Security DevCenter oreilly.comSafari Books Online.Conferences.
What "Countermeasures" Really Means  by Paco Nathan  Editor's
Note: This is a follow-up to Andy Oram's interview, Symbiot on
the Rules of Engagement. Paco Nathan is the chief scientist and
vice president of research and development for Symbiot.  As the
number and range of attacks on computer systems have grown
exponentially and conventional firewalls and intrusion detection
systems have proven inadequate for the task, security
researchers have started to talk about employing
"countermeasures" to preserve security. Symbiot in particular
places countermeasures at the center of its product line. It's
seductive for observers to talk of using countermeasures to
"strike back" at attackers. Whether cited with approval or
disdain, this terminology polarizes the online community,
prompting an array of Wild West analogies and the labeling as
vigilantes those who discuss the engineering of countermeasures.
But the reality of countering network-based attack