Archive for Ranting
Author: Myrcurial
April 22, 2008 at 9:19 am · Filed under Ranting
Except that according to the folks at the Sydney Morning Herald, we’re all headed for a new kind of horror - cybergeddon, the digital mushroom cloud.
Is it just me, or do these nice people all seem to have a complete freakin’ fetish for the prefix Cyber?
In trying to make a point, these people all come off as rather pathetic characters out to scare people… or unaware that they sound like movie characters gone awry. Take for instance Mr. Brett Peppler, a former intelligence officer who undertakes research for the Australian Homeland Security Research Centre who said:
There’s no jurisdiction in cyberspace. There’s no accountability … no rules. And it’s grown explosively, not in a planned way.
Sounds a little too much like Shaggy, ahhhh… Cereal Killer in Hackers (shut up, I know you’ve all seen it) exclaiming:
FYI man, alright. You could sit at home, and do like absolutely nothing, and your name goes through like 17 computers a day. 1984? Yeah right, man. That’s a typo. Orwell is here now. He’s livin’ large. We have no names, man. No names. We are nameless!
And at the end of the day - it’s just a movie - if there’s gonna be a firesale, wouldn’t it have happened already? Aren’t the hackers addicted to critical infrastructure (telcom, power, ummm… twinkies and jolt shipments)? Aren’t the really bad nation-state types (well the ones to worry about anyways - yes China, probably not Yemen) really addicted to critical infrastructure (Walmart, containerized shipping, MacMansions with ARM mortgages)??
I guess as I go back and evaluate the time that I’ve spent working on Critical Infrastructure security (what a freakin’ mess), did I spend that time well, or not? Will the next war be fought in the spaces between computers or on a field with hot metal? I grew up when the cold war looked a little tepid, I’m accustomed to real bad guys — to Krushchev wanting to bury us — a nuke targeted at every city. What kind of pansy-ass bad guy construct is the industrial military complex trying to create for our consumption?
Where’s the facts and the journalism?
Tags: rants, cyberdouchery, tuesday
Author: Myrcurial
April 21, 2008 at 9:33 am · Filed under Ranting, Security Mgmt
I can’t believe it’s freakin’ Monday again. Seriously. When will this treadmill end?
If you joined us last week, you’ll know that we’re here to discuss all of those things you could be doing, but aren’t.
This week, short and sweet. Update your Intranet site.
Click for more…
More after the jump »
Author: Myrcurial
April 18, 2008 at 7:47 am · Filed under Ranting, Security Mgmt
You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling,
Whoa, that lovin’ feeling,
You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling,
Now it’s gone…gone…gone…wooooooh.
Now there’s no welcome look in your eyes when I reach for you.
And now you’re starting to criticize little things I do.
It makes me just feel like crying, (baby).
‘Cause baby, something in you is dying.
When the week is almost done, and you find yourself staring up from the abyss like El Jefe (see post 1, post 2, post 3, and numerous tweets) what is there to do besides roll over and let the sweet embrace of complacency take you down?
Well.
I could launch into a speech worthy of a summer blockbuster, but that’s not going to do it. The cliches are too many.
The system is such that it will attempt to suck the life right out of you. That’s what it does. Being the paranoid type that you are, you’re focused on those “high order” risks that the rest of the seething mass of humanity around you doesn’t seem to care about.
And at the end of the day, that’s all you’ve got.
I can’t give you a good reason to stay and accept the mediocrity of your employer and your fellow employees.
In time of revolution, with perseverance and courage, a soldier should think nothing impossible.
That line comes to us from Napoleon, and I think he’s got a point. The world is shifting - slowly, but inexorably - towards doing a better job of Information Management. With every FAIL on the part of those entrusted with information, the average joesephine is becoming more aware of the value of her information and less willing to entrust it to the incompetents and fools that are the basis of the remediation work of your life.
Hang in there, change is in the air. Ass will be kicked. And hey, it’s Friday!
Tags: ranting, security management
Author: Myrcurial
April 16, 2008 at 8:58 am · Filed under Ranting, Security Mgmt
The middle of the week.
The hump.
The point where you’re starting to think of the blessed relief of alcohol coursing through your veins for the weekend.
And yet, there’s so much to do, Monday’s MITs are still on your sheet as incomplete, there’s 4 new incident tickets in your queue and inbox zero is a fond memory of the past?
Yeah.
Same as me.
What to do?
