Katrina kills HP Conference

I already blogged about how HP effectively killed Interex (bankrupt) and the long running HP World (gone forever) here and here.

HP's new conference, The HP Technology Forum, has now been cancelled by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans is/was a big conference center. I was even there once for a conference and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Andrew didn't do too much to New Orleans, but it devastated Homestead Florida. I drove through Homestead MONTHS later on a cool night and survivors were circled around large open fires. It was surreal and looked post apocalyptic.

Conferences being cancelled are no big deal. The grief and loss of life a catastrophe like Andrew, Katrina, and the recent Tsumani bring are. Let's not forget the Tsunami survivors are still suffering and need help to survive, as well the victims of Katrina. They'll be suffering and in need of assistance far after the news coverage ends :(

PINs/usernames, passwords - reusing and remembering

The average person simply has too many PINs/usernames and passwords to remember today!

It'’s OK to reuse a name and password multiple times for low security sites, such as bulletin boards, newspaper sites, etc. Yes, I know some people say never to do this, but they are both wrong and not practical.

When security is critical, like on banking and brokerage sites, use unique PINS/usernames and passwords. Passwords really need to be words NOT in the dictionary, and preferably long and random.

Most people can't remember long random passwords - it's OK to WRITE THEM DOWN. Store them in your wallet or purse and treat them like cash. Do not write down detailed directions like "to access account soandso, go to www.bank.com and use the PIN myname and password longrandompassword."” Just write down as little as possible - something you'll easily understand that most others won't, and keep it secure. NO STICKIES with details on the monitor please!!

What does: "3xran-1hair"” mean?
Answer: nothing to you, but it to me it describes a complex password very well.

There are some interesting schemes for remembering (and generating) passwords. One person, a car buff, uses his last three license plates concatenated together. I don’t even remember my current license plate, but it works for him.

Using the first letter (or second or third) of each word in a well known phase can work well. "“Iwraranaped"” (from the song "I want to rock and rock all night and party every day"), is easy to remember, and could be improved by adding a non alphanumeric or more. How about: "“IwRaRanaped!!!" ?

You simply cannot have unique user/PIN/passwords for everything and remember them: It's impossible!! Forget unique, even the remembering part is tough.

iPod Cellphone on its way

A cellphone with iPod functionality, that will let you download music and other audio as well as make and receive phone calls, is imminent, according to The New York Times.

Makes sense - two of the most popular digital products combined into one. Maybe future models will add a camera and electric shaver as well?

Absurd Patents and Inventions

Did you ever wonder about how many wonderful inventions were considered as absolutely inane or insane originally?

Man fly? Never!
Tele-what?
A horseless carriage? Impossible!

But certainly many inventions, as well as patents on inventions, are absolutely looney! The following have patents issued:

The Doggie Umbrella
The Lightbulb Changing Machine – how many **** does it take to change a lightbulb?
Extreme Comb Over - a patent for a three way comb-over to cover bald heads
Toilet Landing Lights – for when you got to go at night!

See Totally Absurd Inventions for more nonsense, but remember, just because people laugh at your idea, doesn’t mean they won’t embrace it tomorrow.

Many things should NOT be patentable as well, but are in some jurisdictions:
Software
Medical Procedures

Hurricanes and Emergency Communications

Here is something I sent to reporter who was asking about communications in the wake of Hurricane Katrina damage:

I'm Ted Demopoulos, a Business/IT consultant and speaker. Representative clients include Cisco, The DoD, The Singapore Ministry of Education, and IBM. I've been playing with technology since the early 70s including radio, and have been on the Internet for 25+ years.

A sizable disaster wipes out all organized communications, whether man made like 9/11 or natural like a hurricane. Often the only communications reliably left are those that can be trivially rebuilt and run by volunteers.

After 9/11, as well as just about every natural disaster including the massive Asia-Pac tsunami, most emergency communications are done my Amateur Radio (ham radio). That's why ham radio is part of the Emergency Communications Infrastructure by act of Congress.

Most hams have the technical knowledge and experience to quickly get a station on the air, even if their home station has been destroyed. They also have the training to effectively handle emergency communications.

I've been on the Internet since 79, a ham since 78, and was an early adopter of cellphones - I KNOW what is most reliable, and it's ham radio.

Glad to talk anytime

Ted, callsign KT1V

Stunningly appropriate, yet non-intuitive, names

Sometimes a name is perfect. Maybe we can't describe or even understand why, but it just works. It clicks. It's in the groove.

