Posts tagged Information Assurance
Book Recommendation – Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do about It by Richard A. Clarke
0I have a book recommendation for all Information Professionals, military buffs, and historians. It is ‘Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do about It’ by Richard A Clarke and Robert K. Knake. The book is about exactly what 
the title says. It is written at exactly the right technical and intellectual level to be relevant, accurate, and thought provoking. I highly recommend it to Information Technology Professionals everywhere.
It is available in print and kindle editions from major book sources, including Amazon.com. I appreciated it so much that I also added it to The Information Technology Thought of the Day Webstore, permanently.
I will try to get a full review up in the next couple of weeks, as I finish it. I can already tell though that it will be a modern day classic for the niche that it is targeted at as well as statisticians and current event geeks.
The opening chapter alone is worth the price of admission and really demonstrates well how much the world of warfare has changed in the past 20 years due to the Internet and Information Technology. I especially appreciated how the author makes the case that Cyber War is real whether you think that it is or not. I also valued the parallels that were drawn between the dawn of cyber war and the coming of naval aviation and nuclear weapons. Considering that the author is a leading expert on Nuclear War policy, I figure that he probably knows what he is talking about.
Image Credit: Tesco Books
IT Vocabulary Builder: Scareware
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OK, I found a new information technology term on the news wires this morning: Scareware! I always love our human need to find a tag for new ideas and concepts.
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.
The place where I saw the reference is here:
The UK Register – 3 men charged in $100m scareware scam:
“Federal prosecutors have accused three men of running an operation that used fraudulent ads to dupe internet users around the world into buying more than $100m worth of bogus anti-virus software…
The scheme often tricked users into purchasing multiple sham products, which were sold under names including Malware Alarm, Antivirus 2008 and VirusRemover 2008.”
You can learn more about our new term at Wikipedia. Here is how they define it:
Scareware comprises several classes of scam software with malicious payloads, or of limited or no benefit, that are sold to consumers via certain unethical marketing practices. The selling approach uses social engineering to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat, generally directed at an unsuspecting user. Some forms of spyware and adware also use scareware tactics.
A tactic frequently used by criminals involves convincing users that a virus has infected their computer, then suggesting that they download (and pay for) fake antivirus software to remove it.
A couple of other web resources are available:
I guess IT Professionals can learn something new every day!
So how do you think that this relates to Information Technology? How do you think that it could be important to Information Technology Professionals?
Do you know of any other new IT terms that should be discussed?
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 28, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image credit: DHS
News Commentary: Lions and Tigers and CyberWar – Oh My!
0You know that a topic has become du jour when The Economist puts out multiple stories about it in rapid succession. I greatly respect this venerable news magazine and appreciate that it is one of the last fronts on the attack on quality journalism. That being said, they can never pass up the opportunity to pile on to a topic! Hence, they get to be the subject of the IT Thought of the Day News Commentary of the Week.
On Mondays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Today’s comments were generated after I read not one, but two stories from The Economist about the threat, fear, and realities of CyberWar. Great articles, both, that I recommend to you. Give them a read below.
The Economist – War in the fifth domain: Are the mouse and keyboard the new weapons of conflict?
The Economist – Cyberwar: It is time for countries to start talking about arms control on the internet
Seriously good writing about seriously complicated topics containing serious information, commentary, and consideration. What is not to love here. If you are an Information Professional then you need to read these stories. Enjoy them. I suspect that if The Economist is now writing about this weekly, the topic will be showing up everywhere!
OK, that is what I think of this topic. What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for July 5, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Help Net Security at net-security.org