When did you check your security last?

A few years ago security and breach protection was all the topic of the day in the email space. There were some high profile break ins at ESPs and data companies and everyone was looking at their security. Companies were vocal and public about their security enhancements. Many in the email industry even used the term “advanced persistent threats.”
Security seems to have taken a back seat to Yahoo releasing user names, and Gmail introducing tabs in the inbox and all the myriad of tiny details that we feel we have some control over.
But security still should be at the forefront of our minds. Just today Adobe announced a major compromise resulting in both a customer information leak and a source code theft.
It serves as a reminder to all of us that security threats are ongoing and we cannot become complacent.

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Is any data safe?

Today another major retailer announced their customer files were compromised. This company had clearly implemented some security that kept hackers from getting too much information. Passwords were hashed and credit card numbers were kept on a separate server, which does signal that the company designed with security in mind. Nevertheless, personal information was compromised.
Is there anyway to keep information safe if it’s accessible from the internet? Some of my uber-security conscious friends would say no. I am beginning to believe them.

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How long is your DKIM key?

While we were at M3AAWG, Wired published an article talking about how simple it was to crack DKIM keys. I didn’t post about it at the time because it didn’t really seem like news. DKIM keys smaller than 1024 are vulnerable and not secure and the DKIM spec does not recommend using keys smaller than 1024. When I asked the DKIM-people-who-would-know they did tell me that the news was that the keys had been cracked and used in the wild to spoof email.
Fair enough.
If you are signing with DKIM, use a key 1024 or longer. Anything shorter and your risk having the key cracked and your mail fraudulently signed.
This morning M3AAWG published recommendations on keeping DKIM keys secure.

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No room for cowards

Brian Krebs was the keynote speaker at a MAAWG meeting a few years ago. He is a tech journalist that knows and understands the dark underworld of online crime. Yesterday, his website was taken down by a dDOS attack and the Fairfax County SWAT team was called to his house by someone.
Brian does work that is risky. His contributions to what we know about online crime are extremely valuable.
His post talking about what happened yesterday is well worth reading.
ETA: The ArsTechnica article on the event.

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