StillSecure, After All These Years

Down in the Big Easy, where livin’ is good and Oysters are cheap!

Image by Diva Eva via Flickr

Was down in New Orleans for the SANS show. Tonight I stayed at a hotel near the airport and went to a local seafood bar & restaurant for dinner. When I saw fresh oysters at 6 dollars a dozen I’ll admit I was a bit afraid.  But after seeing a few trays of them go by to other tables, they looked so good I couldn’t help myself. I ordered a dozen and boy were they good!  They were snow white and really fresh.  I scarfed them down along with some soft shell crabs and the whole bill was like 20 dollars.

I just won’t be able to pay 15 bucks a dozen anymore without thinking about being back down here.

Thanking the sponsors

As most of you know, this years Security Bloggers Meet up at the RSA conference is going to be a quite a party. In addition to the usual food, drink, podcasting and mingling among the who’s who of security blogging and media, this year we also have the Social Security Awards.  The Social Security Awards are the security blogging awards and we have over 1500 blogs nominated in the 5 categories!  At the end this month the finalists will be given over to our all star panel of judges and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the meet up. 

Yours truly is the MC for the awards. I had invited Beyonce to come down and do a musical number with me ala Hugh Jackman at the Oscars, but she was busy and I don’t think will be at the meet up.  But you never know.  If not perhaps Martin McKeay, Rich Mogull and I could do a “if I were a boy” musical number ;-)

Anyway, what I wanted to say before going off on that tangent is that none of this would be possible without the very generous sponsors who have donated money, equipment and services.  In these tough times putting on an event this size is not cheap.  Also though not listed, a special thanks to the RSA conference folks themselves who have given so much to make this event a reality. Thanks to all of them!

Our latest sponsor, Seagate is donating prizes for for the Social Security Award winners and now has given us a NAS as a door prize as well!  How cool!  Now if we could just get a nice package of prizes and gifts for the event organizers!

Whats your favorite thing about the RSA conference?

If you are going to use the free Wi-Fi, buy a latte or muffin

Once again the old adage rings true, nothing in life is free!  Reading Bill Brenner's Security Bytes blog about some poor SOB sitting in front of a coffee shop (not Starbucks) in Sparta, Mich surfing the web. Turns out under Michigan law because he did not buy anything, it was deemed he was potentially guilty of a felony for hacking!

The web surfer was faced with two choices.  Fight the charges and risk up to 5 years in jail and a $10,000 dollar fine or enroll in a diversion program, 6 months probation and and 40 hours of community service.  Faced with this choice, he took the easy way out and pleaded guilty. In contrast to the Julie Amero case where she refused to take the easy way out and will hopefully be fully vindicated.

Moral of the story, next time buy the coffee to be safe (now we know why the coffee is 4 bucks!)

Non-work article - Holiday weekend with family and friends

Nothing like a long holiday weekend to recharge the batteries.  Even though I was out in Vegas last week with Bonnie, it just didn't feel like a vacation.  Probably because it wasn't.  I was booked and busy all week with Interop related activities. Anyway, spending the weekend with the family and friends was a great way to deflate and get ready for June.  We really didn't do much. Saturday was spent with the kids doing some gardening and landscaping around the house and then swimming. Saturday night we had a great dinner at a new Greek restaurant here in Boca with our friends Bill and Dori Gerstein.  Then more swimming and parties with the kids on Sunday, topped off by a trip to the water park with the Gerstein's and their children today. Not even a sub-par dinner at the new Outback Steakhouse that opened near our house could ruin it.

One sort of work related thing, was a good conversation I had with Bill about H-1B visas.  Bill is a great immigration attorney and spends a lot of time on H-1B's.  Bill says that the tech industry is single handedly eating up all of the H-1B's and we need to do something about this.  He does not understand why Congress just does not allow more H-1B's if the demand is there.  As a result, either you have the possibility of folks working illegally or of jobs being outsourced out of the country.  Makes sense to me.  You can read more about this on Bill's blog here.

A special birthday for Bonnie

Yesterday was my wife Bonnie's birthday. We had a great day, starting with the boys and I giving her flowers and presents in the morning. Then going to down to Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach for lunch and playing in the park on the intercostal. Then we came home to get ready for her special night out. 

We went with some good friends, Bill and Dori Gerstein, down to Sunny Isles Beach in Miami Beach.  The beautiful Acqualina resort there recently opened and it has an Il Mulino from New York restaurant. Bonnie and I used to go to the NY location years ago when we lived in NY for special occasions. That was before they opened several restaurants all over the world. Since we moved to Florida, Bonnie has not been back though.  I went a few times to the one in Ceasars in Las Vegas, but without my wife, it just wasn't the same.

The Miami outpost of Il Mulino is every bit as good as the original in NYC.  We had a great meal, great wine, service, great company, everything.  The resort is right on the beach and is gorgeous. It was a very special night for a very special wife.  Happy Birthday Bonnie and many, many more!

Would you pick your restaurant by the security of your credit card data?

Was reading a good article by Jaikumar Vijayan today in ComputerWorld about the steps the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain is taking to better ensure the security of their customers credit card data.  I applaud what Ruby Tuesdays is doing, upgrading their POS systems to not store any credit data, eliminating middle men who represent another potential hole and using stronger encryption. 

