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AT&T Plans CNN-style Security Channel 169

An anonymous reader writes "Infoworld has a story about AT&T's upcoming effort to create a CNN of network security. From the article: "Security experts at AT&T are about to take a page from CNN's playbook. Within the next year they will begin delivering a video streaming service that will carry Internet security news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the executive in charge of AT&T Labs.""
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AT&T Plans CNN-style Security Channel

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  • Early model (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) * on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:17PM (#12892799) Homepage Journal

    Presumably AT&T is going to go deeper into the security game and this is a good move for them. If they want to build credibility, brand this channel with subtlety and simply report the news. But rather than providing this as a service to their existing customers, stream it live to the Internet for everybody's consumption. That will help to build the AT&T brand for security much more so than limiting the audience. The costs cannot be that much more, right?

    Interestingly, the page the article is linked on has a signal to noise ratio for this particular article of about .2. In other words, 80% of the page is noise from advertisements versus 20% actual content that we are interested in by clicking on the link which gets me to thinking.....Given that they are modeling it after the CNN model, hopefully this channel will adhere to the model CNN had in the early days. It was "all news, all the time", kind of like MTVs early days where it was "all music, all the time". Right now CNN has degenerated into talk radio like TV with unbelievably biased commentators, and now they are towing the entertainment news line because they are part of Time Warner and their balance of ads versus news has been going down the tubes for years now. For instance, I had CNN on the other morning from about 9:30 to 10:00 and 60% of the airtime was devoted to commercials. It has been said that with the large conglomerate ownership of media these days, that the Watergate scandal would not have come to light. Think about that for a few minutes and see where it takes you. Scary, is it not?


    • But rather than providing this as a service to their existing customers, stream it live to the Internet for everybody's consumption. That will help to build the AT&T brand for security much more so than limiting the audience. The costs cannot be that much more, right?

      Actually, I'm thinking that the costs may be less to make this publically available.
    • Didn't Babylon 5 have an ISN? Things didn't go so well for them...

      One unintended side-effect might be for hacker types to try to get a mention on ISN as a vanity thing.
    • Still...just like most of the other mainstream news sites manipulating information, does this mean we'll get to hear all about how their competiton has security problems, but very little about their own?
    • Re:Early model (Score:3, Interesting)

      On top of that, is streaming video really the way to get security updates? Personally an outline text form lets me go straight to the areas that are applicable to me and what I need to keep secure. I definitely wouldn't want to sit through 15 minutes of (personally) irrelevant crap just to get the security info I need.

      In the end, while there are some broad sweep security alerts that affect everyone or nearly so, most updates are probably important to 1 out of 10 people.
      • On top of that, is streaming video really the way to get security updates?
        I used to wonder why we spend big bucks sending people away to week long training courses, when they could just read a book.

        Then I realized, most people will never read the book.

    • TechTV is back but security for all the veggies out there that don't Updates are worth there time .. will this mean TechTV will come back to fill the time up with USEFUL shows and infomation!!! i miss my TechTV/ZDTV!!!
    • by htrp ( 894193 )
      It could also be yet another medium for ATT to tout it's new "security initiatives" and advertise services given by ATT for ATT customers and all. Even if they do make the service free, how many people will actually bother watching it. Personally I think my BugTraq list is good enough. Though it would be entertaining to see a giant breaking news screen of a new worm otubreak with an infographic as each country gets progressively hit, live over video.
      • Considering how everything AT&T touches turns to shit (cable TV, wireless phones, long distance), they shouldn't get their hopes up. The AT&T name will not build credibility, in fact I think it will do the opposite.
    • by PaxTech ( 103481 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:41PM (#12893048) Homepage
      It has been said that with the large conglomerate ownership of media these days, that the Watergate scandal would not have come to light. Think about that for a few minutes and see where it takes you. Scary, is it not?

      I thought about it, and I'm not scared in the least.

