I'm working on a few other posts for this week, but have not had adequate time to form them. So, until that time (soon, I hope), here are a few of the things I've read over the past week that I've found interesting. Topics range from cool new technology (a UV water purifier pen) to security solutions to risk management discussions to tips for learning guitar on the web to a scholarship opportunity from ISC2 for post-grad research.
SteriPEN JourneyLCD Water Purifier
http://thegoat.backcountry.com/blog/2008/03/05/steripen-journeylcd-water-purifier/
-- Cool tool for water purification. No idea how well it works, but it sounds good! :)
Infrastructure Protection in the Ancient World
http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2008/03/infrastructure-protection-in-ancient.html
-- Pointer to a paper on how Rome protected its aqueducts.
Creating and Entrapping Terrorists
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/03/creating_and_en.html
-- An excellent article referenced on how the Joint Terrorism Task Forces are creating fictional threats, likely to justify their existence. The source article points out that only 10% of the 619 "terrorism-related" cases brought forward have resulted in related charges. JTTFs have also manufactured and entrapped "threats" to national security. Brilliant!
Traffic jam emerges for no reason at all
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/03/traffic_jam_emerges_for_no_rea.php
-- Check out this remarkable video! Cars are started at equal distances and told to drive the same low speed (30kmh). Eventually they bunch of, causing a "shockwave" effect that requires stopping and starting as it travels backwards at about 20KPH. Weird!
CERIAS Weblogs » Open Source Outclassing Home Router Vendor’s Firmware
http://www.cerias.purdue.edu/weblogs/pmeunier/general/post-142/open-source-outclassing-home-router-vendors-firmware/
-- A nice write-up on alternate firmware images for your Linksys WRT54G device.
Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases & How they Infect Information Security
http://riskmanagementinsight.com/riskanalysis/?p=335
-- I'm a big fan of Deming. Here we see his 7 Deadly Diseases (of quality) applied to infosec.
Optimal IdM introduces Virtual Identity Server
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=5867
-- Interesting new identity management solution that overlays Microsoft environments.
Network Access Control: Bridging the Network Security Gap
http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=1116
-- A long-ish story on NAC that talks about using it to supplement firewalls in the increasingly complex network space.
Keeping too many doors open narrows our options.
http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/03/15154.html
-- I love stuff like this. Eliminate options to make your decisions easier. Try not to focus too much on keeping options available for the future if you don't have a reasonable expectation for needing it.
11 Resources For Learning Guitar On The Web
http://mashable.com/2008/03/02/learn-guitar-online/
-- Self-explanatory.
Someone to Watch, Over Me…
http://riskmanagementinsight.com/riskanalysis/?p=334
-- A brief explanation of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) - presumably as an industry or community of interest.
$100,000 Information Security Scholarship awards
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=5844
-- ISC2 is offering $100k scholarships for full-time post-grad work in infosec. Fairly nice deal, that.
Decimate Those “Someday” Projects with Triangulation
http://www.lifeclever.com/decimate-those-someday-projects-with-triangulation/
-- Advice on starting a creative project.
