The Biggest Problem in Computer Security

Posted on Saturday, November 03, 2012 by Tenderfoot


The Biggest Problem in Computer Security

People tend to focus on various areas as being important for computer security such as memory corruption vulnerabilities, malware, anomaly detection, etc. However the lurking and most critical issue in my opinion is staffing. The truth is, there is no pool of candidates out there to draw from at a certain level in computer security. As an example, we do a lot of consulting, especially in the area of incident response, for oil & gas, avionics, finance, etc. When we go on site we find that we have to have the following skills:

1. Soft skills. (often most important) The ability to talk to customers, dress appropriately, give presentations or speak publicly, assess the customer staff, culture and politics, and determine the real goals. I can't stress enough how important this is. It's not the 90s anymore, showing up with a blue mohawk, a spike in the forehead and leather pants, not a team player, cussing and surfing porn on the customers system doesn't cut it no matter how good you are technically. If you are that guy then you get to stay in the lab and I guarantee you will make far less money. Even if you can write ASLR bypass exploits and kernel rootkits.



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