Technology

• get someone who KNOWS for real to help you choose the right solution (ie. do not just pop down to the nearest superstore - pay a bit more and use a specialized IT-supplier)
• Saving up front usually only serves to increase the costs in the long run. See the first bullet...
• It is not enough to not buy the cheapest thing in the store - you need to understand what you are getting. See bullet 1.
• Give the users propper training. People who unpluggs the power to get the computer to shut down is a clear indication of the need for training. See bullet 1.
• Have a backup solution at hand. That means that you need a second computer available so you can use that if the main one decides to die in your hands. See the first bullet. Yes, again.
• Restrict the computer. That means someone who knows how to deal with computer (see the very first bullet) should enforce system policies (if you do not know what that means, see bullet one. If the people in bullet one have no clue, then you did not read bullet one, and just picked someone you know/from the top of Yellow pages.). The policies should enable the users to do what they need, and nothing more.
• Before you do this, you need not to worry about virus, spam and other security threats, as you already have your hands full. It will not help to buy a firewall, a nice antivirus solution or a security scanner. You need the basics first. See bullet 1.
  
• See bullet one.
  

entrepreneur, start-up, computer, microsoft, security

• vendor or service provider, focusing on promoting their own products/services
• (enterprise) risk management, focusing on what many SMEs will consider theory and not very relevant to their everyday focus
• IT-security, focusing on technology, hacking, and "geek" stuff

entrepreneurship, jci, security

• From a continuency point of view - if you rely on some old hard-/software, make sure you have the tools and systems available in case of a failure.

• From a data storage point of view - if a software can become totally obsolete in less than 5 years, you need to make very sure that your backup systems; long-time storage; and other data you may require access to in the future; uses technology you are able to access.
  

• From a compliance point of view - if you are obligued to store information for a periode of time - 3, 5, 7 or 10 years - you are also obligued to be able to access the same data in the future. It is your responsibility, and it is usually a good idea to plan the technology at the same time you plan what and where to store your data.

This new thumbdrive/memory stick/flash pin (choose or add your prefered name) offers a finger print scanner. A scanner that looks for the live skin, something that is claimed to increase accuracy, and allows you to use dirty fingers and still get access.

The only downside is that now I can no longer cut of your fingers to gain access to your data. I need you alive and kicking at my side...

My blogging buddy Andy IT-Guy is in trouble! Please pop on over to help him!

Facebook (and a number of other platforms in the Social Networking revolution) enables great minds to do great things. Many of us uses these services on a regular basis (daily, hourly, or even every moment of the waking hours). 

I for one is a huge fan of networking, and using networking sites enables me to communicate and stay in touch with old and new contacts easily. On the other hand, I recognize the security challenges - namely the ID-theft and the social engineering (SE) possibilities that is enabled through such services. 

One of the messages I try to convey in speeches and trainings is the threat that Facebook Apps may be. Granting an application access to your profile, automatically enables that application to harvest a huge amount of data about you and your friends. Now, most applications are "for real" - thus doing only the thing it claims to do. Still, imagine a business manager sitting on 10s of thousands of users and their data, in need for money. It would be extremely easy to use the data already harvested,  as well as rewrite the application to be more aggressive in it's harvesting. 

The other scenario is malicious apps appearing cool and fun and a "must have". These apps would offer you a service (chocolate) as a killer app - something you just have to have. And you would invite all your friends to use it too. By offering the coolest, it will become popular, and thus the road is open to harvest and use information. Information that you normally only would share with friends only.   

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In enters the Social Engineer. Uses the information about you, collates it with other info shared on other sites, creating a complete profile of you, your interests, your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and so forth. 

Perhaps one day he bumps in to you at the local mall. Or calls you because "someone said that you could be interested in ..." 

Having a complete profile of you, he (she) would know all the answers, and thrill you into doing anything. Given enough time, and a valuable target, there are no limits to what can be achieved. 

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Given this outlook - perhaps it is best to continue as before - in ignorance. Hoping that "it will never happen to me".  

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I gotta run.

