Virginia

Next Meeting
Due to holidays, etc., the December meeting is canceled. See you in January!

Directions
To Booz Allen's One Dulles facility:

13200 Woodland Park Road Herndon, VA 20171

From Tyson's Corner:


 * 1) Take LEESBURG PIKE / VA-7 WEST
 * 2) Merge onto VA-267 WEST / DULLES TOLL ROAD (Portions Toll)
 * 3) Take the VA-657 Exit (Exit Number 10 towards Herndon / Chantilly)
 * 4) Take the ramp toward CHANTILLY
 * 5) Turn Left onto CENTERVILLE ROAD (at end of ramp)
 * 6) Turn Left onto WOODLAND PARK ROAD (less than 1⁄2 mile)
 * 7) End at 13200 WOODLAND PARK ROAD

Past Meetings
For our November 2008 meeting, we had two great presentations on software assurance and security testing.

Nadya Bartol, Booz Allen Hamilton: Framework for Software Assurance

Nadya's presentation will provide an update on the Software Assurance Forum efforts to establish a comprehensive framework for software assurance (SwA) and security measurement. The Framework addresses measuring achievement of SwA goals and objectives within the context of individual projects, programs, or enterprises. It targets a variety of audiences including executives, developers, vendors, suppliers, and buyers. The Framework leverages existing measurement methodologies, including Practical Software and System Measurement (PSM); CMMI Goal, Question, Indicator, Measure (GQ(I)M); NIST SP 800-55 Rev1; and ISO/IEC 27004 and identifies commonalities among the methodologies to help organizations integrate SwA measurement in their overall measurement efforts cost-effectively and as seamlessly as possible, rather than establish a standalone SwA measurement effort within an organization. The presentation will provide an update on the SwA Forum Measurement Working Group work, present the current version of the Framework and underlying measures development and implementation processes, and propose example SwA measures applicable to a variety of SwA stakeholders. The presentation will update the group on the latest NIST and ISO standards on information security measurement that are being integrated into the Framework as the standards are being developed.

Slides available: []

Paco Hope, Cigital: The Web Security Testing Cookbook

The Web Security Testing Cookbook (O'Reilly & Associates, October 2008) gives developers and testers the tools they need to make security testing a regular part of their development lifecycle. Its recipe style approach covers manual, exploratory testing as well automated techniques that you can make part of your unit tests or regression cycle. The recipes cover the basics like observing messages between clients and servers, to multi-phase tests that script the login and execution of web application features. This book complements many of the security texts in the market that tell you what a vulnerability is, but not how to systematically test it day in and day out. Leverage the recipes in this book to add significant security coverage to your testing without adding significant time and cost to your effort.

Congratulations to Tim Bond who won an autographed copy of Paco's book. Get your copy here []

Slides available: []

For our October 2008 meeting, we had two fascinating talks relating to forensics.

Dave Merkel, Mandiant: Enterprise Grade Incident Management - Responding to Persistent Threats

Dave Merkel is Vice President of Products at Mandiant, a leading provider of information security services, education and products. Mr. Merkel has worked in the information security and incident response industry for over 10 years. His background includes service as a federal agent in the US Air Force and over 7 years experience directing security operations at America Online. He currently oversees the product business at Mandiant, and is in charge of building Mandiant Intelligent Response - an enterprise incident response solution. But no, he won't be selling you anything today.

Slides available: []

Inno Eroraha, NetSecurity: [Responding to the Digital Crime Scene: Gathering Volatile Data

Inno Eroraha is the founder and chief strategist of NetSecurity Corporation, a company that provides digital forensics, hands-on security consulting, and Hands-on How-To® training solutions that are high-quality, timely, and customer-focused. In this role, Mr. Eroraha helps clients plan, formulate, and execute the best security and forensics strategy that aligns with their business goals and priorities. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, IRS, DHS, VA, DoD, and other entities.

Slides available: [ ]