Shakes Alive! Protect yourshelf and your data!

I was just working on a presentation and created this pretty timeline that shows ALL the security breaches by the VA in the last 9 months. WOW! I am wondering why they keep doing this over and over again! (To see it bigger, you may click on it). And all of these incidents have to do with someone stealing the laptop/PC/hard drive/thumbdrive/folders/etc. I think it (FINALLY!) might be time for those old white guys to realize that perhaps it should be a requirement that all sensitive data is encrypted (at rest and in transit)! And let the fall out begin...?



Here's a cute table of the Top 5 Breaches of 2006 (according to CSO Magazine).

Records Potentially Breached	Where and When Made Public	What Happened
28.6 Million	Veterans Affairs Department, May 22	Laptop stolen from employee’s home holds veterans’ personal data. Computer recovered and FBI forensics says no data accessed; veterans agency contracts monitor to see if data misused.
2.6 Million	Circuit City, Chase Card Services, Sept. 7	Computer data tapes containing Circuit City cardholders’ data mistakenly discarded.
1.7 Million	Circuit City, Chase Card Services, Sept. 7	Worker at subcontractor loses equipment containing borrowers’ names and Social Security numbers.
1.35 Million	Chicago Election Board, Oct. 23	Illinois activists report they hacked into voter database where names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth are viewed.
1 Million	American Red Cross, St. Louis chapter, May 24	Employee with access to donors’ Social Security numbers allegedly uses three records for ID theft scheme.

mmm...Super Stack...

I love when you never change your passwords. In fact, I bet your router right now still has the same out of the box default password it had when you bought it. Sweet!
It's really cute how 3COM's Super Stack's default login/password is security/security. Ahhh...yes...security! Great choice! And Netgear really likes the admin/1234 combo. I have to give Linksys props too, I mean, why bother with a crappy default login/password- it's just way to much trouble. Let's just not have any - blank/blank! Who would have ever guessed that? Well, no one actually has to guess at all since the default username and passwords are published anyways. And while I'm at it, please also make sure you don't spend an extra two seconds changing the default ssid, either. Thanks!

Don't you love stealing wi-fi from your neighbors? Or driving around looking for a signal when on vacation in Kauai? Well - you might want to reconsider if you ever visit Singapore.

valentine, sweet valentine.

Happy Valentines Day!

If you have been wondering what the most perfect gift for me would be, I oh so wanty this! Is it not beautiful and useful and wonderful all at the same time? I think I must have this very expensive leather good.

If you are one of those humans who hates v-day, I think you need something to cheer you up. Check out my friend Bryan's blog - he wrote the funniest entry on how his ATM machine is now envelope-less.

Favorites!

Some favorites!

• Check out the interview with my most favoritest Security Guru, Bruce Schneier. If you likee, he has a blog-a-log you can read too! If you find yourself at his blog, check out his comments about DRM in Windows Vista.
  
• My most beloved Lamb was kind enough to give me my newest most cherished blanket. AND!!! She is famous! She stars as the blanket of The Cheerleader in Heroes! What are the odds of that!! Stay tuned for pictures of her coming soon!
  
• My favorite word = Omaha. What's yours? My most favorite sister in the universe has selected the word lumber as her favorite.
  

out of order

love it.

Number 2.

I am lucky enough to be married to the most wonderful lamb in the universe! He is the perfect combination of sweet and savory! If he was a number, he would be an integer that is the sum of its proper positive divisors, that is, the sum of the positive divisors not including the number (aka a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors, or σ(n) = 2 n). You could say he is my 6, or my 8128. My Perfect Number! yay!

There is one thing, however, that can turn his sweetness into an amalgamation of sour. This thing has to do with his stringent feeding schedule. He must be fed every two hours (give or take 15 minutes). As long as he is well fed, he is the kind lamb I speak of above. If not fed, he is a Grumpasaurus. Grumpapotamus. Grump to the E. My most favorite sister in the universe suffered from this problem, but now that she is older it has subsided (or so she claims...). Low blood sugar = grump.
Weekends are always the hardest for him to stay on schedule. I'm sure one reason is because during the week he has access to a variety of free foods from his geek dot com work breakroom snackdom. At any rate, yesterday we were running some errands and it was after noon and lamb was HunGrrry. I suggested we stop at the closest McDonalds so he could stick something meat-like into his mouth. He agreed and next thing I knew we were at McDonalds in Lafayette, CA. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, this is the nicest McDonalds I have ever entered. I felt like I was in a fast food palace. (It's even a wi-fi hotspot!) wow! And a habitrail for kids! Anyways, I ordered the $1 side salad and when it came time for Lamb to order he said "I'll have Number 2" to which I started laughing hysterically in that I Am A Twelve Year Old Boy kind of way. I just kept thinking of how appropriate that was - he is ordering Number 2 at McDonalds! Or, as Whitney Houston would say "Are you going to drop that on the 1?".

In other news, while we were shopping yesterday we ran into this. Be careful. Easter is coming.

Plus, we FINALLY found a dresser that we both agree on, AND it was 40% off, AND we actually bought it, AND we also bought 2 matching nightstands. How exciting is that!! We now will have a real grown up bedroom! yay!