At last count, there were upwards of twenty different pieces of federal legislation floating around Capitol Hill. While it doesn't appear that anyone of them will reach the floor of either house of Congress in the very near future, I am certain that at least one of them will.Sarbanes-Oxley targeted information risk, but it had more far-reaching consequences. That's true of most pieces of legislation, in particular the bills that get rushed through in response to a public outcry or panic. There's a list of several such examples in this article from The CPA Journal. Webster says we should expect more of the same.
Sarbanes-Oxley created a legal obligation to save certain types of electronic records. As such, it set a legal precedent. As similar precedent will likely be set again next year, although this one (call it "Son of Sarbanes" if you wish) will be aimed at making it harder for those who somehow acquire personal data to actually use that data.
I strongly feel there are 3 pillars that IT Pros must closely examine when they want a technology to be adopted after it's been implemented. Most people focus on Migration. Others focus on education. There are three pillars: Migration, Education and Policy.The trick to migration is making sure you move the important stuff, but not everything. You can also phase in the new application so that users aren't focred to deal with an abrupt change.
The job market for IT specialists will shrink 40 percent by 2010.According to Gartner, IT pros must move "from technical specialization to business competence in order to position themselves as tomorrow's business contributors." In other words, goodbye "specialists," hello "versatilists" (Gartner's word, not mine). Assuming you get to keep your job, Gartner also predicts that it will become more challenging, thanks to compliance requirements:
Through 2008, investigation of new technologies will slow as discretionary dollars are diverted to regulatory compliance.Here are Gartner's four other forecasts, as outlined in DMReview:
OK, that last prediction was mine, but it's more interesting than the Gartner forecast about BPO service providers and insurance revenue. Snore!By 2008, one in 10 organizations will require employee-purchased notebooks, possibly offering a "notebook allowance" to offset costs. By 2010, 30% of American households will use only wireless phone service or Internet telephony. A 50% increase in healthcare software investment by 2009 might lead to a 50% reduction in preventable deaths by 2013. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt will get back together, move to a commune in Hawaii and have twins.
Think about the businesses these little gizmos will enable. The trouble with VoIP in the home has been getting the service easily onto your home phone. Then get a box for each phone. The main hurdle of IP TV is getting it from your computer to your big screen TV. Just attach a box to every TV and it is done, with no PC even required. Sounds like Apple's Video Express, eh? On top of entertainment and communication the cubes will support home alarm and automation systems — two businesses that are huge and also not generally on the radar screens of any Google competitors.He goes on to say the cubes will be the dumbest smart device around, making it easy to set up and keep safe. That's a good thing because he expects to see them floated around like AOL CDs.
It will be in Google's interest to provide them in volume to every Google users, which is to say every broadband user everywhere. As a result, Google becomes overnight a major phone company, a major video entertainment provider, a major player in home automation and even medical telemetry.For now I'm more interested in what people will make out of the boxes once they're ubiquitous.
Even the atmosphere inside is highly managed. It is pressurized to 1.5 pounds per square inch greater than outside air pressure, so air is constantly being forced out — handy if someone decides to drop an atomic bomb in the vicinity. In the event of a nuclear attack, the air can be filtered through charcoal, and there are still safeguards in place against a gas attack.I know what you're thinking: If someone decides to drop an atomic bomb in the area, it makes that botnet attack from Eastern Europe seem somewhat insignificant, doesn't it? Nuclear attack not withstanding, it's a good read for explaining how managed security operations work and how computer security firms in general are dealing with the explosion in bad stuff out there. Managed security used to be a service targeted by small and medium-sized businesses, but enterprises have been quick to jump on board lately. It's less expensive, in most cases, than monitoring your own network for intrusion detection and prevention, and enterprises are finding it helps with their compliance needs as well.
Developing a business planThe videos can either be streamed or downloaded as MPEGs, and audio podcasts also are now available here. In fact, one podcast features the aforementioned Mr. Williams. Access to the videos requires a quick registration, but it's worth it.
Learning to take risks
Five biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make
Startups are often too eager to accept people or ideas into their world. You can almost always afford to wait if something doesn't feel just right, and false negatives are usually better than false positives.And this, from "be balanced":
What is a startup without bleary-eyed, junk-food-fueled, balls-to-the-wall days and sleepless, caffeine-fueled, relationship-stressing nights? Answer: A lot more enjoyable place to work. Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial. ... But it can't be all the time.You can find plenty more of Williams' commonsense advice here. I found his list thanks to Margaret Kane over at Blogma.
More than 75% of malicious programs — i.e. the overwhelming majority — are created by the criminal computer underground, with the aim of infecting a defined number of computers on the Internet. The number of new viruses and Trojans is now increasing every day by a few hundred — the Kaspersky Virus Lab receives between 200 and 300 new samples a day.The other three problems are the inability, many times, to delete malicious code and restore data; resource usage; and incompatibility between antivirus programs. The resource issue I touched on earlier in the month when we talked about viruses that can potentially take advantage of the shortcuts antivirus software uses when scanning files. I'm going to be all about security this week because I'm preparing for our Enterprise Security Challenges for 2006 Webcasts that are coming up in December. Thanks to Brian Krebs for the link.
