Author Archives: Jeremiah Grossman

Millions experience serious computer security problems and have no one to call for help

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A couple times a week, people I may or may not know reach out to me for help because they’re experiencing some kind of computer security catastrophe. Sometimes the situation is serious, other times not. They might be dealing with an online bank account takeover, online scam, data breach, malware infection, identity theft, and the list goes on and on from there. Whatever the circumstance, a great many people often find themselves thrust into the deep end of this technology driven world, without the know-how to solve the problem on their own, and no one to call for help. These experiences are especially painful for the elderly and small-business owners, whose livelihood are disrupted, and the stress takes a toll on them. Personally, I hate it when good people get taken advantage of.

In the most recent case, I was introduced to the founder of a TV and movie production company through a mutual friend. They explained that someone is messing with their website and actively using their company name to scam their business contacts. They said ‘hacked,’ but that could mean anything these days. The situation was causing them real brand damage, and with over a dozen show titles to their credit, the business impact is severe. Even over the impersonal medium of email, you could sense a deep feeling of helplessness and desperation. As you might expect, I tend to keep myself happily occupied with family, work, and martial arts and don’t have a lot of time to spare for things like this. But, this plea originated from a good friend, the victim didn’t have anyone else to turn to, and helping out felt like the right thing to do.

After taking a call and exchanging a few emails, I got the real story. Someone, a scammer, registered an incredibly similar domain name to the legitimate one used by the production company. The fake domain name was being used to create a clone of the real website. The scammer then subtly changed the names and photos of the staff and updated the contact information so that any incoming communication would instead go to them. Through email, phone calls, or search results visitors would be contacted by the scammer, who pretended to be with the production company, and would proceed to con their victims out of money. This is a simple, inexpensive, and effective scam that could happen to basically anyone – and it does.

The near-term plan was to get the scam website taken down. Long-term, try to take ownership over the look-a-like domain name.

To start, the first thing I needed to know is who owns the offending domain name. A quick WHOIS lookup revealed the registrar is GoDaddy, but the domain owner itself was masked by Domains By Proxy, a popular service for those wishing to preserve their online privacy. I often use this service myself! This means without going through a legal process, obtaining the real domain owner information isn’t going to happen. Still, in the event the production company would like to try and get ownership over the domain using ICANN’s and trademark law, they have the registrar info to further that process. Next, I needed to identify where the website is being hosted. The ‘dig’ command easily gets me the IP address of the cloned website and an ARIN lookup tells me who the IP address belongs to — the name of the hosting provider. For those curious, collectively performing these tasks took me far less time than writing this paragraph.

Let’s pause our story for a moment to consider the technical knowledge required to get this far, which includes a set of skills many techies take for granted and forget that the vast majority of people simply don’t have. Few people can explain what a domain name is, have any idea what a domain registrar or an IP address is, what’s WHOIS, or even ICANN. They’ve certainly never heard of ARIN, and only a vague familiarity with hosting providers for that matter. And thus far, we’ve only collected purely public information and in doing so reached a point where most can’t get to on their own. Techies should empathize and exercise patience with those not nearly as literate in how the Internet works as we are. Anyway, back to our story.

Now that we’ve learned who the hosting provider is, I helped the production company founder draft an email to send that concisely explains the problem and what we’d like the action to be. Take down the website! Their website nicely listed the abuse@ email address and I pressed send on the message. I figured it could be a while for them to get back to us, and in the meantime decided to take a close look at the scammer’s website.

Using every web hackers best friend, view-source, I skimmed the underlying code of the website. Maybe the scammer left clues as to their identity, tools they used to clone the website, or whatever. In less than 60 seconds, I immediately spotted something very interesting. While the HTML of the page is hosted locally, all the CSS, images, and most importantly, the Javascript is being SRC’ed in from the real website! As you’ll see if a moment, this was a major oversight on the scammer’s part. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? We’ll see. 🙂

1)    In the logs of the real website, we should be able to ascertain who and how many people visited the scammers website. Because every time someone visits one of his web pages, their browser automatically pulls in the aforementioned third-party content from something we control. This means the visitors IP address is logged, as is what web page they are currently looking at — called the referer. And yes, this is intentionally misspelled and a throwback to Internet antiquity.

2)    If we have the visitors IP address information, it’s quite likely we also have the scammer’s too! Provided they didn’t mask that as well. And if they are, that’s useful bit of information as well. Either way, their IP address is probably the first one we see the in the logs when the referer of the fake website appeared. If we decide to go after the bad guy directly, we at least have something to begin tracking them down with. Subpoenaing the hosting provider or Domains By Proxy is of course another possible course of action, but we’ll see about that path later.

3)    This is the big one. Any web hacker would have quickly theorized that we can probably modify the javascript on the real website, which again is called by the fake website, to at least temporarily redirect it’s visitors. And, that’s exactly what we did! A quick 3-line block of code did just the trick!

if (window.location.host != ‘<real-website.com>’) {
        window.location = ‘<real-website.com>’;
}

 

At this moment, we got the production company and visitors of the scammer’s website some immediate relief. That is until the bad guy notices what we did and updates their website code, which is trivial to do. Next I ask the domain registrar (GoDaddy) about the process for taking ownership over domain names that are designed for abuse. They point us towards an ICANN’s trademark dispute policy and suggested we consult with a lawyer experienced in such legal measures. I then advise the founder to seriously consider going down his route.

A couple days go by, and while we wait for the hosting provider to respond, we notice the aforementioned redirect stopped working. As expected, the scammer caught on and fixed their code so that all the web page files now point locally. Drat! What we did learn is the scammer is sentient, responsive, and persistent. He didn’t care so much that were we onto his little game. Interesting. Such brazenness indicated that the scammer is probably outside the US jurisdiction – or optionally just stupid. Then like magic on the same exact day, and the timing could not have been better, the hosting provider informs us that they completed their investigation and disable the scammers website. Success!

