[Infowarrior] - WH asks Mudge to form US software safety lab

[Richard Forno]

Whitehouse Taps Google Advanced Projects Lead for Software Safety Lab

The Obama Whitehouse has tapped famed hacker Peiter Zatko (aka “Mudge”) to head up a new project aimed at developing an “underwriters’ lab” for cyber security.

Zatko announced the new initiative on Monday via Twitter. “The White House asked if I would kindly create a #CyberUL, so here goes,” he wrote. The new organization would function as an independent, non-profit entity designed to assess the security strengths and weaknesses of products and publishing the results of its tests.

The White House has tapped Peiter “Mudge” Zatko to head up a non profit that will seek to verify the safety and reliability of software.

Zatko is a famed hacker and security luminary, who cut his teeth with the Boston-based hacker collective The L0pht in the 1990s before moving on to work in private industry and, then, to become a program manager at the DARPA in 2010. Though known for keeping a low profile, his scruffy visage (circa 1998) graced the pages of the Washington Post last week in a piece that looked at testimony Mudge and other L0pht members gave to Congress about the dangers posed by insecure software.

Since leaving DARPA, Zatko has served as Deputy Director of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects division. He did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.

Underwriters Lab – or “UL” – was founded in 1894 as a private firm dedicated to developing testing and safety standards for everything from fire extinguishers to lithium batteries to heating and cooling equipment and trash cans. UL has developed safety and performance standards for evaluating quality of information technology equipment, as well, but does not make a practice of testing software security or quality.

The idea of an “Underwriters Laboratory” for software has long been bandied about in policy circles and among security experts. In fact, a 1999 paper penned by John Tan (aka “Tan”) a L0pht compatriot of Zatko’s may have been the first to coin the term “CyberUL” and make connections between the problems created by the adoption of insecure or shoddy software and the dangers presented by the adoption of electrification in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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https://securityledger.com/2015/06/whitehouse-taps-google-advanced-projects-lead-for-software-safety-lab/


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