I was in Chicago this week for the Tech Target ISD event giving a presentation on Information Centric Security. Like most of the people who flew in from other parts of the country for this event, we were so focused on the election and getting out to vote before we flew in, that we completely missed the fact that Obama would be speaking about a mile from the Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place. Most of us simply forgot that this was Obama’s home, and that Grant Park would be the likely place for…
Most of you probably have a friend like mine, someone who forward you every joke, video and picture they find amusing to their friends list. Sometimes humorous, I still look through all of the emails. Buried in the daily offering was the following link for a site called FelonSpy that I found somewhat fascinating. It was kind of like a reality TV show; insipid, but just different enough I had to check it out.
Way back in November of 2006 I wrote a post on the impact of our electronic personas on the political process. I was thinking about re-writing the post, but after reviewing it realized the situation is the exact same two years later… if not a bit worse. As a generation raised on MySpace, FaceBook, and other social media starts becoming the candidates, rather than the electorate, I think we will see profound changes in our political process.
‘During several recent briefings, chats with customers, and discussions with existing clients, the topic of data collections methods for Database Activity Monitoring has come up. While Rich provided a good overview for the general buyer of DAM products his white paper, he did not go into great depth. I was nonetheless surprised that some people I was discussing the pros and cons of various platforms with, were unaware of the breadth of data collection options available. More shocking was a…
Man, I love Halloween; it is the ultimate hacker holiday. When else do we have an excuse to build home animatronics, scare the pants off people, and pretend to be someone else (outside of a penetration test)? Last year I built something I called “The Hanging Man” using a microcontroller, some windshield wiper motors, wireless sensors, my (basic) home automation system, and streaming audio. When trick or treaters walked up to the house it would trigger a sensor, black out the front of the house,…
‘This story has it all … theft of State Department data, forged credit cards, multi-government branch conspiracy, and murdered suspects. Sounds like an afternoon soap opera more than a Stolen Passport Data story from the Washington Post:
As a security pro I tend to be a bit paranoid and cynical even outside the domain of technology. Heck, I can’t even get past a nice simple election without picking up on some interesting fraudulent twist.
I was pretty honored a couple months ago when Johnny Long asked me to participate in a new project for Hackers for Charity called The HFC Security Informer. Johnny is a seriously cool guy who founded Hackers for Charity, which provides a mix of services and financial support in underdeveloped countries. I think most geeks that aren’t running evil botnets have a bit of altruism in them, and HFC is a great way we can use our technical backgrounds (and swag) to help out the rougher parts of the…
I’m very excited to announce a new project I’ve been working on for some time with Debix. Yesterday, they released a new study today on child identity theft. I was astounded to discover that on average one out of twenty kids has their identity compromised in some way before they reach adulthood. That’s essentially one kid in every classroom. And those kids had on average almost $12,800 of debt fraudulenly associated with them. Talk about a nightmare to clean up! Anyway, there are more details…
The Skype gods definitely worked against us last night as David Mortman from Debix joined us to to talk about a new study the released on identity theft and children. No, you’re 8 month old is stealing identities like I suspect that creepy kid from the ETrade commercials is, but due to both error and fraud a surprising number of children have financial histories they didn’t know about. We also discuss last week’s Microsoft emergency update, Bono frolicking on MySpace, and the usual TSA foibles.…