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IT Security Blogs
Me, Me, Pick Me…
… says Donkey in the Shrek movie. Anyway… I’ve been nominated to the Computer Weekly shortlist of IT Security blogs. Thank-you. Of course, its now time to pick a winner… “there can be only one”. So… if you would care to vote for me or any of the other nominees, you can do so here. Scroll to the IT Security Blog category and pick me…
Transformational Government 2008
I am speaking next week (8th July) on the panel at the Transformational Government event in London. Today’s information centric society offers a number of challenges when it comes to sharing information to become more efficient. The panel session is about data security and some of the issues that need to be overcome to assure data security and rebuild trust - It’s bound to be a lively discussion!
Symantec Vision Conference - Day 3
The big wrap-up today. However, before that some great sessions on topics like using software to reduce power consumption, a big part of green IT and the Veritas Virtual Infrastructure. Some repeated sessions - due to popular demand and a last chance to wander around the partner / exhibit hall.
Mark Bregman closed the conference with a look at trends for the future: consumerization of IT, the boundaryless enterprise and yet more green IT. More on those topics in the coming months.
The final wrapup was with the Mythbusters, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from the Discovery Channel - which made for a great close. All-in-all it was a good conference, as I had hoped there was time to meet old friends and make some new ones. Several people liked the fact that they could download sessions they had missed onto their iPods, and one customer was frantically trying to fill his iPod up before heading back home to Australia. Until next year… I hope you all had a safe journey home.
Symantec Vision Conference - Day 2
Time flies by when you are having fun - and when you are learning a lot. The second day has been packed with information including the sessions that everyone wants to go to… what’s coming out in the next release!
There was a great round-table with customers discussing Enterprise Vault - it’s a pity that there were not more engineers there to hear what they had to say. While there were a few niggles, the feedback was really positive, so often engineers only hear about the problems. If there is one thing that customers do really well, it’s sell the product to other customers! There is nothing like hearing from someone who has implemented 150,000 seats to inspire confidence. Thanks to you all.
The day finished up with the Customer Appreciation Party where Jim Belushi played some great songs - he certainly knows how to get an audience going.
What’s The Buzz, Tell Me What’s A Happening…
Symantec’s Vision conference starts today in Las Vegas. Even the airport is excited by it… with long banners in the luggage reclaim hall!
For customers, today is tutorial and certification courses. For me, it is partners, customers and the Dell party this evening!
One Week To Go
I’ll be in Las Vegas in a week’s time for the Symantec user conference, Vision. I remember the first Vision, which was also in Las Vegas more than a decade ago, there were 250 of us, our partner ‘hall’ was just outside the main room. Times have changed and there will be 1000s of delegates and the partner hall will be the size of a few football pitches. Keynotes, BOFs, a huge array of parallel sessions, robotics challenges, tutorials, the list seems endless.
For me it is all about customers and partners… old and new. There will no doubt be a couple of customers there who have been coming since the first one (I look forward to seeing you Jean-Louis and Bill!) alongside those who have only just become members of the Symantec family. So many of my partner meetings are carried out over the ‘phone it is always good to meet face-to-face, even if it is just once a year, couple this with the fact that many ex-colleagues now work for partners and you can see we will be in for a great week.
Technologies For Data Loss Prevention
I am speaking at the SNIA Europe Academy on 20th May 2008 in London - and “Technologies For Data Loss Prevention” is the title of my session. So… two things here… firstly, I have been involved with SNIA since it first started and it is good to see an organization ‘grow up’ with its customers needs and the ever changing technology. So while there are some sessions on fibre channel and other more usual storage related items, there are also sessions like mine and on compliance challenges which talk at a different level - not the just physical storage but the information that is there and what it means to the enterprise.
Secondly, I was in with an account team at a customer to talk about futures in both storage and security and data loss came up. The rep did a great job of explaining our latest and greatest technology (which we acquired late last year when we bought Vontu), but missed out on some of the obvious ones… such as encrypting backup tapes if they are going off-site, or keeping anti-virus definitions up to date - some of the things we often think of as obvious but, as with all good management books, it is not until the obvious is pointed out that it becomes ‘obvious’.
Anyway… my session will cover the range of technologies that can (and should) be considered and it is most definitely not a ‘one size fits all’ - to be effective and cost efficient you need a holistic approach - some of which will be ‘obvious’ and others, less so. Hope to see you there.
InfoSec and BERR
At InfoSec 2008 in Olympia yesterday I helped launch the results of Department for Business & Enterprise Regulatory Reform 2008 Information Security Breaches Survey. This is a study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and sponsored by a number of vendors including Symantec.
The results are promising and gloomy at the same time. The good news is that the number of companies infected by malicious software is down by 60%. The bad news is that minor infections are no longer considered a security incident and so not reported - they are just seen as an everyday occurance that the IT department needs to resolve. While the acknowledgement that anti-virus is no longer the only requirement for endpoint protection and anti-spyware and malware in general is required is good news, there is also a concern among businesses that the more silent and stealthy attacks are going to increase.
Below is a picture of me and the team at InfoSec launching the Interactive Theatre.
Post A Picture… End Up In Jail?
When is a picture on a social networking site a threat to national security? According to a report, Israeli defence chiefs have realised that pictures of sensitive military installations are being posted on Facebook. People now have a fascination with social networking, taking pictures and posting them online for the world to scrutinize.
The story might seem a little draconian, but they are still allowing pictures of people - just not with sensitive information in them. If you look around the web you can find pictures of other people at work (including myself - if you look hard enough) however, on some of them you can read what is written on yellow stickies attached to monitors and cube walls. Another source of information for the enterprising criminal… so just beware, cyber criminals may well be more interested in the background of a picture than the foreground…
London & Stockholm
Symantec are at InfoSec 2008 next week in London’s Olympia. We are sponsoring the first of the Interactive Theatre sessions on Tuesday 22nd April - a Cyber Attack Special. So come along, take a look and vote on the questions we will be asking. Bruce Schneier is one of the special guests - it should be entertaining and informative at the same time.
I’m also in the Opening Keynote for the presentation of PwC Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Information Security Breaches Survey - which has some great information and a few scary statistics.
Later in the week, on Thursday 24th, I’m presenting at the Affärsvärlden Bank & Finans Outlook 2008 in Stockholm, where I will be talking about IT governance, risk and compliance.
So, if you are around, come and say hello.
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