Technically, today’s conference has been great. It started with our plenary speakers. First up was the invited essayist, Daniel J. Weitzner from MIT speaking on the issue of privacy. He explored how the paradigm has changed from the days of “clipper” chip today’s laws requiring notification of privacy policies and how information will be shared. Is it better now? Hard to say. Certainly more information is shared.
The second plenary speaker was the classic paper: John Rushby looking back at Distributed Secure Systems. A very interesting historical review of network security and how it has changed, and how we need to view networks as systems of their own.
The rest of the day was spent in the Case Studies track again, with two sessions on C&A Revitalization. This is basically the process where folks are trying to bring together the C&A processes of the general Federal Government (NIST 800-53/800-57), the DoD (8500.2/DIACAP), and the IC (DCID 6/3). There are those that believe it will happen and happen fast, and those that believe it will happen, but happen slower. Everyone agrees, however, that there will be some level of pain involved for all :-).
And speaking of pain: it’s been a headache and indigestion day on top of everything, so I’ve been out of sorts. No, don’t send me Knuth Volume 2. Going back and resting during the last session has helped some, but it has been a royal pain!
I did get more details on how Steve did the proposal during the NSPW session yesterday. Basically, he arranged to be called on for the last question. His intended, Laura, had been asking good questions throughout the panel. So Steve started out along the lines of “NSPW is known as the kinder, gentler conference, so I want to start out by telling you that I have always loved you.” He then asked her to marry him. She was evidently both surprised and speechless. Who says that Computer Security folks aren’t romantic!
Tonight is a conference committee dinner, so perhaps I’ll report back after that…
ETA: Dinner was at a place called Shuckers. The Onion Soup was good, but the burger was average. However, the conversation was a blast!
