Red Sky Alliance Weekly 7/6/12 - Fusion report 14 published

It was a short week, but none the less, busy.

·       This week, actors dubbed “Pearl Net” by Red Sky analysts, registered several new domains that we believe may be leveraged by attackers in the near future. FR12-014 details nearly 200 new indicators of potential compromise, published to the membership in a simple Kill Chain format. Members were urged to implement these indicators immediately as preventative measures.

·      Red Sky Alliance is growing! Two new members committed to joining Red Sky Alliance this week and other requested a membership package. We seem to be bringing in at least one new member per week. When these two committed companies wrap up, we’ll be closing Founding Memberships* in that industry sector.

* Founding Members form our Advisory Board. We limit the number of Advisor to four per industry sector. The benefit of being a Founding Member is half price membership, extra seats, expanded participation in the Annual meeting in March, and an 18” x 24” framed Plankowners Certificate in exchange for early enrollment and participating in our Advisory board.

One of the most exciting things about Red Sky is our Intern program. This week Dave Chauvette joined us as the Director of Academic Services after a long career in STEM Charter Schools (32 years!). Dave’s role is two-fold – being the focal point for bringing schools into the Alliance, and heading up our Internship program. This year we interviewed scores of candidates. Out of those, four were offered spots, and two ended up coming in.  One was hired away immediately (a PhD candidate), and the second (a MS candidate in Criminology/Cyber) authored his first piece of analysis just before his finals - 51 pages and one of our most read papers. The idea is this… there’s a skill gap between new college graduates and required analysis in the emerging threats space. Red Sky brings interns into the program for two semesters. Our first (Bruno) is receiving three credits for his internship. Other colleges are offering up to six, and we’re working hard to complete a syllabus for something more formal to begin working toward training wounded warriors.  The interns are mentored by Red Sky and its members, are asked questions and peer reviewed like any other crowd-sourced analyst. In addition, interns can certify through Red Sky simply by peer reviewing in the top 10% like any other analyst! When they’re ready to graduate and are looking for their first job, we’ll introduce them to the companies who have been peer reviewing them through the course of their internship. How cool is that?!

So it’s been another great week for the Red Sky Alliance.

Have a great weekend!
Jeff