      If the Watergate scandal happened today, Deep Throat wouldn't have NEEDED the large conglomerate media to get the story out, he'd have just started a blog. If you doubt that a blog could have penetrated the cover-up and conspiracy, just ask Dan Rather, he's got some nice Word documents to show you. :)

      I agree, mainstream media is a joke these days, luckily there is an alternative. No one needs a big corporate monolith to get news out, we all have access to the biggest printing press there is.
      • BS.

        Dan Rather is one thing, Bush is another. If a blog had discredited Bush to that extent, it would either a: be discredited as 'just a blog' or b: be silenced / discredited rather quickly. It took YEARS for the memo from Britain to get around.

        The printing press was working in a vacuum. It made social change because it was completely new when it came to distribuation of information. While it COULD be argued that blogs are the same thing, the main people arguing it would be bloggers. Just because the datalink upstream from individuals is wider doesn't mean the datalink downstream to individuals will get any more varied anytime soon.

        I'm sorry, but that's the way it's probably going to be for a while. I'd like to believe in this viewpoint, but I don't.
        • Yeah, unfortunately, you're right. I think blogging is an awesome tool in the hands of the public. But the fact is, the ratio of people who read blogs to those who just watch the news is low. I wouldn't know about half of the blogs out there if they weren't reported on the news, and that includes the Dan Rather conspiracy. We've got a ways to go.
    • Re:Early model (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ChiefPilot ( 566606 )
      That's OK. Experimenting on black prisoners with STDs didn't come to light before conglomerates owned the media anyway.
    • Brilliant
  • by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:17PM (#12892801)

    The service, which currently goes by the code name Internet Security News Network, (ISN) is under development at AT&T Labs...

    Ten good reasons not to use "ISN":
    1. International Relations and Security Network [isn.ethz.ch]
    2. International Society of Nephrology [isn-online.org]
    3. Immigrants Support Network [isn.org]
    4. Internet Shopping Network [internet.net]
    5. Prince Edward Island's Internet Company [isn.net]
    6. International Supernovae Network [supernovae.net]
    7. Institut des Sciences Nucleaires [in2p3.fr]
    8. International Society for Neurochemistry [neurochem.org]
    9. Interagency Services Network [isn.gov]
    10. InfoSec News [c4i.org]

    Naming issues aside, this souinds like it could be very cool...but will this ever be available to the public at large, or will it remain restricted to AT&T customers?
  • I'd watch it. Maybe it will be available over streaming Theora.
  • by VP ( 32928 )
    You mean SBC, right?
  • Eslambolchi likened the effort to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as Star Wars. "My strategy in AT&T is the Star Wars concept because I am not in a cold war with these crooks anymore, I am in a nuclear war," he said. "Every time they form a nuclear missile, I have to know where they are going to hit me and I have to devise a new defense mechanism."

    Go git 'em gipper! We need more nuclear war metaphors in network security, perhaps this will be a more FOX n
  • by Kwirl ( 877607 ) <kwirlkarphys@gmail.com> on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:20PM (#12892828)

    Wow, at first I was going to laugh at AT&T...disgruntled former employee and all. Then I read the article...and wanted to clap. This is a meritous idea that hopefully will provide content to those of us who want more from this field.


    Hopefully they won't outsource the reporting :P

    • And hopefully up-to-date information. Last month I was waching dateline or some similar program, and they did a big expose on....

      wait for it..

      PORN DIALERS!

      C'mon, this was relevant what, seven years ago? That's eons in Internet years. I haven't used a modem in five years or so, and where I live isn't exactly bleeding edge. Maybe they'll do a big story on the Melissa virus next.
    • At least it will provide kicks for those botnet operators...

      [Person Sitting At Computer]

      *click, click, click*

      [Phone rings, answered]

      Excited teenage voice: Hey d00d, look that's my attack on TV!
  • I mean even to people who LIKE technology AND work in networking, how much news relevant to networking could there possibly be in one day? I understand the desire for DoS warnings to be sent and investigated, or even reporting on trade shows...but 24/7?
    • It probably won't receive the amount of funding sufficient to provide a real 24/7 broadcast. You'll probably see a few hours of new programming each week that is supplemented primarily by news from last month.