Incidentally these are often great marketing and branding names.

I'm going to give only one example here, feel free to comment or email on others:
SURF MUSIC:
Surf music is characterized by a strong drum beat, driving guitar, and overall minimalistic structure. I'm sure others can give a better description - for example Wikipedia's description.

Examples include The Ventures, The Beach Boys (at least around 62-63), Jan and Dean, and who could forget "Wipe Out" by The Surfaris? The Butthole Surfers are a modern example.

Surf Music is the perfect name? Why? I don't know, but I had independent confirmation today:

My kids, 2 and 5 years old, heard "The Ventures, Giants of Guitar" for the first time this morning. I think they've never heard surf music before. They IMMEDIATELY put a stuffed pink poodle on a toy surfboard and surfed him around the room for a good hour! Clearly the name is PERFECT.

Now if I could come up with a business name (or maybe a jingle or logo) that invoked visions of "I'm really cool and a phenomenal tech-business dude you must hire and pay handsomely" maybe I'd get somewhere ?

Then again, I'm busy enough, even overloaded for the next two weeks, and working entirely on pretty cool stuff with people I like who are paying me well.

Disclaimer: I used to surf, but was always a much better skateboarder. I'm always looking for interesting work with good people, even when I think I have too much.

If it looks too good to be true, it is . . .

I just got an email from Yassar Arafat's wife!

"Dear Friend,

I am Mrs. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of late YASSER ARAFAT,

the Palestinian leader who died recently in Paris."

She called me friend! She wants some help from me, nothing difficult, and is willing to pay me lots of money! Maybe I'll retire and blog fulltime!

Of course this is an Internet Scam, only practical because email can be sent for free. If the scammers sent it to a few million people, and only one responds favorably and can somehow be ripped off, they win.

If email cost even a fraction of a penny to send, not that I'm necessarily recommended that as it has its own problems, most of these scams would not be economically feasible.

Feel free to send my buddy Suha Arafat email at buha_arafat@tangana.com ! Don't send lots of large files and garbage though, because whoever hosts tantaga.com is probably innocent.

Sarbanes-Oxley a waste of time!

A recent Computer World Article quoted the IDG news service as "IBM users expect compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act rules governing U.S. public companies to prove to be the least effective or the most wasteful use of their IT resources"

No surprise.

Although we are a long way from understanding IT, and especially IT Security, as well as (hmmmm, let's say) building and maintaining bridges or making sandwiches, we have a pretty good clue. By "we" I mean business and IT people. "We, the (at least some of the) people."

Sabanes-Oxley says "we the government know better than you the people and you'll do it this way or else - Listen up, we got the guns and we got the badges!"

Ahhh yes, our friendly government telling us how to conduct business. Maybe they should make sure we're eating enough vegetables too???

We need FEWER government demands, not more. Who knows more about IT, we the people, or they the politicians?

(this qualifies as an official Ted Rant. And yes, I am tired and cranky!)

Talkr & Podcasts: Driving &Listening

I just drove to/from New York, shooting a video on RSS for WatchIT.com.
A few hours in the car, but more convenient than flying, and I wanted to use the time to do something useful.

Besides endless yacking with clients on the phone, I burned a bunch of stuff on CD before leaving and listened to:

1) ForImmediateRelease, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz's Podcast. I listen to the last three podcasts and enjoyed their show/podcast a lot. They talk about communication issues, including blogging and podcasting.

2) Talkr. I used Talkr to get some blog posts from the last week in audio format. Great Service!

I think I'll be listening to many more podcasts while driving, as well as Talkr provided blogs translated to audio format.

Comment Spam

In order to leave a comment, which I encourage of everyone who has anything to add, you now need to retype in a special code which will be displayed in the comment form. At most a minor inconvenience - my amazingly non-technical mother could figure it out.

Why? I'm getting too much "comment spam," which you probably don't notice as I've been deleting it pretty quickly.

Comment spam is usually flagrant advertisements for viagra, cheap software, online poker, penis enlargement, etc., normally left by automated bots. The bots can't read the special code and reenter it (at least not yet), so they can't leave their garbage spam comments.

Some dummies probably actually buy from comment spam advertisements, however more important to the spammers is the links they leave in their comments. Search Engines, in part, determine relative page rank for searches based on the number of links a webpage has to it. After all, if lots of people link to it, it must be good! Spam comments increase the number of links to a page, raising its importance in the eyes of the Search Engines, and in the end delivering more Search Engine directed traffic and sales to the spanners.

