[WrightWords]

Former hacker turned security leader Jeff Moss, new head of iCANN and founder of Black Hat, is interviewed in Discover magazine. It's online at #50: The Net Watchman | Computers | DISCOVER Magazine

Of interest and note, and possible good news for RIM if it keeps focused on security:

What are the major security challenges coming up?

Cloud computing, where people store data or run programs not on their own computer but in a data center with thousands and thousands of servers, is a big one. The technology is moving very quickly because it has such promising benefits, since people don�t have to deal with the time and expense of maintaining all those computers. A big problem is that malicious hackers are pretty good at using the cloud too. They�ll use a fraudulent or prepaid credit card to buy an account from a cloud provider, like Amazon, and then they�ll upload their software, which might be a password-cracking utility or a tool that scans for vulnerable websites. Instead of having to break into people�s computers, they�ll just run their software directly from the cloud provider, connecting to other users in the cloud. If the scan is coming to you from Amazon cloud space, it�s hard to block that without blocking large parts of the cloud provider.

What about the rise of smartphones�is that a security challenge as well? 

When mobile devices were designed, security wasn�t a top concern. The phone companies were thinking that they controlled their own phone networks in a big, walled garden. Now with everything Internet connected and installing apps from third-party app stores, the age of mobile malware is coming. There are already some mobile botnets�networks of compromised devices that hackers can control. Phones are not as fast or as powerful as desktop computers, but they�re also generally less secure. Android phones, for instance, hardly ever get security updates. So if you can get malware on some of these mobile devices, you�re probably good for a long, long, long time.