      Wait, maybe we should call it Slashdot TV. ;-)
  • Sure cure for insomnia.
  • by whizkid042 ( 515649 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:21PM (#12892853) Homepage
    As a security professional, I was intrigued by the idea until I read:

    it will be offered as an additional service to the company's customers

    It's only going to be available to AT&T customers. That's too bad. Now it doesn't sound nearly as cool or half as useful to me.

    • It's only going to be available to AT&T customers. That's too bad. Now it doesn't sound nearly as cool or half as useful to me.

      So if you can't have it for free, it's not as useful to you? sounds to me like you confuse usefulness and free-riding.

      But anyone, as a "security professional" (what's that anyway? a bodyguard? a rent-a-cop? a Pentagon-paid mercenary like those operating right now in Iraq?), you probably won't be impressed by AT&T's service anyway, as it probably will be a channel for news
      • So AT&T is late to the game. ISS, Symantec, and others already provide this same "news" type of service to their customers as either an additional service or as part of thier existing service. And yes, they all have global scope.

        This isn't that interesting and since there are many companies and people who are not AT&T customers, it not useful.

        Geez, this is almost like shilling for AT&T--hardly worth a /. story.
  • by n1ywb ( 555767 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:21PM (#12892855) Homepage Journal
    How long do you think it will take for that to happen?
  • by Scoria ( 264473 ) <`slashmail' `at' `initialized.org'> on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:24PM (#12892881) Homepage
    Within the next year they will begin delivering a video streaming service that will carry Internet security news 24 hours a day, seven days a week

    Seen on a job availability notice for this project:

    ANCHOR PREREQUISITES
    - Ability to fluently read and speak '1337' while broadcasting
  • by suitepotato ( 863945 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:25PM (#12892883)
    95% warnings of new Windows vulnerabilities and ranting about same, 5% advertising the all new Google Commercials.
  • A CNN of IT security?

    Most companies deal with IT security in secrecy, only disclosing new attacks and vulns right before they're ready to release a patch.

    By the time it hits the news outlet, they'll be just too old for security professionals to be deemed useful.

  • Let's hope it won't be exactly like CNN, by which I mean won't soon come to feature endless "commentary" and "talk" shows devoted to making a lot of noise out of a little news. I'm personally quite sick of hearing rambling, repetitive discussion rather than some actual information.

    Which begs the question of: how much actual security news is there to report? During a large virus or worm attack, as during a war for CNN, there is certainly enough to fill 24 hours; otherwise, what exactly will they talk abou
  • until Fox News or Talk radio say this netwrok has a bias towards left wing viruses?
  • Wow, I can see this one just taking off. Move over NBC there's a new kid on the block.
  • by hal9000(jr) ( 316943 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:33PM (#12892976)
    Andrew Jaquith, senior analyst with The Yankee Group in Boston. "There is really no good, consistent source for security information on the Internet," he said.

    There are already a handful of really good sites out there. How will ATT compete with the likes of: The Internet Storm Center, [sans.org] Security Focus [securityfocus.com], Packet Storm [packetstormsecurity.org], and Security Peline [securitypipeline.com] which are current and relevant.

    Also in the TFA, there were statements that the news serviecs will be offered to ATT customers. Will non-customers also have access to the site for free? If not, how does this compare to other managed services offerings from the likes of Symantec, ISS, and others?
  • ...is this will probably have more program content and be more interesting than G4Techtv.

    Just imagine the shows you could syndicate:

    Off The Hook - eh, second thought, better not. That show is 99% politics, 1% Emmanuel Goldstein acting like a 21st-century Andy Rooney.

    RISKS Digest - now in video form!

    The Defaced Web page report - attrition.org's newest show featuring defaced websites for the past week, and what vulnerability caused it

    Monday Night Infection - Which Windows worm is spreading faster than th

    • Just imagine the shows you could syndicate:


      Here's one you'll love:
      Dvorak!

