The Day the Earth Stood Still

The news about intense solar flares scheduled to hit the earth today and the potential disruption of electronics reminded me of one of my favorite movies. The original 1951 version of  The Day the Earth Stood Still begins with a flying saucer landing in Washington DC. Klaatu, a representative of the intergalactic peacekeeping force, delivers a warning to the people of earth to cease all conflict and avoid the inevitable destruction of the planet which is apparently going to bring down property values all over the galaxy. Klaatu tries at first to assemble world leaders but meets with little success. He then seeks audience with a well known leader of the scientific community in the hopes of convincing them to somehow change the course of history. To convince the people of earth they are up against a superior force, Klaatu had scheduled what he characterized as a small demonstration of their abilities. At precisely noon, electricity around the globe simple stops working. Cars won't start, trains won't run, elevators stop and lights go out everywhere. The human race is stunned, and, presumably convinced to pay attention. Contrary to the old axiom, don't shoot the messenger, Klaatu is cornered and shot dead. But his body is recovered by Gort, one of a race of giant robots built to keep the peace. He is restored to life long enough to bid farewell and sail of into the stratosphere, leaving the people of earth to settle their differences or else.

What would happen if electricity did suddenly stop working? Maybe we don't have to worry about flying saucers and alien controlling us. Solar flares have occurred before with limited impact.

But we do have to worry about the very real threat of cyber-terrorism and the possibility that one day it will result in more than just the theft of information.  Last year Stuxnet appeared on the scene and is the first known example of a cyber attack resulting in real world damage.  This highly advanced malware (software created for hidden and often devious or even dangerous purposes) sought out and took control over uranium enriching centrifuges in Iran, ultimately causing them to irreparably damage themselves. You can watch this video to see what it looks like when a generator is driven to self destruction by software control.

How long before critical infrastructure such as the telecommunications network or power grid are targeted and successfully compromised? Every day we see another news story about a major security breach. No person, company, government or country is immune. Even our  most secure government agencies have been successfully compromised. This report by Kathleen Hickey lists the targets of one so-called hacktivist group called LulzSec. They include Sony, Nintendo, PBS, the U.S. Senate, the CIA and several foreign governments.

Are we adequately prepared to defend against, deal with or recover from such an attack? The power grid struggles today to keep up with ever increasing demand. Communications capacity is already stretched by internet traffic, streaming video and the support of mobile users. Without power or communications commerce, indeed the nation, will come to a grinding halt. Our daily lives will be dramatically altered. Depending on the nature and extent of the damage, it could take months or years to repair.

Maybe an intergalactic intervention is what we need. Klaatu, are you out there?

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Excuse Me Sir, Can I Get Your Opinion?

One of the truly neat features of Google Plus is Hangouts. These are video chat sessions that can be started at any time with invitations extended to your "circle" of friends or open to anyone on Google Plus. With one click of your mouse you can fire up a Hangout session and the others can join in. Of course your computer must be sound and video enabled although there is a chat window where you can participate by typing.

There are many possible uses of this tool including business meetings, focus groups, tutoring, client meetings, job interviews or just chatting with friends. One individual is using it to deliver guitar lessons and Dell is considering using it for customer support.

Sarah Hill of KOMU-TV came up with a truly novel and quite innovative use for Google Hangouts; she conducts  "man on the street interviews" with people from around the globe. No mobile studio equipment in vans, satellite up-links or remote reporters needed. Anyone can sit in the comfort and safety of their own home while Sarah engages you and the others in a lively round-table discussion. People in Sarah's Hangout are essentially sitting on the studio couch and their thoughts and opinions can easily be incorporated into the news of the day. A special connection was installed to allow the video to be captured or stream to the live broadcast.

I had the good fortune, thanks to Kim Beasley, a Google Plus friend in my circles, to be invited to join  Sarah's Hangout earlier this week  The discussion revolved around new legislation designed to protect students from inappropriate behavior by teachers. The law attempts to prohibit students from having a relationship with teachers in popular social networks. Joining me and Kim in this particular Hangout session were three others including Laurent JP Ravatec from Paris. We each had a turn to present our views while the entire Hangout session was recorded. Three short segments were then compiled and edited into this newscast which went out live to the television market. That's how a blogger from New York can wind up on live TV in Missouri.

Sarah will be hosting more Hangout sessions with the next one scheduled for later today. No doubt this is going to catch on and soon more television stations will be airing content captured with this technique.

In my view, this is truly breakthrough journalism. My (captains) hat is off to Sarah and the entire crew at KOMU for scooping the majors on this one. Sure hope you're paying attention Diane Sawyer.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Internet from the Great Beyond

An article in the local newspaper (yes, I still read them) had a story about the use of quick response or QR codes on headstones in the cemetery. QR codes are those little square boxes appearing in all manner of printed media these days. They are another form of bar code that smart phones with a camera and QR reader software can decipher. The  article described a new service inscribing your headstone with a QR code that could link to a web site containing your obituary, a  special message for your friends and loved ones, or a complete archive of your life. Creative, if not a bit morbid.

