Blog
Marriott Security Breakdown Gets Me Out of Bed (updated)
At 1:36 AM last night, I awoke to someone breaking into my room at the Cambridge Marriott hotel, outside of Boston. I heard the door slam open against the “visitor latch” that lets you open the door a bit to see who is outside. I jumped out of bed with my heart pounding, pulled on my pants and dialed 0 to have them send security to my room.
Don’t Even Think of Outrunning a Tornado
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, and you sure as heck can’t outrun a tornado. Do you have a safe room and have you gotten a kit, made a plan, and are ready to stay informed?
Are You Putting Your Organization At Risk?
In today’s always-on world, not only are employees talking about your latest secret project in public, they probably are working on it. Does this make your company an easy target for industrial espionage? The answer probably is yes.
Newtown Father Talks About Protecting His Daughter
Bill Stevens, the father of Victoria, a Sandy Hook Elementary school student, states that in the event of an intruder, there would be no lockdown at his house, and 911 would only be called after he has secured the situation. Why can’t his daughter’s school protect her as well as he can at home?
Lessons Learned from Superstorm Sandy
During and after Superstorm Sandy, power and communications were out. Weeks later, power is still out for tens of thousands and some buildings will be uninhabitable for months due to contamination. Cellphone carriers successfully fought the FCC on installing backup power and Netflix reported that viewership doubled on the East Coast. If your organization had a work-from-home disaster recovery plan, did it work?
Why Your iPhone Could Make Your Disaster Worse
My iPhone 4 wanted to be connected to iTunes and was a brick for four days until I could make it to an Apple store. Why carry a phone that can’t even be a phone without being plugged into a computer first?
When Is A Backup Not A Backup?
Even though his data was in the cloud and on multiple machines, Matt Honan lost a year’s worth of photos, emails, documents, and who knows what else. The lesson? Back up to disk, tape, or something else and lock it away.
Run, Hide, Fight – New Keywords To Help You Survive
“It may feel like just another day at the office, but occasionally life feels more like an action movie than reality” This video produced by the city of Houston introduces the keywords, “Run, Hide, Fight” to help you survive an active shooter incident.
Aurora Colorado Century 16 Theater Shooting
Did anyone notice that James E. Holmes was planning to massacre moviegoers but didn’t speak up? If he could not have gotten his weapons legally, would he have given up? And what training can you and your family get to help be better prepared for whatever comes your way?
What To Do In An Active Shooter Situation? Part 5
My final entry in a series on active shooters. To be prepared to defend against an active shooter, you must be physically and mentally prepared, appropriately trained, and you must always carry your gun with you. Not everyone likes guns, but someone needs to defend against the wolves.
What To Do In An Active Shooter Situation? Part 4
People can be classified as sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Which one are you? If you are a sheepdog, do you have the mindset and training to use a weapon to dispatch a wolf before any sheep can be harmed?
What To Do In An Active Shooter Situation? Part 3
Earlier I wrote about how to prevent an active shooter from getting in to your building. But what if he is in the building, and it’s your child’s’ school? Do your children know what to do? Do their teachers?
What To Do In An Active Shooter Situation? Part 2
Doors and receptionists are your first line of defense against an active shooter. Do you have and enforce a no tailgating policy and empower your receptionists to prevent entry of any employee without a valid cardkey?
What To Do In An Active Shooter Situation? Part 1
Although it makes people uncomfortable to discuss, you should understand what to do if you are involved in an active shooter situation. This will be a series and the first post points you to an online training course that your entire family can take to help you understand your options if you find yourself in the middle of an active shooter situation.
Anonymous Hacks FBI Conference Call On Cyber Pirates
Anonymous posted a 16-minute recording of a call in which U.S. and foreign law enforcement officials discussed two alleged teenage members. Pundits say there was an email hack. FBI says someone forwarded the concall email. No matter how it happened, it needs to be prevented from happening again.
The Magical 10,000 Foot Chime
Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs) need to be powered down and stowed before takeoff and landing. Is it really necessary for airlines to interrupt my entertainment?
What’s on the Horizon
At VMWorld and at Open Mobile Summit this year, VMware showed off a new product currently code-named Horizon. While some websites are calling Horizon a mobile
The World Lost a Visionary This Week
Steve Jobs was very much like Walt Disney in so many ways. Mercurial visionary and able to recognize the talents that he needed to get
Don’t Lose Your Data To Someone Else’s Disaster
In our last blog I said to watch for our guest blogger Randall Becker. As much as I would like to take credit for his
What Does “Data Loss” Mean To You?
Protecting your data against loss means protecting it against a spectrum of risks. If you are worried about corruption or deletion of data, then you should be thinking about replication and backup. If you are worried about your data falling into the wrong hands, then you should be thinking about data encryption solutions along with access controls and separation of duties. Last but not least, if you are worried about regulatory compliance or eDiscovery, then you might also have a requirement to store your data in a provably read-only form.