Mudge aka Peiter Mudge Zatko: Economics, Physics, Psychology and How They Relate to Technical Aspects of Counter Intelligence/Counter Espionage Within Information Security

Black Hat Briefings, Las Vegas 2005 [Audio] Presentations from the security conference

The computer and network security fields have made little progress in the past decade. The rhetoric that the field is in an arms race; attacks are becoming more complicated and thus defenses are always in a keep-up situation makes little sense when 10 year old root kits, BGP and DNS attacks that have been widely publicized for years, and plain-text communications streams are still being taken advantage of. This talk looks at the environment without being skewed by currently marketed solutions. It then presents corollaries for environments in different disciplines, such as economics and physics, talks to certain psychological situations that prohibit researchers and organizations from being able to correctly address the problems, maps these solutions into Counter Intelligence and Counter Espionage models and finally applies them to low level network and systems communications. This presentation involves audience participation to point out ways of breaking the helplessness cycle (for the defensive side) or to better target areas for exploitation (for the offensive side). "Mudge" - Peiter Mudge Zatko Better known as Mudge, the hacker who testified to the Senate that he could "take the Internet down in 30 minutes", Zatko has been a pioneer of the commercial information security and warfare sector since the 1980s. The leader of the hacker think-tank "L0pht", he founded @stake and Intrusic and currently works as a Division Scientist for BBN Technologies (the company that designed and built the Internet). Mudge is the creator of L0phtCrack - the premier MS password auditor, SLINT - the first source code vulnerability auditing system, AntiSniff - the first commercial promiscuous system network detection tool, and Zephon - Intrusic's flagship product focused on Counter Intelligence / Counter Espionage for corporate Insider-Threat. His other software works are now included in several distributions of commercial and public domain operating systems. As a lecturer and advisor Mudge has contributed to the CIA's critical National security mission, was recognized as a vital contributor to the success of the President's Scholarship for Service Program by the NSC, has briefed Senators, the former Vice President and President of the United States, and has provided testimony to the US Senate multiple times. An honorary plank owner of the USS McCampbell and referenced as part of 'U.S. History' in Trivial Pursuit, his mission remains constant to "make a dent in the universe".