Changes and new beginnings for the Stiennon blog

This is my inaugural post to the new “Stiennon on Security”, a blog on all things IT security related. Some of you may already be familiar with my original threatchaos.com blog (which you can’t link to because it was recently hijacked by spammers) or the follow on to that blog at ZDNET that I wrote for the last two years. In all, this is my 555th blog posting. It never ceases to amaze that one can find something to say everyday but lucky for me the security topic is so large and the importance of security is rising at least as quickly as the utility of networking and computing. You will see some recurring themes in my blog posting over the last four years. Because the inception of Threatchaos occurred when I was at Webroot I tend to chime in whenever there is news or an issue related to spyware and adware. You will find that there is no love lost between me and those that seek to skirt the moral issues with invading an individual’s computer with scumware. Cyber crime is another topic that I cover. I spend a lot of time on the road presenting on cyber crime and gathering new fodder for that pitch is one of the primary purposes of this blog. State sponsored hacking is an area that needs exposure. It represents the one area that I believe is the greatest threat to security. I include in this category the industrial espionage carried out by China, shutting down access to YouTube by Pakistan, and the taking down of Estonia by Russia. You may be thinking that I am a chicken little crying that “the sky is falling, run for the hills.” But, actually, I am a great optimist. I believe that proper deployments of technology can protect you from nearly all threats. I differ from many other security bloggers in that I do not put much faith in security awareness training, and other soft solutions. If you can identify an attack, I can suggest a technology to counter it. You may find me controversial. In the past I have been vilified for stating my thoughts. I am sure that will happen in the future. So, tune in if you want to be kept abreast of the threatscape and get actionable advice for defending you, your data, and your organization from the bad guys.