In the Comment Spam Manifesto, I've left a comment suggesting death, maiming, or at least corporal punishment (a hefty spanking) for comment spammers.

Spammers are criminals - remember that!

Business Blogging - Ted's Free Teleseminar

I'm giving a free teleseminar (that means over the telephone) on business blogging on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 from 2-3 p.m. Eastern.

"Blogging: Why Consultants, Authors, Speakers, and other Small Businesses should Blog"

Produced by Dan Janal and Great Teleseminars, who can make anyone sound good :), recordings and transcripts will be sale afterwards.

I can invite all my friends and colleages for free, so standby for details - phone numbers, secret codes, etc.

I should have details shortly before the event and will post them.

"The Virtual Handshake" - facts and quotes

I'm reading "The Virtual Handshake, Open Doors and Closing Deals Online," By David Teten and Scott Allen.

A fascinating book, although admitted, with 25 years on the Internet and 20 using email, some of this is old hat to me. I'm only about 25% through so far, but it looks quite good!

"How people build relationships has not changed fundamentally . . . What has changed is the medium."

Spoke to someone I consider an old and good friend today, who I had lost track of over the past few years. Now that I think about it, I realize that we've maybe only met in person 2-3 times at most. Most of our contact, and relationship building, has been virtual - lots of email. Wonder if my parents or many in their generation would consider anyone a good friend who they haven't spent much time with physically?

"As an Absolute rule, credibility - your Character and your Competence - must underlie your network."

Absolutely agreed, although I never thought about it in exactly these terms.

"Virtual communication is not inferior, just different."

ditto

"Online dating is the largest legal segment of the US online content industry . . ."

Wow! Bigger than pornography, or do the authors not consider that legal? Impressive statistic either way!

"People who know how to leverage their networks are called successful. People who just know a lot of people are called socialites."

I love this one.

For whatever reason, it reminds me of a "Three Stooges" episode set in the depression, where the Stooges need jobs. They are standing on the street with signs like "Will work for food," except for Curly. His sign says "Employment Required: Social Secretary Position Preferred."

Buy it via this link and I get a couple of coins

NH E-ZPass Privacy Problems

New Hampshire E-ZPass stores user's private information with no privacy protections.

E-ZPass is a system that lets motorists go through tolls easily. By establishing an account and purchasing a transponder, users can pass quickly and conveniently without stopping to pay. Many states use the EZ Pass system, and New Hampshire has just implemented it.

The problem is that EZ Pass stores personal data on every user, and New Hampshire apparently has no privacy policy, unlike other states.
What is NH doing with this data? Who has access to it? What safeguards are there? Can your employer access it? How about the state of Maine or Massachusetts? Your wife or husband? Internet hackers? Credit card companies?

Did you go to work last Friday? Did you come straight home afterwards? Why do you drive to Manchester several times a week? The answer, in every case, is "none of your business!"

Privacy of personal information, especially when stored electronically, is an issue. The vast amounts of personal data that is stored help enable Identity Theft and other crimes.

Other states have privacy policies for their E-Z Pass systems, but apparently not NH. It's not mentioned anywhere, and I've asked three times and have gotten no reply! Their Contact Us Page, apparently the only way to contact them, states:

"Please submit your questions or comments using the form below - We're more than happy to respond!"

Obviously incorrect - they've had WEEKS to answer my polite questions and have not responded.

UPDATE AVAILABLE HERE

Two Chapters Down!

I've finished writing drafts of my first two chapters of "Business Blogging" and have emailed them off to my co-author Shel Holtz! I'm writing, or at least trying, to write at breakneck speed, and some days am having success.

Unfortunately, writing this book, and a little bit of biz travel, have slowed down my blogging a bit.

It's not "fish or cut bait," but rather "blog or write about blogging" :)

Bloglet, Blog Email Interface, back up

Bloglet has been down for about a week but is functioning again.

For those of you who subscribe to The Ted Rap via email, that's why you haven't been getting updates lately.

Actually there are a few posts you may want to go read as Bloglet is not retroactively sending out blog posts it missed.

A blogging friend asked me why I implemented an email interface, stating that people should "subscribe" via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Fact is, not that many people use RSS yet, and giving people choices is good! Like reading The Ted Rap via email, RSS using a "feed reader," or by using your browser.

I like choices!