The online retail industry has taken to calling today Cyber Monday or Black Monday, named after Black Friday, when many retailers traditionally have started to make a profit — or go into the black — for the year. In a recent survey by Shop.org and BizRate Research, 77 percent of retailers reported that their sales last year increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving.I used to cover online shopping pretty extensively when I was the editor of CyberAtlas in the late 90s. Back then, the workplace shopping phenomena was attributed to people being more likely to have high-speed connections at work. Nielsen-NetRatings attributes the rise in online shoppers from home on Friday to gas prices. I think it's the convenience factor that rules the day. As for how this impacts productivity at work, here's one reasonable take:
"We actually think it's productive if they do it that way instead of running out to a suburban mall and stretching the one-hour lunch into two," said Bob Dobkin, a spokesman for Pepco, which has 2,500 employees in the area. "We do think it promotes a better employee relationship."
Users are looking to cut out tedious paperwork, reduce unnecessary commuting, and get some more control over their own time. ...Something that supports them along this path will encourage them to be more productive. If it is a solution they buy into, so much the better.So much the better for their attitude and performance, and for your bottom line.
In short, the Saugus Best Buy north of Boston looks like a bomb went off. You can see where the chaos went down last night. There's accessory racks that look like they were hit by one of those "grab as much as you can in 60 seconds" shopping cart gimmicks. The Xbox 360s were, of course, long gone. There were plenty of parents at Best Buy, a notable contrast to Circuit City, which was younger in orientation. The parents were leaving the store with sad looks on their faces. This is because one employee actually said that they do not expect to receive another major shipment of Xbox 360s until February of 2006.That's from Ken "Caesar" Fisher's first-person account. The shortage does seem to be driving up prices on eBay, where one enterprising eBay seller (and aren't they all, really?) included a copy of USA Today to prove the console was in hand. Does that say $1,625? Looks like someone was going to be the only member of their World of Warcraft guild without one. comScore says online shopping will hit $19 billion during the November through December holiday season, representing 24 percent growth over the 2004 season. So much for fraud concerns turning people off to Internet shopping. comScore credits in-store pick-up, free shipping, and easy returns for enticing consumers. Have a safe and happy holiday, and for our international readers, enjoy your weekend.
On a typical day these are the percentages of internet users in each generation who use search engines: GenY (ages 18-28) -- 42% GenX (ages 29-40) -- 51% Younger Baby Boomers (ages 41-50) -- 37% Older Baby Boomers (ages 51-59) -- 39% Matures (ages 60-69) -- 31% After work (ages 70+) -- 25%While it's no shock that GenXers lead all other generations in daily search engine use, I am somewhat surprised their percentage is that low. Then again, I'm in the information business and use search constantly (my personal home page is Google News), so in that regard I'm probably an atypical user. It's also intriguing that Older Baby Boomers edge out Younger Baby Boomers in terms of daily search engine use. It's the only exception to a downhill pattern as you move from GenX through the older generations. And it can't be explained by income (older Boomers have more money) because Pew's survey sample comes from people who already are connected, not both the haves and have-nots.
The basic dilemma that faces Bob Lutz and the rest of the blogging team at General Motors: is their target audience investors and business people interested in General Motors the company, or is their audience car afficionados, enthusiasts who want to talk about torque, engine block design and tire traction?I'm not sure that a company, GM in this case, can blog about its products and ignore the ongoing chaos within the company. Listening to the radio yesterday on my way home I heard a sound bite from an automotive industry analyst. He said that GM's biggest problem is that its cars got boring (or at least were perceived as such by consumers, not that there's a big difference). GM was doing fine selling trucks and SUVs, but then gas prices went up and suddenly those weren't so popular. If FastLane is about the vehicles, then how they are going to improve the vehicles, and why they have to do it, should be fair game. The big takeaway is that before you launch a corporate blog you need a plan for dealing with bad news. Thanks to Shel Holtz for shedding light on this.
They are a varied lot, reflecting the diversity of America and the wide-ranging interests of Smithsonian. They come to us from Civil War battlefields and the African bush, from the ravaged streets of New Orleans and the mountain observatories of California, from the Broadway stage and the Amazonian forest, from the corporate boardroom and the forensic laboratory. They sing arias. They scrutinize ants. They create memorable movies and singular buildings. They work magic with the instruments of their choosingtrumpets, cellos, cameras, paintbrushes, laptops and imagination. One sits awake writing poetry in the wee hours; another sorts through old bones to shed light on the advent of humans in North America; another has spent his professional life deep in the ocean, pursuing an elusive monster he has yet to find alive.
