Hacker Camps and Enterprise Architecture

One of the perspectives of the enterprise architecture is Security. It details how we secure the business and technology of the organization. It includes managerial, operational, and technical controls. From an information security view, we seek confidentiality, integrity, availability, and privacy of information.

Who are we protecting the enterprise from in terms of our information security? From hackers of course!

How do we protect ourselves from hackers? By teaching our security professionals the tricks of the trade—teach them how to hack!

The Wall Street Journal, 1 April 2008, reports that “Hacker Camps Train Network Defenders: Sessions Teach IT Pros to Use Tools of the Online Criminal Trade.”

“In such sessions, which cost about $3,800, IT pros typically spend a week playing firsthand with the latest underground computer tools. By the end of the week, participants are trained as ‘ethical hackers’ and can take a certification test backed by the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants.”

“Overall more than 11,000 people have received the ‘ethical hacker’ certificate since 2003; nearly 500 places world-wide offer the training.”

Why do we need to teach these hacking tools to IT security professionals?

They need to understand what they’re up against so they can more effectively plan how to protect against the adversary. Know thy enemy!

How large is the IT security issue?

“The average large U.S. business was attacked 150,000 times in 2007…the average business considered 1,700 of these attacks as sophisticated enough to possibly cause a data breach. In addition, the number of unique computer viruses and other pieces of malicious software that hackers tried to install on computers and IT networks doubled to 500,000 last year from 2006…[and it’s expected] to double again in 2008.”

It’s great that we are advancing the training of our information security champions and defenders, but what about those who take the course, but are really there to learn hacking for the sake of hacking? How many of the 11,000 ‘ethical hackers’ that have been trained are really ethical and how many are using their newfound knowledge for more nefarious ends?

From an enterprise architecture standpoint, we need to ensure that we are not giving away the keys of the kingdom to anyone, including our own IT security staff—through hacker training. Also, we need to be careful not to rely on any one individual to maintain the security order of things. We need to plan our security using a system of checks and balances, just like the constitution lays out for the governance of the nation, so that even the chief information security officer (CISO) is accountable and has close oversight. Finally, we need to institute multiple layers of defense to work best we can to thwart even the determined hackers out there.

Hacker Camps and Enterprise Architecture