Known Unknowns and State Dinners
You’re an IT expert, department head, and management guru. You eat complications for lunch and challenges for dessert, but have you ever really gotten that stellar mind of yours around budgeting? You know about the known knowns, and the known unknowns can be accounted for, but that last category of unknown unknowns stumped even Dick […]
Katrina and the Waves
In 1985, when IT was an emerging career track and Steve Jobs was resigning from Apple, the British sent Katrina and the Waves across the big pond, walking on sunshine. Fast forward 20 years and we encountered a completely different Katrina and much bigger waves, leaving folks stranded on rooftops and walking on the Superdome. […]
Government Contractors and APTs
The last several months have seen an increase in the reported breaches of government or related networks. The University of Virginia network was breached recently by Chinese hackers, mainly, it is thought, because of their connection to DoD, Intelligence, and other government contractors, programs, and facilities. Government contractors seem especially vulnerable these days, particularly to APTs, so […]
An Affair to Remember
Imagine your life as a conservative, family values politician, or maybe even a minister, leading a flock of faithful men and women, your devoted wife at your side and pictures of the children on the desk behind you. That’s the “Before” picture, the one you see in your mind before the Ashley Madison hack and […]
Planning for DEFCON Twelve
Inevitably Incidental In response to the ever-increasing number of high-profile cybersecurity breaches, The White House has formed the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center to coordinate cyber threat data and assessments. Regardless of your position on government intervention, the move reflects a heightened national awareness of the pervasive nature of cyberthreats in our world.
The Certainty of Uncertainty
Boys (and Girls) of Summer Summer’s almost over. The kids are making their way back to school, and the parents are breathing a sigh of relief. Time has flown over the last three months, leaving in its wake a sandy, chlorine-smelling, airplane-riding, summer-camping, barefooted, late-sleeping bundle of teenage angst. Good times, am I right? But […]
Changing Hands or Changing Plans
Your business has been rocking along, but the tide of change is rising. Maybe your stellar sales team has lined up a truckload of projects and you’ve got to expand your network. Maybe you’re facing an ownership change and need to make the upgrades the previous owners didn’t favor. Or maybe you’re starting a […]
The First Time It Crosses Your Mind
Someone asked a reputed “Captain of Industry” when it was appropriate to fire somebody. His response was simple. “The first time is crosses your mind,” he said. If you supervise people, lead a team, herd vendors, or manage customer relationships, you’ve probably asked yourself the same question, and maybe you came up with a […]
Stagefright
The Golden Age of Yesterday Remember way back, when flip phones roamed the earth and the threat of trojans could be quarantined in the CPUs and laptops in your life? The innocence dissipated with the dawn of smartphones in 2007. Then the deluge of apps ushered in all manner of new threats, but at least […]
Ghost in the Machine
You’re probably recalling where you were the first time you heard Sting and The Police, or what the funky red graphics were on the cover of that album. That’s what most folks recall. We are, after all, Spirits in the Material World. The expression was actually coined by Gilbert Ryle in his 1949 book The Concept […]
