Confessions
RAPID7 – NICER
Confessions
of a Former CISO : Shaming People for Bad Security
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Tod Beardsley , Director of Research at Rapid7 , emphasises that NICER is an attempt to spur the world into affirmative action , “ We ’ re hoping that this report helps people make informed decisions about what they should be putting on the internet , what they shouldn ’ t and what their local ‘ neighbourhoods ’ might look like . NICER is being released for free ; Rapid7 wants everybody to pick this up and peruse it .” A comprehensive document split into 16 sections and three appendices , NICER is the result of four years ’ worth of research , although it starts with a relatively modern focus : the effect of the global pandemic on internet security , which , Beardsley states , was surprising . “ We were planning things out in January and February and then the world came crashing down . I thought , ‘ Hang on , let ’ s redo all our scans ; surely has fundamentally changed ’. However , we found no effect at all .” In fact , the results showed a reduction in dangerous services , most notably Windows SMB ( service message block ) network protocols .
However , this unexpected good news shouldn ’ t lull people into a false sense of security – the “ myth of
OCTOBER 2020