I’ve considered giving up - capitulating - standing on the deck of the ship in my fishnet outfit and signing some sort of unconditional surrender.
I decided this morning that I wouldn’t go there. Especially not the fishnet. You can thank me later.
Instead, I’m going to divide and conquer. I’m going to put on some headphones, hang up the DND sign, hop on the internet and surf around looking for more ideas on how to be productive… no. wait. not that.
Pick up one thing, do it.
Then repeat.
And remember that it’s almost the weekend.
If you don’t count Thursday and Friday.
Tags: ranting, goofing off, gtd, humpday
Author: Myrcurial
April 11, 2008 at 10:33 am · Filed under Ranting, Security Mgmt
In this episode… the triumphant return!
Previously on LSD…
There are many copies…
Sigh.
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Something that El Jefe Lewis (over there with the smirk) takes up with me every.damn.time.we.talk.
So I’m working to remedy that.
This week, in reasons that you shouldn’t walk away from the steaming heap of nonsense that is your day job, I’d like to relate a little story. It’s a story with good guys, bad guys, challenges, and solutions. Also, it does not have Ewoks.
Click for more…
More after the jump »
Author: Myrcurial
April 9, 2008 at 2:36 pm · Filed under Ranting
It’s time folks.
It’s time for us to band together, united in a common cause with critical impacts on our lives.
It’s time to stamp out forever the disingenuous use of the prefix “Cyber” by the douchetard squadron of aged wannabes. (Note, The almighty Goog comes up with over 157,000 instances of the prefix on *.gov)
It has become the best differentiator of those who “get it” and those who never will. It’s like a dump truck of dumbassery, not a series of tubes, but a dedicated force of completely irrelevant people using a prefix that the Digerati (1) stopped using back when Wired was cool.
I cannot express it more clearly than that.
The latest shipment of dorkage in this department… Colonel Wayne Parks doesn’t get it on a scale previously completely unknown.
From Govexec.com “…stay out ahead of the speed of megabytes.” and “There was a day when we were operating at foot speed, now we’re moving at cyber speed.”
Yeah, this ‘expert’ is the one that the US Army has chosen to lead their Cyber Warriors… based out of Ft. Leavenworth.
Colonel Parks, Sir, you are the problem, not the solution.
Of course, I shouldn’t be expecting much better from anyone who uses the prefix “Cyber” willingly after 1996.
I’m at a loss as to a useful methodology for stopping old white men from doing stupid things that materially impact the people around them, of course, if I knew how to do that, I’d probably also have sharks with laser beams at my beck and call.
If, like me, you’re not in San Francisco, please feel free to chime in with the most egregious use of the prefix “Cyber” in the comments below or if you’d prefer, by email, and I’ll summarize in time for my next posting (averaging every 3 months or so….).
And hey, thanks for not being a cyberdouche
(1) A topic for yet another future call to arms.
Tags: cyber, douchetard, cyberdouche
Author: Myrcurial
November 29, 2007 at 9:37 pm · Filed under Humour, Ranting
More podcasty goodness.
powered by ODEO
Get the MP3 here…
Put it in your RSS here…
Add it to iTunes here…
Tags: csirt, security podcast, ranting, steve katz
Author: Myrcurial
November 24, 2007 at 9:46 pm · Filed under Ranting
The Audiobook edition.
MP3 Link Here.
Flash Player Here.
powered by ODEO
Add to your podcasts.
Add to iTunes.
Intro/Extro music by Mescaline.
Tags: SecTor2007, auditors, security podcast
Author: Myrcurial
November 16, 2007 at 4:03 pm · Filed under Ranting
Well, not quite exactly frequent, but certainly with more joy than is usually reserved for the obituary pages.
That’s right baby, I’m BACK.
What better way to round out one right bastard of a week than catching up with old Myrcurial…
Don’t answer that question, it was rhetorical, please click to read more about where I’ve been for 97 days.
More after the jump »
Author: Dave Lewis
July 31, 2007 at 11:28 pm · Filed under Administravia, Ranting
I have been an Oakley customer for years now but, I’m starting to have MAJOR second thoughts. I purchased a pair of Oakley eyeglasses (Blender 2.0) in January and I had to take it back to the optometrist twice to have the frames fixed when they cracked. Just this evening it happened again.
The flaw that has become my albatross is in the frail plastic joint on the arm. The roaring piece of crap is painful to have to contend with.
More after the jump »
Next entries »
Explore
Security Bloggers Network
