StillSecure, After All These Years

Cats in the cradle and other New Years thoughts

"Warning: non-security post" One of my favorite songs as a kid was Harry Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle".  Maybe because my parents were divorced and my dad was not around, the song struck a chord with me.  When I grew older and got to know my Dad I was struck at the many similarities between him and I, in spite of the fact that he was not there for the formative years in my life.  I am sure as a result of that experience I try to savor every moment with my own two sons. 

We were sitting and reflecting at dinner tonight about New Years and as I often do I was telling the boys a story.  I usually make up one that ends with a moral lesson.  Tonight as I was coming to the moral punch line in my New Years story when my oldest son Landon, 8 years old, looked up at me and said, "Dad, you could sum this story up by saying that half a meatloaf is better than none".  Anyone who knows me knows that I am always using corny analogies like this, so I was laughing to myself hearing Landon say that. 

As soon as we were done with dinner my youngest son Bradley started complaining that Landon had not given him enough time on their Wii video game.  Landon looked at him and said, "I went outside to give you time to play Wii while I was gone, it is not my fault you didn't play.  Dad I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make him drink". At that point the words from the song, "My boy had grown up just like me" rang into my head.  It made this New Years special and caused me to reflect on all I have to be thankful for watching these boys grow up before my eyes.

I am thankful that I have been able to spend the time with both boys these past years. I wish I could spend more time with them and hope to in the year coming up.  But I reflect back on the growth both of them had over this year and am amazed.  Much of the credit goes to my wife Bonnie who is home with them all the time and puts so much love and effort into raising them.  They say children make it all worthwhile.  I have to agree, sometimes just taking a step back and realizing it makes the wonder of it all almost overwhelming. I look forward to many more New Years with them.

Happy New Year to you all and enjoy every minute with your own families and loved ones!

Does your employer cramp your style surfing the web?

Saw two surveys recently dealing with similar issues.  The first was from Barracuda Networks.  Analyzing data from customers using Barracuda Web Filters, about half of all businesses were blocking MySpace and/or Facebook.  The reasons given for blocking these social networking sites were:

1. Virus/spyware prevention - 70%
2. Productivity drain - 52%
3. Bandwidth concerns - 36%
4. Liability concerns - 28%

Of course you have to remember that folks using web filtering are much more likely to filter access and content than those not using web filtering (Thank you Captain Obvious), so overall industry numbers are probably much lower than this.

This leads me to the second survey done by McAfee.  Their data shows that over 66% of IT managers said they do not block employees from downloading music from the web.  This in spite of the fact that music downloading is consistently at the top of the list of potential threats.

I think this highlights the dilemma that we in security and management face.  We want to protect our computers and network from harm and we want to stop productivity draining, non-work related time drains.  However, having too heavy a hand on what employees can and can't do on line can lead to morale issues.  A happy worker is after all, a productive worker (do you believe that?)

Finally

Back around Christmas time I responded to a tag from Michael Farnum with 5 seldom known things about me.  One of them was that I was a frustrated guitar player wannabe.  I had taken lessons when I was very young and then again as a teenager, but had not played since then.  For about the last year or two, I have had the itch to pick the guitar back up again.  Not sure why, was it an attempt to capture lost youth, a way to do something not involving computers (though I am psyched to see all of the stuff for guitars on the net), an escape for me or maybe I am just jealous of Mitchell, Dave G, John Curry and all of the other musicians at StillSecure.  Anyway, I have been stopping in music stores for about 9 months now looking for a guitar that was going to talk me into buying it. Brad Feld suggested Guitar Hero, but I wanted a guitar.

Today I was up in N. Palm Beach on some errand when I came across a music store I had not seen before, called Georges Music, Musicians Superstore. It had a great acoustic guitar room with a really nice selection. After seeing some really nice guitars that were way too expensive for me, I found two by Ibanez that I liked.  One was a classic looking guitar, sort of like the picture above.  The other was a hot, cut out black mahagony with an electric pick up.  That was the one I was going to go for.  I called Mitchell Ashley who knows a thing or two about guitars and he told me for the same money, the guitar without the electric amp was going to be a better guitar.  So I went with that one.  I bought the DVD and CD Guitar Method books and tonight starting messing around.  The notes and chords are coming back to me and I am already playing some riffs.  Best of all, when I finish practicing I was surprised that it really did relieve some stress.  Now if I can just play enough to get up to an aerobic level, I could even lose some weight playing the guitar.  Look for me playing a gig at a club near you soon!

Security Roundtable, Episode 6

Recently I was on a Security Roundtable discussion around instant messaging.  The SRT team on the podcast were:  Larry Pesce of Pauldotcom, Martin McKeay of Network Security Blog and Podcast and myself.  Our IM expert who appeared on short notice and for which we were all very grateful is Krishna Kurapati, CTO of Sipera Systems.  Some real world, good stuff on IM security and support if you are interested.  You can get the podcast here.  Enjoy!

Like Butta

Ok, last week it was early bird dinner and then Peter Frampton.  This week it was an evening with Barbra!  No wonder I live in Florida. Before you start laughing though, let me tell you, laugh all you want.  Seeing Barbra Streisand in concert was something special.  This is actually the 2nd time Bonnie and I have seen her.  The first time was 1994 in NY.  Though she has gotten older, there is no one who can sing like Barbra Striesand.  We had tickets up in a luxury suite and it was a great evening.  It seems Linda Richmond herself was there to see Barbra and she made lots of butta jokes.  She also had a George Bush impersonator and Il Divo was great.  I think that will do it for concerts for us for a while though.

The more things change, the more they stay the same or As time goes by

Yesterday was my birthday, so my wife Bonnie and the kids made it a special weekend.  I spent all day with the kids yesterday doing things and coaching them in Soccer today.  Last night Bonnie and I went out with our friends David and Leisa for dinner and then to see Peter Frampton in concert at the Bank Atlantic Center's Frank Sinatra Theatre.  We went to the Bone Fish Grill, but had to get there early in order to be out in time for the concert.  Now going to dinner early on a Saturday night in South Florida is a trip in and of itself.  At some level, I was thinking great, is this what it means to be my age, dining with the early bird crowd in Florida. Where did the years go, is life over as I know it? 

After dinner we went down to the arena and saw Peter Frampton.  It was about 25 or so years ago that I saw Frampton at Madison Square Garden.  Well he doesn't look the same.  The long flowing hair is gone replaced by a very thin head of gray hair.  But then again, who am I to talk, my hair is not what it was 25 years ago either.  However, Peter Frampton is still a great musician and entertainer.  We all had a great time, singing all of his old hits from Frampton Comes Alive (or as he calls it, that double album that you used to use to clean seeds (extra bonus points if you smile remembering that)), as well as listening to a few songs from his new CD.  It made me realize that I may not be 20 years old anymore, but life is as sweet as ever.  With my family and friends, loving what I do for work, I have much to be grateful for.  I am looking forward to more concerts and good times as the years go on.  Rock on! Here is some You tube video from Peter Frampton on this present tour.