...the number of (Americans) using search engines on an average day jumped from roughly 38 million in June 2004 to about 59 million in September 2005 an increase of about 55%.Which means that on a typical day, 63 percent of the 94 million American adults who use the Internet will put a search engine to work. That trails only using email (77 percent) as a daily Internet activity. Other popular online activities include: Getting news -- 46 percent Job-related research -- 29 percent Instant messaging -- 18 percent Online banking -- 18 percent Chat rooms -- 8 percent Reading blogs -- 3 percent (seems low to me) Online auctions -- 3 percent
...an overwhelming majority 88 percent claims business continuity is a big concern.Why the disconnect? Money. Nearly three-quarters of the execs surveyed were leery of the extra costs associated with a back-up data center. Which I guess makes sense, since the vast majority of companies never have a network disruption -- oops, actually the survey reports that 61.5 percent of respondents said their company did sustain a service disruption in the past year. Too many of you C-level types are rolling the dice.
These little plastic cases that cost hundreds of dollars have become a necessary accessory. Nowadays almost everyone has one slung around his or her neck. Apple has found a way to make people not just want their products, but need their products. Sure, you could listen to your tunes on a CD player, but then you won't have the little white player, nestled in your coat pocket, giving even the most grizzled old man instant street cred.Clearly, Apple's iPod has become a cultural icon in a way that marketers only dream about, and have very little control over in my opinion. iPod mania has taken on a life of its own. Rags Gupta says The Sharper Image holiday catalog had 17 pages of iPod accessories this season, and more than a dozen car companies will be integrating iPods in the near future. Two things make New York, in particular, the perfect place for the iPod to achieve cult status.
...what does not work is mandating patching as a part of a user contract agreement or having the government apply special taxes to software likely to experience vulnerabilities. Both options turn off users and turn them away from a vendors software.While the researchers found that rebate offers on future purchases provide some incentive for customers to use patches:
...the best and most practical approach...is simply for the company to spend the resources necessary to make their patches more easy to use and reliable.So, software vendors, go do that.
If, in the final analysis, you dont think its strategic, then stop reading and pass this to the CFO or the head of HR to find a really good VP of IT or director of IT.(My 2 cents: If you're recruited for a CIO gig by an HR person or a CFO, don't take the job because the CEO will never listen to you.) Assuming you do consider the CIO's role strategic, here's what Dan says to look for:
PassionRegarding that last one, Dan says, "If there is a single trait that defines the role of the CIO, this is it. Its also one of the hardest to recognize and to find." Hey, I didn't say it would be easy.
Appetite for Change
Business Knowledge vs. Domain Knowledge
Exceptional Communications Skills
Thirst for Knowledge
Leadership
More companies are increasingly looking to the Internet to spend their money, and advertisers are concerned that overall newspaper circulation has been declining steadily since 1988.More than 1,900 newspaper jobs were lost this year, and Editor & Publisher says that's a conservative estimate. Meanwhile, back on the Internet, advertising is making its way into RSS. Questions on all of this that relate to tech:
Two years ago Google had one data center. Today they are reported to have 64. Two years from now, they will have 300-plus. The advantage to having so many data centers goes beyond simple redundancy and fault tolerance. They get Google closer to users, reducing latency. They offer inter-datacenter communication and load-balancing using that no-longer-dark fiber Google owns. But most especially, they offer super-high bandwidth connections at all peering ISPs at little or no incremental cost to Google.There's plenty more in the article about Google building an Internet on top of the Internet. Cringely says he'll have more next week. Can't wait. Thanks to Don Dodge (a Microsoft guy) for the link.
The biggest cultural barrier to wikis is also their greatest potential value and power — they engender shared trust and shared responsibility by offering participants unrestricted collective ownership of all content; the space and the collective knowledge in it belongs to 'us' (the participants, jointly) not to 'them' (the company).Last but not least, in his review of Google's new Google Base database application, John Blossom of Shore Communications looks at who should be concerned down the road:
Consider this a shot not only at eBay, Craigslist and other more traditional databases but as well a poke at wikis and other simple database tools which do not have the ease of use, sorting and and data formation offered by Google Base.Say this about Google: once they get involved, things always get interesting.
Researchers said if an unpatched version (of Skype) is sitting inside the corporate network, and malware writers capitalize on that, it could create problems for IT managers that don't even know the application is behind the firewall.Well, Enterprise Networking Planet columnist Paul Rubens isn't having it. In a column published last week, Rubens takes the tech industry to task for "over-hyping threats." The problem with being afraid of your own enterprise shadow, Rubens argues, is that "you may never implement technology which otherwise would have given your organization a significant competitive advantage." He singles out recent scare stories about spam over Internet telephony, or SPIT. If some industry Chicken Littles are to be believed, Rubens says, "VoIP will soon be overwhelmed by spam calls clogging up networks and voice mailboxes." But a Gartner Group research director interviewed by Rubens provides a reality check:
Not only is it too expensive to send voice messages around the world using VoIP, due to termination charges when connecting to the PSTN, but more the point, voice as a spam medium just doesn't work. You can click on a link in a spam email if you are foolish enough to want to buy fake Viagra or take out a loan from a spammer, but who's going to make a call?Hopefully, nobody your company hired.