For now, my work is done and the production company founder profusely express their thankfulness. This was a good feeling. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean this is the end of our little story, or that it will be a happy one. After all, this is the security of the web we’re talking about, and plainly said, it’s fundamentally broken.

You see, the scammer can easily set up shop with a new hosting provider and start the identical scam all over again and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to prevent that. There is no good way to help visitors tell the difference between the real website from the fake one. And even if we use ICANN’s process to take ownership over the domain name, the scammer could easily just register another suitable look-a-like domain in no time flat and we’re back at it all over again. This problem is never ending and there really is no good way to solve it once and for all. A website owner’s only option is to wait for something bad to happen, give me or someone else with the right skills a call for help, and proceed similarly.

What I can do is actively monitoring the illegitimate domain name to see when and if it’s IP address changes. If it does, this would indicate that the scammer is moving hosting providers. It took a couple weeks, and that’s exactly what appears to be happening right now. Grr. This is kind of thing happens every day, to who knows how many people, and honestly I’m not sure what the answer is. One thing I do know, the world needs the help of a lot more good computer security people. Join in!

WhiteHat Security is a leading provider of website security services.

Continue reading Millions experience serious computer security problems and have no one to call for help→

Posted in Uncategorized

Millions experience serious computer security problems and have no one to call for help

Posted on by
A couple times a week, people I may or may not know reach out to me for help because they’re experiencing some kind of computer security catastrophe. Sometimes the situation is serious, other times not. They might be dealing with an online bank account takeover, online scam, data breach, malware infection, identity theft, and the list goes on and on from there. Whatever the circumstance, a great many people often find themselves thrust into the deep end of this technology driven world, without the know-how to solve the problem on their own, and no one to call for help. These experiences are especially painful for the elderly and small-business owners, whose livelihood are disrupted, and the stress takes a toll on them. Personally, I hate it when good people get taken advantage of.

In the most recent case, I was introduced to the founder of a TV and movie production company through a mutual friend. They explained that someone is messing with their website and actively using their company name to scam their business contacts. They said ‘hacked,’ but that could mean anything these days. The situation was causing them real brand damage, and with over a dozen show titles to their credit, the business impact is severe. Even over the impersonal medium of email, you could sense a deep feeling of helplessness and desperation. As you might expect, I tend to keep myself happily occupied with family, work, and martial arts and don’t have a lot of time to spare for things like this. But, this plea originated from a good friend, the victim didn’t have anyone else to turn to, and helping out felt like the right thing to do.

After taking a call and exchanging a few emails, I got the real story. Someone, a scammer, registered an incredibly similar domain name to the legitimate one used by the production company. The fake domain name was being used to create a clone of the real website. The scammer then subtly changed the names and photos of the staff and updated the contact information so that any incoming communication would instead go to them. Through email, phone calls, or search results visitors would be contacted by the scammer, who pretended to be with the production company, and would proceed to con their victims out of money. This is a simple, inexpensive, and effective scam that could happen to basically anyone – and it does.

The near-term plan was to get the scam website taken down. Long-term, try to take ownership over the look-a-like domain name.

To start, the first thing I needed to know is who owns the offending domain name. A quick WHOIS lookup revealed the registrar is GoDaddy, but the domain owner itself was masked by Domains By Proxy, a popular service for those wishing to preserve their online privacy. I often use this service myself! This means without going through a legal process, obtaining the real domain owner information isn’t going to happen. Still, in the event the production company would like to try and get ownership over the domain using ICANN’s and trademark law, they have the registrar info to further that process. Next, I needed to identify where the website is being hosted. The ‘dig’ command easily gets me the IP address of the cloned website and an ARIN lookup tells me who the IP address belongs to — the name of the hosting provider. For those curious, collectively performing these tasks took me far less time than writing this paragraph.

Let’s pause our story for a moment to consider the technical knowledge required to get this far, which includes a set of skills many techies take for granted and forget that the vast majority of people simply don’t have. Few people can explain what a domain name is, have any idea what a domain registrar or an IP address is, what’s WHOIS, or even ICANN. They’ve certainly never heard of ARIN, and only a vague familiarity with hosting providers for that matter. And thus far, we’ve only collected purely public information and in doing so reached a point where most can’t get to on their own. Techies should empathize and exercise patience with those not nearly as literate in how the Internet works as we are. Anyway, back to our story.

Now that we’ve learned who the hosting provider is, I helped the production company founder draft an email to send that concisely explains the problem and what we’d like the action to be. Take down the website! Their website nicely listed the abuse@ email address and I pressed send on the message. I figured it could be a while for them to get back to us, and in the meantime decided to take a close look at the scammer’s website.

Using every web hackers best friend, view-source, I skimmed the underlying code of the website. Maybe the scammer left clues as to their identity, tools they used to clone the website, or whatever. In less than 60 seconds, I immediately spotted something very interesting. While the HTML of the page is hosted locally, all the CSS, images, and most importantly, the Javascript is being SRC’ed in from the real website! As you’ll see if a moment, this was a major oversight on the scammer’s part. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? We’ll see. 🙂

1)    In the logs of the real website, we should be able to ascertain who and how many people visited the scammers website. Because every time someone visits one of his web pages, their browser automatically pulls in the aforementioned third-party content from something we control. This means the visitors IP address is logged, as is what web page they are currently looking at — called the referer. And yes, this is intentionally misspelled and a throwback to Internet antiquity.

2)    If we have the visitors IP address information, it’s quite likely we also have the scammer’s too! Provided they didn’t mask that as well. And if they are, that’s useful bit of information as well. Either way, their IP address is probably the first one we see the in the logs when the referer of the fake website appeared. If we decide to go after the bad guy directly, we at least have something to begin tracking them down with. Subpoenaing the hosting provider or Domains By Proxy is of course another possible course of action, but we’ll see about that path later.

