What follows is my take on “Ciscogate”, the uproar over researcher Michael Lynn’s presentation at this year’s Black Hat conference, in which he revealed that he was able to remotely execute code on Cisco routers. I have been representing Mike during this crisis, so I’m clearly partisan, and what I can say is limited by attorney-client responsibilities. But while many people are speculating about the facts, there hasn’t been much on the law, which turns out to be really interesting.

Jennifer Granick has posted the first installment of the story about her representing Mike. Its very rare you get to hear the take of a case like this directly from the lawyers involved, so this is a treat.

Earlier I suggested that everyone leave a comment on Jennifer's blog thanking her for representing Mike. I'd like to renew that suggestion. Thanks Jennifer!

After reading this, you might want to check out this collection of comments on Cryptome about the situation. It includes links to pictures of the presentation Mike actually gave, as opposed to the one that is floating around.

And seriously don't miss the truly excellent video floating around of the Cisco temp-workers slicing the materials out of the conference booklets. You can get it here or here.

The Shout | Jennifer Granick | ISS and Cisco v. Granick’s Gambling Plans

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist broke party lines with President Bush on Friday by speaking out in favor of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The senator now supports a bill that would lift the research limits imposed by the Bush administration four years ago.

This is a huge step. I am very excited to see the developments...

Stem cell switch - Connected Coast to Coast with Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley - MSNBC.com

Burger Kings new PR campaign. It begs the question, is their advertising executive out of the loop, or do they just not care that their slogan is COCK ROCK!?

ANyway, a bit of humor in these troubled times....

Coq Roq

Wow...candles with LEDs....this is cool

ThinkGeek :: LoungeLight LED Candles

Internet equipment maker Cisco Systems is fighting a shareholder action that urges the company to adopt a comprehensive human rights policy for its dealings with the Chinese government, and with other states practicing political censorship of the internet

This just isn't Cisco's week.

Wired News: Critics Squeeze Cisco Over China

Please support Mike Lynn by contributing to his defense fund! Currently this fund exists in the form of sending funds directly to Mike via Paypal.

Mike Lynn's Paypal ID is "Abaddon@IO.com". A form to submit funds to this account can also be found at: http://www.memestreams.net/lynndefense.html

A dangerous culture regarding hardware based network devices as impervious to remote compromise has been allowed to exist. Mike has taken on enormous personal risk to do the right thing for the security research community by coming forward with his research and bringing this problem into focus.

Cisco has consistently been on the forefront of this dangerous culture. They exercise a strategy of walling off updates and information only to those with support contracts. In many areas of critical infrastructure, engineers are often limited in their ability to utilize the latest security updates due to their IOS feature train. For years, attempting to adopt SSH as the primary method of administration for Cisco hardware has provided a perfect example of Cisco's broken security culture. Their handling of this situation is putting icing on the cake. We must encourage change in Cisco's security culture.

ISS's actions to date have shown an effect of this broken security culture. ISS's handling of this critical security threat and the researcher that found it have been less then desirable. We are confident our free-market business and media environment will result in both ISS and Cisco learning lessons from this event.

We expect the FBI to be both diligent and respectful in its handling of the investigation against Lynn. The security reality of our critical infrastructure demands such a response. In this big picture, the civil and government security communities are on the same team, and should be viewed as such.

If our whistleblowers are not protected, we will eventually find we have no whistles available to us to blow. This would be a disaster for both America and the globalized world.

If we are to protect our critical infrastructure, we too must be protected.

The most important thing we the security research community can do in regard to this event is support Mike Lynn, and encourage positive change to broken security culture wherever it exists.

Right now, by supporting Mike Lynn, you support the entire community.

Mike Lynn Legal Defense Fund

This is an article about how Mike is now getting probed by the FBI because of ISS.

Mike Lynn Is Being Investigated by the FBI

Looks like they have reached a settlement, according to the AP.

Settlement between Mike Lynn and Cisco

This is not going to go the way Cisco wants it to. Its going to blow up in their face.

The general opinion that seems to be around in the blogs is clearly leaning toward Mike. None of the mainstream press has yet to cast Mike's actions in an overly negative light.

"The speaker worked with Cisco for the last six months on this and Cisco has had the patch for quite a while," said Wally Strzelec, an IT manager at Texas A&M. "I don't know what their beef is."

"Seems like Cisco's trying to cover its butt," said Tom DeSmidt, a senior security engineer for satellite TV provider Echostar. "All software has flaws you can exploit. They should embrace it rather then act this way."

And Cisco may pay for the lawsuit, in more ways than one. Ken Pfeir, CSO for Capital IQ in New York, said something like this may turn clients away. "Cisco is going about this entirely the wrong way -- they're alienating their own customers," Pfeir said. "Walking around for six months with their fly hanging open and now saying 'you didn't see anything' is a bad business practice."

As far as the lawsuit goes, Black Hat President Jeff Moss remains unconcerned and has no intention of remaining mum as the cease and desist order demands. "Apparently Cisco is going to send us a really scary letter tomorrow," he said. "I don't like scary letters so when I get it, I'll let everyone know what's going on." Depending on the outcome, a press conference is tentatively planned for Thursday morning.

The EFF should support Lynn.

Users in an uproar over Cisco/ISS suit

BoingBoing is linking to the Security Focus article with a summary of the situation. Its great coverage. Mike has got to love this:

"This guy is my new hero." -- Cory Doctorow

Boing Boing: Security researcher quits job and blows whistle on Cisco's fatal flaws