Free Fast Food Internet (and cafes too)

I like Panera Bread, especially because they have free WiFi (wireless Internet access). I go out of my way to have lunch or a cup of coffee at Paneras. Yeah, the food is great and the coffee quite respectable, but the free Internet does it for me. If I have a morning meeting and can grab lunch WHILE dealing with email, then I arrive at the office ready to work instead of slogging through email. Then maybe I can get home and see the kids before they go to bed or maybe even run to the healthclub.

Krystal Co. Hamburger chain has added free WiFI to its stores, according to Computerworld. Although there are no Krystals in my area, the chain has about 250 stores and has been around for over 70 years. Bravo to Krystal!

In contrast, Starbucks irritates me. The food is nothing exciting, the coffee doesn't suck big time but it's NOT great by any means (they over-roast ALL their beans), and the Internet costs money - about $7 to read my email. They would get A LOT more of my business if they had free Internet!

Of course it boils down to a biz decision, but give me free Internet, and I'll come hang out and eat and drink!

Book Review: Buzzmarketing, by Mark Hughes

Buzzmarketing, get people to talk about your stuff, by Mark Hughes

I've commented on this book before. I've read Buzzmarketing twice now and obviously really enjoyed it, as well as found it useful. - here is my full review:

Imagine a hypothetical book by your favorite authors. For me, that would include Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.

Now imagine volume II - new material, not a rehash.
For me, that book just might by Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes.

The big idea: We all know advertisers lie, and even if they didn't we wouldn't listen to them because there are just too many ads. Buzzmarketing gets people talking about your product, and people listen to other people.

I might not buy XYZ because of its ads or marketing, but if an ordinary human tells me it's great I just might buy it. I trust humans; they usually have no reason to lie, unlike advertisements. It could be my wife telling about a great new cheese shop, or my mechanic telling me about a great new movie, or the lady today who noticed me looking confused at the array of smoked salmon and said "I love this one -it's great!" People trust people not ads.

Great stories in Buzzmarketing illustrate the points as well: how Mark got the town of Half, Oregon to rename itself to half.com, and why Miller Lite made it while previous light beer attempts failed is fascinating.

Mark demystifies buzzmarketing, breaking it down into a few "secrets" or guidelines:

The first secret is 6 simple rules or the "six buttons of buzz." This is information I can and already have used in this book.

Here they are:
The taboo - sex, lies, and bathroom humor
The unusual
The outrageous - but don't be outrageous just for the sake of outrageousness
The hilarious
The remarkable
The secrets - both kept and revealed

The second secret is capturing media attention, and the five most written stories are:
David and Goliath stories
Something unusual and outrageous
Dramatic controversy
Celebrity angle
Something already hot in the news

This certainly explains why some of my press releases were more successful than others.

Read the book for the rest of the secrets, and amusing and illuminating stories.

The book says, "If you remember one word, and word only, remember personality."
Hmmm, that explains why my Keynote speaker page has helped me book so many speeches!

A friend rewrote my keynote speaker page about a year ago and dared me to used it! My personality oozes out; it's honest, accurate, yet insightful and somewhat outrageous. It portrayed me as a motivational speaker whose first speech started as a joke AND became an enormous hit. I was dragged on stage to do a "rap song" by a rock band I managed. "The Ted Rap" was incredibly popular and I was begged to perform every time the band performed (hmmm, "The Ted Rap" pushed 5 out of 6 buttons of buzz).

Motivational Speaker?

What is a Motivational Speaker?
All good speakers are motivational speakers.

I was recently standing in a line to buy a sandwich and talking with two men in front of me. They asked me what I did, and I said I consulted and gave speeches and training classes.
"Speeches? Are you a motivational speaker?" one of them asked incredulously.

I must admit I had never thought about it much – most of my speeches do not fit the traditional notion of "motivational speech." I never thought of myself as a motivational speaker. But all good speeches are motivational speeches and all good speakers need to be motivational speakers. What's the alternative? A bland or non-motivational speech?

There are speeches designed to be motivational to the masses, somewhat like the "Pep Rallys" you might remember from high school and college. There are speeches that are motivational to specific target audiences, and those tend to be the types of speeches I give.

A recent speech I gave on “Blogging for Business” must have been motivational because I got several emails afterwards from people who started blogs. I recently sat in a speech that discussed how some complex mathematical equations were solved that made a new type of antenna practical; I found it extremely motivational, but I doubt many of you would! I don't think that audience that found my blog speech motivational would have either.

All good speakers are motivational speakers. All good speeches are motivational speeches - for the right target audience.

