Sometimes it is easier to walk into a company or a data center than to hack into their network. Many users and managers forget about the physical security of their computers and information systems.
From Forbes comes the story of Johnny Long, who hacked into AT&T’s systems the easy way:
Instead of looking for vulnerabilities in the company’s networks or trying to hack the card readers at the building’s entrances, he and another hacker shimmied a wet washcloth on a hanger through a thin gap in one of its exits. Flopping the washcloth around, they triggered a touch-sensitive metal plate that opened the door and gave them free roam of the building. “We defeated millions of dollars of security with a piece of wire and a washcloth,” Long recalls, gleefully.
Dan Tynan published a list of the 7 dirtiest IT jobs in his 10 March 2008 InfoWorld article. (I’ve included the printer-friendly link, because the article’s permalink forces readers to click through several screens.)
At number 3 on Tynan’s list was enterprise espionage engineer, a job that includes auditing and testing a client company’s information security:
Jim Stickley has a dirty job that actually sounds like fun. As VP of engineering and CTO of TraceSecurity in Baton Rouge, La., Stickley gets to talk his way into a client’s offices, sneak into their datacenters, make off with the company’s vitals, then come back later to show them where their internal security broke down.
The best part? He gets to wear disguises. Pest control specialist, AC repairman, OSHA inspector — Stickley and his crew have a closet full of uniforms. But fireman is a particular favorite. “At one place you’re the fire inspector, and girls fall all over you,” Stickley says. “The next place you’re wearing the pest inspector suit and you’re the scum of the earth.”
As reported by the Associated Press, Reuters and twoarticles in today’s New York Times, the FCC’s auction for the 700 mHz spectrum has ended. The auction started in January, as I discussed in my 30 January 2008 article. The winners bid a combined total of US$19.59 billion.
The FCC is not dumb - buyers must pay in full. Their names will be released within the next 10 days.
Wikipedia is a great place to look for a quick answer, but graduate students need to find credible sources for their papers. After all, graduate students are training to become credible sources in their fields.
The Economist published this article in the magazine’s Technology Quarterly supplement about Wikipedia’s editing policies. Two factions are battling for Wikipedia’s very soul:
Inclusionists want Wikipedia to have articles about any and every topic, with even the most trivial details of real and fictional items;
Deletionists want Wikipedia editors to exercise a more selective policy, which would require the deletion of many articles and trivial details.
A third moderate faction, the mergists, is seeking compromise. There are more details in the Wikipedia article on this inclusionism.
Nicholas Carr addressed this debate in his 5 September 2006 and and 8 September 2006 articles in his blog. Carr recommended “forking” Wikipedia into deletionist and inclusionist versions, which brings to mind visions of Unix. He also mentions the mergists and 18 other factions. Perhaps Monty Python should write a skit about Wikipedia.
This article by Nicholson Baker in the New York Review of Books has another perspective. Baker reviews Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, and Baker’s article is a long, funny look at how Wikipedia has evolved in the last 7 years.
Baker also includes a link to Reid Priedhorsky’s scholarly article on Wikipedia article creation and deletion.
Wikipedia has a stub article about AFCYBER, a new Air Force command that, for now, is based in Bossier City, Louisiana. Several cities are contending for the command’s permanent headquarters, but I am not sure if Honolulu is one of the candidates.
I discussed the Cyber Command on 2 November 2006, when the funding request was first announced.
See thesetwo Wired articles for some more information.
The Air Force has a new marketing slogan that incorporates its new emphasis on cyberspace, but the tagline sounds a bit too German to BoingBoing and tongodeon – and I agree with both blogs. The German national anthem during World War II was “Deutschland Ueber Alles”.
The soft landing is getting bumpy! The US Federal Reserve is managing Bear Stearns’ portfolio, according to Sunday night’s New York Times. Sure, JPMorgan chase bought Bear for about US$2 per share, but the Fed is propping up the deal.
Bear Stearns traded for US$30 a share on 14 March 2008, according to this Bloomberg article.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke may be tossing money out of a helicopter over Wall Street later this week. According to the Associated Press, the Fed will announce will announce another round of rate cuts on Tuesday.
Henry M. Paulson Jr., the current Treasury secretary, vigorously endorsed the Fed’s rescue efforts on Sunday and made it clear he was much less worried about the “moral hazard” of bailing out a Wall Street firm than he was about a chain reaction of defaults if Bear Stearns were to abruptly collapse.
“The right decision here, I am convinced, was the decision that the Fed made, which was to do things, work with market participants to minimize the disruptions,” Mr. Paulson said on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC.
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