A geek, the Cisco, the FBI and a lawyer, in 3+n parts

Posted on August 6, 2005
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 60 views |

If you read /. or you’re paying any attention at all to the hacking/hacktivism scene you know that ex-Internet Security Systems employee Mike Lynn discovered a flaw in Cisco’s routers that opens them up to being full-on 0wn3d by anyone with some l337 mad skillz. This has made Cisco and ISS and now the FBI (the FB aye) very upset, page rippin’, lawsuit-flinging, threat-makin’ mad. For the Coles Notes, “no technological mumbo jumbo please, we’re human” version of the story check out the Wired interview with Mike Lynn.

Interesting stuff to be sure since full disclosure of security vulnerabilities is generally considered a Good Thing(tm) by the security community and academia and The Next Great Evil(tm) by most corporations. To paraphrase Bruce Schneier: “geeks see security vulnerabilities as technical issues, corporations see security vulnerabilities as PR issues”.

Turn’s out that despite having to quit his job to present his findings, despite being sued by a major multi-national (Cisco’s the folks who built the backbone for the Great Firewall of China, no friends of freedom there when a buck’s at stake), despite being investigated by the FB aye, Lynn’s actually a lucky boy: he happened to be presenting his finding at Black Hat, the more-elite, smarter, more intellectual gathering of geeks that happens in Las Vegas roughly the same time as DefCon. Lucky, I say, because Jennifer Granick , Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society happened to be at Black Hat giving her own presentation.

If I were going to be sued in a civil case involving technology there’s really only three people I can think of that I’d want representing me: Cindy Cohn, Jennifer Granick, and Lawrence Lessig. Lynn seems to be in good hands.

Which is all just the very long, rambling back-story that precedes my intention in this post: Granick has a blog and right now she’s covering the particulars of her involvement from the serendipitous circumstances that begat her involvement right up to, as of this posting, the entrance of the FB aye in act three:

ISS and Cisco v. Granick’s Gambling Plans. By Jennifer Granick
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

With more to come. So far a gripping tale in real-time.

(Could I link-drop any more in this post? Yes I could, but it’s late and I have to be up at five. You’ve got the Google, Google on intrepid Googler).

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