I am extremely honored to be selected as Booz Allen’s first Cybersecurity Fellow. I look forward to the exciting opportunities ahead! See the Press Release.

I do not like
screen eggs and spam.
I will not follow you,
Tweeter-I-am.

I do not like you
there or here.
I will not follow you in the
twitosphere.

Your tweets are endless noisy
twutter.
It fills my stream with useless
clutter.
I do not like
screen eggs and spam.
I will not follow you,
Tweeter-I-am.

Your egg may be green, orange, or
blue
You all leave me wondering,
who are you?

Your tweets may be phishing or a
scam.
You might try to turn on
my remote webcam.
I do not like
screen eggs and spam.
I will not follow you,
Tweeter-I-am.

You may be my favorite
twitterati.
Or my my best friend
from Cinncinati.
If you are tweeterboxes with a case of
twitterrhea
I don’t care if your’re my favorite
pizzeria.

Not with a phone.
Not from the throne.
I would not, could not, with a Facebook hack.
I could not, would not, with a PC or Mac.
I do not like
screen eggs and spam.
I will not follow you,
Tweeter-I-am.

Having experienced the East Coast Earthquake and Hurricane Irene in succession I have observed a number of activities that hampered communications during these events. I would like to share some advice on communicating during events, both expected and especially unexpected.

1. Refrain from using the phone system, both land lines and cell. Both of these infrastructures suffered a denial of service (DoS) during the earthquake and for some time afterwards. Update your family/friend/work communication plan to include alternate methods of communication such as text messaging and social media. Text messages often go through even when cell calls aren’t. Instant messaging, twitter, and Facebook were working flawlessly during and after the earthquake and I used the methods to connect with people. This is how I found out the phone systems were down. People were tweeting that they couldn’t make calls and people were IMing me saying they were trying to call me. Use internet technology if it is available during the event to connect, let others know you are ok, and move on.

2. Don’t call 911 unless it is a real emergency. Local 911 communications were also suffering from a denial of service because loads of people were calling to report the earthquake, or to ask if that was an earthquake. Do not call 911 unless you need emergency assistance.

3. Have a two-way radio/walkie talkie plan. We created a neighborhood two-way radio communication plan in the event of an emergency or cell/land line disruption. We agreed in advance on the channel to use for communicating and we break out the two-way radios when needed. You can get two-way radios now that cover many miles (for example 35 miles). Its a good idea to keep one in your car too.

4. Make sure these tips are incorporated into your business/IT disaster response plan. After the earthquake I heard many IT teams and businesses stating a huge flaw in their disaster plan. Most plans involve carrying a list of key personnel and their cell phone numbers. With cell service disrupted, team members without a backup plan were unable to communicate. Make sure to incorporate the tips above into your professional life as well.

Performing a sensing exercise outdoors is a great way to relieve stress, reconnect with nature, and become grounded. With so much going on in our daily lives, its easy to become consumed with todo lists and deadlines, often passing by and leaving unnoticed some of the most important things in life and our environment.

To perform a sensing exercise, simply go outside and find a spot to stand or sit. Then focus on each of your senses individually. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you feel? And possibly, what do you taste? (salty ocean air?) In doing this exercise you can ground yourself with the earth and I bet you will notice things you wouldn’t normally notice. You can do this anywhere, any time of year. One of my favorite places that I performed sensing was at the top of an 11,000 ft snow covered peak in Colorado. But I have also done this in Times Square and on the DC Mall.

Here is my lunchtime sensing today -> I see the sun’s rays streaming through green leaves on tall oak trees and bouncing off the rocks below. I hear the locust chirping, counting down the days of summer, and the breeze rhythmically rustling leaves high in the canopy. I feel the dirt beneath my bare feet and the sun warming my back. I smell the moss on the tree bark and the decaying wood on the forest floor. Ah, all is well!

Part of embracing tomorrow’s technology, is being grounded and connected today. With a clearer mind you can tap into your inner creativity more easily and translate that to innovation you can apply today.

I’ve been testing out the new Skype for iPad app and so far I like it. I tested an iPad-to-iPad connection, one on Wifi and the other on 3G. The latency wasn’t too bad, about a half second. I liked that it gave me a warning on the 3G connection about carrier charges, because I don’t always remember to disable cellular and connect to Wifi. Next I tested between a 3G connected iPad and a Macbook Pro. This connection seemed to have a lot more latency, sometimes 2 or 3 seconds. It could possibly be that my 3G was having tower issues. Since Facetime only works on Wifi I was really interested in how 3G held up with Skype. It was definitely usable and given that in my current location the AT&T 3G network is very weak, I expect it would perform just fine in a stronger coverage area. Like Facetime, Skype lets you use either the front or back cameras, and easily switch between. One feature Skype has over Facetime is the ability to chat while video calling. However, for privacy reasons you will want to make sure you aren’t logged in on multiple devices. I forgot that I had Skype open on my laptop and while I was testing the chat feature on the iPad app, the entire chat log +timestamps was also being displayed on my laptop in the Skype chat window. I can see THAT causing some issues for some people… Have fun and let me know what you think about Skype for iPad. Also happy Wifi day 8.02.11, how appropriate.

Last month I read an article on Lifehacker about using a circular calendar to manage daily tasks and to-do lists. I have been using the concept since then and I love it. I have modified it a bit to suit my needs – adjusting it to resemble an analog clock face. I still use both an inner and outer ring to identify day and night tasks. Instead of wasting a lot of paper, I printed out my main clock face circle as a ring on clear sticker paper, cut it, and stuck it right in the center of my white board. Now I can easily write and erase my daily tasks each day. I also have room for notes and other brainstorming ideas around the top and sides of the white board. Here is a pic of an example day. Try it, you might like it!

My new word twutter has been accepted to the urban dictionary.

Twutter is a term that I created to describe tweets that clutter up my twitter feed. If I follow someone and they unleash too much twutter, I have to unfollow them.

I have been appointed as a Program Committee Member for the 2011 ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security, and Law. I hope to see you there!

I am the track chair for the Cybercrime Investigations track at the International Conference on Digital Forensics & Cyber Crime (ICDF2C). I will also be presenting my paper Data Mining Instant Messaging Communications to Perform Author Identification for Cybercrime Investigations. I hope to see you there!

I will be in DC March 3-4 as faculty for the Institute for Applied Network Security. I will be focusing on new NIST initiatives such as NVD, SCAP, and FDCC. A lot of changes going on, new research, and emerging technologies. Check it out.