August 2023

Office with computers

EOL

Cybersecurity, Security / By

They’re still running. Whirring away. Connected to the Internet. Owners, of older computers running on Microsoft platforms, please check your operating system versions. Especially businesses. If you find Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, take note! Those operating systems are considered EOL, or end-of-life. The only valid Microsoft Windows non-server (regular computer) operating system versions are Windows 10 and Windows 11. So these older ones – they’re, essentially, retired. On the heralded shelf of progress Windows […]

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Virtual CISO Moment and Heather

Anecdote, Cybersecurity, Small Business / By

It looks ominious and obnoxious. Like a giant tablet that doesn’t work like a tablet. Starlink. For my country living self and family, it’s FAST. 3 days in, and I can do things like upload my half of a podcast in the time it takes me to grab a salad. I also got a swank Starlink sticker. But that’s not even the big news of the week. Yesterday I recorded with Greg Schaffer talking about very, very

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Graphic that says "Scandal" in red

That…Incident

Cybersecurity, Data Breaches, Semantics / By

The word incident makes us think of the family scandal no one talks about (but everyone whispers). “That…incident…” Yet this is the word for when cybersecurity fails its mission of confidentiality, availability, and/or integrity. And we MUST talk about it. Also – just the dictionary definition of incident doesn’t do the word much service for us in talking with non-cybersecurity colleagues and friends. Definition 1: “A particular occurrence, especially one of minor importance. synonym: occurrence.”

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owl with ominous orange eyes

Data In Any Other Language…

Cybersecurity, Data Breaches / By

I’ve got it now. I was messing up vas-tu and tu vas…and how to properly phrase questions in French. Duolingo helped me on that. But Duolingo’s also been sloppy, and now my email address and some other pertinent information about me – Heather the human – is “out there.” Yet again. To be fair, I’ve been online for a very long time; you could probably find my email address in a few places. But, still,

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school bus

The Wheels on the Bus

Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Awareness, Email / By

Chromebooks. Canvas. SIS. Syllabi disseminated via Google (and other) forms asking for parent review verification. Yep, another school year. Please be extra vigilant evaluating those back-to-school requests that may or may not come from teachers. Be a good opportunity for a phishing campaign from, say, your child’s “Spanish teacher” – click here to see and sign off on our syllabus. You’re not that hard to demographically identify, parents. One of our local news sites showed

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Hedge apples

Just Whose Work Is this Anyway?

AI / By

An expert I trust said “absolutely not!” She’s got 30+ years of teaching English, creative writing. The question was “is this my work?” Read on! The Prompt To ChatGPT I spake: Please write a [Shakesperean] sonnet in this style. Include colors and seasons, animals and the passage of time. The tone should be wistful, but yet the poem should end on a complete and hopeful note. Keep in strict iambic pentameter as you write. Use

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Running shoes

Running Shadow IT

Anecdote, Cybersecurity / By

I was shadow IT. Before the term. Before it was bad, and before programmers were “developers.” We had to be – more tasks than formal IT staff. Programming was the best way to solve business problems. Connect data together into information, into knowledge. Then wisdom for the people who needed to act on it. So if you had programming skill in the 90s, you’d get an opportunity to use that at work. If programming was

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marigold

Plan (and Maintain) Your Garden

Anecdote, Cybersecurity / By

Scope was clear and sensible. Small pool-shaped (and sized) terraced flower bed. Prepped and growing flowers for as low a cost as possible. Marigolds, nasturtiums. Direct sow seeds. June had it looking a bit sparse, so I picked up a few annuals to plant in the gaps. Come mid July, the marigolds grew so big and so prevalent they dwarfed everything else. The packaging tells you when to thin the plants…and how much. Naa. They

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Brought to You By The Letter P

AI / By

Because…control. I want generative AI placed in the purview of “robotic arm.” For now. Why? Because…control. I often say #inspectwhatyouexpect. Projects, processes, procedures, plans, programs, and progress demand knowing inputs, outputs, and – somewhere – the ingredients in the magic. If you’re the magic provider (look, a word that starts with P), you’d best understand how precise, how predictable your magic is. It can’t be whimsical; instead, it must be proven. Enter the robotic arm idea.

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Blurry speedometer

Lickety Split

Cybersecurity, Data Breaches / By

Absquatulate – to “depart in a hurry” Use that in your cybersecurity conversations. Absquatulate with data, with credentials. Vamoose is another good one. We discuss dwell time fairly frequently, but what today consider well orchestrated events of in, snatch/grab, exit. What’s fast? 💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨Known username, password. No multifactor authentication. Admin access.💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨 Next up would be an easy-to-guess password with no MFA. Help me list a bunch of easy ways in; with that list, it’s much easier

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