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Incite 1/7/2014: Savoring the Moment

Mike Rothman January 7, 2015 No Comments

Early December is a big deal in our house. It’s Nutcracker time, with both girls working all fall to get ready for their dance company’s annual production of the Xmas classic. They do 5 performances over a weekend, and neither girl wants it to end. We have to manage the letdown once that weekend is over. It has been really awesome to see all of the dancers grow up, via the Nutcracker. They start as little munchies playing party boys and girls in the first scene, and those who stick with it become Dew Drop or possibly even the Sugarplum Fairy. The big part for XX1’s group this year was Party Clara. It’s on Pointe and it’s a big and featured role in Act 1. She has been dreaming about this part for the past 4 years, and when we heard she got it for one of the performances this year, we knew it was going to be a special Nutcracker. She also got a featured Rag Doll part for another performance and was on stage 4-5 times during the show. XX2 wasn’t left out, and she got a number of featured parts as well. I used to dread that weekend but the girls didn’t really do much, so I could get away with going to one performance and being done with it. Now I attend 3 out of the 5 performances, and would go to all 5 if the girls had sufficient parts. I’m pretty sure the Boy wouldn’t be happy going to 5 performances, but he’ll get over it. I even skipped a home Falcons game to see the Sunday afternoon performance (I did!). One of the things I am working on is to pause during the big stuff and just enjoy it. You could call it smelling the flowers or something like that. For me it’s about savoring the moment. To see XX1 with a grin ear to ear performing as Party Clara was overwhelming for me. She was so poised, so in command, so happy. It was incredible. During those 3-4 minutes the world fell away. There was only my girl on stage. That’s it. Some folks watch their kids perform through a camera viewfinder. Or a cellphone screen while taking video. Not me. I want to experience it directly through my own eyes. To immerse myself in the show. I want to imprint it in my memory. Yes, we’ll buy the DVD of the performance, but that’s for the folks who weren’t there. I don’t need it. I was fully in that moment, and I can go back any time I want. And I do. –Mike Photo credit: “P1-VS-P2” originally uploaded by MoreInterpretations The fine folks at the RSA Conference posted the talk Jennifer Minella and I did on mindfulness at the 2014 conference. You can check it out on YouTube. Take an hour and check it out. Your emails, alerts and Twitter timeline will be there when you get back. Securosis Firestarter Have you checked out our new video podcast? Rich, Adrian, and Mike get into a Google Hangout and.. hang out. We talk a bit about security as well. We try to keep these to 15 minutes or less, and usually fail. December 18 – Predicting the Past November 25 – Numbness October 27 – It’s All in the Cloud October 6 – Hulk Bash September 16 – Apple Pay August 18 – You Can’t Handle the Gartner July 22 – Hacker Summer Camp July 14 – China and Career Advancement June 30 – G Who Shall Not Be Named June 17 – Apple and Privacy May 19 – Wanted Posters and SleepyCon 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, with our content in all its unabridged glory. And you can get all our research papers too. Security Best Practices for Amazon Web Services Third Party Tools Built-in Features Introduction Network Security Gateway Evolution Introduction Monitoring the Hybrid Cloud: Evolving to the CloudSOC Migration Planning Technical Considerations Solution Architectures Emerging SOC Use Cases Introduction Security and Privacy on the Encrypted Network Selection Criteria and Deployment Use Cases The Future is Encrypted Newly Published Papers Securing Enterprise Applications Secure Agile Development Trends in Data Centric Security Leveraging Threat Intelligence in Incident Response/Management The Security Pro’s Guide to Cloud File Storage and Collaboration The 2015 Endpoint and Mobile Security Buyer’s Guide Open Source Development and Application Security Analysis Advanced Endpoint and Server Protection The Future of Security Incite 4 U Security deadly sin: offensive envy: I dug up Richard Bejtlich’s awesome post from right before New Year, where he dismantles a list from Microsoft’s John Lambert and calls him out for minimizing the potential of defensive security. It is true that hacking stuff is sexy, and the chicks & dudes dig it. But still, the fact that many defenders work off checklists doesn’t mean all do. Because the defenders seem to come up on the losing end of some breach every day doesn’t mean their efforts are pointless. It means it’s a hard job, pure and simple. And glorifying the adversary only provides a defeatist attitude before you even start playing. Which I guess is the adversary’s plan… – MR No hands: I just love it when someone comes up with an entire class of security vulnerability – and if it might affect an Apple product guess what’s in the headlines? Like the general GSM wireless issue that was hyped as “iPhones Vulnerable” (every GSM phone was vulnerable). That hype sometimes does the issue a disservice, as highlighted in this piece at the Huffington Post on Jan Krissler recreating thumbprints from normal photographs at the Chaos Computer Club. It’s a fascinating and brilliant idea as we progress towards ubiquitous high-definition cameras throughout the world. Not merely for hacking phones, but for all the CSI-spinoff episodes it will inspire. Practically speaking,

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