3)    This is the big one. Any web hacker would have quickly theorized that we can probably modify the javascript on the real website, which again is called by the fake website, to at least temporarily redirect it’s visitors. And, that’s exactly what we did! A quick 3-line block of code did just the trick!

if (window.location.host != ‘<real-website.com>’) {
        window.location = ‘<real-website.com>’;
}

 

At this moment, we got the production company and visitors of the scammer’s website some immediate relief. That is until the bad guy notices what we did and updates their website code, which is trivial to do. Next I ask the domain registrar (GoDaddy) about the process for taking ownership over domain names that are designed for abuse. They point us towards an ICANN’s trademark dispute policy and suggested we consult with a lawyer experienced in such legal measures. I then advise the founder to seriously consider going down his route.

A couple days go by, and while we wait for the hosting provider to respond, we notice the aforementioned redirect stopped working. As expected, the scammer caught on and fixed their code so that all the web page files now point locally. Drat! What we did learn is the scammer is sentient, responsive, and persistent. He didn’t care so much that were we onto his little game. Interesting. Such brazenness indicated that the scammer is probably outside the US jurisdiction – or optionally just stupid. Then like magic on the same exact day, and the timing could not have been better, the hosting provider informs us that they completed their investigation and disable the scammers website. Success!

For now, my work is done and the production company founder profusely express their thankfulness. This was a good feeling. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean this is the end of our little story, or that it will be a happy one. After all, this is the security of the web we’re talking about, and plainly said, it’s fundamentally broken.

You see, the scammer can easily set up shop with a new hosting provider and start the identical scam all over again and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to prevent that. There is no good way to help visitors tell the difference between the real website from the fake one. And even if we use ICANN’s process to take ownership over the domain name, the scammer could easily just register another suitable look-a-like domain in no time flat and we’re back at it all over again. This problem is never ending and there really is no good way to solve it once and for all. A website owner’s only option is to wait for something bad to happen, give me or someone else with the right skills a call for help, and proceed similarly.

What I can do is actively monitoring the illegitimate domain name to see when and if it’s IP address changes. If it does, this would indicate that the scammer is moving hosting providers. It took a couple weeks, and that’s exactly what appears to be happening right now. Grr. This is kind of thing happens every day, to who knows how many people, and honestly I’m not sure what the answer is. One thing I do know, the world needs the help of a lot more good computer security people. Join in!

Hack Yourself First: Jeremiah Grossman

Continue reading Millions experience serious computer security problems and have no one to call for help→

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7 Tips to Get the Absolute Best Price from Security Vendors

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Security budgets are always extremely tight, so it’s smart to get the absolute best price possible from your security vendors. Never ever pay full price, or even take the first quote vendors give you. That price just sets the stage and it’s best to think of it as the ‘dummy price,’ so don’t pay it! I’ve spent nearly two decades sitting at the price negotiation table in the security industry and seen all manner of techniques customers use successfully to win discounts, and more people should use them. Customers, even small ones, can exercise a ton of leverage over their security vendors if they only knew how. And, more often than not, vendors themselves don’t really mind. It signals that a deal is likely to be made and to a vendor, that’s what’s most important.

While it’s common for large companies to have negotiations handled by a separate department, typically called ‘Procurement,’ many leave the responsibility to whomever is actually making the purchase. In either case, security practitioners can personally say, do, and offer things the procurement department can’t to help obtain the best possible price. Remember, security product margins can range anywhere from 40-60% or even higher. I’ve seen discounts well over 50% of the originally quoted price. Some vendors will even take a loss to win your business, depending on the size of your brand and the reference you’ll provide. 

Note: I’m not a big fan of this as you risk not being treated well as a customer long-term. The vendor may decide to drop you later because you’re unprofitable. So, allow vendors to make a profit, just not an obscene one.