      That's right, our own loveable John Dvorak goes on a self-righteous rant about some tech isue or another...while the viewers on the web can vote in on whether or not they found his rant enjoyable and/or informative.

      If they did, John gets pelted with rotten fruit, rotten fish, or extremely old cheese.

      If they didn't, John gets pelted with shurikens, live (enraged) badgers, or dollops of blistering hot tar.

      Either way, it's a ratin
  • by Winterblink ( 575267 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:36PM (#12893007) Homepage
    Microsoft :)
    • by Anonymous Coward
      We're sorry, but in order to view our security alert video, you must be running the latest version of Microsoft® Windows® Media Player®. Click here [microsoft.com] to upgrade now!
  • Can't wait to see this channel hacked, before they start 'educating' us about online security.
  • Within the next year they will begin delivering a video streaming service that will carry Internet security news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the executive in charge of AT&T Labs.

    I didnt know Microsoft was putting up another channel dedicated for Windows.

  • The Paranoid News Network. 24 hours of the latest vulnerabilities, occasional how-to shows on fixing/upgrading/simple updating your systems, a Mclauglin group/Capital Gang-esqe group of hardware/software security leaders who discuss topics and berate microsoft, and a call in show for frazzled IT admins. That'd be cool ;)
    • by Anonymous Coward
      The Paranoid News Network would have other news too, like:

      Child kidnapped.
      New killer computer virus released.
      Adult kidnapped.
      Terrorist arrested.
      New killer human virus invades hospitals.
      Spyware on your desktop.
      Terrorist escapes capture.
      Spies get your SS#.

      Oh wait, we already have [cnn.com] that [foxnews.com].
    • The Paranoid News Network.

      No no, dude, it's so obvious:

      The Pwn3d News Network.

      :-),
      Schwab

  • by anandpur ( 303114 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:41PM (#12893054)
    Windows exploit found .... Windows exploit script available .... Linux kernel exploit found .... Linux kernel patched .... Windows user are waiting for patch .... M$ announced patch will be availabe next month .... XXXX nummber of windows system turned zombies ... Linux kernel exploit found .... Linux kernel patched .... M$ relesed long awaited patch .... 1/2 of the windows useres can not install patch .... Only licenced windows users can install patch .... Linux kernel exploit found .... Linux kernel patched .... ISP disconnected un-patched widows systems from the Internet
    • OpenBSD exploit found... OMG *news reader shots him/her self*.
    • Yep that about sums it up.
    • ... President Gates declares War on Spam(tm) ... Patch Day celebrations around the world ... Slashdot involved in yesterday's DDoS attacks? ... PGP key signing parties the latest trend in Hollywood ... Hundreds of servers killed by packet storms in .cn, .kr, .jp ... Y2K38 fears rising, researchers say ... Man arrested for whistling unlicensed tunes ... Department of Homeland Security: Guantanamo Bay will be essential element of nation-wide rights management system ...
  • I have worked in Nocs before and there were several reasons why the room was wired for cable. The simplest was to be able to watch CNN for events that might disturb the network. A specialized network could provide direct problems such as:
    1) Weather including solar storms
    2) Network cuts /degrations
    3) Running stats on virus attacks
    4) Coporate outages
    5) Independent outages reports -- so you know who to blame.
    6) Known reasons for increased bandwidth usage (ex Hey new star wars trailer)

    Still I th
  • N3w VuLn3r481l17132 W3R3 D1C0V3R3d 70D4Y 1n m0s7 w38 8r0wS3r ScR1P71N' l4N9u4932. luCK1ly 0UR n37w0rK 12 1mMUN3 70 sucH 7H1N92, S0 w3'R3 P4s1n' 7h12 1Nf0 4l0n9 70 j00 1n 73h N1Ck 0F 71m3..
    • I don't know if I should feel proud or ashamed that I could read that at almost normal speed.

      And if I should feel ashamed, is it because I could read it at almost normal speed, or because I couldn't read it right at normal speed?
  • I can see it now:

    "In the news today, several major Customers of AT&Ts' network services reported denial of service attacks - coinciding with the inaguration of AT&T's new Internet Security Network.

