People | Process | Technology Podcast

During a meeting at AppSec USA 2014 in Denver, the SWAMP team presented its case for working with OWASP to support a marketplace for security tools. I sat down with Kevin E. Greene from DHS S&T, Cybersecurity Division to talk about what SWAMP is an how OWASP and its various projects might become involved. About Kevin E. Greene Software Assurance Program Manager responsible for oversight and management of research and development projects focused on improving the testing, analysis, and evaluation techniques used in software quality assurance tools. In addition, responsible for building a Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP) which will provide continuous software assurance services. The SWAMP (www.cosalab.org) will serve as a national marketplace that will provide a collaborative research infrastructure to advance improvements in software development activities, as well as improvements in software quality assurance tools in the area of precision, soundness, and scalability.

I was able to get a quick update from Damon, Matt, Eoin and Martin this week at AppSec USA 2014 Denver. They each have a different perspective on what is going with OWASP in different parts of the world. Have a listen...

With the OWASP board elections of 2014 upon us, we are doing a series of interviews so that you can come "face-to-face" with prospective board members. In this session, we talk with Mateo Martinez. (Please note: This interview was done over the net with a connection from New York City to Montevideo, Uruguay. In some places, there is considerable static.)

With the OWASP board elections of 2014 upon us, we are doing a series of interviews so that you can come "face-to-face" with prospective board members. In this session, we talk with Jim Manico and Timur Khrotko.

With the OWASP board elections of 2014 upon us, we are doing a series of interviews so that you can come "face-to-face" with prospective board members. In this session, we talk with Andrew van der Stock, Nigel Phair and Abbas Naderi .

With the OWASP board elections of 2014 upon us, we are doing a series of interviews so that you can come “face-to-face” with prospective board members. In this session, we talk with Israel Bryski, Matt Konda, Bil Corry and Tahir Khan.

On the day before Black Hat 2014 kicked off, I was able to sit with Jonathan Carter to talk about his work and the projects he participates on in OWASP. The audio recording is a bit raw because the sound was cranked up in a conference full of people. What Jonathan has to say should more than compensate. About Jonathan Carter Jonathan Carter is an application security professional with over 15 years of security expertise within Canada, United States, Australia, and England. As a Software Engineer, Jonathan produced software for online gaming systems, payment gateways, SMS messaging gateways, and other solutions requiring a high degree of application security. Jonathan’s technical background in artificial intelligence and static code analysis has lead him to a diverse number of security roles: Enterprise Security Architect, Web Application Penetration Tester, Fortify Security Researcher, and Security Governance lead. He is currently Arxan’s Technical Director.

Sarah Baso is leaving OWASP at the end of the month. As executive director, she has been at the helm of the organization, helping to set up and run OWASP as a business. In our conversation we talk about the ups and downs of her tenure, and how she would like to be remembered in the future. About Sarah Baso Sarah is based in San Francisco, Californa, USA and has been the Executive Director of the OWASP Foundation since April 2013. In this role, she supervises the paid OWASP staff in addition to administering all programs and operations of the OWASP Foundation, reporting to the OWASP Board of Directors.

It's become a regular thing at AppSec: test the experts on their knowledge of current software security news events. This session was recorded at AppSec Europe 2014 with panelists Chris Eng, Matt Tesauro and Josh Corman. If you'd like to play along, you can view the gameshow slide deck. Looking forward to seeing you at our next AppSec session of "Wait Wait! Don't pwn me!"

Eoin (pronounced Owen for you Yankees) Keary runs a software security practice in Ireland. In his "spare time", he is a global board member for OWASP. At the AppSec Europe 2014 Conference in Cambridge, UK, I spoke with Eoin about how to get more women into the software security industry, starting with their participation in OWASP. About Eoin Keary Eoin Keary has been with OWASP since 2004. He is based in Ireland and runs a software security practice, bccriskadvisory.com. He is currently on the global board of the OWASP foundation, he was elected to the board in 2009. During this time Eoin assisted in founding the OWASP legal entity in Europe and has helped provide structure to OWASPs finances and strategy. Eoin previously lead the OWASP Testing Guide and currently the OWASP Code Review Guide and also contributed to other OWASP projects such as OWASP SAMM, OWASP CISO Guide & CISO Survey, OWASP Cheat sheets, and the OWASP ASVS & ZAP as a reviewer. Eoin also founded the OWASP Dublin chapter in 2006 and the OWASP Ireland event in 2008 which is in its 4th year and also hosted OWASP EU in 2011.