See Ted’s Motivational Speeches

Ted's Book - Business Blogging: Profit and Persuasion

I've recently signed a contract to write a book tentatively titled "Business Blogging: Profit and Persuasion" with co-author Shel Holtz, and am busily writing away.

The book focuses, to quote Shel, "on the how-to and why of business blogging; the book will serve as a guide for any organization or institution that is ready to enter the blogosphere, from monitoring references in other blogs to starting and maintaining their own -- all with bottom-line business results clearly in focus."

Hmmm, I think this Shel guy might write better than I do! He is the author of "Corporate Conversations," "Public Relations on the Net," and more whereas I'm the author of nothing.

Rumors that I wrote "Green Eggs and Ham" are absolutely false, although I did an excellent rewrite called The Patron Saint of Sauerkraut. The original was written by Ted Geisel, also known as Dr. Suess. If I'm allowed to toot my own horn, and I am on my blog, it's the best piece of Sauerkraut literature in the known universe.

Book will be published by Dearborn Trade Publishing, sometime shortly after Shel and I finish writing it.

Google CEO Schmidt Googled and upset

In CNET's recent article Google balances privacy, reach, some information about Google's CEO Eric Schmidt was published that apparently he didn't like. The information came from Googling him!

A recent New York Times article reveals that in retaliation, Google will REFUSE to talk to CNET's reporters until July of 2006.

This seems absolutely amazing! Google has stressed repeatedly that they only index publicly available information. CNET was publishing publicly available information. Now if they had Yahooed him . . .

Sometimes organizations refuse to talk specific reporters, but to blackball an entire organization? Perhaps there is more going on than is public?

Ted on "Poor Richards Shoebox", Voice America

You can listen to me talking about the Dot Com boom and bust on the "Poor Richard's Shoebox" program on VoiceAmerica.com

Click Here to listen, and let me know what you think! Personally, I hate listening to myself and think I always sound dumb. Fortunately, not everyone agrees!

Broadcast live on August 8th at 10AM EDT, it's being rebroadcast a few times and available via the Voice America archives.

Ciscogate insider details

Fascinating article in Wired detailing the Cisco & ISS & Michael Lynn fiasco, by Lynn's attorney Jennifer Granick. Lynn gave a presentation at The Black Hat conference that Cisco (and ISS) "strongly" disapproved of - strongly enough to set a bunch of lawyer's and the FBI on him!

The inside story of Cisco's PR disaster, which is why malicious hackers are now concentrating on braking Cisco router security (Part 1).

Book Review: The Likeability Factor, by Tim Sanders

How to boost your L-factor and Achieve your life's dreams

Tim's first book, Love is The Killer App, is one of the most influential books I've read this year. The Likeability Factor is another winner from Tim Sanders.

The big idea of this book is that being likeable is extremely important because:

"The choices you make don't shape your life as much as the choices other people make about you."

People make choices using the following three steps:
1) Listen - people can chose to listen to you
2) Believe - people can chose to believe you
3) Value - people can chose to value what you offer

Likeability affects all three.

There are four elements of likeability:

1) Friendliness. Friendliness is the threshold of likeability
2) Relevance, how you connect with another person's wants or needs
3) Empathy (not sympathy)
4) Realness or authenticity. Lack of realness, like lying, hypocrisy, or insincerity can suck your L-factor down.

The second half of the book covers raising your L-factor. While I will probably not get a leather "L-factor Journal" and carry it with me at all times, or repeat my "friendliness mantras" every morning, I found this part of the book the most fascinating. The exercises to raise your L-factor are not simple, and require quite a bit of introspection. I'm not remotely a soft skills touchy feely guy, but I really enjoyed the last part of this book.

If this book has a downside, it's that I was already sold on likeability being important. Tim cites many examples and research in the beginning of the book, and it was like preaching to the choir for me.

I like it, I'm glad I read it, and I recommend it. I will doubtlessly re-read parts again, and may even do many of the touchy-feely exercises!
You can check it put in more detail at Amazon:

Blog Focus: It's my Birthday and I'll Blog if I want to

Imagine Weird Al singing "It's my birthday and I'll blog if I want to" in a falsetto to the tune of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" . . . .

Yes, it's my birthday, and today I'm blogging briefly on what I don't blog on.