    According to Mark Manigerium of ReallyMegaBigCo LTD, 'The network guys here told everyone to keep a window open in the background - so everyone could listen to how much they were at risk from, like viruses and stuff. This has completely stopped traffic to out web site and cost us Megayons of Lira.'

    Aske
  • I imagine that this is part of marketing strategy for their Internet Protect [att.com] concept/service.

    AT&T Internet ProtectSM is a security alerting and notification service that offers advanced information regarding potential real-time attacks (viruses, worms and distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks) that are in the early formation stages.

  • They sold their Unix business in the 80's. Spun off parts of the company into Lucent and Avaya. Cingular owns their former wireless service. Comcast owns their former cable tv/internet system. SBC just bought their wired phone service. Surely there can't be anything left of them now?
  • It's about time we have some objective, fact based information about computer security on the web. Thank god for companies like AT&T, who clearly have no financial reason to skew any of their security coverage. And thank god for slashdot for advertising for AT&T. That poor little good hearted company probably can't afford any ads at all. And all the ads are probably blocked anyway. Poor old AT&T, and poor old doubleclick.

    As the objective, linked to article says - "This sounds like something pr

  • by StreetFire.net ( 850652 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @03:56PM (#12893209) Homepage
    I *WAS* the AT&T Security Sales overlay for Globals and have personally worked for Hussien the AT&T CIO. While I think this is a good move for AT&T to increase brand awareness for their security product offering, I think the SlashDot crowd will be left with an empty feeling as AT&T's security suite focuses almost exclusively on Network based attacks with little to no coverage for application based attacks, spoofs or social engineering. AT&T *does* have some inovative products in their space, but a fairly narrow focus on the total security picture. Because of this, I can only think the "TV-show" will be similarly focused.

    -Adam
  • Why on earth would anyone want to have this kind of news delivered to them as a linear video stream of images of talking heads?

    Even ink-on-newsprint would be a more efficient way to deliver this, as it makes it easier to glance through the news and pick out the items of interest.

    Sounds like it would only be of use to what we used to call "magazine managers," people whose only knowledge was a shallow smattering of buzzwords picked from from BYTE and Datamation.

    Say! Maybe they could use this Internat thing
  • How useful is video? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Thursday June 23, 2005 @04:01PM (#12893261) Homepage
    The adaptation of general journalism to film and television, as correctly noted by Dave Barry, has largely gradually taken the form where the journalistic entity will find something that a 'reporter' can stand in front of and then film them standing in front of it, talking about it. (Television journalism follows this idiom so strictly that if a story occurs which concerns something you inherently can't film someone standing in front of, television media will generally just not cover it.)

    I am just sitting here trying to figure out how, if at all, they will be able to adapt this idiom to computer security reporting.
    "...and we go to Sharon for the story."

    "Thanks bob. Well, as you can see, I'm standing in front of a TCP/IP packet and as you can plainly see, it is highly malformed."
    Aside from this, I wonder if they're going to adopt a Headline News style "looping tape" format, or if they'll have shows. I actually could totally go for a Snow-Crash-CIC-wet-work style "reality" show demonstrating various white and black hats at work.
  • Congratulations. You've just created a broadcast forum for the disruptive antics of 5kr1p7 k1dd13s and h4x0r5:

    "Yo, b00tbl0ck!"
    "What up?"
    "My worm made ISN!"
    "Whoop-de-shit. Remember that AOL outage last week? Mine. ISN covered it for two days."
    "No way!"
    "Way. Props on your first ISN troll, dude, but l337 is not you."

    Just what we need.

    Schwab

  • Actually, come to think of it, would ISN consider doing investigative news? As in, checking the latest software for vulnerability, or investigating how companies are alerted to vulnerabilities and why and when they issue patches? If Microsoft knew that its latest vulnerability would be broadcast all over the internet, it would certainly force them to get working on a patch right away, or maybe even stop leaving so many in in the first place. ISN could even start covering the legal issues associated with
  • Disclaimer: I am an AT&T security employee

    Recently the talk has started about Aurora http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/053005-auro r a.html [networkworld.com]
    which was available internally for some time and more recently became an offering (in test).

