Hackers Hit Our Defenders

This is a little troublesome; hackers have hit the publishers of the defense newspapers. You know, those publications like The Army Times where I use to go look up the cut-off scores every month to see if I had been promoted.

With information like that, these publications get a lot of readers.

The hackers hit on June 7th. They took their subscriber information; things like user name and password, first and last name, email address, and service information (like rank, branch, duty status, etc.)

What may happen next is our defenders are going to start receiving emails that look like they are coming from the publisher. Of course these will be fake and if the soldier, sailor, air man or marine click on a link in that email their computer will become infected with some kind of Trojan or other malicious software.

This is a case where our government needs to get involved. Find whoever stole this information and send them to boot camp for retraining.

I don’t care if hackers hit the CIA’s site with such force that it takes their public website off line for a few hours. I don’t really care that account holders had money taken from their Chase accounts. I do take offense when they target the men and women standing the wall.

http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2011/06/30/recent-hacker-attack-on-gannett-websites-targeted-military-personnel.aspx

Do We Really Need a U.S. Fire Administration?

So I’m on the internet studying information about current Internet security tid-bits, looking for something of value to pass along and I run across this website for the United States Fire Administration.

I was not aware that we had a national office of fire prevention.

And I wonder if we really need one.

So I poked around, found where we have a National Fire Chief. They must have a great budget because they have a fantastic website (link below) and they appear to be fully staffed.

There must be a bunch of money available because right from the home screen you can read all about Federal Grants that are available and if you follow that link you can even attend free classes on how to complete the grant process.

Now I ask you… do we need a division of Homeland Security in order to show us that when there is a fire we should put it out?

Do we need FEDERAL officials to teach us that fire is dangerous and we should put one out if it is burning something we don’t want burnt-up?

I believe this is one area of our federal bureaucracy that can simply be shut down. We don’t need it – it’s overkill to have this kind of division of the federal government.

U.S. Fire Administration Home Page

Document Collaboration

In January of this year Legal Technology Today published that Enterprise Collaboration (a.k.a. Document Sharing) was at the top of the organizational priorities for 2011.

And no wonder, just last Friday (June 17^th, 2011) a court imposed monetary sanctions against a corporate plaintiff (yes … plaintiff) for “delay and inadequate production and failure to search for documents in a timely manner.”

The corporation in question is moot (Google “No. C09-1769 MJP” if you really need to know). The bottom line is that the company did have a corporate document management system in place and even hired a consultant (outside counsel) to assist in the discovery process.

What happened was the individual in the CFO position neglected to instruct the consulting group to run a search to find the necessary documentation.

Even though the plaintiff dropped the case, the company still has to pay the fine that the court mandated.

Getting back to Legal Technologies published priorities for 2011. Collaboration about documentation and electronic discovery practices of the Legal Department transcend the relationship between the IT department and the legal staff.

Everyone who is in a position of responsibility needs to be aware of certain (not all) activities currently being managed by the legal department and should have the ability to participate in providing documentation and other information that pertain to the legal matter.

The CEO down to the plant management or store managers need to be able to participate in the efforts of the legal department. The most valued and prized asset of the corporation, the individuals themselves, need to be made aware of how important document and information management is at the enterprise level of any given company.

This fall LT Online will introduce an enhanced module for facilitating this collaboration. If you would like to get a sneak-peek make sure you are at out user conference.

Until then below are some informative links, other blog entries that highlight the capabilities of LAWTRAC’s document management system.

1.	How Hidden Email Data Increases Corporate Risk
2.	You've Already Gone Green
3.	LAWTRAC Docsave 2.0 Released
4.	Documents You Have Checked Out
5.	Top Ten Signs You Need LAWTRAC's Document Management
6.	Document Size Guidelines
7.	Need OCR Services? Flag The Document First
8.	Reports Created via SQL Statements
9.	List Documents by Author
10.	Question from Customer: File Not Found
11.	Question from Customer: Document Drag-n-Drop
12.	Pointing Matters to Document on the Network
13.	Type Of Document Restrictions
14.	Documents by Business Categories
15.	Interfacing with Document Retention Policies
16.	Drag-N-Drop: Advanced Function Made Easy
17.	Organizing Documents
18.	Outside Counsel Document Types
19.	Documents Provided by Outside Counsel
20.	Routing Slips Management Screen
21.	Email Document - Make A Note
22.	Save As Dialog Box
23.	Document Overview Information
24.	Document Calendars
25.	Sending a Document via Email
26.	Evaluating your Document Management System
27.	Boolean Search Operators and the Document Bank
28.	Searching: Document Meta Data
29.	Routing Slips

LT Online Corp Web Log

Internet is a “pact with the Devil”

I really don’t care for the great media hype that is reflective of the security problems popping up.

Here is a guy that associates the Internet to the Devil, but at the end of his 120 word essay he provides a link to his website. Compounded his two-faced irony is a request that you click on one of the ads so he can make a little money from the tool he proclaims belongs to the Devil.

Yes, there are hackers out there exploiting the soft underbellies of big corporations; but look towards the end of the tunnel – five years from now the lessons we are learning today will only serve to make the internet stronger. A better tool for education, commerce, and communication.

Take the time to review your own practices. Is your password the same thing you’ve been using for years and years? Is the wireless network you’ve set-up in your home secured?

Consider this as a simple practice. Obtain a pre-paid debit card; there are tons of services out there you can use. Transfer only the monies you intend to spend online to that card and use it to order your pizza from PapaJohns.com or bit on that broken laser pointer on eBay. This way if anyone does hack into Papa Johns or eBay all they are going to get is a few dollars and not access to your next car payment.

Contrary to what this hype-artists says via the Huffington Post the Internet is not of the Devil. The Internet is “of man” and therefor will always have flaws, but will always have room for improvement.

Andrew Reinbach: Computer "Security"

For Veterans and the General Public - National Center for PTSD

Those of you who know me personally understand why I’m recommending this for a reason.

Know someone who was in the military for twenty days or twenty years, or a friend who suffered an assault of any kind give this site a look over.

You may be the person who helps another just by passing on this blog entry and link.

For Veterans and the General Public - National Center for PTSD

Hackers: When the money is gone; it’s gone

Bank Not Responsible for Letting Hackers Steal $300K From Customer

I for one don’t have $300,000 lying around in a bank account for hackers to steal; no, the point of this story is that the financial intuition is not responsible for this theft.

In this particular case I agree. (see link below)

Had this been a case where the hackers attacked the bank’s infrastructure without having any user’s credentials then the bank should be held liable.

This particular case the company’s own employees fell for one of those emails designed to steal user names and passwords.

Everyone should be aware that companies are not going to send you an email asking you to log-in and check something for no real reason. FedEx and UPS don’t have your email address and are going to email you when they can’t deliver a package.

This is an example of when those emails work – and when the money is gone, it’s gone.

Bank Not Responsible for Letting Hackers Steal $300K From Customer | Threat Level | Wired.com

Brits Love Gossip, Regardless of the Subject

Is it just me? Why would a newspaper (orwebsitee) in the UK want to report on what is nothing more than gossip when it comes to the presidential elections here in the US?

Especially when it involves the war where we kicked their ass.

The image may be a little fuzzy - so see what I mean click HERE.