The Ashimmy Blog

RB @McKeay Start planning early for a good party! << Be there!

RB is my own twitter-esque  slang for ReBlog. Ok I was trying to be cool. But forget it, sometimes the harder you try the more un-cool you are. Anyway the point is, as Martin’s post announces, let the good times roll! The Security Bloggers Meet up @ RSA 2010 is officially on.  The first rounds of invites have been sent out and many have already RSVP’ed. If you are a member of the Security Bloggers Network, you are entitled to an invite. If you did not get one you can write me at ashimmy(@)ashimmy dot com which I will forward to Jennifer Leggio or you can email Jennifer directly.

As Martin details with sometimes fuzzy memory the annual Security Bloggers bash has certainly grown over the years.  It is no small task putting on this event anymore. The credit has to go to the organizing committee. Jennifer, Martin, RIch Mogull, Jeanne Friedman, Sonya Caprio and myself start working on the next years event literally before the present one is over.  But it is worth it. Each year the meet up is bigger, better and more fun.  We have learned a lesson from past years events though.  This year we are limiting the guest count to 150 people. This way the venue (and keep it secret) is not too overcrowded and our sponsors only put up a small kings ransom.  So if you have an invite better RSVP soon. If you deserve an invite and want one, reach out to us right away. We anticipate that we will fill up quickly.

Yes RSA is early March this year. If you have not already made your plans, I suggest you get on the stick. When I finalized my hotel and air fare a few weeks back there were still some good deals.

Finally as Martin also posted on the RSA Conference site, we are doing something a little different with the Social Security Blogger Awards this year. I will be posting on the RSA Conference site with all of the details in the next day or two.  In the meantime we are looking for a new sponsor for the award winners. Last year I think we gave away USB hard drives. Any decent techie kind of gift would do.If you or your company are interested drop me a line or leave a comment.  More on the awards shortly.

Stay away from Char Broil Grills

I like to cook. I love to grill too.  Down here in Florida with the warm weather we grill year round. I probably grill 2 to 3 times a week when I am home.  For most of my adult life I have always had Weber grills.  Weber makes a fine product and on average my Weber grill lasts 6 or 7 years. In fact since moving to Florida I have only had one grill, a Weber.  Finally about 15 months ago my trusty old Weber gave up the ghost. I was sad, but knew it didn’t owe me any money, I had gotten more than my fair share out of it. 

I forgot what happened but I wound up in Lowes instead of Home Depot looking for my next grill. The sales person at Lowes did a masterful job of showing me the shiny new Char Broil commercial series grill.  All stainless steel, 4 burners and a side burner.  It was just a little over half the price of the Weber. The sales guy told me they were built to last and he had one himself.  You would think I know better than to listen to a sales guy.

Anyway here I am about 14 months later. The shiny stainless steel is still shiny. But the guts inside the grill, the burner, ignitions, heat shields, etc are all rotted and rusted hulks.  This in spite of the fact that I bought the custom grill cover and keep the grill covered whenever its not in use.

I called Char Broil to see if it paid to buy the replacement parts or better yet if they would do anything for me as a customer. After punching through a few dial 1 for this, 2 for thats, I was able to get a live person on the phone and she spoke English natively. I thought wow their customer service seems to be better than their products (I know a few companies like that). 

Unfortunately that is where the good story  ends.  The rep on the phone told me these are actually very high maintenance grills (now they tell me).  Every few months you are supposed to take apart the whole bowl of the grill and soak the parts in soapy water (are they kidding me?).  You need to put a coating on the heat shields to keep them from rusting out. Then she tells me that if you close the cover when grilling it causes carbon to build up on the interior parts which accelerate the rust.  Sorry, but the warranty is just 12 months, you are two months out of warranty and by the way to replace all of these parts would cost more than a new grill.  Thanks for using Char Broil!

Yeah right.  Char Broil grills suck and if any sales person tries to sell you one, run as fast and as far as you can!

Lunch and Learn with Jeremiah Grossman and me in NYC Sept 15

If you are going to be in New York City next Tuesday here is a great opportunity for a free lunch and maybe learn something.  Jeremiah Grossman of White Hat Security and myself will be appearing at an event being sponsored by NopSec at Morimoto’s Sushi at 88 10th Ave.  We will be talking about Enterprise Security risk and threat management.  Jeremiah is a great presenter and it should be a nice event.

Seating is limited and there are only a few seats left. If you would like to attend you need to register here.  Looking forward to seeing some of my blog readers at lunch.

Down in the Big Easy, where livin’ is good and Oysters are cheap!

