Shostack + Friends Blog Archive

 

Tweet, tweet

A few weeks back, Pistachio twittered about How to Present While People are Twittering. I picked it up, and with the help of Quine, was getting comments from Twitter as I spoke. It was a fun experiment, and it’s pretty cool to be able to go back and look at the back channel.

[Update: I think there was more positive than I really touched on, and have written a new post all atwitter about why it was useful and why I’ll do it again.]

I don’t think that it was hugely successful for this talk for two reasons. First, my talk, “The Crisis In Information Security” is a ‘big idea’ talk, based on my book “The New School of Information Security,” written with Andrew Stewart.
A big idea talk has to cover a lot of ground quickly, rather than dwell on a lot of specifics–you can see some of that feedback, Rich Mogull comments on “I said some of that a year ago,” and B.K. Delong says “can we have more details?” The other reason it didn’t work is because there was a lot of in-room interaction. Questions came out during the talk rather than being tweeted.

Still, it was pretty cool, and I’ll definitely try it again.

So, here are the #sourceadam comments in chronological order. My comments are in italic.

stormtrooperguy: All tweets from the current panel @sourceboston will be tagged with #sourceadam so that they can reference it later.

leune: getting ready for #sourceadam

quine: Actually, #SOURCEAdam or #AdamSOURCE.

bkdelong: At Adam Shostack’s talk #sourceadam

securitytwits: RT @quine — if you’re in @adamshostack’s presentation at #SOURCEBoston, please use #adamsource OR #sourceadam for feedback/questions.

quine: Admittedly, I am a buffoon. I chose “#adamsource”, then announced “#sourceadam” — hence the use of both 😉

Beaker: I believe I just saw a nerd version of Sysyphus — better than a LOLcat #sourceadam #sourceboston

Yes: http://flickr.com/photos/signifying/2073074572/

Beaker: Who was the last idiot infected with Blaster? We just saw the last guy who had Smallpox…. #sourceadam #sourceboston

mortman: @Beaker Well lolcats are beneath Adam #sourceadam #sourceboston

mortman: Milliken Oildrop Experiment lead to powerpoint. #sourceadam #sourceboston

mortman: @alexsotirov @k8em0 has an apple and the rest of us don’t. #sourceadam #sourceboston

k8em0: @alexsotirov we lack cred in infosec because we lack data #sourceboston #sourceadam

hackertweets: k8em0: @alexsotirov we lack cred in infosec because we lack data #sourceboston #sourceadam

k8em0: @mortman @alexsotirov it’s a pear. Observation is not the best way to gather data.#sourceboston #sourceadam

mortman: @k8em0 @alexsotirov Proof that independent confirmation is a necessary part of the scientific method. #sourceboston #sourceadam

bkdelong: @k8em0 At least not VISUAL observation #sourceadam #sourceboston

mortman: #sourceadam #sourceboston Re: learning from experience. Is that another way of saying “the plural of anecdote is not data”?

stormtrooperguy: @sourceboston : the #sourceadam panel is packed, standing room only.

Beaker: Adam, you have a lot of “questions.” You have any answers? #sourceadam

I think I do. If not, you have a refund coming. (Hoff bought the book on his Kindle as we were setting up. I promised him a refund if he doesn’t like it.)

bkdelong: So @adamshostack what data is being collected that is good? What do we NEED to be collecting? #sourceadam #sourceboston

bkdelong: Specifically what KPIs and what metrics / risk calculations can we be doing to help us make the case to management #sourceadam @sourceboston
What does your management care about? You’re going to need rich sets of data to find the comparatives you need
mortman: #sourceadam #sourceboston RE: What is the biggest pain point? We talk about professional hackers, users, random loss, why not vendors?

mortman: #sourceadam #sourceboston Why not more blame for the folks who produce crap?

k8em0: it’s hard to categorize what causes security customer pain (hax0rs, kiddiez, RBN, nation-states) #sourceboston #sourceadam

rybolov: #sourceadam can you use the phrase “self-licking ice cream cone” jus for me? k thnx.

Self licking ice cream cone
hallam: @SOURCEAdam have you heard of the GENI initiative, any thoughts?

mortman: @hallam geni.net? or something else #sourceadam #sourceboston

hallam: geni.net

I haven’t, thanks! Checking it out now.

bkdelong: The @datalossdb does not cover all breaches and too many reporters cite it as true total # of breaches – bad. Needs correction #sourceadam

BK: True, but as the Beatles said, it’s getting better all the time.

k8em0: #sourceboston #sourceadam Hype is too big for your breaches – they don’t cause all customers to flee & you to go bankrupt.

mortman: #sourceboston #sourceadam Mmmmm tylenol.

bkdelong: Tylenol Recall #sourceboston #sourceadam (expand)

bkdelong: The @datalossdb certainly best out there but there are lots of unreported/non-FOIA’d breaches not in there. Still a lot more. #sourceadam

bkdelong: More on Black Swan theory – http://tinyurl.com/2ngwkw (expand) (Yes, wikipedia for ease sake) #sourceadam #sourceboston

I was pretty dismissive of “Black Swan” hype. I stand by that, and don’t think we should allow fear of a black swan out there somewhere to prevent us from studying white ones and generalizing about what we can see.

rmogull: @bkdelong #sourceadam #sourceboston I wrote an article on that over a year ago (Tylenol/disclosure): http://bit.ly/Q5Ko8 (expand)
Great stuff, Rich!

mortman: #sourceboston #sourceadam Check out “research revealed” tracke at RSA.

k8em0: #sourceboston #sourceadam wallow in the data, follow @datalossdb for example.

bsmithsweeney: #sourceadam reminded of “The Quixotic Quest for Invulnerability” http://tinyurl.com/5equfo (expand), on protection vs. recovery #sourceboston

k8em0: #sourceboston #sourceadam you point out methodological flaws w/the passwords4chocolate experiment. 45% of women likely lied 4 choc.

It would be fun to find out how many lied, and how many didn’t care. I suspect we’d be depressed, but the truth is supposed to set you free, not make you happy.

bsmithsweeney: Really enjoyed #sourceadam talk @sourceboston. Definitely worth grabbing the slides/video.

Thanks bsmithsweeney, and thank you to everyone who participated in the talk and the backchannel!

7 comments on "Tweet, tweet"

  • beri says:

    You can talk and they can listen, or you can talk and they can type.
    If you’re typing, you are thinking about what you are typing, rather than listening. So for at least that period of time, you’re not paying attention.

  • Adam says:

    I find tweeting helps me focus on the talk, ask, “what’s interesting here?” rather than multitask

  • Nikita says:

    Did you get to see the tweets on your laptop while presenting? Were they up on the projector as well? I’d love to try this out, if for no other reason than because I can’t hear questions very well anymore.

  • Kyle Maxwell says:

    Maybe I’m just daft (a likely possibility), but I had to dig into the #sourceadam search results to find your Twitter name to follow you. Perhaps the Emergent Chaos folks could add a wee bit of order (heh) and add a box in the sidebar making their Twitter names clearer?

  • Kyle Maxwell says:

    Maybe I’m just daft (a likely possibility), but I had to dig into the #sourceadam search results to find your Twitter name to follow you. Perhaps the Emergent Chaos folks could add a wee bit of order (heh) and add a box in the sidebar making their Twitter names clearer?

  • Adam says:

    Oops! We can add some links.
    @adamshostack

  • Incredible site!

Comments are closed.