Below you’ll find my ranked list of the most powerful negotiating techniques I’ve come across in the purchasing process, many of which are applicable beyond security purchases…
1. Negotiate Price at Quarter End / Year End
More than anything, businesses want financial predictability. They want to be able to plan out, with a high degree of accuracy, precisely how much business is expected to close at least two quarters into the future. Sales forecasting is largely a Sales department function. So when end of the quarter is just a few weeks away, and overall sales volume isn’t where it needs to be, the sales rep (and their bosses) scramble and make concessions to bridge the gap and hit their forecast. The larger the sales forecast gap, and the closer to quarter end, the more desperate they become and more open they’ll be to deep discounts or throwing in additional products / services to sweeten the pot.
Smart customers simply ask sales reps when their quarter or fiscal year ends, just after the vendor asks the customer what their budget range is. So, if you like the product, and you’re likely to buy it, let them know you’ll commit to the purchase in the current quarter, before the end, if they give you a good deal. Vendors will routinely knock 10-30% (or more) off the price, just with the ability to accurately forecast a deal closing. If the vendor is unwilling to work with you and the purchase isn’t urgent, let them know you’re more likely to purchase next quarter, which ads uncertainty to their forecast and they’ll have a decision to make. Rinse. Repeat.
2. Multi-Year Deals
As previously mentioned, businesses love predictability. For this reason, subscription-based businesses, like Software-as-a-Service, love predictable renewals rates. Security vendors know that just because you’re a customer this year, it doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be a customer next year — as the market is highly competitive. They know they’ll likely have to negotiate price with existing customers before the contract expires, which comes at a cost of time and sales forecast uncertainly. 
To reduce this uncertainly, subscription-based businesses will often give attractive discounts to customers willing to sign up for multi-year deals. Two to three year deals are typical, likely fetching a 5-10% discount, possibly more if you’re willing to pay up front, but we’ll explore this more in a moment. It’s also best to refrain from committing to more than three years for security purchases as it’s difficult to know what the business needs will be that far out, or how the product landscape may have changed in that time. 
3. Paying In Advance
For many security services, such as subscription SaaS products, you pay monthly or quarterly after services are rendered. For the security vendor’s finance department, that means they’re out some amount of money to service you before you pay them for those services. If you like a particular security service and plan to continue having it for a least another year, consider paying for a year or more in advance. For the vendor, having getting cash up front is often attractive and it takes payment uncertainty out of the equation, giving their business additional flexibility. Obviously, the bigger the deal, the better in terms of discounting. This method can win another 5-10% or so in discounts on its own. 
4. Customer Reference, Case Study, Gartner Reference
In InfoSec it’s extremely difficult to get customers to speak publicly, or even privately, about their experience with a given security product. When a customer does consent to speak, it’s incredibly powerful, and few things generate more business for security vendors than vocally happy customers. Customers should use this power to their advantage, especially if they really really like a security product and want to see the company do well.
To do this, customers can serve as a reference in a few different ways:
a. Private Reference – speaks to other customers
b. Public Reference, Individual – willing to do case studies, press, events, quotes, but as an individual versus the company
c. Public Reference – Company – the company is endorsing the product and brand, including a logo on the vendors website, slides, etc.  
All of this is good and even a non-contractual promise to be a reference can lead to great discounts. As a small warning, many organizations have policies regarding speaking on behalf of the company, so make sure to follow those. If you can find out if the security vendor is in the process of working with Gartner on the magic quadrant of their space, customers who are willing to be a positive reference in this time period are like gold. I’ve personally seen seriously deep discounts here, even free!
5. Ask for More Stuff, Not Always Price Discounts
Let’s say you’re asking for a discount, but for whatever reason the security vendor isn’t agreeable. This could be because they need to keep their average sales price (ASP) above a particular threshold so their business looks good to their board and investors. In these circumstances, you can instead ask for them to throw in things that are more easy for them to give away or commit to.
a. Extra subscription time, especially if full deployment will take a while.
b. Additional services or software licenses 
c. A better customer support package.

d. Free training.

d. Payment flexility. How and how often payment has to be made.
e. Product roadmap enhancements that’ll better serve you.
In many circumstances, security vendors will find the items on this list easier to give you than discounting the overall deal. You get more, but pay the same.
6. Find Out What Others Paid. Competitive Bids.
When entering pricing discussions, it’s always helpful to know what other customers paid as a point of reference. You may or may not be able to get the same deal as they did, but you want something in at least the general vicinity. There are a couple of ways to obtain this information.
a. Ask a colleague you personally know, who has already purchased a product you’re considering. What kind of deal did they get? 
b. Ask the vendors for customer references during the evaluation process, which is something all customers should do as a matter of course. Not only ask the reference what they liked and didn’t like about the product, but what they paid. 
c. Ask the vendor for their competitor’s pricing, and how they compare with it.  
In some cases, pricing information is considered confidential, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Having this pricing research on hand greatly helps get you the best deal possible. 
Additionally, you’re probably considering between two or more comparable products to solve a particular security problem. If the products themselves are a toss up, meaning you’d be happy with either option, consider sharing the bids with the competing security vendors. No security vendors want to lose a competitive deal in the last stage simply because the competition slightly edged them on price. You’d be surprised how quickly vendors will knock off 5—10% as a take away from the competition.
7. Go Direct
Many customers have a preferred reseller, typically called Value Added Resellers (VARs), through which they make their security purchases. Among other things, VARs make vendor management much easier for customers. They’ll help identify security program gaps, document purchase requirements, product selection, answer questions, and more. For the value they add, VARs usually take a roughly 30% margin on each product sale. Then, of course, they can tack on additional dollars for consulting and implementation if there is a need.  The remaining 70% of the sale price goes to the security vendor.
Here’s the thing, the business of the VAR is in the first two letters — V.A…  VALUE. ADDED. If a VAR is not adding enough value, which is often the case, they’re justifiably not entitled to their 30%. And in these circumstances, the VAR can and should be bypassed to go direct to the security vendor where the customer can get a [30%] discount without costing the vendor anything. And, unless there is a good reason not to, get bids from 3 VARs so they’ll have to fight to get you the best deal – fight to win your business. Often VARs will cut into their own profit margin to land the deal.
There you have it. Seven ways to help maximize the purchasing power of the security budget. Good luck!

WhiteHat Security is a leading provider of website security services.

Continue reading 7 Tips to Get the Absolute Best Price from Security Vendors→

Posted in Uncategorized

7 Tips to Get the Absolute Best Price from Security Vendors

Posted on by

Security budgets are always extremely tight, so it’s smart to get the absolute best price possible from your security vendors. Never ever pay full price, or even take the first quote vendors give you. That price just sets the stage and it’s best to think of it as the ‘dummy price,’ so don’t pay it! I’ve spent nearly two decades sitting at the price negotiation table in the security industry and seen all manner of techniques customers use successfully to win discounts, and more people should use them. Customers, even small ones, can exercise a ton of leverage over their security vendors if they only knew how. And, more often than not, vendors themselves don’t really mind. It signals that a deal is likely to be made and to a vendor, that’s what’s most important.

While it’s common for large companies to have negotiations handled by a separate department, typically called ‘Procurement,’ many leave the responsibility to whomever is actually making the purchase. In either case, security practitioners can personally say, do, and offer things the procurement department can’t to help obtain the best possible price. Remember, security product margins can range anywhere from 40-60% or even higher. I’ve seen discounts well over 50% of the originally quoted price. Some vendors will even take a loss to win your business, depending on the size of your brand and the reference you’ll provide. 

