http://emergentchaos.com/archives/2009/04/research-revealed-track-at-rsa.html The Emergent Chaos Jazz Combo Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:02:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://emergentchaos.com/archives/2009/04/research-revealed-track-at-rsa.html/comment-page-1#comment-5681 Adam Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:45:48 +0000 http://emergentchaos.com/?p=3096#comment-5681 Dean, I see your point, and it's a good one. I will say that many, not all, of the participants will be using public data and some are making their raw data available. At the same time, moving a major industry conference towards the idea that you must show your data and test your assertions will be a really important step forward. My hope is that anyone who attends a Research Revealed track talk will see the contrast, and call out the differences. If you're at RSA, I'd encourage you to ask of all the speakers--back up that claim! Where's your data? What makes that a best practice? Dean,
I see your point, and it’s a good one. I will say that many, not all, of the participants will be using public data and some are making their raw data available.
At the same time, moving a major industry conference towards the idea that you must show your data and test your assertions will be a really important step forward. My hope is that anyone who attends a Research Revealed track talk will see the contrast, and call out the differences.
If you’re at RSA, I’d encourage you to ask of all the speakers–back up that claim! Where’s your data? What makes that a best practice?

]]> http://emergentchaos.com/archives/2009/04/research-revealed-track-at-rsa.html/comment-page-1#comment-5680 Dean Loomis Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:03:02 +0000 http://emergentchaos.com/?p=3096#comment-5680 OK, having the track at all is a start, and you should be congratulated for this accomplishment. But the practice of announcing results based on proprietary data to a small group at a for-profit conference with closed proceedings that are made available only to full-program attendees isn't going to have the effect on the industry that's needed. The research tracks (this one and the crypto track) need to have open proceedings or at least open preprints. The scientific community is moving towards open access to the raw data that goes into any published analyses, so that anyone can check the math or apply a different theory without having to spend huge effort on duplicating the data-gathering work. The fact that thinking about <i>data</i> at all for security analyses while keeping the details of the data and analysis tools secret is viewed as a major advance just shows how far from scientific most of our thinking remains. OK, having the track at all is a start, and you should be congratulated for this accomplishment. But the practice of announcing results based on proprietary data to a small group at a for-profit conference with closed proceedings that are made available only to full-program attendees isn’t going to have the effect on the industry that’s needed. The research tracks (this one and the crypto track) need to have open proceedings or at least open preprints.
The scientific community is moving towards open access to the raw data that goes into any published analyses, so that anyone can check the math or apply a different theory without having to spend huge effort on duplicating the data-gathering work. The fact that thinking about data at all for security analyses while keeping the details of the data and analysis tools secret is viewed as a major advance just shows how far from scientific most of our thinking remains.

]]>