Ben Horowitz and Orion discuss the state of enterprise security, and how Tanium’s block and tackle — not cloak and dagger — approach has defined the company’s technology and also led to its tremendous growth.
The company thought they had 22 methods of getting in and all of them were locked down like Fort Knox. He found 15,000 ways of getting out.
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Why Rich People Make the French Squirm
This ambivalence goes back centuries. Aristocrats were guillotined during the French Revolution, and new taxes were based on how wealthy people appeared — measured in part by the number of doors and windows in their homes. The well-off learned to be discreet.
.. But there are still rules against showing it off. Parisiennes rarely walk around wearing the giant diamonds that are de rigueur in certain New York neighborhoods. “It’s more in a private dinner that you see the wealth,” a French friend explained.
.. And they’re revolted when money seems to trump all. Last summer, locals made a stink when the Saudi king and his entourage were allowed to cordon off a public beach on the Riviera. “The point we wish to make is that not everything can be bought,” a politician leading the protest explained.
.. The typical “French dream” (or at least the one people admit to) isn’t of great wealth, it’s of great security, including a steady income and pension. When you apply for a mortgage here, banks don’t care what stocks you own, because stocks can go down; they want to see a monthly salary and a permanent work contract.
.. Brexit also offers a cautionary tale about what happens when the superrich dominate a city, pricing out practically everyone else. In London recently, I visited friends at the peak of middle-class careers who are living crammed with their children in a one-bedroom rental.
Is a 6 digit numerical password secure enough for online banking?
My bank went through a major redesign of their customer online banking system recently. The way security is managed across the platform was also reviewed. The password I am able to set now to log in is forced to be 6 digits long, numerical.
.. In the case of your bank, the user name is a 16-digit number – your card number. You do generally keep your card number private. Sure, you use it for card transactions (online and offline) and it is in your wallet in plaintext – but it is reasonably private. This allows the bank to have a stronger lockout policy without exposing users to denial of service attacks.
In practical terms, this arrangement is secure. If your house mate finds your card, they can’t access your account because they don’t know the PIN. If some hacker tries to bulk hack thousands of accounts, they can’t because they don’t know the card numbers.
.. So while this arrangement is not typical, it appears that it is not so crazy after all. One benefit it may have is that people won’t reuse the same password on other sites.