BSidesLV 2017

Infosec is a game of 3D speed chess, and we’re on the board moving faster and faster every day. So why does it feel like we’re pawns on the sidelines, suiting-up and picking teams? Today’s defenders need to design and architect systems that operate in real-time at internet scale, but that also protect millions of customers, transactions, endpoints, and actions on any given day. As scale and complexity grow exponentially, manual intervention must be the exception and not the expectation. At the same time security strategy must include the economic angle: how to balance the needs of users with the capabilities of incentivized bad actors. Many systems are turning to new design-driven approaches, infused with data and ML/AI, to help drive defenses optimized for the human factor directly into the fabric of their platform.

In this talk we’ll explore the technology and economics that are crucial to our success, as well as the path security must take to meet the challenges of our new normal: dynamic social systems with large threat surfaces, expanding complexity, invisible interdependencies, and unpredictable attackers.

Through our over-dependence on undependable things, we have created the conditions such that any outlier can have a profound impact on public safety, liberties, economic & (inter)national security.

 Our choices define us. In our 25th hacker pilgrimage to Vegas, the time has come for us to make some hard choices: what we choose to celebrate, condemn, tolerate... and our choices have escalating consequences. We must choose who we will be, the roles we will play, the priorities & principles we will promote, how we will treat each other, and how we will engage the outside world.

We all need to be better. To do so, we must confront some of our daemons, challenge & open ourselves to new models, find and empower new teammates, and be willing to experiment.