An Open Letter to Android or “Android, You Are Shit!”

Dear Android:

I know you are an operating system and probably cannot (yet?) read on your own. However, recent events compelled me to write this letter to you; an idea for it literally came to me in a dream.

You see, I have carried an Android phone in my pocket since 2010, for almost six years. First Sony Experia X10 (eventually running a venerable Android 2.3.7), then another phone and then finally a Google Nexus 4 and now Google Nexus 5X (sporting Android 7.1.1). At some point, I traded an iPad for a Google Nexus 9. A [sort of] Android Amazon Fire is my living room Android. I have convinced my wife to start using Android as well and she became a fan too. This represents a multi-year love affair with you, dear Android.

In fact, dear Android, I often had to defend you from packs from rabid Apple fanboys, generally with good results - I either won or we had a draw. Over the years, I had to defend my mobile technology choices from many people: “No, it is NOT an iPhone, it is a Nexus”, “Yes, I chose Android because I like it more than iPhone, not because it is cheaper”, “Yes, I think Google Now is way more useful than Siri”, etc, etc. I’ve counter-attacked with arguments about “closed Apple ecosystem”, “one stupid button” and “overpriced devices.”   As a person who follows information technology, I am aware of Android many strengths such as better background processes and multi-tasking, security improvements, flexible user interface, Google Now integration, etc.

However, as I am writing this, my beloved Nexus 5X is no longer with me. In fact, recent events have triggered some soul-searching and ultimately this letter. While doing my soul-searching, I realized that my love affair with you, Android, has some strong dysfunctional notes. You see, I think I always suspected that you are shit.

Over the years, I’ve been using my Android devices carefully and thoughtfully – I never rooted them, never sideloaded apps [well, not to my main personal phone], and I even tried to minimize my use of non-Google applications, etc.  However, as I recall my experiences with Android over the last six years, I am saddened to report that you, Android, never really worked quite right.

In fact, I distilled my reasons to calling you “shit” to one key point: I have never really trusted you, because you have never worked reliably enough to earn such trust.

Indeed, my Sony phone will sometimes crash and reboot, or freeze (“battery out” was the only cure). I of course explained it by “growing pains of Android, the new mobile OS”…after all you were just in v.2., practically a baby. My Nexus 4 used to crash and shut down as well; apps will often drain the battery to zero without any warning.  Furthermore, even nowadays, my Google Nexus 9 tablet (running Android 7.1.1) will occasionally just shut down out of the blue – I just had to restart it earlier today.  A few days before my Nexus 5X untimely death - just 1 year and 9 days after purchase, the phone rebooted when I launched a Camera app. Such random reboots and crashes were not common with my Nexus 5X, but they did happen periodically.  And then finally, my Nexus 5X entered an endless reboot loop a few days after the 7.1.1 OTA update and now has to be replaced. No troubleshooting steps helped.

OK, Google, you want to blame the hardware, perhaps? My experiences over the last 6 years sap the energy from this argument. I used the hardware from 3 different makers, all running Android, all having stability problems.

You see, Android, I don’t care about improved malware protection, faster UI and about the fact that you are “really Linux.” I don’t care about your growing market share.  An OS that cannot stay up is shit OS. And, you, my dear OS friend, is shit.

In fact, as my employer gave me an iPhone (first 4S and now 5S), a peculiar pattern of behavior developed in my life: if I absolutely, positively had to call an Uber on a dark and stormy night, I will stash my work iPhone in my back pocket, just in case. If I have to show a boarding pass to a permanently angry TSA agent, I will print it or use an iPhone. In fact, I was not even aware of this “if it has to happen – use iPhone” pattern until my wife asked me about why I was printing another boarding pass and I said “Ok, I guess I can use an iPhone for that” – and so I realized that I just won’t trust my Android device with this.

Dear Android, you may be a full-featured OS now, but you are just not mission critical. In fact, you are the opposite of that – you are iffy. And the only reason for why a version SEVEN (not version TWO with growing pains, mind you) will not achieve this reliability is obvious to me – you are shit.

Android, I’ve never really trusted you and I don’t trust you now. I’ve lived with you since your version 2.1 to a current 7.1.1. The only way you can still have "growing pains" after so many years is that you are a shit OS.

Despite all that, dear Android, I will take one more chance with you. When my Google Nexus 5X is repaired and then hopefully continues working for a while, I will stick to using you. But, sorry, no promises beyond that point!