Note: I’m not a big fan of this as you risk not being treated well as a customer long-term. The vendor may decide to drop you later because you’re unprofitable. So, allow vendors to make a profit, just not an obscene one.

Below you’ll find my ranked list of the most powerful negotiating techniques I’ve come across in the purchasing process, many of which are applicable beyond security purchases…
1. Negotiate Price at Quarter End / Year End
More than anything, businesses want financial predictability. They want to be able to plan out, with a high degree of accuracy, precisely how much business is expected to close at least two quarters into the future. Sales forecasting is largely a Sales department function. So when end of the quarter is just a few weeks away, and overall sales volume isn’t where it needs to be, the sales rep (and their bosses) scramble and make concessions to bridge the gap and hit their forecast. The larger the sales forecast gap, and the closer to quarter end, the more desperate they become and more open they’ll be to deep discounts or throwing in additional products / services to sweeten the pot.
Smart customers simply ask sales reps when their quarter or fiscal year ends, just after the vendor asks the customer what their budget range is. So, if you like the product, and you’re likely to buy it, let them know you’ll commit to the purchase in the current quarter, before the end, if they give you a good deal. Vendors will routinely knock 10-30% (or more) off the price, just with the ability to accurately forecast a deal closing. If the vendor is unwilling to work with you and the purchase isn’t urgent, let them know you’re more likely to purchase next quarter, which ads uncertainty to their forecast and they’ll have a decision to make. Rinse. Repeat.
2. Multi-Year Deals
As previously mentioned, businesses love predictability. For this reason, subscription-based businesses, like Software-as-a-Service, love predictable renewals rates. Security vendors know that just because you’re a customer this year, it doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be a customer next year — as the market is highly competitive. They know they’ll likely have to negotiate price with existing customers before the contract expires, which comes at a cost of time and sales forecast uncertainly. 
To reduce this uncertainly, subscription-based businesses will often give attractive discounts to customers willing to sign up for multi-year deals. Two to three year deals are typical, likely fetching a 5-10% discount, possibly more if you’re willing to pay up front, but we’ll explore this more in a moment. It’s also best to refrain from committing to more than three years for security purchases as it’s difficult to know what the business needs will be that far out, or how the product landscape may have changed in that time. 
3. Paying In Advance
For many security services, such as subscription SaaS products, you pay monthly or quarterly after services are rendered. For the security vendor’s finance department, that means they’re out some amount of money to service you before you pay them for those services. If you like a particular security service and plan to continue having it for a least another year, consider paying for a year or more in advance. For the vendor, having getting cash up front is often attractive and it takes payment uncertainty out of the equation, giving their business additional flexibility. Obviously, the bigger the deal, the better in terms of discounting. This method can win another 5-10% or so in discounts on its own. 
4. Customer Reference, Case Study, Gartner Reference
In InfoSec it’s extremely difficult to get customers to speak publicly, or even privately, about their experience with a given security product. When a customer does consent to speak, it’s incredibly powerful, and few things generate more business for security vendors than vocally happy customers. Customers should use this power to their advantage, especially if they really really like a security product and want to see the company do well.
To do this, customers can serve as a reference in a few different ways:
a. Private Reference – speaks to other customers
b. Public Reference, Individual – willing to do case studies, press, events, quotes, but as an individual versus the company
c. Public Reference – Company – the company is endorsing the product and brand, including a logo on the vendors website, slides, etc.  
All of this is good and even a non-contractual promise to be a reference can lead to great discounts. As a small warning, many organizations have policies regarding speaking on behalf of the company, so make sure to follow those. If you can find out if the security vendor is in the process of working with Gartner on the magic quadrant of their space, customers who are willing to be a positive reference in this time period are like gold. I’ve personally seen seriously deep discounts here, even free!
5. Ask for More Stuff, Not Always Price Discounts
Let’s say you’re asking for a discount, but for whatever reason the security vendor isn’t agreeable. This could be because they need to keep their average sales price (ASP) above a particular threshold so their business looks good to their board and investors. In these circumstances, you can instead ask for them to throw in things that are more easy for them to give away or commit to.
a. Extra subscription time, especially if full deployment will take a while.
b. Additional services or software licenses 
c. A better customer support package.

d. Free training.

d. Payment flexility. How and how often payment has to be made.
e. Product roadmap enhancements that’ll better serve you.
In many circumstances, security vendors will find the items on this list easier to give you than discounting the overall deal. You get more, but pay the same.
6. Find Out What Others Paid. Competitive Bids.
When entering pricing discussions, it’s always helpful to know what other customers paid as a point of reference. You may or may not be able to get the same deal as they did, but you want something in at least the general vicinity. There are a couple of ways to obtain this information.
a. Ask a colleague you personally know, who has already purchased a product you’re considering. What kind of deal did they get? 
b. Ask the vendors for customer references during the evaluation process, which is something all customers should do as a matter of course. Not only ask the reference what they liked and didn’t like about the product, but what they paid. 
c. Ask the vendor for their competitor’s pricing, and how they compare with it.  
In some cases, pricing information is considered confidential, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Having this pricing research on hand greatly helps get you the best deal possible. 
Additionally, you’re probably considering between two or more comparable products to solve a particular security problem. If the products themselves are a toss up, meaning you’d be happy with either option, consider sharing the bids with the competing security vendors. No security vendors want to lose a competitive deal in the last stage simply because the competition slightly edged them on price. You’d be surprised how quickly vendors will knock off 5—10% as a take away from the competition.
7. Go Direct
Many customers have a preferred reseller, typically called Value Added Resellers (VARs), through which they make their security purchases. Among other things, VARs make vendor management much easier for customers. They’ll help identify security program gaps, document purchase requirements, product selection, answer questions, and more. For the value they add, VARs usually take a roughly 30% margin on each product sale. Then, of course, they can tack on additional dollars for consulting and implementation if there is a need.  The remaining 70% of the sale price goes to the security vendor.
Here’s the thing, the business of the VAR is in the first two letters — V.A…  VALUE. ADDED. If a VAR is not adding enough value, which is often the case, they’re justifiably not entitled to their 30%. And in these circumstances, the VAR can and should be bypassed to go direct to the security vendor where the customer can get a [30%] discount without costing the vendor anything. And, unless there is a good reason not to, get bids from 3 VARs so they’ll have to fight to get you the best deal – fight to win your business. Often VARs will cut into their own profit margin to land the deal.
There you have it. Seven ways to help maximize the purchasing power of the security budget. Good luck!