Achim Hoffman is a researcher who has created a tool for listing information about remote target's SSL certificate and testing the remote target against a given list of ciphers. This OWASP project, o-Saft, first gained notice when Jim Manico mentioned it on the OWASP email list. At AppSec Europe 2014, I was able to speak with Achim, along with Matt Tasauro, about the function of the tool and its uses. n About the Project o-Saft is designed to be used by penetration testers, security auditors or server administrators. The idea is to show the important informations or the special checks with a simple call of the tool. However, it provides a wide range of options so that it can be used for comprehensive and special checks by experienced people. O-Saft is a command-line tool, so it can be used offline and in closed environments. However, it can simply be turned into an online CGI-tool (please read documentation first). About Achim Hoffman Co-Autor OWASP: Best Practices: Projektierung der Sicherheitsprüfung von Webanwendungen https://www.owasp.org/images/0/00/OWASP-Projektierung_der_Sicherheitspr%C3%BCfung_von_Webanwendungen_v101.de.pdf Autor Sicherheit von Webanwendungen: BSI-Maßnahmenkatalog und Best Practices http://www.bsi.de/literat/studien/websec/WebSec.pdf Contributor to WASC Web Application Firewall Evaluation Criteria http://www.webappsec.org/projects/wafec/ Co-Author OWASP: Best Practices: Web Application Firewalls http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Best_Practices:_Web_Application_Firewalls Reviewer/Contributor to WASC Threat Classification v1 Deutsche Übersetzung der WASC Threat Classification v1 http://www.webappsec.org/projects/threat/ Reviewer/Contributor to WASC Threat Classification v2 http://projects.webappsec.org/Threat-Classification-Authors

The OWASP Top 10 Privacy Risks Project aims to develop a top 10 list for privacy risks in web applications because currently there is no such catalog available. I spoke with co-leads Florian Stahl and Stefan Burgmair about how the project was started, the selection process for the top 10 risks and their future plans. About Florian Stahl Florian Stahl is a German security and privacy consultant and evangelist. He achieved his master’s with honors in information systems science at the University of Regensburg in Germany and his master's in computer science at Växjö Universitet in Sweden. Florian started his professional career at the Swedish security software vendor Cryptzone in Gothenburg in 2006. He came back to Germany in 2009 and worked as consultant for Ernst & Young in Munich before moving on to msg systems where he currently holds the position as Lead Consultant. Florian has CISSP and CIPP/IT certifications and speaks fluent German, English and Swedish. His aim is to follow a holistic approach by combining technical, organisational and social measures to protect information. He is regular speaker at conferences and writes articles for magazines and on his blog securitybydesign.de. He leads the OWASP_Top_10_Privacy_Risks_Project. About Stefan Burgmair Stefan Burgmair is a German student at the Munich University of Applied Sciences. After he gained his B. Sc. title in Information Systems and Management he now writes his master thesis on the "Top 10 Privacy Risks for Web Applications" at the msg systems. Together with his advisor Florian Stahl, he is managing the OWASP Top 10 Privacy Risks Project.

In anticipation of Security Awareness Month in October, Tom Brennan is planning an event featuring a cross section of various cyber groups in New York and New Jersey. A few weeks ago, I attended a Meet Up in New York City where many of the local groups got together to talk about what they are working on and how that plays into the October event. The Meet Up was VERY loud, so the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired, but the passion and enthusiasm still comes through. The first segment of the show is an introduction with Tom Brennan as he talks about the cross-group event he put together in March and his plans for creating a large, cross-cyber group event for Security Awareness Month in October. I then spoke with Ian Amit, one of the OWASP chapter leaders for New York. He describes what he is working on for the OWASP chapter in New York. Izabela Pelszynska joins us to speak about the Women in Security group, and we end with a round table discussion of the upcoming event in October.

At 2014 SOURCE Boston, Josh Corman told me that Wolfgang Goerlich had an interesting DevOps story to tell. I sat down and spoke with Wolfgang and was astounded to hear a tale that could have come straight out of Gene Kim's book, The Phoenix Project. Listen in as Wolfgang describes the process of taking over a project that was mired in technical debt, falling behind in deliverables to stakeholders and in need of a new way of thinking. To me, this story is one of the strongest statements for DevOps that I've heard. About Wolfgang Goerlich As Vice President of Consulting Services at VioPoint, Wolfgang supports clients by advising, identifying, and assisting in managing information security risk as well as mentoring VioPoint’s consulting team. Wolfgang, known for his outstanding leadership in the technology and information security community, is the co-founder of OWASP Detroit and an organizer of the annual BSides Detroit conferences as well as an accomplished speaker at regional and national security events.

Dwayne Melancon, CTO of Tripwire, has an interesting idea: turn your team into gamers, let them build their internal images and support that vision. This isn't the type of thing you'd expect to hear at a security conference. In this short conversation, I talk with Dwayne about how to implement employee game theory within your project team. About Dwayne Melancon I was a contributor to both the Visible Ops Handbook and Visible Ops Security Handbook, working with authors Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford. As part of this effort, I have worked as a researcher with Carnegie Mellon’s SEI, the University of Florida, and the IT Process Institute in their studies and benchmarking of IT best practices. I work with numerous corporations around the world on IT service management improvement and IT security, and have teamed with the Institute of Internal Auditors in its pursuit of Generally Accepted IT Principles. As a frequent, highly-rated speaker at national and regional itSMF, ISACA, ISSA, IIA and other industry events, I present on how to achieve world-class IT results. Using a framework of essential IT controls, I provide operations, security, and audit audiences with prescriptive steps they can take to improve IT change policies, procedures and systems.