(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

Data Security News Has Everything!

Last Friday’s Redemtech Data Security News Edition had everything a data security researcher could want by way of variety, and everything a savvy business person should fear. Seldom have so many diverse elements of data security news come together in such a short span of time. Unfortunately, most of the news was less than positive.

Mark Twain’s White Elephant Trumpets Obvious Message of Data Security Research Results

While analyzing the results and statements provided in two recently published research reports on aspects of data security breaches, I was reminded of a lesser-known but poignant Mark Twain tale about a purloined pachyderm.

OEMs Are the Greenest!

Let's pretend that we are all big PC manufacturers, and that we want to sell more boxes. Since everybody's talking about being more "green," maybe we could say that it's more environmentally friendly to trade in that old PC on a new one! Yeah, that's it—older PCs aren't worth as much, so companies might have to pay to recycle them. That makes buying new systems cheaper in the long run than keeping the old ones, right? 

Data Security in the Back of a Pickup Truck

Someone had tried to paint the automaker’s brand name over the gritty rust stains on the tailgate that barely hung to the frame of the pickup truck in front of me in the fast food drive-through lane. I smiled, reminded of an old pickup truck I used to drive many years ago in my youth, with which I would haul anything for friends and neighbors. Eventually it got to look like the truck I saw in front of me, worn down by lots of miles and many loads of mattresses, furniture and at least one giant inflatable pig. But that’s another story.

News Media Increases Awareness of E-waste Crisis

Three significant news articles in two recent publications have captured the essence of the serious e-waste crisis around the world.

Big Red Goes Green - Part 4

As the Island of Misfit Electronics sank beneath the rising icy waters, Big Red, Mrs. C and I headed for an escape hatch. Then each of us was whisked away through a series of green and red chutes and spirals that slid us toward the waiting elf-boats below. While I skidded through the loops and corkscrews, I saw hundreds of tiny elves taking the same route to get out of the factory before it was inundated by the arctic sea.

Big Red Goes Green - Part 3

“As you probably know,” Big Red continued from his perch amid the recycled computer components strewn about his workshop on the Island of Misfit Electronics. “My business partner has been hard at work on many of our eco-friendly innovations in recent years, while I’ve tried to maintain the old holiday traditions."

Big Red Goes Green - Part 2

“So what’s the deal with taking me for a ride with your little red-and-green clad thugs, Big Red?” I said to my old friend as we moved into the heart of his workshop on the Island of Misfit Electronics. “I was worried when I noticed this big guy over here was packing heat,” I added, indicating the enforcer elf I’d nicknamed Stomp, who stood nearby with his big hands in his little pockets.

Big Red Goes Green - Part 1

I noticed the reindeer at the wheel right off, prompting me to wonder who else might be aboard the colorfully decorated bus and why it was following me.

As Storage Devices Get Smaller, Data Security Worries Grow Larger

When I was a young college student many years ago, there was a standing policy for some professors to leave graded copies of term papers and other typed assignments in a cardboard box outside their office doors during finals week when classes were not normally in session. Students could stop by and pick up their research reports, and then check their posted grades on a nearby bulletin board at the same time.

Giant Space Alien Head Invades Redemtech Sales Meeting

Nothing says “business maturity” better than a big space alien head invading a sales staff meeting.

You wanna see something really scary?

“You wanna see something really scary?”
That’s my favorite line from a fairly benign horror movie released in 1983 as a tribute to beloved Twilight Zone television series of the 1950s and ‘60s. The clever line, however, was fresh material at the time, used to segue into the bizarre world of Rod Serling, one of the most brilliant television writers to live in this or any other plane of existence.

E-Wasted, But Planning for a Better Day

I attended the E-Scrap conference in Atlanta last week, where 900 of my colleagues and I spent two days debating the state of electronics recycling. Redemtech is not itself a recycler, but uses partners to process many millions of pounds of electronics each year. So we are part of the industry by association, and we stay in close touch to ensure our downstream vendors are compliant with industry best practices. The various sessions completely ignored a glaring deficiency in the trade: the majority of electronics owners choose NOT to recycle their old computers and other e-junk when they are done with it. Stated more bluntly, the customer doesn't like, or think they need, what we are selling.

Business Week Highlights Our IT Recycling Partner, TechSoup

Influential Business Week Magazine, which recently underwent a significant redesign, last week published this interesting article on the benefits of dealing with professional refurbishers when companies recycle used IT equipment. Like most general business publications, it stressed the obvious environmental concerns that socially conscious businesses should take into account to avoid adding to the waste stream.