Hack Yourself First: Jeremiah Grossman

Continue reading 7 Tips to Get the Absolute Best Price from Security Vendors→

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From 300 lbs to 200 lbs

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Did you know that one point in my life I was just over 300 pounds? Most don’t, but I was. Then after considerable effort, I got to the 250 pounds range and remained for several years. At the time of this writing, I’m about 210 pounds. My goal is to stabilize at around 200 pounds with a body fat of ~10%. If all goes as planned, maybe in 6 months or so I’ll be about where I want to be. At 6’2”, it’s a pretty solid physique. Upon witnessing my physical transformation, many friends and family ask how I’m doing this. “What’s your secret?” Spoiler: I don’t have one. 



Before going any further, let me clearly state that I’m NOT a personal trainer. I’m NOT a nutritionist. And I’m certainly NOT trying to sell anything. This post simply answers the question people ask by listing out my nutrition and exercise regiment. Additionally, while everything I’ve done has undoubtedly improved my overall health, the goal is primarily focused towards improving my performance in combat sports, such as particularly Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. Competing at a high-level requires that I’m very strong, fast, flexible, with good cardio and balance. A lean and muscle-toned physique is most ideal.


Nutrition


Food is what fuels my body to perform at my best during each training session. My daily consumption maps as best as I can to the planned physical activity. If I break down and eat something I shouldn’t, it happens, my performance noticeably suffers and I get my butt kicked as a consequence. It sucks. As it turns out, not wanting to get punched in the face, choked, or arm hyper extended is a great motivator!

Each week I have 4 very hard training days, 2 lighter training days, and 1 rest day. And that’s how I plan out my meals. For most of the last year, I was predominantly eating lean meats, vegetables, and fruit. The Paleo diet is the closest example. Then for the last ~3 months I shifted to a whole-food Vegan diet with some minor exceptions. 



Additional nutrition rules I follow:
  • No caffeine
  • No alcohol
  • Liquid is primarily water (occasionally iced tea, tea, or carbonated water with lime)
  • No dairy
  • Nothing fried
  • Very little processed food
  • No vitamins or supplements (I may include them later at some point)

Hard Training Day


Paleo: To get through my training sessions, 2300 – 2400 calories feels about right. Under 2100 and I would gas out early. Over 2400 and body fat wouldn’t come off. I targeted my protein intake at just under 1g per pound of body weight, which is a good zone according to what many bodybuilders suggest to build muscle. Fat intake at no more than 50g. And of course the rest being the carbs for energy I need for training.

Reaching these macros requires several full meals during the day, and timed so my belly isn’t too full during class.  And honestly, if you look at the meal plan, its been really hard physically eating so much food. On the upside, while [bad food] cravings are certainly an issue, I was never, ever hungry!

Vegan: On the outset, I didn’t know how my body would react to being Vegan. I didn’t know what the cravings would be like, if I’d have the necessary energy needed, etc. So, I got rid of the whole calorie and macro counting thing. Instead decided to start by simply eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, as long as it was whole-food and vegan, and then fine tune from there. Note that I routinely replace many of the ingredients on the list with suitable replacements as I want to eat a wide variety of food in order to get all the recommended vitamins and minerals. 




While the calorie counts on my Vegan diet are higher than the Paleo version, the weight / fat has been coming off with similar speed. And honestly, I feel notably better being vegan so far and my physical performance has improved. My mind is a bit clearer, joints move easier, and my recovery is faster. Cool eh!?


Light Training


Paleo: Take my hard training day meal plan, then drop the calories to 1600 – 1700, mostly from the carbs. Eat just enough food to get through my training and no more.



Vegan: Same thing, reduce calories mostly from slow burning carbs (oatmeal, sweat potato, etc) down to roughly 1800 as this feels right.



In both hard and light training days, I generally stop eating for the day around 5pm — particularly anything containing any sugars, like fruit. The strategy here is that by the time my early morning training starts the next day, my cardio workout will largely burn fat as fuel as all the sugar / carbs in my system have already been metabolized. Then afterwards I can eat again — yay! 🙂




Rest Day

24 hour fast (no food, but water / tea is ok). While this helps stabilize my insulin levels, it’s also about simple math — and besides, I’m not training at all anyway. Consider that 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So, by foregoing ~1800 calories per week here, I get to lose an extra 1/2 off the top. Each month, that’s roughly 2 pounds of fat. Awesome!




Training / Exercise

As mentioned, my exercise is primarily designed for combat sports. Then I mix in some low intensity cardio and weight training to support those activities. Collectively it’s about 4 hard days of training, 2 lighter days, and 1 rest day. Most weeks I’ll miss a session here and there when life gets in the way, but what you see is the plan I set out to accomplish each and every week and whatever happens, happens. I’ll try to get the time back in some other way before reseting on Monday. On the average, I get done about 75% or more of what’s on the list. 


The intensity of each class can vary greatly depending on what we’re learning, what I’m physically capable of that day, and so on. Either way, I do the best that I can with a mission of improving … in whatever small amount that might be. And those with a sharp eye, who read this far, might notice that I have a salsa dance class listed. It was recommended by my Muay Thai coach as a way of improving my footwork, timing, and coordination. And, it works! Go figure.

