Don’t Ask What Your Country Can Do For You
There seems to be an increasing call for the government to share more information with the private sector when it comes to cyber threats. In particular, when it comes to situations where a foreign...
View ArticleBeing All You Can’t Be
In the military, in order to earn this badge, you need to take several weeks of hands-on, practical training, and then jump out of a perfectly good airplane and come down in one piece. At least five...
View ArticleThe Eagle and the Dragon
It doesn’t matter what day it is, year, or who the alleged perpetrator is, some constants will always remain true when it comes to reports about foreign cyber threats (especially those attributed to a...
View ArticleCyber Power: Shut Up Already
For the past several months (years, actually), cold warriors and their understudies who are desperately clinging to relevance have been filling the media with tales of cyber-Armageddon. If we don’t...
View ArticleThe Three People You Cannot Take Seriously in Computer Security
1. The guy who equates digital attacks to nuclear ones. For the umpteenth time: there is no meaningful analog between a computer-based attack and an atomic one. Anyone who says otherwise is either...
View ArticleThree Things You Cannot Do In Computer Security
Computer security is one of those fields where “everyone knows” what and how things are supposed to be done. The problem is that no matter how well you follow the best advice, you’re still going to...
View ArticleExplaining Computer Security Through the Lens of Boston
Events surrounding the attack at the Boston Marathon, and the subsequent manhunt, are on-going as this is being drafted. Details may change, but the conclusions should not. This is by no means an...
View Article140+ Ed Snowden Edition 1.0
Some basics/background that can’t be captured adequately in 140 characters or less related to Edward Snowden and his leaking of classified information, the contracting business, etc. His Compensation....
View ArticleCompare and Contrast
I love how, on a mailing list I belong to that is full of Ph.D.s and J.D.s, when I call for practical approaches to real-world problems I’m called “anti-intellectual” and in other forums when I allude...
View ArticlePrepare for the Pendulum Swing
I’m not going to belabor the tale of woe those trying to deal with Edward Snowden’s theft are dealing with right now. For a moment I want to opine on some of the secondary and tangential issues that I...
View ArticleSnowden vs ?
I’m not sure if ignoring the messenger and focusing exclusively on the message was ever a thing, but apparently some people think that pointing out issues of concern with young men hollering about...
View ArticleTwo Houses, One Roof
If the events surrounding the actions of Edward Snowden have highlighted anything it’s the depth to which most of the commentariat on both sides of the argument understands how the US intelligence...
View ArticleThey Why and Wherefore
I spent last week at an international conference and found myself in a number of discussions with people who were, shall we say, “of a differing opinion” as to the wisdom and legality of the...
View ArticleStop Pretending You Care (about the NSA)
You’ve read the stories, heard the interviews, and downloaded the docs and you’re shocked, SHOCKED to find that one of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies has migrated from collecting...
View ArticleBetween Preppers and FEMA Trailers
Today, for want of a budget, the Federal government is shutting down. If the nation suffered a massive cyber attack today what would happen? If you think the government is going to defend you against a...
View ArticleDon’t Quit Your Day Job (Yet)
My business partners and took the leap from “employees” to “founders” four years ago. It has been a challenge, most often in areas and on things you least expected to be worried about when you started,...
View ArticleSam and His (not so) Crazy Ramblings
If you haven’t already done so, start here. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Sam and I don’t go way back, but he’s easily the most intellectual and yet accessible thinker on these sorts of issues, especially as...
View ArticleSurveillance Protests: Get Serious or Go Home
In the US of A, if you don’t like the fact that your government may have collected data about your phone calls and emails you can do something about it without fear of being thrown in a Gulag....
View ArticleYou Were Promised Neither Security Nor Privacy
If you remember hearing the song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) on the radio the first time around, then you remember all the predictions about what life in the 21st century was supposed to be like. Of...
View ArticleIndictments In-schmightments
Indictments against Chinese officials for hacking into U.S. companies is a typical government move of confusing motion with action. What’s the point of indictments if the targets will never see the...
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