Tomorrow’s News Today, Part 2

DATELINE: Southeast Oklahoma, Oct. 29, 2027 – Autumn came and went today as the last leaf on the last tree in the U.S. spiraled dramatically to the ground at Ouachita National Tree, formerly Ouachita National Forest. A crowd of 300,000 visitors cheered the event while a dozen impatiently waiting bulldozers prepared to demolish the 70-foot-tree to make room for another landfill to accommodate electronic waste.

Tales of Beer and Stolen Laptops are Brewing

Covering the off-network data security news beat for Redemtech, I’ve seen a lot of newspaper and trade magazine articles about the financial losses suffered by companies that had a laptop computer containing valuable information stolen out from under them. Sometimes rewards are offered for the safe return of a laptop, but I’ve never seen an offer quite like the reward offered by a New Zealand brewery.

My Life With Mascots

I made a new friend the other day. He’s a real nut.

Like Our Environment, Columbus Day is Changing

The ghost of Columbus Day wandered by this week, giving some people a day away from work, but otherwise providing little more than apparitional recognition for Christopher Columbus.

Reality TV is a Far Cry from Reality

A new reality TV show recently captured my attention, because it features a bunch of adorable children working together to rebuild a western ghost town into a viable community – at least from the unfocused viewpoint of reality TV.

Look What I Found on Your Discarded Hard Drive!

It didn’t receive a lot of play in the global news media, but some new research conducted by the University of Glamorgan in the UK, Longwood University in the U.S. and Edith Cowan University in Australia, found that hard drives sold on online auctions often contain significant traces of personal information.

No Sale - And Step Away from the Birdbath

Last Saturday afternoon, I sat in my favorite chair rereading a beloved Vonnegut novel by the window while radio sportscasters softly droned observations about a baseball game in the background. The familiar yawning ping-pong of the doorbell summoned me, where a door-to-door salesman had a wonderful offer for me.

Improper Computer Disposal Is All Wet

Friends of mine lost nearly half of everything they own when their home was inundated by flood waters in the widespread Midwest deluge this summer. As they struggled to rescue what they could in the fast-rising waters, they left their computer behind. They had a surprise when they tried to salvage the PC, which had been submerged for days. They were able to retrieve presumably lost data from the hard drive.

Infamous Ohio Security Nightmare Spreads to Connecticut

Ever have one of those recurring nightmares – the ones where you wake up night after night, soaked in cold perspiration, certain that the two-headed monster from that B-movie you watched during the weekend was chasing you through the midnight streets of some surreal city, throwing slices of cold pizza at your head while repeatedly singing the chorus from “Oklahoma?”

Clean Up the World Weekend Goes Unnoticed in U.S.

It’s tough to compete with a giant, most any business person will tell you. That may be why last weekend’s community-based Clean Up the World Weekend global event garnered so little attention in the U.S. when compared with the annual Earth Day event held in April.

Where’s the Fire? All Around Us

Pink-tinged flames licked at the air as acrid, black smoke curled toward the sky. I pulled the pin on the fire extinguisher and ran forward, shooting a powdery stream of flame retardant until the inferno yawned and went out. Then a firefighter ran forward and reignited the fire. The next person in line with a fire extinguisher ran forward and smothered the flames again.

Timeworn Computers Can Be Typecast

Back before the golden age of personal computers, I worked for one of the last newspapers in Ohio that used typewriters. They were electric at least; monsters two feet wide and heavier than the wooden desks that suspended them in the newsroom. Some sort of computer scanner downstairs by the printing press was used to read the copy we typed onto the blank white pages of paper. That’s as advanced as technology went in those days.

The Back-To-School Green Conspiracy

It’s back-to-school time, so that means we better break out the solar backpacks and the school supplies made out of recycled e-waste.

Doors Locked, Windows Wide Open

It’s easy to steal data—just walk away with it. Despite billions spent on IT security, the Ponemon Institute’s National Survey on the Insecurity of Off-Network Security has found that many corporations are failing to address the root cause of more than half of all data breaches: the loss or theft of data-bearing assets. The good news is that remediation of off-network security gaps, though not easy, can be straightforward.

Tomorrow’s News Today

DATELINE: Dallas Atoll, Aug. 21, 2027 – Security analysts today reported yet another case of stolen data from the identity chips implanted in more than 10 million U.S. citizens. Instead of the more common drive-by mega-hacking that has become common in larger U.S. cities such as New Surfside City, Nev. and the nation’s capital, Indianapolis Island, today’s theft occurred when an employee of MicroGooglezon inadvertently left his nanorobotic armtop computer behind at a McStarDonbuck’s restaurant.