All of this is good and I like their salad bar on top of it.  Then I read this quote, "This, in reality, is not helping us create more sales," Ibrahim said. "This is purely about the privacy and security of our customers".  This is from Nick Ibrahim, senior vice president and CTO at Ruby Tuesday. It seems that the only reason they are doing this is to comply with PCI regulations.  I know I have said in the past that security is good for business and if you run a secure operation, compliance will take care of itself.  However, that does not seem to be the case here.  Ruby Tuesday is flat out saying that putting in better security is not going to help put customers in the seats or increase sales. They are doing it for compliance sake alone. 

Is this logic faulty.  Would you be more likely to frequent Ruby Tuesday over say a Chili's, if you know your data is safer at one over the other?  I don't know if it has come to that yet, but if I were Ruby Tuesdays I think I would try to use my enhanced security as a reason to come here versus the other guy.  What do you think?  Would you consider the safety of your credit data in choosing a restaurant? Are you still shopping at TJX stores?  I wonder, am I being too much of a security freak?

What happened to day 3 of our RSA podcast?

Well the answer can be summed up in 3 bullets:

1. Mitchell is lucky most of his necessary organs and appendages are attached to his body.  First he lost his Motorola Q phone on the shuttle bus from the show.  Luckily he had phone insurance and was able to get a replacement. Of course he lost all of the numbers and info stored on the phone.  Then at the bloggers party (more on that later) after a full day of recording some great interviews (including a fantastic discussion on booth babes with Ross, Rothman, the Phantom Blogger and me), Mitchell leaves the damn, brand new portable recorder at the place and it is now gone!  They don't have portable podcaster machine insurance so Mitchell is out on that one.  Frankly, I wouldn't have been quite so heartbroken if we had at least downloaded the audio files on there.  I am going to start bringing a tag with Mitchell's name and phone number as well as the hotel he is staying at for Mitchell to wear at these events, in case he gets lost too.

2. In the immortal words of Dean Wormer in Animal House, "fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life". I try not to get too crazy at shows and make sure I get a good nights sleep, as my schedule at these things are usually packed.  Well, I was so excited about meeting so many virtual friends in person at the bloggers party, I went to three more places drinking with the boys and stayed out until almost 3am.  Even with Mitchell losing the podcasting equipment, I still could have put an update on the days activities up. I didn't when I finally got to my room, because I was afraid at what drunken ramblings would find there way on to the blog.  I guess Mitchell was not as worried about that. Instead I threw my clothes all over the room and went right to bed.  Four hours later, I woke up still buzzing and headed over to the show before going back to pack and finally flying home.  I think for the next show, I am going to go on a diet, so I will just be drunk and stupid.

3. The Blogger/Podcaster party- As Martin, Michael Farnum, Rothman, Mitchell and I don't know how many others have mentioned, the party even exceeded our expectations. I have not had this much fun in a long time.  I was really looking forward to this event for a long time. I really felt like I knew most of these folks already.  Some of them like Farnum, Martin, Rothman and even Ross, I count on as my blogger family (maybe posse is a better word).  I can't wait for next years show and have some ideas I will be blogging and discussing later.  One fact that was really heartening to me was that most of the folks there were also part of the Security Bloggers Network.  The network has really picked up and if anyone security blogger/podcaster wants to join, drop me a line at podcast@stillsecure.com. Also, Rich Mogul is someone I was really looking forward to meeting. I think we will continue to keep in touch and become fast friends.  As a result of the good will and free drinks (thanks Microsoft and Fortinet), it resulted in me continuing on a binge for the rest of the night. As Michael mentioned I did have an altercation with a cab driver, but it was all in a nights work. I am not going to rehash it here, Mitchell and Michael can if they want.  Just another moment with Shimel, as far as I am concerned.

So, I have no update for day 3, the dog did not eat my homework and now you know why.  If I can ever get around to it, I will try to

Happy Turkey Day

Not sure who is reading blogs today or tomorrow, but to those of you (you know who you are) that have taken the time to check in today, from everyone here to all of you and yours, have a happy, safe and secure Thanksgiving!

In case you have been wondering, here is a link to an article on why we eat turkey for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

An old friend comes for dinner to Boca

When you travel as much as I do, many of the restaurants start becoming more and more of the chains that are constant throughout the US.  Even though I try to get a local flavor of places I visit by going to local restaurants, todays homogenized America often leaves few choices.  The bright side of that situation though, is if you find a restaurant you like, you can eat there at different places in the country.  Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is like that and another is McCormick & Schmicks for seafood.  We have a local Ruth Chris here in Boca, but until now, no M&S.  That is until about 2 weeks ago.  I was surprised one day, while on the road, when Bonnie called me and told me about a new restaurant opening up near FAU called McCormick & Schmicks and asked if I ever heard of it.  I told her to make a reservation for the first Saturday night she could.

Last night we went to dinner along with our friends, Dori and Bill Gerstein. Bill has a great blog on immigration law that he has been blogging a storm up on lately.  We spent much of the night talking about blogging and podcasting.  Bill may even start up a podcast on immigration law and issues.  We had plenty of time to talk while we waited for our tables and over dinner.  Dori and Bonnie would not let us just talk blogging though and we talked and laughed about a wide range of topics. 

Just as with other M&S's I have eaten at, they had a good selection of wines and good martinis.  At least 6 types of oysters and a large selection of fresh fish from around the world are featured on the menu.  All of us had a great dinner and a great time.  The wait staff was professional and enthusiastic.  The decor was very nice with tables and booths that can be curtained off.  The wait staff told us that already there was some controversy over people curtaining off their booth and what was going on in them.  I know we will be coming back to Boca's newest seafood restaurant.  My only concern is that as more people find out about it, it will be harder and harder to get a reservation!