. What’s that medal for?

Follow me onTwitter at @johnbdickson for on-scene commentary andobservations from BlackHat 2013 and Vegas.

Thanks John. I used my favorite question as the title!