Mennonite Hacker?

I recently spent a couple of days visiting some of my Amish friends and Mennonite relatives. I find this video comical as I'm attempting to explain my line of work to some of my Mennonite relatives.

Is My Child Safe Online?

Since attending the CyberBullying Conference, and being approached by Nickelodeon about the safety of kids online, I’ve decided to put up a few helpful links for parents who may be asking, “Is my child safe online?”

● Parry Aftab, online safety guru; her Web site is the single most comprehensive collection of online safety tips for kids.

● The FBI offers a very helpful parental online guide

● Consumer Reports offers a useful guide to kid’s online safety

● PBS FrontLine documentary Keeping Kids Safe Online

● NY Times columnist David Pogue takes a practical approach

● NY Times columnist Harlan Coben offers a tough-love scenario

● Read through danah boyd’s blog postings on Youth Culture

● Parent-child online agreement

CyberBullying Conference

I'm honored to be participating in the upcoming CyberBullying Conference on June 2 and 3 in conjunction with PACE University and the one and only reknown/revered Parry Aftab. To learn more about cyberbullying, visit Parry Aftab's blog. Aftab was just on Good Morning America today discussing the Megan Meier and Lori Drew case with Tina Meier.

Boston Red-Tailed Hawks

Photo Credit: Globe Staff Photo/Stan Grossfeld (2008)

I've been commuting to New England quite a bit these days, and enjoying the change of scenery. They have hawks there as well. Unfortunately, there's been a Red-Tailed Hawk at Fenway Park that has been getting some negative press.

"Live" Owl WebCam!

Photo Credit: NCAR's Research Applications Laboratory Program (2008)

Owls fascinate me. My favorite type are the big, fat, Great Horned Owls. Check out this incredible Owl Web cam, placed right on their nest! Watch it daily to see the youngin's fledge!

Microsoft HotMail Down and Out

Microsoft HotMail is down today, could be a router issue or maybe they got hacked...again. If so, it will be headlines tomorrow. If you have any updates, please post here.

Update: This just in from the SANS.org Internet Storm Center:

>>we have had multiple reports of issues with hotmail all over, going directly to the login.live.com site seems to work.<<

Works for me! And maybe we'll read in the papers, or see on the News tonight, what really happened.

CyberCrime Film

Just back from SANS Security in New Orleans, I jumped at the opportunity to hop on down to Tribeca for the premiere of a documentary, The New Face Of CyberCrime.

Being a skeptical New Yorker, I couldn't help but wonder if what we were about to view would be an infomercial for Fortify Software, the sponsors of the documentary, however, I was actually impressed with the short. They included a snapshot into the brilliant Marcus Ranum, and a very personal one-on-one with Myron Ullman, CEO of JC Penny, whom I thought was extremely eloquent. He offered-up a highly evolved approach to intrusion and penetration, one that I (having a martial arts background) sometimes refer to as, the Xing Yi approach. Plain and simple, it's the understanding that the minute you think your network is impenetrable, is the second you'll be hacked, a lot like the acknowledgement that even though one may be an accomplished martial artist, a bullet is a bullet. In my opinion, Ullman depicted the arbiter of a well done film, that someone so high profile was willing to be that candid, and that honest, admitting that they simply "don't want to be that headline."

Afterward, the filmmaker and some of those interviewed in the film were present and taking select questions from the audience. One of the panelists, a journalist, spoke volumes when he pointed out that the TJX incident would have had a lot less negative publicity, if the higher-ups had been more apologetic and more empathetic to their customers. Instead, they kept insisting on finger pointing. Great example, is the opposite happened when Bank Of America was breached and went out of their way to apologize publicly, promising their customers they would not be held liable, and in many ways raising the bar and setting the standard that others in that situation now follow.

The food and drinks after the film ROCKED, and my friend Bill, Chair of NYPC.org and I decided to end the evening by grabbing his new XO (One Laptop Per Child) notebook and head over to Starbucks to configure it for its one-year free wifi with T-Mobile. What we couldn't seem to figure out was the meaning behind the color schema for the different networks that appear as dots on the screen. I was guessing that blue denoted a Linksys router and perhaps silver was Netgear, but I later discovered that the color of the circle is based upon the name of the access point. What still isn't clear to me, is what about the name defines the color that your circle will be. If you know, please comment here!