You cannot do good proactive marketing or new product development by listening to your customers. There was no customer demand for the transducer, the airplane, the automobile, the microwave oven, the Internet. No one asked Steve Jobs to invent the personal computer. You must use your imagination and vision to decide what customer expectations are likely to be after change has occurred.Also on the book front, Susan Visser, who is the IBM Press Program Manager for Information Management, is putting together a list of the best tech books of the year. She's looking for books that were well-written, helpful, and worth the money. If you've read one, let her know in the comments section of her blog. If you think you've found a gap in the tech book world; that is, you're looking for a book a on a certain topic and haven't been able to find one, let Susan know about that too. She's planning books to be published in 2006. Thanks to Bill Higgins for the link.
What both sides need to realize is that they enable each other's success, says Scott Davis, senior partner of marketing consultancy Prophet. "Few marketing imperatives can be met without the capabilities and insights of IT," he says. "And IT is only as adept as its grasp of the customer requirements."Some of the most effective types of marketing — word of mouth, RSS feeds, blogs, and Web sites to name a few — rely on cooperation between IT and marketing, and can provide amazing ROI if done properly. Web sites go beyond simple brochureware and e-commerce these days. I've been catching up on the first season of Lost on DVD this week (I know, late to the game). Few shows on TV have as much buzz as Lost. There's even a Web site devoted to Oceanic Airlines, the fictional airline in the show. Little touches like that can go far. The same goes for blogs. Niall Kennedy is doing a demonstration product blog for iRobot's Scooba wood floor cleaning robot. He shows, among other things, how a blog can be used to explain an issue like the product not shipping in time for the holidays. ClickZ has an article today on pop-up blogs, a rather poorly named concept for temporary blogs that accompany an event or product launch. The Fortune Business Innovation blog I've been reading is one example. Have you had lunch with your CMO lately?
"Cisco may be able to jumpstart the campus-scale wireless mesh networking market in a way that its competitors have largely been unable to do to date."Technology's playas have a way of doing that.
"In the short term, U.S. oversight is not immediately challenged, but in the long term they are under the obligation to negotiate with all the states about the future and evolution of Internet governance."I bet they are. U.S. Ambassador David Gross, head of the U.S. delegation, had the proper perspective on the deal:
"No oversight mechanisms were established by anyone over anyone. There was also no change in the U.S. government's role in relation to the Internet, and no mechanism for such a change was created. It was a clean sweep, I'd say."No argument here.
The concept is to allocate a portion of the total project time to an in-depth analysis of the status of the project midway through the development process. The focus of the analysis is to consider each project component in order to identify areas that require attention. In other words, you shut down the entire project for a given period to provide an opportunity to step back and take a hard, candid look at its status, identify existing project hurdles, and devise a plan to overcome them. Completely stopping a project forces everyone involved to concentrate on the necessary corrections, as opposed to the usual process, which is to simply drive the project, with all its problems, to completion.He's right when he says his proposal requires no expenditure for new technology and is applicable regardless of the size of the organization. But he's also right when he says:
I can hear a chorus of objections. "Stopping the project will only delay it. Doing what you suggest adds additional expense to the project. Senior management will never support such an idea. Opening up a discussion of the project status will only encourage the members of the participating departments to push for additional functionality, which will only expand the scope of the project."I'm going to guess that a lot of organizations that tried to schedule breaks into their IT projects would end up eliminating the breaks as soon as the project fell behind schedule. After all, even Murray admits scheduling breaks will add expense and lengthen projects. Organizations that can pull this off probably deserve consideration as one of the best places to work in IT.
Of course, regular, above-average raises must make people happy about the companies they work for, unless there are other underlying reasons for dissatisfaction — depression, poor working conditions, 90-hour workweeks. But other factors figure in as well. Obvious ones include generous non-salary benefits, chances for career advancement, and confidence in management.With that in mind, Computerworld is accepting nominations for the best places to work in IT. You can nominate your organization, or the organization of the that friend of whom you are always jealous at http://www.rresults.com/n062914/index.cgi?s=O. You can also read about last year's winners on the Computerworld site.
If we don't teach the people we're responsible for to take care of themselves -- just a little bit -- we are going to continue spending the majority of our time cleaning up perfectly preventable computing tragedies.I know where Linda's coming from: Many IT pros prefer to work with technology than humans, and thus don't always communicate with enterprise users on a regular basis. And some are virtually invisible until they parachute in to solve a crisis. The sad truth, however, is that some users are just beyond hope. I'll ballpark the number at 20 percent, though some IT workers will say it's more than half. These are the users who never will grasp the concept of email and IM viruses, data backup, etc. One IT manager wrote in response to Linda's column:
Some of my users are dangerous because they do not believe that most security rules apply to them. I have come to the point where I have to lock them down as tight as possible to prevent them from hurting themselves. I send out daily emails explaining the threats with example from real articles. They refer to me as the IT Nazi. It's like working with 40 adults with ADD when it comes to security.While Linda doesn't offer any magic solutions (there aren't any), she suggests focusing on three messages and pounding them home to users:
1. Don't EVER open email that could be spam (no matter how much you desire to be wealthy/popular/well-endowed/refinanced). 2. Back up data religiously (whatever your spiritual beliefs). 3. Turn on auto-update. (Yes, that means you.)
