If you want a feel for how long 80 years is, here are a few facts. In 1933, the President was Herbert Hoover until March, when FDR became President. The Great Depression was well underway in the US and spreading around the world. Hitler first rose to power in Germany. And Prohibition was repealed in the US. I’ll certainly drink to that. Some famous folks were born in 1933 as well. Luminaries such as Joan Collins, Larry King, and Yoko Ono. Have you seen Larry or Yoko lately? Yeah, 80 seems pretty old. Unless it’s not. My father-in-law turned 80 this year. In fact his birthday was yesterday and he looks a hell of a lot better than most 80-year-olds. He made a joke at his birthday party over the weekend that 80 is the new 60. For him it probably is. He has been both lucky and very healthy. We all think his longevity can be attributed to his outlook on life. He has what we call jokingly _the Happy Gene.. In the 20 years I have been with the Boss I have seen him mad twice. Twice. It’s actually kind of annoying – I probably got mad twice already today. But the man is unflappable. He’s a stockbroker, and has been for 35 years, after 20 years in retail. Stocks go up, he’s cool. Stocks go down, he’s cool. Clients yell at him, he’s cool. He just doesn’t get bent out of shape about anything. He does get fired up about politics, especially when I intentionally bait him, because we see things from opposite sides. He gets excited about baseball and has been known to scream at the TV during Redskins games. But after the game is done or the discussion is over, he’s done. He doesn’t hold onto anger or perceived slights or much of anything. He just smiles and moves on. It is actually something I aspire to. The Boss said a few words at his party and summed it up perfectly. She had this entire speech mapped out, but when I heard her first sentence I told her to stop. It’s very hard to sum up a lifestyle and philosophy in a sentence, but she did it. And anything else would have obscured the beauty of her observation. Worry less, enjoy life more. That’s it. That’s exactly what he does, and it has worked great for 80 years. It seems so simple yet it’s so hard to do. So. Hard. To. Do. But for those, like my father-in-law, who can master worrying less… a wonderful life awaits. Even when it’s not so wonderful. Happy Birthday, Sandy. I can only hope to celebrate many more. –Mike Photo credit: “Dad’s 80th Birthday Surprise” originally uploaded by Ron and Sandy with Kids Heavy Research We are back at work on a variety of blog series, so here is a list of the research currently underway. Remember you can get our Heavy Feed via RSS, where you can get all our content in its unabridged glory. And you can get all our research papers too. The Endpoint Security Buyer’s Guide Introduction Continuous Security Monitoring Classification Defining CSM Why. Continuous. Security. Monitoring? Database Denial of Service Attacks Introduction API Gateways Implementation Key Management Developer Tools Security Analytics with Big Data Deployment Issues Integration New Events and New Approaches Use Cases Introduction Newly Published Papers Quick Wins with Website Protection Services Email-based Threat Intelligence: To Catch a Phish Network-based Threat Intelligence: Searching for the Smoking Gun Understanding and Selecting a Key Management Solution Building an Early Warning System Incite 4 U Social responsibility: Before I get too far I need to acknowledge that this is definitely a bit of he said/she said. Now that has been put out there, what we know is that Microsoft released a patch for a bug discovered and released on the full disclosure list by security researcher Tavis Ormandy (who works for Google, but I think that’s incidental here). Microsoft stated last week that the bug is being actively used in targeted attacks after it was disclosed.. Tavis was clear that he didn’t notify Microsoft before posting the details publicly. Here’s what I think: we all have a social responsibility. While MS may have treated Tavis poorly in the past – justified or not – his actions put the rest of us at risk. It’s about users, not Microsoft or the researcher. If Tavis knew the bug was being used in the wild, I support full disclosure. If the vendor doesn’t respond or tries to cover it up and users are at risk, disclose publicly and quickly. But at least give them a chance, which requires thinking about the impact on everyone else first. To be balanced, vendors have a responsibility to respond in a timely fashion, even if it isn’t convenient. But to release a bug with no evidence that anyone else is using it? That doesn’t seem responsible. – RM Identity theft fullz up: Interesting research hit this week from Dell SecureWorks, per a Dark Reading article, about seeing complete packets of stolen information (fullz), including healthcare information, appearing in marketplaces for $1,200 or so. With a full kit an attacker would have everything they need for identity theft, including counterfeit documents such as driver’s licenses and health insurance cards. Also interesting were that credit cards with CVV can be had for $1-2 each, although a prestige card (such as AmEx Black) can cost hundreds. This is Mr. Market at work. Prices for commodities go down but valuable information still demands a premium. It appears online game accounts are a fraud growth market because turning virtual items into real money can be easier due to less stringent fraud detection. – MR Easier than making coffee: Gunnar Peterson’s keynote at CIS2013 was full of valuable witticisms (the entire presentation is on his blog) – but made a particularly profound point regarding code security: it needs to be so easy that a seventeen-year-old can do it time and time again without fail. Gunnar drew a parallel between Five Guys’ recipe for burger success against behemoth competitors:
