In the early 2000s I was working at a company called NCR for a customer called Sun Microsystems. We were implementing a product called Sun Remote Services as customer premise monitoring equipment of the Sun hardware. A job like that…
Category: Technology
The term “technology” does not follow the same linguistic pattern as “biology” and “geology” because its etymology is different. While “biology” and “geology” are derived from Greek roots, with “bio” meaning life and “geo” meaning Earth, “technology” has Latin roots.
“Technology” comes from the combination of two Greek words: “techne,” meaning skill or art, and “logia,” meaning study or science. So, the term “technology” literally means the study or science of skills or arts. It reflects a broader concept that goes beyond the study of a specific substance (like life or the Earth) to encompass a wide range of human-made tools, systems, and techniques.
Woes me information (cyber) security is hard
Lots of discussion in the mainstream press about every fortune 500 being hacked, the <insert name> government has hacked us into smithereens. The world is ending. We need to do <insert favorite vendor solution> to save the world. Bull pucky.…
Cyber security (cyber war) hype cycle writ large
In the late 1800s a new form of warfare was starting to rise into the collective understanding of the world militaries. Command and control warfare through automated means began with the telegraph. This allowed for a network centric conflict to…
CERIAS Posters: Two posters on some of my works in progress
This week I’m attending the CERIAS symposium at Purdue University in West Lafayette Indiana. I’ve had some really great conversations with several leaders in the industry, and found some great contacts within government that may or may not lead anywhere.…
Strategic blindness: When aliens attack
United States doctrine and force structure is built around the domains of air, sea, land, space and now cyber. Domains as defined create cylinders of capability that can be merged and fought within. The domain construct is as much a…
Embedded systems security
A few videos have hit Youtube recently. One references the content in the other. I really like to see the topic being discussed. Watch them in the order presented for the best impact. Dr. Fisher wherever you are, you are…
Privacy is a national security issue
This is not a call for some halcyon day of some spring of previous years. Nor, is this an abysmal call for the lower technology world so many profess to want unless it means giving up their BlackBerry. This is…
Electro magnetic spectrum or cyber in ascendency
There is a thread of discussion that rises about whether cyber or the electro magnetic spectrum define cyberspace. Other countries have defined their doctrine differently according to their cultural or business perceptions. This discussion is really more about rice-bowl politics…
For fear and profit I give you cyber war
I make a lot of money talking about cyber security and cyber warfare so I most assuredly have a dog in the hunt over whether cyber warfare is a real or a made up threat. I try and be honest…
Cyber warfare and information security whimsy
Waging cyber warfare is seen as a technology problem by technologists, a policy problem by politicians, and a profit problem by businesses. This confluence of concerns is likely due to the prevalent nature of technology in our daily lives. The…
Information theory and the need for deep thinking
On my two hour run today I was thinking about information security and the research vectors that I see within the discipline. I don’t publish very much so I have little effect on the space. I was thinking about how…
Out of the box thinking versus pliable biases
I recently was having a discussion with a noted scholar of conflict and I said “throwing history under the bus” meaning lets look at this thing as a new thing. My goal was to get out of the box of…
Identifying strategic traits and learning objectives
I’ve been working a project identifying a comprehensive cyber curriculum. The various standard infosec curriculums are primarily for non-conflict oriented entities, and NIST/NICE is really a human resources hiring tool. One aspect of this tasking is looking at the idea…
Risky business with national budgets
If you hear an information technology professional say there are risks to an organization fire them. There is only risk. Risk is a state of possible negative consequences and stating there are multiple risks is glossing over a deeper reality.…
Personal technology plan year end update
End of the year and time to reflect on a few things. Every year I try and make some predictions, see how I’ve done on some others, and plan out some goals for the rest of the year. I also…