Respectfully ... but distrustfully,

Dr. Anton Chuvakin

(as a consumer, NOT as a technology analyst!)

Monthly Blog Round-Up – November 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our 2016 research on developing security monitoring use cases here!
2. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” … 
3. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” (also aged a bit by now) is a companion to the checklist (updated version)
4. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures, whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (now in its 4th edition!)
5. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the costs of a SIEM project (well, a program, really) at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper).

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 5X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on security analytics and UBA / UEBA:

• UEBA Shines Where SIEM Whines?
• The Coming UBA / UEBA – SIEM War!
• Next Research: Back to Security Analytics and UBA/UEBA
• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?

Recent research on deception:

• Our “Applying Deception Technologies and Techniques to Improve Threat Detection and Response” Paper is Published
• APT-Ready? Better Threat Detection vs Detecting “Better” Threats?
• Better Data or Better Algorithms?
• Tricky: Building a Business Case for A Deception Tool?
• It Is Happening: We Are Starting Our Deception Research!
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?

Past research on SOC:

• SOC Webinar Questions Answered
• Our “How to Plan, Design, Operate and Evolve a SOC” Paper Is Published
• About The Tri-Team Model of SOC, CIRT, “Threat Something”
• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad

 

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Threats Inside vs Insider Threat
• Can I Detect Advanced Threats With Just Flows/IPFIX?
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection vs prevention)
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – October 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – October 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here!
2. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” … 
3. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version)
4. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the costs of a SIEM project (well, a program, really) at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper).
5. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures, whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (now in its 4th edition!)

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 5X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Upcoming research on security analytics:

• Next Research: Back to Security Analytics and UBA/UEBA
• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?

Currect research on deception:

• APT-Ready? Better Threat Detection vs Detecting “Better” Threats?
• Better Data or Better Algorithms?
• Tricky: Building a Business Case for A Deception Tool?
• It Is Happening: We Are Starting Our Deception Research!
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?

Recent research on SOC:

• Our “How to Plan, Design, Operate and Evolve a SOC” Paper Is Published
• About The Tri-Team Model of SOC, CIRT, “Threat Something”
• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad

 

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Threats Inside vs Insider Threat
• Can I Detect Advanced Threats With Just Flows/IPFIX?
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection vs prevention)
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – September 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – September 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” … 
2. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here!
3. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the costs of a SIEM project (well, a program, really) at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper).
4. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures , whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (now in its 4th edition!)
5. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version)

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 5X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Currect research on deception:

• Tricky: Building a Business Case for A Deception Tool?
• It Is Happening: We Are Starting Our Deception Research!
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?

Recent research on SOC:

• About The Tri-Team Model of SOC, CIRT, “Threat Something”
• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad

Recent research on threat intelligence:

• How to Grow to Strategic Threat Intel Consumption?
• Baby’s First Threat Intel Usage Questions
• How a Lower Maturity Security Organization Can Use Threat Intel? 

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Threats Inside vs Insider Threat
• Can I Detect Advanced Threats With Just Flows/IPFIX?
• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – August 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – August 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” … 
2. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here!
3. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version)
4. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures , whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (now in its 4th edition!)
5. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the costs of a SIEM project (well, a program, really) at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper).

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 5X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on SOC:

• About The Tri-Team Model of SOC, CIRT, “Threat Something”
• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad

Current research on threat intelligence:

• How to Grow to Strategic Threat Intel Consumption?
• Baby’s First Threat Intel Usage Questions
• How a Lower Maturity Security Organization Can Use Threat Intel? 

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Threats Inside vs Insider Threat
• Can I Detect Advanced Threats With Just Flows/IPFIX?
• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – July 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – July 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? You be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” …  [235 pageviews]
2. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here! [156 pageviews]
3. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [56 pageviews]
4. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures , whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (out in its 4th edition!)[40+ pageviews to the main tag]
5. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the SIEM project (well, a program, really) costs at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper). [70 pageviews of total 2891 pageviews to all blog page]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 5X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on SOC and threat intelligence [2 projects]:

• About The Tri-Team Model of SOC, CIRT, “Threat Something”
• Baby’s First Threat Intel Usage Questions
• How a Lower Maturity Security Organization Can Use Threat Intel?
• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad

 

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Can I Detect Advanced Threats With Just Flows/IPFIX?
• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• My Detection Confidence Survey Results
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – June 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – June 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? Well, you be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” …  [239 pageviews]
2. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here! [96 pageviews]
3. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures , whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (out in its 4th edition!)[90+ pageviews to the main tag]
4. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [89 pageviews]
5. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the SIEM project (well, a program, really) costs at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper). [70 pageviews of total 3475 pageviews to all blog page]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 4X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on SOC and threat intelligence [2 projects]:

• Baby’s First Threat Intel Usage Questions
• How a Lower Maturity Security Organization Can Use Threat Intel?
• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad

 

Past research on IR:

• Our “How to Plan and Execute Modern Security Incident Response” Publishes
• What Is Different About Security Incident Response Today?
• Incident Response Becomes Threat Response … OR Does It: IR Research Commencing

Past research on EDR:

• Our “Comparison of Endpoint Detection and Response Technologies and Solutions” Paper Publishes
• Our Paper “Endpoint Detection and Response Tool Architecture and Operations Practices” Publishes
• One More Time On EDR Use Cases
• EDR Tool Wins – Only For The Enlightened?
• EDR Mud Fight: Kernel or Userland?
• Using EDR For Remediation?
• EDR Research Commencing: Call To Action!
• Where Does EDR End and “NG AV” Begin?
• Reality Check on EDR / ETDR
• My Paper on Endpoint Tools Publishes (2013)

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• RSA 2016: Musings and Contemplations
• My Detection Confidence Survey Results
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – May 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – May 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? Well, you be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” …  [262 pageviews]
2. “A Myth of An Expert Generalist” is a fun rant on what I think it means to be “a security expert” today; it argues that you must specialize within security to really be called an expert [103 pageviews]
3. “Top 10 Criteria for a SIEM?” came from one of my last projects I did when running my SIEM consulting firm in 2009-2011 (for my recent work on evaluating SIEM, see this document [2015 update]) [80 pageviews]
4. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our new 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here! [74 pageviews]
5. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [65 pageviews of total 3971 pageviews to all blog pages]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 3X of the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on SOC and threat intelligence [2 projects]:

• New Research Starting Soon: Threat Intel, SOC, etc
• How a Lower Maturity Security Organization Can Use Threat Intel?

Past research on IR:

• Our “How to Plan and Execute Modern Security Incident Response” Publishes
• What Is Different About Security Incident Response Today?
• Incident Response Becomes Threat Response … OR Does It: IR Research Commencing

Past research on EDR:

• Our Paper “Endpoint Detection and Response Tool Architecture and Operations Practices” Publishes
• One More Time On EDR Use Cases
• EDR Tool Wins – Only For The Enlightened?
• EDR Mud Fight: Kernel or Userland?
• Using EDR For Remediation?
• EDR Research Commencing: Call To Action!
• Where Does EDR End and “NG AV” Begin?
• Reality Check on EDR / ETDR
• My Paper on Endpoint Tools Publishes (2013)

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• RSA 2016: Musings and Contemplations
• My Detection Confidence Survey Results
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – April 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – April 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? Well, you be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” …  [223 pageviews]
2. “Top 10 Criteria for a SIEM?” came from one of my last projects I did when running my SIEM consulting firm in 2009-2011 (for my recent work on evaluating SIEM, see this document [2015 update]) [116 pageviews]
3. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our new 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here! [84 pageviews]
4. “A Myth of An Expert Generalist” is a fun rant on what I think it means to be “a security expert” today; it argues that you must specialize within security to really be called an expert [80 pageviews]
5. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [78 pageviews of total 3857 pageviews to all blog pages]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 3X the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on IR:

• Our “How to Plan and Execute Modern Security Incident Response” Publishes
• What Is Different About Security Incident Response Today?
• Incident Response Becomes Threat Response … OR Does It: IR Research Commencing

Current research on EDR:

• One More Time On EDR Use Cases
• EDR Tool Wins – Only For The Enlightened?
• EDR Mud Fight: Kernel or Userland?
• Using EDR For Remediation?
• EDR Research Commencing: Call To Action!
• Where Does EDR End and “NG AV” Begin?
• Reality Check on EDR / ETDR
• My Paper on Endpoint Tools Publishes (2013)

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• RSA 2016: Musings and Contemplations
• My Detection Confidence Survey Results
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – March 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – March 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? Well, you be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” …  [230 pageviews]
2. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [112 pageviews]
3. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our new 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here! [92 pageviews]
4. My classic PCI DSS Log Review series is always popular! The series of 18 posts cover a comprehensive log review approach (OK for PCI DSS 3+ as well), useful for building log review processes and procedures , whether regulatory or not. It is also described in more detail in our Log Management book and mentioned in our PCI book (out in its 4th edition!) [84+ pageviews to the main tag]
5. “Top 10 Criteria for a SIEM?” came from one of my last projects I did when running my SIEM consulting firm in 2009-2011 (for my recent work on evaluating SIEM, see this document [2015 update]) [78 pageviews of total 4113 pageviews to all blog pages]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog [which, BTW, now has about 3X the traffic of this blog]: 

 

Current research on IR:

• What Is Different About Security Incident Response Today?
• Incident Response Becomes Threat Response … OR Does It: IR Research Commencing

Current research on EDR:

• EDR Mud Fight: Kernel or Userland?
• Using EDR For Remediation?
• EDR Research Commencing: Call To Action!
• Where Does EDR End and “NG AV” Begin?
• Reality Check on EDR / ETDR
• My Paper on Endpoint Tools Publishes (2013)

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• Sad Hilarity of Predictive Analytics in Security?
• Anton’s Favorite Threat Hunting Links
• RSA 2016: Musings and Contemplations
• My Detection Confidence Survey Results
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – Feburary 2016
• All posts tagged monthly

Monthly Blog Round-Up – Feburary 2016

Here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts/topics this month:

1. “Why No Open Source SIEM, EVER?” contains some of my SIEM thinking from 2009. Is it relevant now? Well, you be the judge.  Succeeding with SIEM requires a lot of work, whether you paid for the software, or not. BTW, this post has an amazing “staying power” that is hard to explain – I suspect it has to do with people wanting “free stuff” and googling for “open source SIEM” …  [267 pageviews]
2. “New SIEM Whitepaper on Use Cases In-Depth OUT!” (dated 2010) presents a whitepaper on select SIEM use cases described in depth with rules and reports [using now-defunct SIEM product]; also see this SIEM use case in depth and this for a more current list of popular SIEM use cases. Finally, see our new 2016 research on security monitoring use cases here! [106 pageviews]
3. “Top 10 Criteria for a SIEM?” came from one of my last projects I did when running mySIEM consulting firm in 2009-2011 (for my recent work on evaluating SIEM, see this document [2015 update]) [104 pageviews]
4. “SIEM Resourcing or How Much the Friggin’ Thing Would REALLY Cost Me?” is a quick framework for assessing the SIEM project (well, a program, really) costs at an organization (much more details on this here in this paper). [70 pageviews]
5. “Simple Log Review Checklist Released!” is often at the top of this list – this aging checklist is still a very useful tool for many people. “On Free Log Management Tools” is a companion to the checklist (updated version) [65 pageviews of total 3861 pageviews to all blog pages]

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to a few recent posts from my Gartner blog: 

 

Current research on IR:

• What Is Different About Security Incident Response Today?
• Incident Response Becomes Threat Response … OR Does It: IR Research Commencing

Current research on EDR:

• EDR Research Commencing: Call To Action!
• Where Does EDR End and “NG AV” Begin?
• Reality Check on EDR / ETDR
• My Paper on Endpoint Tools Publishes (2013)

Past research on SIEM:

• Our New Paper on Security Monitoring Use Cases Publishes
• Our 2016 SIEM Papers Are Out!
• Starting A SIEM Project from Vendor Use Case Content: WIN or FAIL?
• SIEM Use Case Implementation and Tuning Process
• Fun Challenges with SIEM Use Cases
• SIEM Use Case Discovery
• SIEM Use Cases – And Other Security Monitoring Use Cases Too!

Miscellaneous fun posts:

• My Detection Confidence Survey Results
• No, Virginia, It Does NOT Mean That! (detection and prevention)
• “Deception as Detection” or Give Deception a Chance?
• Jumping Security Maturity FAIL!
• Security: Automate And/Or Die?
• Your SOC Nuclear Triad
• On Tanks vs Tractors
• Defeat The Casual Attacker First!!
• On “Defender’s Advantage”

(see all my published Gartner research here)
Also see my past monthly and annual “Top Popular Blog Posts” – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Disclaimer: most content at SecurityWarrior blog was written before I joined Gartner on Aug 1, 2011 and is solely my personal view at the time of writing. For my current security blogging, go here.

Previous post in this endless series:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up – January 2016
• All posts tagged monthly