The concept is simple, yet it makes an important point. I try to show the communication/brand manager their share of the online conversation. I talk about the gap that exists between the number of conversations that are just about their category and the ones that are about their brand AND the category. This illustrates the gap they can narrow by getting more involved in the dialogue by having a blog.Stein further developed the concept by introducing what he calls "Equity Share" — the topics mentioned most frequently by people posting about a particular brand.
Scepticism toward the effectiveness of IT, the rise of IT automation, worldwide geographic labour shifts and multi-sourcing will lead to the emergence of a new breed of IT professional, the "versatilist", who will have technical aptitude, local knowledge, knowledge of industry processes and leadership ability.The "versatilist" is further defined by Diane Morello, vice president of research at Gartner.
Versalitists are people whose numerous roles, assignments and experiences are enabling them to synthesize knowledge and context to fuel business value. Versatilists are applying their depth of skills and experiences to a rich scope of situations and challenges and implementing their cross-organisational insight to flesh out teams and fill competency gaps.By 2010, Gartner says, traditional IT will splinter into four distinct domains, and it's up to IT professionals to decide if they want to develop the expertise and experiences to help them fit into one of the four domains.
"There's been a lot of publicity recently about tactics used in pursuing protection for music and DVD CDs in which questions have been raised about whether the protection measures install hidden files on peoples' computers that even the system administrators can't find."You'll recall that earlier this week I talked about the dangers that home computers can pose to corporate networks if they aren't protected. Baker made an interesting point that I hadn't thought about. Those home computers could be vital to keeping the economy going if a flu pandemic were to appear. Baker warned companies like Sony not to undermine the security measures computer users have taken.
"If we have an avian flu outbreak here and it is even half as bad as the 1918 flu epidemic, we will be enormously dependent on being able to get remote access for a large number of people, and keeping the infrastructure functioning is a matter of life and death and we take it very seriously."CNET has an FAQ on the rootkit and how to deal with it.
A little effort spent eliminating burnout will go a long way towards making your employees (and yourself) happier and healthier while laying the foundation for an environment that fosters innovation and creativity in a way that impacts your organization's bottom line. Attracting and retaining employees is cheaper than replacing them and with the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, you can't afford not to heed the warning signs of burnout.The article includes a short quiz to determine if burnout has already set in.
Take a look at the screenshot below, and you'll see that Windows Vista, the operating system formerly known as Longhorn, has a pretty radical new look. This is something Microsoft hasn't sprung on us since Windows 95. 
Thanks to browser-based applications, some developers won't have to go crazy adjusting their UIs to the new Vista look. If you're designing UIs, however, there's quite a bit you need to know. It's summarized in an article over at Developer.com by Mike Gunderloy called Everything You Know About UI Design is Wrong.
We've been awaiting the release of Vista (mostly under its "Longhorn" code name) for years now. That long wait has lulled many developers into a sense of having all the time in the world to get their applications ready for the new platform. Well, it's time to wake up and start gulping the coffee. After years of delay, it looks like Microsoft is pretty well on track to release this beast within the next year. There are plenty of test versions floating around, and the APIs are largely settled down.
Microsoft says it's still on track to ship in the second half of 2006, but the news today over at WindowsITPro is that Vista beta 2 will be delayed by a month or two. Microsoft will make up the time by eliminating a later release candidate milestone. But don't use that as an excuse to procrastinate.
1. Discussed/organised social life or weekend plans - 98%The flaw in the survey is it doesn't indicate how much time is spent on these activities. Let's say just once in the past year you used email to organize a "stag night." Does that put you in the 74% group under No. 5? It's hard to tell. I was surprised that discussion of relationships (No. 7, 64%) and gossiping about colleagues (No. 8, 56%) via email isn't more common. Perhaps workers suspect their employers are using Croyoserver (or similar) software to spy on them. Here's another "your employees are ripping you off!" survey, this one from compensation data and software provider Salary.com. I remember leaving a phone message for the PR person back in July to get more information on the "top time-wasting activities" of workers, but never heard back from the guy. Screwing off on the job, no doubt.
2. Jokes/humorous emails - 90%
3. Discussed/organised holiday plans - 78%
4. Conducted non-work related business - 76%
5. Organised birthday parties/stag nights etc. - 74%
6. Discussed dinner plans - 70%
7. Discussed relationships/love life or other personal issues - 64%
8. Discussed or gossiped about colleagues - 56%
9. Discussed news and current affairs - 56%
10. Discussed local restaurants/pubs - 50%
Online brokerage accounts are being looted by hackers who exploit the weaknesses of investors' computers rather than the firms' systems. It's a new scam, but it's mushrooming. Six months ago, SEC investigators say, such schemes weren't even on their radar screen; now, the agency is knee-deep in them.So the cyberthieves are stealing passwords from home computers and then using them to get into the online brokerage firms' systems. In a way the trend can be seen as a testament to enterprise security efforts. Why waste time trying to cracked a fortified network when there are millions of sitting ducks online in homes across the country? The trouble, as Mike says, is that these home users frequently connect remotely to your enterprises as part of their jobs. And often, according to this InfoWorld column, the personal passwords people use are "identical to (their) corporate passwords." Further, home users who commute to an office take their password-risky ways with them, which lends even more weight to the advice here from hacker-turned-security consultant Kevin Mitnick:
More companies have to think of a defense-in-depth strategy, rather than just protecting the perimeter.
