🗣 Rob Rosenberger Profile picture
Mar 3, 2023 10 tweets 6 min read Read on X
🧵
"#Antivirus software is a future Trojan horse."

There. I said it.

"But Rob! You were defending Kaspersky just a few days ago!"

NO.

I've fought a crude #UrbanLegend in our industry that's simmered since the FBI threw a shit-fit over something they've never proven.
Worse, our own global community has never proved it -- and we've got every good reason to prove it if true.

But hey, our industry turned the tables on Kaspersky the day his dictator launched a genocide campaign.

Because we're just like that. We've always been like that.
That's why our industry's #ThoughtLeaders can dance on a pinhead: because IT'S EASY!

The logic in the back of their minds is simple: "Kaspersky is a Russian billionaire who craves genocide in Ukraine and does anything Putin asks. I must destroy Kaspersky with all my willpower."
But there's a catch:

Collectively, our industry has a #fetish for military cosplay. We brag from one side of our mouth and scream in terror from the other side at just how easily we can snuff the lives of thousands, even millions of humans with nary the press of an ENTER key.
When the time actually comes where the global #cybersecurity community can kill someone they don't know with the push of a button…

…a terrifying number of us will DO it. Because we've fantasized about it for far, far too long. But at what cost to us?
Honestly, the cost to us is stated simply:

1️⃣ You push a button

2️⃣ People you don't know, die

3️⃣ You scour the news for stories & videos of the tragedy

4️⃣ You #incredulously ask yourself "wow, did I honestly kill all those men, women, and children?"

Okay, and … then what?
This is where logic will deviate from psychology.

Logic tells us the killers will brag from one side of their mouth and scream in terror from the other side at just how easily they snuffed the lives of thousands, even millions of humans with nary the press of an ENTER key…
…but psychology tells us the newfound killers in our industry will regret murdering newborns. And kids. And off-duty first responders. Annnnnd pretty much everyone else they killed.

And so the newfound killers in our industry will do what a lot of…
…killers in the military go through when they see the carnage they wrought:

They'll *change*. Because of course they will.

As for me? I'm just waiting for the day #antivirus software turns into a Trojan horse. That's when our #fetish will lead us to the coming reality. ImageImageImage
Nobody has proven anything against Kaspersky. I'll defend Eugene and Costin and all the rest for this reason alone.

But I also know the future.

Some day, McAfee or WithSecure or Kaspersky or whoever WILL decide it's in their corporate best interests…

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More from @vmyths

Apr 11
The Pentagon's @DAF_CDAO office should have long ago prioritized its dissection of current AND PAST Air Force #cyberwar doctrine to see where it would have gotten U.S. airmen killed in Ukraine's land war.

But HAF/A6 has a problem: 🤦

They don't ponder doctrine like HAF/A3 does.
"Wait a minute, Rob. It's not @DAF_CDAO's job to ponder doctrine. The DAF has an air staff dedicated to that task!"

NO, THEY DON'T.

The office you're thinking of will LISTEN to anyone who believes doctrine must [to use the correct term] "evolve" in some way. This is why… Image
…Air Force Enlisted Historians (AFSC 3H0x1) were required to write annual analyses and strongly encouraged to write triennial monographs over every topic they regarded as vital to DOCTRINE.

I, personally, set the ball in motion to change Air Force doctrine that insisted…
Read 12 tweets
Mar 8
Sooooo… Let's begin with a quick assessment.

The book's index highlights Dr. Fred Cohen, whose thesis underpins the concept of a computer virus; Robert T. Morris, whose computer worm almost very nearly destroyed his father's NSA career; and Victor Zhora, who has refused to…
…provide a death toll from all the horrifying[ly mysterious] "cyber war crimes" he insists must be prosecuted in a new "cyber court" in The Hague that can pronounce death penalties.

Yet there's no mention of Vmyths[.]com nor Attrition[.]org nor Snopes[.]com nor folks' names…
…The root word "critic" appears numerous times in "critical infrastructure[s]," yet only appears once in the context of a #critique. "Criticism" appears once on p.168 re: CrowdStrike's undocumentable claim that Ukrainian artillerymen got blown to smithereens and sent home in…
Read 9 tweets
Dec 4, 2023
I want to revisit this supposedly rhetorical question.

Historically, we in #cybersecurity labeled traditional events "cyber" simply because the players were computer experts, e.g. Robert Hanssen was the world's first "cyber spy" because he identified a local computer vuln and…
…installed a password cracker on his work computer and used a Palm PDA.

Now we believe *every* spy is a #cyber spy because they all use computers in some way.

So, we've gone back to the lazy way of calling them just "spies" — but NOT for the right reasons.
We did what the cable & satellite industries did: they ✌️adjectivized✌️ themselves for adding channels to our TVs.

Cyber has improved all sorts of things, but in all honesty we're like @BASF. We don't make the things people use in their daily lives; we just make them better.
Read 12 tweets
Sep 15, 2023
1/21
Wow! I'm high on life after a follow-up physical at a Navy clinic where I got tossed onto an exam table with my blood pressure checked 3 times, after which they did 2 EKGs, then took my blood, etc. etc.

So let's talk cybersecurity #management. It's late 1996 and I've...
2/21
...just transferred @robtlee off MY ops floor, 😈 making me DoD's first Enlisted Information Warfare Crew Commander and setting Rob on his amazing career path -- a fact he learned at the meeting below where our mutual mentor confirmed it. So, ...
3/21
...immediately after the Stan/Eval guy said "<yawn> you're now a crew commander, good night," I called a meeting with my tiny little ops floor crew.

"NEW RULE," I declared. "From now on, YOU make the decisions and I'll write it down in the Master Station Log." This...
Read 21 tweets
Jul 26, 2023
1/7
It pains me to agree.

Historically, a new "infosec" office found its authority by teaming up w/ the HR office (holding the authority to test & fire employees) and the firm's webmaster (holding the authority to set password security policies for employees & customers alike)
2/7
Historically, a newfound infosec office couldn't send emails to "all" because the IT staff controlled that -- coincidently to stop #hoax computer virus alerts that once rampaged email servers worldwide.

IT *ignored* the new infosec manager's ✌️assumed✌️ authority, saying…
3/7
"we need HR's permission to do what you're asking."

Which was too often true:

THE IT OFFICE needed HR's permission because #ironically it was an IT admin who first got #duped by a #hoax computer virus alert and fired an email to "all" that ultimately pummeled the firm…
Read 7 tweets
Jul 15, 2023
1/18
Monday would be #NickoSilar's birthday. Our industry spouts an #UrbanLegend that she died in a hospital #ransomware attack … yet the truth is a bit complicated for our collective reductionist beliefs.

Let's study the facts surrounding this baby's tragic death, shall we? https://t.co/TVbwbQ7wTJ
Image
2/18
First, I need to caveat my role in this sad affair. I've offered my expertise pro bono to the law firm representing the attending physician who delivered #NickoSilar on that fateful day. My specific goal is to protect Dr. Parnell from Springhill Medical Center's legal team.
3/18
I must admit it proved no easy task to pick Dr. Parnell over Nicko Silar's mother who, in truth, needs no expertise I can offer.

Maybe help Springhill Medical Center's CISO?

Nope: SMC has already thrown Dr. Parnell under the bus to protect themselves & their CISO.
Read 18 tweets

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