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Friday Summary – Post-Election

Adrian Lane November 7, 2008 No Comments

I was in Chicago this week for the Tech Target ISD event giving a presentation on Information Centric Security. Like most of the people who flew in from other parts of the country for this event, we were so focused on the election and getting out to vote before we flew in, that we completely missed the fact that Obama would be speaking about a mile from the Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place. Most of us simply forgot that this was Obama’s home, and that Grant Park would be the likely place for any speeches that were to be given. Dave Mortman was kind enough to show Adam Dodge, Andy the IT Guy, and myself around, and take us to dinner at the Russian Tea Room off Adams street. When we were done with dinner around 8:30, we wandered over to Michigan Avenue for some people watching. The crowd was just starting to build, with thousands of people walking down the street to the entrances of Grant Park. While early, there was no doubt about the outcome for the attendees at this point. The most amazing thing was the sense of energy and genuine elation in the crowd as they walked down the street. Not the wild frenzy you get in New York when the Yankees win a pendant, but more a feeling of relief and joy than anything else. We booked it back to the Hyatt and watched the election results, and Obama’s subsequent speech, on television before calling it a night. I am very glad that I got a chance to be there, albeit on the periphery, as the mood & energy of that crowd was something I have never experienced before. All in all a very nice trip, and hats off to the Tech Target team for putting on such a well run, professional event. The only downside of the whole week was my Southwest flight having to make an unscheduled stop due to running out of fuel(!!!!), and having to present opposite Captain Virtualization on Wednesday morning. Oh, one minor point of interest. While I was at the Hyatt, I noticed that the hotel has a new revenue model: Tel-evator. This is a little marketing device television that they are putting into the elevators to deliver targeted marketing to conference attendees while they take the ride to and from their rooms. Being a security guy, as well as someone who gets annoyed at marketing messages constantly shoved at me, I was thinking “how could I hack this”. In the one minute ride I got as far as determining these little devices are nothing more than laptops running Windows Vista, with content being pushed over the 802.11 wireless connection, before I had to go to the conference. That night when returning to my room, I saw that someone else had the same idea. The ‘Tel-evator’ was now at an MS-DOS prompt, running a script, before rebooting into Vista. Beaten to the punch I guess. If you were the one who hacked the system, shoot me an email and let me know what you found. It was a relatively quiet week on the security front, with no major disasters or announcements. And from what I hear, Comrade Mogull is alive and well. Webcasts, Podcasts, and Conferences: Rich is giving a presentation at a conference in Moscow this week. I was in Chicago at the TechTarget ISD event giving a presentation on the Information Centric Security Lifecycle. Favorite Securosis Posts: Rich: Somehow he manges to work scales, skeletons and Barbie into this discussion on the effect of publicly available personal information, in the future of privacy and politics post. Adrian: It’s long, but there is plenty of food for thought in the DAM: Event Collection Options post. Favorite Outside Posts: Adrian: The original reports of Mike Rothman being MIA, and subsequent rumored sighting of him at a Jimmy Buffet concert walking around in a giant foam parrot suit are unfounded. Eyewitness accounts place him in Chicago this week at the ISD conference. While the parrot suit might have been more flattering than the eIQ polo shirt he was seen wearing, Mike’s health and well being are no longer in doubt. Rich: No reason to dance around it; browser security is pretty bad. Jeremiah discusses a rational and pragmatic approach to addressing Browser Security issues from both the outside and the inside. Top News: Obviously the big news this week is Obama winning the election, and his process of filling out his staff and devising an economic plan to turn the economy around. The economy is still plunging, and despite falling oil prices, we are seeing stocks continue to fall. Craigslist comes of age. Interesting piece on Express Scripts receiving an extortion threat from unknown parties who breached their database. Just ran across this article on CNET about WPA being cracked. Don’t know if this is legit yet. [Pepper adds: Check out Glenn Fleishman’s analysis at Ars Technica] Blog Comment of the Week: Tod on the Felon Database post: “You know that Felonspy.com is a joke, right? More specifically, it’s almost certainly political satire of the sex offender databases.” I do now, Tod- I do now. Share:

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