While it was far from being the “shot heard ‘round the world” of Revolutionary War fame, the cyber attack on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory over July 4th weekend this year did represent a significant first blow in the search for liberty for that organization – specifically, liberty from being hacked. As reported in InformationWeek, PNNL, a Richland, WA-based R&D lab under contract to the Department of Energy: “discovered what it described as a ‘sophisticated’ targeted attack on its systems the Friday before the holiday, compelling the organization to temporarily shut down most of its internal network services, including email, SharePoint, its wireless LAN, voicemail, and Internet access. PNNL also … Read More
Tag Archives: software failure
Government Its Own Worst Enemy in Cyber War
Ever a man ahead of his time, Albert Einstein once said, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Were he alive today, the only thing he likely would change about his statement would be how World War III would be fought. He surely would look at the threats posed by cyber attacks and surmise the most dangerous weapon of the next world war to be an invisible terror delivered electronically. He would note that the threat could come from any nation state – it would not even have to be a world power – … Read More
Structural Quality Must Be Part of Agile Vocabulary
I cannot believe how much our education system has changed. When I went to kindergarten, most of curriculum revolved around getting along with others (a lesson some will argue never took with me) and some basic verbal skills. I learned at my daughter’s kindergarten orientation that blocks and finger painting have been replaced by geography, math, science and civics. I walked out of her kindergarten orientation concerned whether or not my daughter would be ready for school. As kids have a tendency to do, though, my little girl came home on her first day and happily said her favorite part of the day was “voca-libraries” (actually, she said the bus … Read More
Adding to the Cost of Failure
Woe is Sony. Victimized by more than a dozen hack attacks earlier this year, most of them at the hands of the LulzSec group, which gained unauthorized access to more than 100 million customer data files, the gaming, media and electronics giant has faced massive lawsuits and reparation payments not to mention the embarrassment that the massive data breaches have caused them. Now, further compounding the fallout, Zurich American Insurance Company, which insures Sony, has sought to have the courts declare it is not responsible for defending or indemnifying the company from the ocean of legal claims filed against Sony in the wake of the numerous data breaches that befell … Read More
Dropbox Drops the Ball
Our society has a particularly annoying habit, one that’s not exclusive to any one specific walk of life, business or industry, nor is it one that we are likely to see our society give up anytime soon. The habit is known by several names, but is most commonly referred to as “finger pointing” or “the blame game.” Politicians blame “the other party” for what ails the country. Sports teams blame the officials for losing. Unions blame “big business” for low wages and poor working conditions. Meanwhile, businesses point at their software for breaches of security. Is the software always to blame, though? No. We’ve seen plenty of instances where security … Read More
It’s Tuesday; Do You Know Where Your Patches Are?
It’s Patch Tuesday again. The monthly rite of passage for Microsoft as it attempts to patch some of the holes in its software that it didn’t bother to fix before they put it in the box as well as those exposed after the software had been installed in millions of devices. This month in particular, Microsoft has a “record number” of patches. In fact, Gregg Keizer at Computerworld wrote that,” Microsoft announced that next week’s monthly security update will feature a record-tying 17 bulletins that patch a record 64 vulnerabilities, 15 more than the previous largest-ever set in October 2010.” He adds that nine of these are “critical bulletins,” affecting … Read More
When Good Software Goes Bad
Another week, another software failure. Last week on the East Coast Main Line, which connects London to Edinburgh, a software malfunction left five trains stranded mid-track and significantly delayed others after a power supply issue knocked out the signaling system. According to reports, software that should have instructed the backup signaling system to kick in failed to function, causing all signals on the line to default to “Red,” halting trains where they stood. The failure left more than 3,000 rail passengers stranded or delayed for more than five hours on a Saturday afternoon. Software failures like this one have become all too commonplace in recent years. We treat news of … Read More