Blogs need to be somewhat focused. Yes, bloggers can and do blog on whatever they feel like, as they should, but some overall theme or focus is usually desirable. I'm assuming my millions of readers (I'm exaggerating, do I really need to point that out?) are much more interested in what I have to say than interested in me. Now if I were a celebrity, say Mick Jagger or Madonna, that might not be true(for my younger readers, Mick Jagger is The Godfather of Soul or the lead singer of The Rolling Stones or something similar. Soul is a type of music and food, and The Rolling Stones are a really really old rock band. History lesson over!).

Most blogger's readers are the same. My thoughts, opinions, & analyses are far more interesting than me as a person, especially to people who don't know me personally.

There are many things I'm passionate about that I don't blog much or at all on, and many of these topics could be a blog of their own. How many people are interested in all of the things I'm passionate about and will ramble on about below?

Fishing: Especially saltwater flyfishing. Preferred species, striped bass (New England) and bonefish (tropical). I've traveled all over the world to flyfish, including months in New Zealand and on Marthas vineyard, the Florida Keys and Christmas Island a lot, Australia, The Bahamas, Central America, etc.

Wine: Love the stuff. Wine (real wine, not the pasteurized, processed, mass-produced stuff which is more similar to Coca Cola or Twinkies than traditional wine) is a living breathing thing that grows and evolves in the bottle as it ages. Amazing how the same grape can taste totally different from different regions. 10 year old French chardonnay can be too young, while 10 year old California chardonnay is usually over the hill. Drinking wine from my mother's birthyear with her is interested and fun. I'm a wine nerd - yes, anything can be made technical, even liking/drinking wine.
Besides, it tastes great and goes damn well with food! The cheap white stuff last night was awesome.

Music: Live music. Anything else is dead. Oh, I like The Dead quite a bit too. One year I think I saw 200 live shows, maybe 25% of those were The Dead.

Ham Radio: I've got many miles or wires and cable, and quite a few towers on my property. The engineering perspective, from the standpoint of performance and reliability, is fascinating. The operating skill required to compete at the top levels takes years to develop if not a lifetime. Yes, ham radio can be competitive. I've got a few winning plaques on the wall, but the top operators can usually blow me away.

Family: My family life is pretty much private. I've got a 2 and 5 year old, trying to adopt a 1 year old from Russia, and the prerequisite wife. Happy to share details, but not ALL the details. My daughter is very happy she pooped in the toilet today! Unlike some silly bloggers, I'm not going to blog on and on about details like this. My son just informed me his poop was bigger. Does anyone really want to read details like this all the time?

I'm obsessing over biking now too. I went 66 miles yesterday, then went for a long walk on the beach. I'm 44 years old, 5' 10", and weigh about 240 lbs. I'm trying to prove it's possible to be fit AND fat simultaneously!

It's my Birthday and I'll blog if I want to, blog if I want to, blog if I want to . . .

Did I mention I like to cook?

Keep Your Laptop Safe from Thieves

Protect Your Laptop from Theft, the latest issue of my securITy newsletter is online.

Laptops are easily stolen, valuable, and often targeted by theives. If your laptop gets stolen it's at best a supreme hassle!

FREE offer: New subscribers get a Video DVD of "Application Security Principles," a WatchIT/Ted Demopoulos production. Of course the newsletter is free too.

While they last, first come first served. securITy only comes out a few times a year, so I don't inundate anyone's mailbox.

Click here for a free subscription (and fill in your postal address for the free Video).

Ciscogate Lynn Story in WSJ Misses Point

I'm a big fan of The Wall Street Journal (even though they annoy me by trying to charge for anything and everything on the web), but their Aug 1st story on page B1, "Cisco and Security Officials Move to Avert Router Attacks" simply misses the point and gets a few things wrong as well!

The main point is that Cisco SHOULD be seen as heroes, but someone at Cisco blew it with their jihad against security-dude Michael Lynn and they are considered as villains by most in the security field today. A massive PR disaster which unfortunately may hurt their bottom line, and has rallied hackers worldwide to focus on hacking their products. No one blames Cisco for being annoyed or mad, but for their heavy handed and widely considered "unethical" actions.

The WSJ states that Michael Lynn is a "renegade computer-security researcher." This is not a commonly held opinion in the security and IT world. Maybe he shouldn't have done it - up for debate - but NOT a renegade!

They also state that "Security experts had though routers . . . were immune" - WRONG! Security experts know NOTHING is immune! Perhaps the IT community in general, or senior citizens in assisted living, or teenagers heavily into body-piercing, but NOT security experts.

I'm on vacation so not reading much Mainstream press - did they all blow the story??