Then I listened to Adam Ostrow's TED talk "after your final status update" and quickly realized this merely scratched the surface (no pun intended.) Apparently, death does not have to be the end of your social networking activity. There is an entire industry springing up to keep you, or rather your thoughts and memories alive long after you are gone.

Deceased celebrities like Michael Jackson routinely place among the top Twitter accounts followed by hundreds of thousands of people. But now there is If I Die.net to help you prepare your final message and keep your Facebook or other social network alive and kicking, even after you are not. In just a couple of simple steps you can prepare a message which will appear on your Facebook page at a predetermined time following your demise.

As if that is not enough, the truly spooky part is work being done to embed the essence of your knowledge, experience and viewpoints into artificial intelligence. With the average Facebook user contributing 90 pieces of content each month and the massive data analysis capabilities at our disposal, over time we just may be able to learn enough about a person to have Facebook continue posting with their views and personality after they are gone.

There are religions that profess and many people who believe in reincarnation. Depending on the kind of life you lead, you may return to the earth in some inanimate object, as an animal or live another human life. Now, those who worship technology can also expect one day to be reborn as a "bot" - a piece of software that acts, thinks and contributes content or comments to columns like this one.

Granny, do you have any thoughts on this?

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Feeling Insecure? It May Be the People Around You

At the end of the day, information security is all about the people. In any discussion of security in the cloud or the security of digital information in general, people are the most significant element.

One can devote a lifetime of effort erecting all kinds of technical defenses including the latest in firewalls, intrusion detection, double or triple authentication, encryption, biometrics and other systems to keep the bad guys out. But all it takes is one errant click by an employee and all of this is rendered moot.

There have been a number of high profile hacks resulting in large amounts of sensitive data being obtained and exploited by groups like Wikileaks and Anonymous for political purposes. We also read about companies like Epsilon, TJ Max and Sony where huge amounts of personal information has been obtained by outsiders. Moreover, we know we only hear about a fraction of the actual number of hacks that occur. Often a company does not want to publicly admit they have been compromised and will simply pay off the hackers to recover or have them destroy the stolen data.

There is an ever escalating war between the security professionals introducing the latest approach to securing your data and the hackers who always seem to be one step ahead, uncovering vulnerabilities in software and either exploiting them for gain or publishing the means for others to do so.

But when you peel back the covers and look at how most of these security breaches happened it almost always involved an employee who was socially engineered into giving out information or clicking on a link that pokes the proverbial hole in the dike. People are the weakest link in security.

It is surprising, then, that companies continue to invest more of their time and money in complex hardware and sophisticated software, rather than education programs for employees. There is a long list of bad habits that should be addressed such as the use of simple passwords, unencrypted data transmissions, smart phones and laptops lacking a PIN or other access protection and installation of  games or other "free" software. Employees must learn to be highly skeptical of any links in an email, on a web site or in a chat session, and never give out information over the phone without verifying the identity of the caller.

Comprehensive training and frequent reminders coupled with the appropriate level of technology can provide a much higher return on investment and result in a far more secure computing environment.

What are some of the bad employee habits you have observed?

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

You Are What You Read

You can make some interesting observations about the people who frequent Google Plus by the length of the comment stream that follows each posting. The other day it was quite a challenge to catch up with all of the threads that had appeared literally overnight. But it was interesting to note which topics generated the most chatter.


These observations are based on a relatively small number of people in a very limited time frame, and is by no means a statistically significant sample. But I did find it interesting that most posts were followed by only a handful of comments. In fact, mine generate so few, it makes me wonder if they are actually getting published. But some of the posts by noted journalists or Google officials generate lots of chatter.


Posts that garnered the least reaction were about the business value of Google Plus, the content and the style of use. For example, one referenced an article citing how Google Plus brings more and better quality traffic to business and it hardly got any reaction. Google Plus early adopters, or Pluserati as I call them, don't seem to care a lot about making money. The other commented on how a few people were writing their entire blog entries in Google Plus instead of posting a link to blogspot, wordpress or other popular blog sites. Not much feedback on this one either. Personally I prefer posting a link since these blog sites have (at least for the moment) much richer creative tool sets. The Google Plus text editor is very limited at the moment.


Posts that offer new tools, extensions or neat tricks had on average 50 comments, though most were one sentence long. Frequently they were expressions of gratitude: Hey, thanks a lot, acknowledgement of value: This is really neat - going to use it a lot and instant feedback or impressions after putting it into action: Worked exactly as advertised - simple,fast and clean. These new Pluserati don't waste any time. 


When the politically charged topic of freedom of speech appeared, I knew the comment stream was going to be long. But I did not expect the number of lengthy and rather well written essays that appeared debating how Google could or should deal with content posted by hate groups, pornography, insurrection and other controversial topics. When the comment stream topped 100, I stopped counting. 


Much to my surprise, though, it was not the topic that won the comments contest. It was the mere mention of the impending introduction of games to Google Plus that sent the Pluserati into overdrive. Not a lot of well thought out, well constructed, cohesive and coherent arguments here. Just well over 200 short but clear expression of dismay.  


Keep an eye on your Google Plus stream and see if your impression of the Pluserati matches mine. 


Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC