Friday Summary: October 3, 2014 cute puppy edition

I was going to write more this week on Apple Pay security and it use of tokenization because more details have come out, but I won’t bother because TUAW beat me to it. They did a good job explaining how tokenization is used by Apple, and went on to discuss one of the facets I have been trying to get details on: the CCV/CVV code. Apple is dynamically generating a new CVV for each transaction, which can be verified by the payment processor to ensure it is coming from an authorized device. In a nutshell: fingerprint scan to verify the user is present, a token that represents the card/device combination, and a unique CVV to verify the device in use. That is not just beyond magstripes – it is better than EMV-style smart cards. No wonder the banks were happy to work with Apple. Tip of the cap to Yoni Heisler for a well-written article.

It is interesting to watch events unfold when you knew exactly how they would occur beforehand. Try as you might, you cannot avoid the inevitable, even when you know it’s coming a long ways off. In this case 6 months ago a very dear friend – someone we had not spoken with in quite a while – called my wife and asked her to have lunch. The first thing that popped into my mind was, “Oh crap, we’re getting a new puppy!” See, this friend is a breeder of Boston Terriers, and we have owned many of her dogs over the years. And she was thinking of breeding two of her stock, and she will be looking for good homes to place them in. I guarantee you that landing in the Lane household is the puppy equivalent of winning the lottery – our home is a bit sought after by many dog breeders and rescue shelters. And this friend and my wife are both aware that our current Boston is 12 – he is still feisty but clearly in elder statesman territory. Keep in mind that none of the above factoids are ever discussed. No need. But you don’t have to be prescient to see what’s coming. Now that the puppies are on the ground, my wife was invited back to “help socialize” a litter of puppies with a cuteness index of 11. So I have no doubt that within several weeks we will be hearing the all-too-familiar nighttime puppy running outside before it wets the blanket again. Who needs sleep? I need to proactively pick out some puppy names!

As Mike’s weekly Incite discussed, it has been a dizzying week for all of us here, but we have come out the other side unscathed. And next week will be no different. I am presenting at the Akamai Edge conference in Miami, so if you’ll be in town let me know!

Now let’s move on to the summary…

Webcasts, Podcasts, Outside Writing, and Conferences

Favorite Securosis Posts

Adrian Lane: Stranger in my own town. A glimpse into what it’s like to be Mike. A good post and a feel for what it has been like this year.
David Mortman: Security and Privacy on the Encrypted Network: The Future is Encrypted.
Mike Rothman: Friday Summary: September 26, 2014. Slim pickings this week, but I like the round-up of stuff on Adrian’s mind. Always entertaining.

Favorite Outside Posts

David Mortman: Four Interactions That Could Have Gone Better.
Adrian Lane: Top 10 Web Hacking Techniques of 2013 – OWASP AppSecUSA 2014. My fave this week is a video from last week’s OWASP event – I was not able to go this year but it’s always a great con.
Mike Rothman: The Truth About Ransomware. Great post by Andrew Hay about the fact that you’re on your own if you get infected with ransomware. You might get your files back, you might not. So make sure you back up the important stuff. And don’t click things. Truth.

Research Reports and Presentations

Blog Comment of the Week

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