Many network administrators conduct password audits on their network, but those audits are often directed at cracking weak password hashes for log-in accounts. If you want to know your true state of security, sniff your remote traffic heading across the Internet or coming across the wire from roaming or home users. If you have to use services or protocols that use plain text passwords, use a VPN tunnel of some type between source and destination.You can lock down the enterprise pretty tight, but it's those home users that can get you. Grimes' friend eventually recovered from her addiction, by the way. Thanks to Bruce Schneier for the link.
Microsoft Office represents a considerable amount of their revenue stream. It won't take many OpenOffice experiments (15%?) to impact that revenue stream. So there will be a down quarter or two and Wall Street will punish Microsoft through its stock price. Microsoft will have to behave differently: they won't be able hire, compensate, and retain staff the same way. They won't be able to execute in the same way.I think it's an interesting theory because when people have talked about a possible Microsoft decline it's usually "Linux this and Linux that." This idea focuses not only on Office, but Office on Microsoft's own Windows. Thanks to Stephen O'Grady for the link.
You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you. That's what you're talking about...The leaked memo points out a problem Microsoft has had with the Internet from day one. As Joe Wilcox points out in the Microsoft Monitor today, the Web offers an avenue for people to get information and services and it doesn't matter if those people have Windows. That's what's galling Redmond. But Bill Gates was not alone. Through an odd mix of circumstances, no one really did get their fingers on the Web 15 years ago. In an interesting commentary in the Financial Times last week, James Boyle of the Duke Law School surmised that we couldn't even create the Web we have today if we tried it today. We benefit from an open network and open protocols that deliver information to us whenever we want it. But it could have gone another way.
--George Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life
The web became hugely popular too quickly to control. The lawyers and policymakers and copyright holders were not there at the time of its conception. What would they have said, had they been? What would a web designed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation or the Disney Corporation have looked like?Lawyers slept through the Web's formative years, and for that we're all grateful.
Learning from the past is not a strong part of the practioner software development culture, and it's a shame, since we repeat the same mistakes again and again. Understanding landmark failures is an integral part of most engineering disciplines (See Petroski's To engineer is human: the role of failure), is not yet part of the software development culture, but it needs to be.Scott also has a list of resources to help developers learn from the mistakes of others, and he's willing to accept more resources if you have them. One notable reading suggestion is Robert Charette's Why Software Fails from IEEE's Spectrum magazine.
Karim Khoja, the chief executive of Roshan, Afghanistan's largest cellular company, says he has witnessed the transformation of air transport from scary to reliable. He recalled the time some of his employees were on an Ariana plane that overshot the Kabul airport runway and barreled into an open field riddled with mines. "We were very lucky that no one got killed that day," he said.Today's New York Times has the story: Time to Open the Kabul Branch? (you know the drill, free registration, etc.). Thanks to Wikipedia for filling me in on the basics of Kabul.
Ten years ago, if you were hacking you had to develop your own scripts. Today is like a point-and-click hacking world. You don't have to know how the engine is working, you just know to get in the car and drive. It is easier.Mitnick says security tools have improved over the years, which has prompted an upswing in "social engineering" -- the manipulation of people to get information:
Social engineering happens quite frequently now. It is growing because security technologies are getting more resilient. The more difficult it is to exploit the technology, the easier it becomes to go after people.Finally, Mitnick offers some security advice to organizations:
More companies have to think of a defense-in-depth strategy, rather than just protecting the perimeter.As someone who has penetrated innumerable network perimeters, Mitnick would know.
About 59 percent of CEOs surveyed said they find Web logs, or blogs, useful for internal communications, while 47 percent see them as tools for communication with external audiences.Open communication cuts both ways. Many companies in the technology sector are adding employee blogs or corporate blogs, and it's spreading to other industries as well. Software vendors are doing their best to accomodate the demand for blogging. Marqui, which develops a content management system for marketers, added a blog module last month. IBM has added blogging capabilities to its Workplace, Lotus Notes, and Domino products. Having a dialogue with your customers or potential customers is great. Unless they had bad experience with your organization. But now IBM has an answer for that too. Yesterday, IBM unveiled its Public Image Monitoring Solution. It's built on WebSphere Information Integrator and employs text analytics and semantic search technology. It also uses multilingual text analytics from Nstein Technologies and the Factiva content database.
The offering assesses the tone of blogs and posts: positive, negative, or neutral. It also identifies hot topics of discussion. For example, using the software to look at a particular make and model car would return content about fuel economy, roominess and safety.IBM executives say that Internet content is no longer authored by corporations, educational institutions, and the government, so companies have a greater need to see what's being said about them. It's sort of a Flamewar Finder.
