Monday, September 29, 2008

Lightning Rod Defenses

So I'm on my way back home after a brief day of meetings at SANS Network Security 2008. I'm a little tired from another SANS Security 560 course plus bootcamp in Indianapolis, so I acquired a Redbull drink before leaving. At the Airport checkpoint, I was surprised to find that I already forgot about putting any fluids in my carry-on, and the TSA promptly removed the water bottle I had also put in my bag. Here I am after my flight and realized I had the redbull still. So maybe it's time to dust off the honeypots or any other lightning-rod type defenses when you are thinking about improving your security posture . . .

I haven't forgotten about StegoFS, I still hope to have some releaseable code in the near future. However, I'm not sure how much time I'll have to spend on it between SANS Sydney and SANS San Antonio (and 3 other presentations in California-here).

1 Comments:

Blogger Alessi said...

Hi James
I attended your excellent class at SANS Sydney recently.

This is an interesting post. I had a similar experience at Sydney airport about a year ago.
I was wearing a pleated skirt with a kilt pin (like a large safety pin but a little more decorative) in it when I went through the security check. The security guards made me remove the kilt pin, discussed it with their superiors and finally decided that it was not a risk.

I didn't think all that much of it until I got home to Perth and unpacked the bits and pieces in my hand luggage.

There, in my handbag was my swiss army knife. I usually take it along with me when I travel as it is so handy - cork screw, bottle opener, scissors, tweezers etc - but I had forgotten to put it in my (checked) suitcase.

So essentially my kilt pin had so captivated the security guards that they did not notice something that could have been a genuine threat. Along with the corkscrew and so forth are several sharp blades in varying sizes.

Anyway, thanks again for the super training in Sydney.

Best regards

Kathryn

January 17, 2009 at 9:33 PM  

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