That’s it. My secret is hard work and dedication, which is basically all anyone needs to accomplish anything in life.

Hack Yourself First: Jeremiah Grossman

Continue reading From 300 lbs to 200 lbs→

Posted in Uncategorized

From 300 lbs to 200 lbs

Posted on by
Did you know that one point in my life I was just over 300 pounds? Most don’t, but I was. Then after considerable effort, I got to the 250 pounds range and remained for several years. At the time of this writing, I’m about 210 pounds. My goal is to stabilize at around 200 pounds with a body fat of ~10%. If all goes as planned, maybe in 6 months or so I’ll be about where I want to be. At 6’2”, it’s a pretty solid physique. Upon witnessing my physical transformation, many friends and family ask how I’m doing this. “What’s your secret?” Spoiler: I don’t have one. 



Before going any further, let me clearly state that I’m NOT a personal trainer. I’m NOT a nutritionist. And I’m certainly NOT trying to sell anything. This post simply answers the question people ask by listing out my nutrition and exercise regiment. Additionally, while everything I’ve done has undoubtedly improved my overall health, the goal is primarily focused towards improving my performance in combat sports, such as particularly Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. Competing at a high-level requires that I’m very strong, fast, flexible, with good cardio and balance. A lean and muscle-toned physique is most ideal.


Nutrition


Food is what fuels my body to perform at my best during each training session. My daily consumption maps as best as I can to the planned physical activity. If I break down and eat something I shouldn’t, it happens, my performance noticeably suffers and I get my butt kicked as a consequence. It sucks. As it turns out, not wanting to get punched in the face, choked, or arm hyper extended is a great motivator!

Each week I have 4 very hard training days, 2 lighter training days, and 1 rest day. And that’s how I plan out my meals. For most of the last year, I was predominantly eating lean meats, vegetables, and fruit. The Paleo diet is the closest example. Then for the last ~3 months I shifted to a whole-food Vegan diet with some minor exceptions. 



Additional nutrition rules I follow:
  • No caffeine
  • No alcohol
  • Liquid is primarily water (occasionally iced tea, tea, or carbonated water with lime)
  • No dairy
  • Nothing fried
  • Very little processed food
  • No vitamins or supplements (I may include them later at some point)

Hard Training Day


Paleo: To get through my training sessions, 2300 – 2400 calories feels about right. Under 2100 and I would gas out early. Over 2400 and body fat wouldn’t come off. I targeted my protein intake at just under 1g per pound of body weight, which is a good zone according to what many bodybuilders suggest to build muscle. Fat intake at no more than 50g. And of course the rest being the carbs for energy I need for training.

Reaching these macros requires several full meals during the day, and timed so my belly isn’t too full during class.  And honestly, if you look at the meal plan, its been really hard physically eating so much food. On the upside, while [bad food] cravings are certainly an issue, I was never, ever hungry!

Vegan: On the outset, I didn’t know how my body would react to being Vegan. I didn’t know what the cravings would be like, if I’d have the necessary energy needed, etc. So, I got rid of the whole calorie and macro counting thing. Instead decided to start by simply eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, as long as it was whole-food and vegan, and then fine tune from there. Note that I routinely replace many of the ingredients on the list with suitable replacements as I want to eat a wide variety of food in order to get all the recommended vitamins and minerals. 




While the calorie counts on my Vegan diet are higher than the Paleo version, the weight / fat has been coming off with similar speed. And honestly, I feel notably better being vegan so far and my physical performance has improved. My mind is a bit clearer, joints move easier, and my recovery is faster. Cool eh!?


Light Training


Paleo: Take my hard training day meal plan, then drop the calories to 1600 – 1700, mostly from the carbs. Eat just enough food to get through my training and no more.



Vegan: Same thing, reduce calories mostly from slow burning carbs (oatmeal, sweat potato, etc) down to roughly 1800 as this feels right.



In both hard and light training days, I generally stop eating for the day around 5pm — particularly anything containing any sugars, like fruit. The strategy here is that by the time my early morning training starts the next day, my cardio workout will largely burn fat as fuel as all the sugar / carbs in my system have already been metabolized. Then afterwards I can eat again — yay! 🙂




Rest Day

24 hour fast (no food, but water / tea is ok). While this helps stabilize my insulin levels, it’s also about simple math — and besides, I’m not training at all anyway. Consider that 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So, by foregoing ~1800 calories per week here, I get to lose an extra 1/2 off the top. Each month, that’s roughly 2 pounds of fat. Awesome!




Training / Exercise

As mentioned, my exercise is primarily designed for combat sports. Then I mix in some low intensity cardio and weight training to support those activities. Collectively it’s about 4 hard days of training, 2 lighter days, and 1 rest day. Most weeks I’ll miss a session here and there when life gets in the way, but what you see is the plan I set out to accomplish each and every week and whatever happens, happens. I’ll try to get the time back in some other way before reseting on Monday. On the average, I get done about 75% or more of what’s on the list. 


The intensity of each class can vary greatly depending on what we’re learning, what I’m physically capable of that day, and so on. Either way, I do the best that I can with a mission of improving … in whatever small amount that might be. And those with a sharp eye, who read this far, might notice that I have a salsa dance class listed. It was recommended by my Muay Thai coach as a way of improving my footwork, timing, and coordination. And, it works! Go figure.

That’s it. My secret is hard work and dedication, which is basically all anyone needs to accomplish anything in life.

WhiteHat Security is a leading provider of website security services.