...over 48 million Internet users are running anti-spyware applications that delete third-party tracking cookies. And nearly 38 million are using aggressive anti-spyware applications that remove nearly 75% of tracking cookies.The first thing I had to sort through when writing our Spyware Guide for Intranet Journal was the "definition" question. Depending on how protective of your privacy you are, you might consider cookies a rather benign sort of spyware. They tend to add something to the Web experience, especially when e-commerce sites are involved, and I personally don't care whether advertisers are tracking which ads I've seen. I think the important thing to take away from this research is that spyware has become such a problem it's threatening to take cookies down with it. Among the recommendations in the JupiterResearch report is moving from third-party to first-party cookies.
The report finds that companies moving to first-party cookies from third-party cookies typically see a 10% to 15% increase in unique visitors, 13% to 30% more repeat visitors and 10% to 30% more visitors attributed to specific marketing campaigns, all as a result of more accurate measurement.Don't forget, we have a Webcast on Developing an Enterprise Spyware Protection Strategy coming up next month.
It's true in some engineering disciplines, we do hold the professional engineers liable for their design failures, particularly when public safety is involved. However, we musn't forget there's a world of difference between the practices in use in software engineering than in, say, civil engineering.That's because, van Wyk argues, civil engineers can rely on decades of experience translated into firm standards, something lacking in the relatively new software world:
Even if one looks at the latest advances in software security best practices -- and there are several that are worthy of note -- we're a far cry away from any sort of published standards that can hold a candle to what civil engineers use.In the end, van Wyk says, the fundamental problem may be "our community's reluctance to truly learn from its mistakes." Alas, I don't expect that to change any time soon.
Google's recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications. Businesses already feeling the Google effect include advertising, software and the news media. Apart from retailing, Google's disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales.Even the mighty Wal-Mart "sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat" in Google. Indeed, Google continues to increase its presence in the heart of Wal-Mart's global manufacturing headquarters, otherwise known as China. If the world's largest retailer is worried, is any industry safe from being Googled? Well, when you have a Wal-Mart board member saying stuff like this, one has to wonder:
"We think there is plenty of opportunity for innovation in the Google economy."
Build up experiential capital. Innovation comes from risk, and risk comes from experience. The most important asset today isn't found on your balance sheet — it is found in the accumulated wisdom from the many risks that you've taken. The more experiential capital you have, the more you'll succeed.Thanks to the Business Innovation 2005 blog for the links. It's a companion to the Fortune Innovation Forum, which is taking place Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 in New York City.
Recently, researcher Andrey Bayora revealed that it is possible to fool the scanners into thinking that a file under scan is one kind, when it is in actuality something entirely different. Bayora (of www.securityelf.org), a Russian-born Israeli, has issued an advisory that details how to bypass many popular Windows AV programs.There's quite a list of Windows anti-virus programs that are impacted by this problem too. And the only way out is to change the design of the software's scans completely. On that note, have a nice weekend. Thanks to TechDirt for the link.
There was a lot of news this week in the battle to make books searchable online. Gary Price over at SearchEngineWatch did a fine job summarizing all that happened this week with Google Print as well as Amazon's recent venture and a slew of existing book search projects that few people talk about. Tim Gray has the news that Google Print was going online yesterday. I haven't followed the Google Print thing all that closely. I think the brain cells I have devoted to copyright law were consumed by the digital music debate and have yet to regenerate. But I was looking at the interface to Google's Advanced Search today, as I am known to do, and saw a new option. It's a Usage Rights field that allows you to see results that:
We had to build compelling business cases and publicize them to the workforce through their peers in order to win over skeptics. This is organizational change in action, and it's painful. No organization changes on its own accord without a compelling reason to do so.None of the six guideline proved entirely true for MITRE. There is a PDF of MITRE's experience available. Thanks to Jack Vinson for the link.
In any event, most of the employees here use laptop computers and would like to be able to maintain access to their e-mail and Internet research while attending conferences or just moving about the office. So I suggested to the partners that we implement a wireless network. At first they shot down the idea. The reason is due primarily to the stigma of insecurity associated with wireless networking, but I've finally been able to convince them that it could be safely implemented.The question: suggestions for maximizing wireless network security. The answers, which are pretty extensive, range from the general to the simple things that are often overlooked.
Another option is to turn off the Wireless Access Point (WAP) when it's not in use. This one may seem simplistic, but few companies or individuals do it. If you have wireless users connecting only at certain times, so there's no reason to run the wireless network all the time. That only provides intruders with an opportunity to attempt to gain access to your wireless network when no one is around to notice. If you turn off the access point when it's not in use, such as at night when everyone goes home and there is no need for anyone to connect wirelessly, there is less opportunity for someone to try and gain access.We have a popular article on securing wireless networks over on Intranet Journal if you're looking for more information. Last week, I wrote about Selling the Suits on Web Content Management. I don't know if this is going to become a regular feature or not. If I can find the topics it might.
..."scientists, engineers, artists, cultural creatives, managers, and professionals, who together comprise more than 30% of the total U.S. workforce and nearly half of the economy's wage and salary income."That's you, my creative and well-compensated friend! So where are you going to live next? I won't give away the entire list, but it includes 10 U.S. cities (including Sacramento, Phoenix and Salt Lake City) and five international cities.