Just got this incredible, almost unbelievable, opportunity! This complete stranger called me out of nowhere!

See you in a bit!  

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Ka-zing. 

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(Thanks to Liquidmatrix / Dave Lewis. And man, do I love that cartoon!)

Gnucitizen established a new community project called House of Hackers. The purpose is to create an area where 

"...support the hacker culture, mindset, way of life, ideologies, political views, vision, etc."

If you are into hacking, and interested in keeping with the community, I suggest you pop over and take a look.

Just a few hours ago, the Tromsø airport in Norway was evacuated due to a hand grenade found in the luggage (Norwegian link).

The hand grenade was found in the hand luggage of a passenger moving through security. I can only imagine the eyes of the security clerk who discovered it.

Eyes Wide Open comes to mind. Certainly, the Big Red Button was very close indeed.

ALARM!

The hole airport was evacuated, secured and shut down.

Only to be reopened 25 minutes later, when the Grenade was discovered to be a belt buckle!

I got a feeling that the security clerk would wish to move forward and dismiss this event as an error. I for one will go on and order a couple of belts. Imagine the disorder to be created if these buckles keeps trying to enter the airports around the world!

Obviously, when it becomes customary to wear and carry grenade look-a-likes as belt buckles, it will be much easier to bring actual grenades hidden as a buckle. So, sometimes soon, I predict the politicians to enforce a

"No Grenade look-a-like Belt Buckles allowed on Airports!"

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Edit: Just read about the complete opposite experience at the Digital Soapbox! Thanks, Rafal! 

Except – this particular post was written in English, by a Norwegian. Further, the message pointed to a service I had a very hard time imagining that my contact would be promoting.

Yes, yes, I know, I am a bit too paranoid!

Anyway, I contacted my friend, and as I suspected, she had not posted this – or the 150 other messages posted to her contacts. I started to poke around a bit, and pretty soon she admitted that she had experienced other strange episodes lately.

One of the other signs where that when on MSN, MSN would disconnect her, stating that she where being loged on using a different computer. Unlike some of us, she only had one computer she used for this.

I started to suspect that a key logger or other spyware had infected her computer, and made sure that she changed her log on details (username and passwords) on all the services she uses – and that she did so from a different computer.

The next step now is to reformat and reinstall the OS and applications – just to make sure that any software that may have been hidden is gone for good. Did I mention I am paranoid?

I also told her to go to the police – not because I think they can do anything about this event – but to make sure the event ends up in the statistics.

She may have picked up the key logger while browsing the net. She might have got it through a download – or by an email from a friend. Or by a large number of other means available to hackers. She might also have left her credentials while using her friends computer.

It does not really matter in this case. What does matter is her statement when I started to ask about the spam message on Facebook:

“I received reactions from my other contacts too – and I told them I had not done it. I thought it was just a system error, and wasted no more time considering it”.

(Emphasized by me)

And here we have the base of the challenge – normal users are not able to tell a threat from an error. Heck, sometimes us pro’s have problems with the very same challenge! And as threats evolve, and gets better at hiding, the harder it gets to know for sure.

I remember reading about this a while back – how all the errors in IT-systems have taught users that when unexpected things happen, it is just an error. Just restart and get on with it. (Please provide link if you know the story – I am unable to find it…).

And the result today is that when you do not understand what is going on with the computer, you just write it off as a “system error”, and get’s back on to what you where doing.

We spend a large amount of time to teach users how to deal with security. But if we are not able to teach them the difference between a system error and a plain security threat – how can we ever expect to succeed?

Have you ever wondered how to learn how to do SQL-injection attacks? Rescue is here!

You are now able not only to read about attacks and try to understand their logics, you can now set up your own lab and start doing injections directly. Thanks to Gerasimos Kassaras (I had a hard time spelling that, and will not even try to pronounce it), who have written this excellent walk-through on the topic!

He will even walk you through setting up IIS and the other tools required!

Still not into SQL-injections?

Well, you should be. Security now and in the future will be about two things - information management on one hand, and application security on the other hand.