Continue reading From 300 lbs to 200 lbs→

Posted in Uncategorized

My last days at WhiteHat and setting sights on the future

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I’ve said it many times; the Web is probably the greatest invention we’ll see in our lifetime. The Web touches the lives of everyone we know, every family member, every child, every friend, and everyone we meet. The Web connects over two billion people and fuels entire economies. It’s a place where we learn, communicate, and share our closest kept secrets. Something as important as the Web must be protected and I’ve always felt it was a privilege to do so. For the last 15 years, as founder of WhiteHat Security, I’ve done exactly that every single day. WhiteHat has not just changed my life, it has been my life — wholly inseparable. Bittersweet as it is, the end of March will be my last day. 
Right now, I’d like to take a moment to reflect. While it’s impossible to measure, I sometimes think about how many hacks didn’t happen — how many people and companies were not hacked — as a result of the work we did at WhiteHat. People have often shared how much we’ve helped them and how important our work is. It’s an amazing feeling knowing that what you do matters. Everyone should be so fortunate. In that sense, WhiteHat is not just another company. It’s something more, much more. WhiteHat represents a mission, an ideal, a state of being. I’ve strived to embody these attributes since Day 1. I’ve always worked tirelessly to be the best at what I do and have had a personal passion for innovation. 
WhiteHat was the first company to adopt a Software-as-a-Service model in Application Security. Though our statistics report that thousands rely upon, we were the first to bring measurable data to the industry. We pioneered the founding of two industry groups, OWASP and WASC. We led the creation of the first AppSec lexicon, the Threat Classification, and the language everyone uses when speaking AppSec. We’ve released much of the most cutting-edge and foundational security research to date, which has raised awareness globally. And we were the first vendor to offer a security guarantee. I’m sure sure I’m missing several other firsts, but already no other company has such a record of industry contribution and market success.
While I have a lot to be proud of, none of this would have been possible without a great many amazing people and lifelong friends. I’d like to personally thank the hundreds of WhiteHat employees, both past and present, for helping protect the Web and making WhiteHat the success that it is. They are what I’m most proud of and grateful for. Working with you all has been a singular honor. I would also like to send a very special thank you to the over 1,000 customers who believed in me, believed in WhiteHat, and entrusted us to protect them. Your trust and support always meant everything to me. Thank you to our partners all over the world who brought us to their customers and championed our cause. And thank you to the security community, the lifeblood of the entire industry, and who carry us all.
Of course many will be curious about what I’m going to do next. While I’m not yet ready to reveal those details, what I can share is that I remain genuinely excited about the future of the security industry. I’m not going anywhere. Every day I see new and interesting problems that I’d like an opportunity to solve and expand my horizons. More than anything, that’s why I’m leaving WhiteHat, but its spirit will always be with me and continue to influence my life. Any of us has the capacity to change the world, we just have to allow ourselves the chance to do so.
Hack Yourself First.

WhiteHat Security is a leading provider of website security services.

Continue reading My last days at WhiteHat and setting sights on the future→

Posted in Uncategorized

My last days at WhiteHat and setting sights on the future

Posted on by
I’ve said it many times; the Web is probably the greatest invention we’ll see in our lifetime. The Web touches the lives of everyone we know, every family member, every child, every friend, and everyone we meet. The Web connects over two billion people and fuels entire economies. It’s a place where we learn, communicate, and share our closest kept secrets. Something as important as the Web must be protected and I’ve always felt it was a privilege to do so. For the last 15 years, as founder of WhiteHat Security, I’ve done exactly that every single day. WhiteHat has not just changed my life, it has been my life — wholly inseparable. Bittersweet as it is, the end of March will be my last day. 
Right now, I’d like to take a moment to reflect. While it’s impossible to measure, I sometimes think about how many hacks didn’t happen — how many people and companies were not hacked — as a result of the work we did at WhiteHat. People have often shared how much we’ve helped them and how important our work is. It’s an amazing feeling knowing that what you do matters. Everyone should be so fortunate. In that sense, WhiteHat is not just another company. It’s something more, much more. WhiteHat represents a mission, an ideal, a state of being. I’ve strived to embody these attributes since Day 1. I’ve always worked tirelessly to be the best at what I do and have had a personal passion for innovation. 
WhiteHat was the first company to adopt a Software-as-a-Service model in Application Security. Though our statistics report that thousands rely upon, we were the first to bring measurable data to the industry. We pioneered the founding of two industry groups, OWASP and WASC. We led the creation of the first AppSec lexicon, the Threat Classification, and the language everyone uses when speaking AppSec. We’ve released much of the most cutting-edge and foundational security research to date, which has raised awareness globally. And we were the first vendor to offer a security guarantee. I’m sure sure I’m missing several other firsts, but already no other company has such a record of industry contribution and market success.
While I have a lot to be proud of, none of this would have been possible without a great many amazing people and lifelong friends. I’d like to personally thank the hundreds of WhiteHat employees, both past and present, for helping protect the Web and making WhiteHat the success that it is. They are what I’m most proud of and grateful for. Working with you all has been a singular honor. I would also like to send a very special thank you to the over 1,000 customers who believed in me, believed in WhiteHat, and entrusted us to protect them. Your trust and support always meant everything to me. Thank you to our partners all over the world who brought us to their customers and championed our cause. And thank you to the security community, the lifeblood of the entire industry, and who carry us all.
Of course many will be curious about what I’m going to do next. While I’m not yet ready to reveal those details, what I can share is that I remain genuinely excited about the future of the security industry. I’m not going anywhere. Every day I see new and interesting problems that I’d like an opportunity to solve and expand my horizons. More than anything, that’s why I’m leaving WhiteHat, but its spirit will always be with me and continue to influence my life. Any of us has the capacity to change the world, we just have to allow ourselves the chance to do so.
Hack Yourself First.

Hack Yourself First: Jeremiah Grossman

Continue reading My last days at WhiteHat and setting sights on the future→

Posted in Uncategorized