Sunday, March 28, 2004

Security product flaws attract attackers Things are getting nasty in the security world. I just want to be clear about my quote: "It's a fundamental conflict of interest," Lindstrom said. "Why would you even be looking at your competitors' products to begin with?" All vulnerability discovery by product vendors is a conflict of interest. Doing it with/to competitors is even more conflicting and indicative that competition is even more important to security companies than furthering the needs of the security profession. It may seem a bit altruistic of me to be saying that, but some things just don't pass muster, and this is one of them. So, eEye, ISS and others should be put in the hotseat for targeting the competition in these ways. (Of course, we all know what companies are doing looking at their competitors' products.) 10:26:40 PM    comment [] T-Mobile Woes After having an initial problem setting up my T-Mobile account, it occurred to me that they are in for a world of trouble... It's not that they are doing anything wrong, but that they are going up against (I believe) insurmountable odds - that is, when you need tech support for T-Mobile, you need it in 5 minutes - impossible for most/all organizations. So here is the email I sent them this past Wednesday: From: Pete Lindstrom Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 6:50 PM To: 'hotspotcustomerservice@t-mobile.com' Subject: RE: Thank you for subscribing to T-Mobile HotSpot! Hi, thanks for the note. This is my first time using T-Mobile, and I have spent more time in the last hour trying to troubleshoot this system than I have being productive (though I did get a chance to send/receive some emails). I really needed this access, but the problem with "hotspots" is they have to work - when I need to use a "hotspot" it is usually a time-sensitive issue. So unless you can solve my problems in five minutes, I've been hosed. Now I am headed to the airport to catch a flight - maybe that hotspot will work, otherwise I will save this email to send later, because I don't have the access I paid for and don't have the time to troubleshoot the system. On Saturday, a full three days later, I got their reply. Remember that basically the email was sent out of frustration more than anything else (I wanted my day-pass money back, basically) and the problem was no longer a problem because I had already landed and gotten home. Here is their reply: From: OSSNMS04 Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 6:11 PM To: 'petelind@spiresecurity.com' Subject: T-Mobile Hotspot Created Date 3/27/2004 6:06:37 PM Thank you for choosing T-Mobile HotSpot. Replies sent directly to this message cannot be processed. Please forward your responses, questions and comments to hotspotcustomerservice@t-mobile.com. Please be advised that I am in receipt of your most recent email and I understand your concerns. At your convenience, if you could please contact our Technical Support Department, via telephone, we will be happy to further assist you with the connection issue and assist you in getting a connection. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please feel free to contact us by email or at the number below if you have any further questions, comments or concerns. Regards [Name Here] Customer Services +T+++Mobile+ HotSpot I won't be holding my breath on this one... 8:48:25 PM    comment []

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