Seismic Shifts in the World of Computers

Some major shifts are occurring in the world of computers that could impact how long businesses and consumers hang onto their equipment.

Absolutely Obsolete – Phone Books vs. IT Equipment

I’ve never known the Maple tree in front of my house to bear fruit, but earlier this week I found two drooping limbs had sprouted heavy, plastic-coated produce. Some clever delivery person had tossed a phone book up into my tree.

Attack of Pavlov’s Squirrels

Each time I fill my back yard bird feeder, clap open the wooden lid and fill the air with the rich sound of sunflower seeds, crushed corn and red millet poured from a 900-pound bag into a plastic container the size of a laptop computer – the trees above me rustle with excitement. The rustling comes not from the birds for which the food is intended. It is the agitated symphony thundered by a pack of fat, pushy squirrels that live in the hollow tree just inside the parameter of my woods.

The Price of Emission

More and more people are drawing conclusive links between computer technology and carbon dioxide emissions linked by science to global warming and environmental destruction. Experts agree that it is important for representatives of the global information and communications technology industry to understand the correlations between the technology upon which it relies for business operations and growing threats to the world environment.

The Healthy Benefits of Organic Growth

Nothing makes industry analysts and media wonks happier than when an emerging market begins to consolidate. Companies are bought and sold. The big get bigger, the small guys fail; fortunes are made and jobs are lost. It all makes for some very melodramatic story telling that often overlooks a very fundamental question: is it good for customers?

Some Passwords Don’t Figure

Surfing the cable channels late one evening when I was unable to sleep, I came across an old movie I used to appreciate. War Games is a terribly technologically outdated film about a teenage computer whiz who mistakenly hacks into a military computer charged with monitoring the global nuclear landscape. Watching the movie 24 years after it was made, I was amused by a pre-Producers Matthew Broderick literally spending days trying to figure out a password to gain entry to what he thought was a computer game company.

Potluck Pile-up on I-70

Here’s the recipe: Open two large cans of name-brand baked beans obtained at the local grocery store. Throw in a heaping cup of brown sugar and some spices. Add 10 slices of crisp turkey bacon, plus a splash of your favorite barbecue sauce. There you have it – Bart’s secret family recipe for barbecued beans.

Oh, did I forget to mention that this is a recipe for disaster?

EIA Framework for E-waste - Some Reservations

I once worked for a huge company that absolutely worshipped bureaucracy. I recall a time when the human resources department had replaced its metal file cabinets and those of us in the adjacent communications department yearned for the leftovers sitting in the hallway outside of our offices. Several of us gathered in the corridor to physically move the discarded, dented monoliths into our work area, only to be stopped by a manager quoting “corporate protocol.”

Honky-Tonk ITAM

Redemtech has been a leading sponsor of the Gartner IT and Software Asset Management Summit for years. The conference was always busy, but our most meaningful customer contact has often occurred at relaxed moments, i.e. parties—adult beverage in hand—when conversation could easily turn to the important stuff like kids, vacations, and critical business issues. This year we decided to forego paid participation at the ITAM conference, and invite a few customers to a genuine Nashville honky-tonk to share some quality time.

The Art of Speaking Too Soon

I readily admit that I blogged too soon last week when I heaped praise on the State of Ohio’s handling of the unfathomable loss of a computer back-up tape. In the public revelation that a 22-year-old intern was entrusted with personal information on tens of thousands of state employees and dependents, and that this was standard policy for the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System, I was a little too hopeful.

Ohio's Data Breach Response Represents Trend Toward Responsibility

While I routinely track and report offline data thefts and other security breaches as part of my job (see news bureau), I have to admit that the recent disappearance of a backup computer storage device with the names of more than 64,000 Ohio state employees, as well as names and Social Security numbers of about 75,500 dependents, caught me by surprise.

How Green Are Their Motives?

Every time I go online to find out more on the topic of Green IT, I keep coming up with recipes for green tea.

“IT” apparently is read by search engines as “it,” which is too common a word to deliver fewer than 30 billion search results. So Google, Yahoo and Ask.com focus on the word “green” and inevitably, some green tea splashes up on my laptop screen.

So Far, This Industry’s a Piece of Cake!

There was a barely discernable shuffling noise behind me as I tapped at my laptop in the corner of my cubicle. I looked up at the crowd that had quietly made its way into my office. A brightly decorated cake slid into view. With amazement, I looked at the frosted image of a newsletter I had produced the week before, which now adorned the cake. “Happy birthday,” everyone said in unison.