A Look at Microsoft's Security War Room

Josh Fink writes "C|Net has an interesting piece about Microsoft's Security War Room, or rather, shall I say rooms. This room came about when Microsoft's security chief, Mike Nash, had issues finding open conference rooms. The response; a dedicated room only for him and his staff to handle emergencies. "And while he was at it, why not have two? That way, the folks working on fixing a security crisis could have a little breathing room from those drafting the public and customer communications around the issue. ""

War rooms...

[aicrules]

it's nice that it's so clearly stated exactly why there is this "war room". We have similar requests by various teams in our organization as if a war room is some amazing thing that you just can't live without. In reality it's almost always because some asshat can't be bothered to book meeting rooms in advance. If all the rooms are always booked, add more rooms. What you end up with is a room that no one else can use and except in dire situations, no one is using at ALL.

Re:war room?

[Geste]

"Is it just me or is slashdot's headlines as of late running parallel to the average idiots way of describing everything as a war?"

In somebody's defense, they probably just picked up the concept and terminology from large telcos. If you go to a large network operations center (say like what AT&T operates in Piscataway, NJ) you will find two or more good-sized conference rooms provisioned with 10-15 workstations each that sit idle 99 percent of the time. Just used in cases of major outages/problems or sometimes for network upgrades. Known as the "war rooms" for as long as I am aware.

Re:Are those liquor bottles?

[corsec67]

Those 3 bottles are flavor syrups, like the variety Starbucks uses to make some of the more bizzare drinks. (Rasbery/Vanilla/Cherry/etc...)

Photoshop?

[Andrewkov]

Someone should photoshop that first pic so that the Dell flatpanel shows either a BSOD or "All your base are belong to us" message.