"Russia is a very important market for us. We see it as a high-growth market for our products and also a high-growth area for talent," (Motorola EVP Padmasree) Warrior said. "However, other countries are competing (to attract IT companies)."Nice little tech community you got here. I'd hate to see those unreasonably high wages ruin it. I'm sure Ms. Warrior wasn't making a threat, per se; rather, she simply was stating the cold reality of the modern global economy and the relentless (ruthless?) corporate chase for the cheapest labor dollar.
Sure, the rules may allow it. Reading Blodget's views on the likes of Yahoo! Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., though, is akin to hearing former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lay lecture on accounting, or former Tyco International Ltd. CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski comment on executive perks. The skin crawls. The hackles rise. It all seems a bit surreal.At one time, Blodget probably had everything. After he got in trouble, he paid a $4 million fine. The NASD, the SEC, and the New York Stock Exchange barred him for life from the securities industry. That's time served to me. Blodget still knows something about business, and has interesting insight on tech companies that he shares in an interesting way. If you don't like him, obviously you don't have to read him. And if you want to point out things in business, and in the stock market specifically, that make the skin crawl, surely you can find a better target than Henry Blodget. That being said, I wouldn't invest a dime based on what he writes.
Five years ago, I could get a seat at 11 am or 3 pm. Two years ago, it was pretty tough to get a seat. Folks were sitting and chatting, and as our brilliant friend and observer J.C. Herz says, "paying for a break." Today I can't get a seat, but fewer and fewer folks are taking a "break."According to his theory, in 2005 and 2006 average people want to connect their laptops when they do work at Starbucks. In 2007, people get used to connecting at Starbucks. In 2008, they want to connect everywhere they go. A couple of observations: I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that Starbucks customers (and I like Starbucks) are early technology adopters and have more disposable income than the average American. Marketers have clearly noticed this trend. Take a look at the CDs, usually aimed at hipsters and baby-boomers, Starbucks sells in its stores. Wireless broadband adoption is key to these people. You are seeing the early adopters growing, but in general wireless adoption has a long way to go. Also, the Starbucks observations were made in New York. The last couple of days aside, it's been getting cold here in the Northeast. Thus, more people in Starbucks, which specializes in warm beverages. And the pumpkin spice latte is here. And it's darn tasty. Thanks to Dominic Basulto at the Corante New York blog for the link.
If analysts want to sell folks like me on buying their research, they will need to start telling the whole story which includes open source projects. They need to tell the story of enterprises whose business is not software but created valuable working software for others to consume. The secret is out and if analysts want to survive, they will do well by considering this value proposition.
1. Plan for regular backup. Self-evident.Hopefully your enterprise never will be hit with a disaster. Unfortunately, hope's not much of a plan.
2. Plan for archiving. The key here: Store the copies elsewhere.
3. Thorough risk analysis. This encompasses prioritizing business needs and figuring out what the major risks are for your enterprise.
4. Business impact analysis. This helps you decide the order in which functions are restored after an outage.
5. Crisis management. Working with safety officials (police, fire) to establish appropriate emergency procedures.
6. Recovery planning. Figuring out who does what when.
"What is important in terms of corporate adoption is to stop thinking about blogs as a technology or blogs in and of themselves, but think of them as a tactic to empower a whole new level of authors in or outside your company."Words of wisdom, Lloyd. Words of wisdom.* * (Name that movie quote!)
There's been a lot of chatter about how this is a response to Google or how it's Microsoft being dragged into offering these type of services at the expense of losing its traditional market for Office apps. Well, that analysis is all wrong. Microsoft has been planning this for quite some time, long before it would appear as a response to Google or anyone else. Let's also make one thing clear, these services aren't about replacing Windows or Office nor is this a retreat from the traditional Office applications. If you're looking to replace your Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook with this set of offerings, you're looking in the wrong place.Let's assume this is a little bit about Google (and many, many people will insist it is more than that). This is an interesting move for Microsoft. The new services — the precise nature of which remains a mystery — will be, in part, supported by advertising. Google, we learn more everyday, is an advertising company. But Microsoft has the applications in its desktop productivity suite. It's never good for a company when they have to cross onto the other guy's turf. Both Dan Farber and Wilcox see MSN moving more front and center to be one result of all of this, which again goes back to advertising.
Google's plan of just giving away as much as possible and sharing revenue with everybody on everything is a dead simple message that everybody just gets. Regardless how evil or not you think Google is or isn't, the message that developers are hearing is this: Use our stuff and let's make money together.I thought that was interesting because for a company as large and successful as Microsoft, it's never been great at conveying its message. Its marketing nomenclature can get extremely confusing at times. Google is much more simple thoughout. One warning Segal issues centers on the whole idea of Google as an advertising company.
While nobody wants to ship 50lb bags of dog food for free in return for advertising, the whole notion of free whatever making money by highly targeted advertising seems to be taking on a bit of bubble 1.0, make it up in volume, kinda hype. Worth watching because at a certain point, somewhere, advertising can't cover it all. At least I don't think so, could be wrong.Thanks to Don Dodge for the link.
