Where ITIL does not apply...

I've had numerous discussions with quality management fanatics over the years. They do a great job! Only one problem; you can't have policies, standards and procedures for everything. If something unforseen happens, you can either a) create a new range of documents and execute them, or b) you can take action based on common sense, experience and pure reflexes. Guess once which side I'm at. (Click image for full size)

Sci-Fi experiences at Finse!

I've attended the NISNet winter school 25-30 of April, 2010 (program, pdf) at Finse1222. Here's my report & rants.

 


Yep, that's where they shot parts of Star Wars : The Empire Strikes Back in 1979. :-)

WOW!

Not only did I listen to a range of really interesting presentations from recognized researchers within security, but I was also allowed to do an evening presentation on my favorite topic; passwords.

I rettferdighetens navn

Som en uavhengig referansegruppe i regi av Den Norske Dataforeningen, observerer vi en aktiv diskusjon rundt stemmegiving over Internett og E-valg 2011-prosjektet. Kritikken viser at det er til dels manglende kunnskap om sikkerhet i elektroniske løsninger, og en blind tro på at dagens papirvalg er sikkert.

Lessons learned on BCP

"No, we said we wanted CASH, not ASH!". And that's just one of the many jokes now circulating the Internet and media everywhere about Iceland. #ashcloud already exists on Twitter, and today I got my lesson as well. Well deserved probably. Let me explain.

Farvel, herr Direktør.

Georg Apenes går av som direktør i Datatilsynet 9. april.

Med bare 38 år i folkeregisteret velger jeg å føye meg til listen over personer som sier at en epoke nå tar slutt. Jeg har sett listen over potensielle arvtakere til din stilling, og er spent på hvem som til slutt får jobben. Jeg tillater meg å si at det å overta din plass i samfunnsdebatten absolutt kan sammenlignes med å skulle hoppe etter Wirkola eller tale etter Kåre Willoch. 

Reply from ISACA

On March 26 I received a reply from the ISACA media relations department, informing me that they will be making some changes to future surveys. Changes will include a few of the aspects addressed by my blog post, including the use of SSL and additional information in the body of the survey.

Their response is highly appreciated of course, and I look forward to future surveys from ISACA. Thanks Deb!

Knock, knock... Who's there, statistically?

Per, the owner of this blog has fled the country for a few days, so I am seizing the opportunity to not have my little musings drowned in his figurative firehose of blog posts.

About six months ago, I reinstalled one of my Gentoo Linux servers and I left the SSH port open to the world. I did this deliberately, as I tend to access my servers from many different sites, not always knowing in advance what my source address will be. Usually, I'll install logrotate and a few other packages to keep things tidy, but for some reason this was neglected.

The other day, while doing some routine maintenance on the server, I discovered that the system log file /var/log/messages had grown to a whopping 12GB. What on earth was going on here?

Write down your password!

Do you have many passwords? How many of them are you able to remember?  Do you have the same password across different systems and services? Do you use the same password at work as you do at home - and on Facebook? Write them down - and security will be improved.

Skriv ned passordet ditt!

Har du mange passord? Klarer du ikke å huske alle? Har du samme passord på tvers av ulike løsninger? Bruker du samme passord på jobb som du gjør hjemme - og på Facebook? SKRIV DEM NED - og sikkerheten blir bedre.

Rait-prais-tails-dått-com?

Til dere som jobber med rådgivning rundt sosiale medier, her er en liten sak dere kan ha interesse av. Dere er jo opptatt av å skape dialog og på den måten bygge kundelojalitet, eller økonomisk sikkerhet for butikken som man også kan kalle det. :-)