Skip to main content

Security Software and the Cowboy pants

Starting to feel a sense of frustration. No it doesn't effect me personally. I am still the same 'white hat' as always.
I went through the series of interviews for different positions recently. It was an absolute waste of time. What caught my attention is a level of arrogance and mindless stupidity coming from the people who should be paying attention. Each interview was along same well travelled paths:
Can you install software?
Can you connect it to the ERP (or whatever they connecting it to) ?
etc.
So they all concentrate on the Functional requirements. Most forget the security of your software falls into the Non-Functional requirements.
No one had a slightest idea that before you implement Functional requirements you need to make sure that your 'Security Software' being it Sailpoint, Oracle or Forgerock or whatever:
is in itself secured.
The buzz word 'security software' doesn't make it to be secure on its own.
Someone has to do it.
Otherwise your Security Software will be looking like a cowboy wearing pants with two guns in the front pockets and two wide cutaways in the back.



Yes your company rear will be exposed.
Almost all of the vendors use 3 tiered system:
Front web tier
Application tier
Database Tier
If none of these tiers are hardened and secured you will end up with the pants above.
Any IAM implementation project therefore need to start and concentrate on fulfilling the Non-Functional requirements first and foremost.
Only after the Non-Functional requirements are tested and approved the Functional requirements can be addressed.
I strongly recommend to follow NIST, ASD and some other standards to secure the 'Security Software'.

But you can always buy pants as they are widely available out there :) and plenty of integrators who are happy to sell them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fight for the Light within

Finally I understand. Or it seems that I do. There is no Attainment. My whole approach to life around me was and is wrong. The energies around me is not be controlled, they are to be adapted to and allowed to freely pass without interferring. John Lennon sang about it in his 'Fool on the Hill'. But his main theme was somewhat passive and reflective - 'See the world going round'. The true mastery is when you are riding the never ending 'merry-go-round' of life energies like a surfer - using high waves to propel you forward to the shore of your goals and destiny.  Inevitably will be the times when I will fall and will have to climb back on my board and attempt to catch the next wave.  Will be the times when I will be scared by the magnitude of the wave coming towards me and possibly the sharks swimming nearby.  I will see other people drowning and not reaching the shore and shouting to me: 'Its hopeless we will all drown'. Will be times...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bees and Honey

"Another challenge is that identity data is typically decentralized . The Department of Motor Vehicles issues drivers licenses, for example, while the Department of Homeland Security issues passports, banks track financial histories, and so on. Most of these organizations have isolated and centralized identity management systems, but the current landscape demands federation and single sign-on (SSO). This makes identity management, protection and verification very cumbersome, costly and risky for all industry enterprises and government agencies." Jai Singh Arun - Security and Blockchain Innovations Program Director, IBM Identity architectural landscape is changing and personally I can only think of this very simple analogy between identities and blockchain. Identities to the blockchain are what the bees are to the honey. . This is as simple as even your grandma would understand :) Bees (identities) all day collect honey somewhere in the fields. Coming back to thei...
Post a Comment
Read more

Future of IDAM

"Many of the technical choices we’re about to make will be strikingly political.   Who has access to what data?  Where is the line between human choice and machine intelligence? Why is one computer architecture better than another? These decisions—and the people who make them —will determine power’s new aspects ." "The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks" I was mesmerised when I read this. Started to frantically search the author name - Joshua Cooper Ramo.  No he is not an IDAM Architect. The book is not even about IDAM.  But it cuts to the core of what I do for my living and many many others as well. What a powerful thought:   Identity will be at the heart of power structures of the future. Hold it for a moment .    What about me? What about my identity? Those are all valid questions to ask in this context. Unwind to Sep 19 2016 when my friend Steve jokingly asked me: "where is your blog? where is your ...
Read more