    My own pet security project (OSS-based) within AT&T has recently been obtaining far more support too. I've also been in talks with some bigwigs about expanding some of our other security capabilities.

    Everyone I have been in discussions with has stated one thing cl
    • Everyone I have been in discussions with has stated one thing clearly - AT&T is going to be moving seriously into security.

      If this is true, the first thing you need to do is filter all port 25 traffic from your broadband customers that isn't going to your SMTP relays. You do this, we'll have a noticeable drop in security problems on the Internet at large. Any other thing you do is trivial. Enforce your own TOS. If you don't allow broadband users to run their own servers, then you should be stoppin
  • honestly. who will watch this? it doesn't sound interesting. it doesn't sound compelling. the best this could be is a nice altenative to msnbc as background noise.
  • But for the nerds that the OTHER nerds think are weird!

  • Coming up after the break, we'll go in-depth into the wild PHPNuke cross-scripting 'sploit released today by bl4ckh4t l4bz and ask experts if it really matters to anyone at all...
  • Can we get a web site traffic report?

    I can see it now - a web site describing who's recently been slashdotted or fark-ed. Hell, why not even include email updates with automatic mirrordot links?

    Yeah, I know, I know, not exactly security related per se, but nothing would help me out more sometimes than to know which direction the world's largest, legal, unintentional DDoS attack is pointing. :)
  • And of course this video+audio data will be delivered to viewers exclusively in a proprietary and/or patent-encumbered format which requires proprietary software to see and hear.

    Thus the irony: the software you will need in order to see the presentation is proprietary, and therefore, insecure by default--you can't legally inspect it to see what its doing when it runs. If you somehow learn that it is doing something you don't want it to do you can't legally improve it. And, to hold your community helpless
  • For the lastest merger news [merger-news.com]. I believe is the public site for merger info.

    AT&T and SBC Merger is not yet complete, so the companies are suppose to proceed as still two companies.

    However, the time frame for this is after the merger SHOULD be complete - End of 05 or early 06. Though, this would seemly play very nicely with SBC IPTV plans for Project Lightspeed. Lightspeed PR [sbc.com]

    All information in this post is based on public information released by SBC.

  • by mabu ( 178417 ) on Thursday June 23, 2005 @04:34PM (#12893617)
    Since a huge portion of their networks are the main source of security breaches. Maybe they can run 24-hour tickers showing the amount of spam, worms and viruses they are unable to control originating from their network, and at some point, one of their idiot executives will agree that port 25 needs to be filtered from their broadband users?
  • What IT security admin has time to sit and watch a video feed during the day? Well-presented text is much more information-dense than video.
  • by krich ( 161944 )
    Having worked as a consultant for one of AT&T's Managed Security Centers, I can only weep for the people who rely on this "service".

    A few good people at lower levels, but middle and upper management was *completely* clueless about real security. Complete disorganization, and falsification of reports.

    But Hey! - now they'll be on video, so I guess that will make them the de facto experts.
  • Subtle but when you quote an article quoting a commentary, piece of literature or any other possible scenario citing written word it would make Slashdot and any other site look more intelligent getting their punctuation fixed.
  • I feel safer knowing I wasnt the only one that when they first read "ISN" though "Interstellar Network News" from Bab5.

    I'd be really intrested in finding out if it was purposeful or not - Someone at ATT involved with this project is bound to be a B5 fan.
  • Right when you network has crawled to a halt, you want ot tune into a broadband security video.

    RSS anyone? Just have some XML feed, and put effort into making the content so unbelievably timely and incisive that people will switch.

    That is where you money should go, the steak not the sizzle.

    Imagine, you want to know about *scriptkiddyvariant*

    20 seconds $1000000 video logo of A-T-&-T Security channel, bringing you security... blah blah blah - TTWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY!!! baddab boom bom b de da deheda

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