Image by Diva Eva via Flickr

Was down in New Orleans for the SANS show. Tonight I stayed at a hotel near the airport and went to a local seafood bar & restaurant for dinner. When I saw fresh oysters at 6 dollars a dozen I’ll admit I was a bit afraid.  But after seeing a few trays of them go by to other tables, they looked so good I couldn’t help myself. I ordered a dozen and boy were they good!  They were snow white and really fresh.  I scarfed them down along with some soft shell crabs and the whole bill was like 20 dollars.

I just won’t be able to pay 15 bucks a dozen anymore without thinking about being back down here.

Thanking the sponsors

As most of you know, this years Security Bloggers Meet up at the RSA conference is going to be a quite a party. In addition to the usual food, drink, podcasting and mingling among the who’s who of security blogging and media, this year we also have the Social Security Awards.  The Social Security Awards are the security blogging awards and we have over 1500 blogs nominated in the 5 categories!  At the end this month the finalists will be given over to our all star panel of judges and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the meet up. 

Yours truly is the MC for the awards. I had invited Beyonce to come down and do a musical number with me ala Hugh Jackman at the Oscars, but she was busy and I don’t think will be at the meet up.  But you never know.  If not perhaps Martin McKeay, Rich Mogull and I could do a “if I were a boy” musical number ;-)

Anyway, what I wanted to say before going off on that tangent is that none of this would be possible without the very generous sponsors who have donated money, equipment and services.  In these tough times putting on an event this size is not cheap.  Also though not listed, a special thanks to the RSA conference folks themselves who have given so much to make this event a reality. Thanks to all of them!

Our latest sponsor, Seagate is donating prizes for for the Social Security Award winners and now has given us a NAS as a door prize as well!  How cool!  Now if we could just get a nice package of prizes and gifts for the event organizers!

Whats your favorite thing about the RSA conference?

If you are going to use the free Wi-Fi, buy a latte or muffin

Once again the old adage rings true, nothing in life is free!  Reading Bill Brenner's Security Bytes blog about some poor SOB sitting in front of a coffee shop (not Starbucks) in Sparta, Mich surfing the web. Turns out under Michigan law because he did not buy anything, it was deemed he was potentially guilty of a felony for hacking!

The web surfer was faced with two choices.  Fight the charges and risk up to 5 years in jail and a $10,000 dollar fine or enroll in a diversion program, 6 months probation and and 40 hours of community service.  Faced with this choice, he took the easy way out and pleaded guilty. In contrast to the Julie Amero case where she refused to take the easy way out and will hopefully be fully vindicated.

Moral of the story, next time buy the coffee to be safe (now we know why the coffee is 4 bucks!)

Non-work article - Holiday weekend with family and friends

Nothing like a long holiday weekend to recharge the batteries.  Even though I was out in Vegas last week with Bonnie, it just didn't feel like a vacation.  Probably because it wasn't.  I was booked and busy all week with Interop related activities. Anyway, spending the weekend with the family and friends was a great way to deflate and get ready for June.  We really didn't do much. Saturday was spent with the kids doing some gardening and landscaping around the house and then swimming. Saturday night we had a great dinner at a new Greek restaurant here in Boca with our friends Bill and Dori Gerstein.  Then more swimming and parties with the kids on Sunday, topped off by a trip to the water park with the Gerstein's and their children today. Not even a sub-par dinner at the new Outback Steakhouse that opened near our house could ruin it.

One sort of work related thing, was a good conversation I had with Bill about H-1B visas.  Bill is a great immigration attorney and spends a lot of time on H-1B's.  Bill says that the tech industry is single handedly eating up all of the H-1B's and we need to do something about this.  He does not understand why Congress just does not allow more H-1B's if the demand is there.  As a result, either you have the possibility of folks working illegally or of jobs being outsourced out of the country.  Makes sense to me.  You can read more about this on Bill's blog here.

A special birthday for Bonnie

Yesterday was my wife Bonnie's birthday. We had a great day, starting with the boys and I giving her flowers and presents in the morning. Then going to down to Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach for lunch and playing in the park on the intercostal. Then we came home to get ready for her special night out. 

We went with some good friends, Bill and Dori Gerstein, down to Sunny Isles Beach in Miami Beach.  The beautiful Acqualina resort there recently opened and it has an Il Mulino from New York restaurant. Bonnie and I used to go to the NY location years ago when we lived in NY for special occasions. That was before they opened several restaurants all over the world. Since we moved to Florida, Bonnie has not been back though.  I went a few times to the one in Ceasars in Las Vegas, but without my wife, it just wasn't the same.

The Miami outpost of Il Mulino is every bit as good as the original in NYC.  We had a great meal, great wine, service, great company, everything.  The resort is right on the beach and is gorgeous. It was a very special night for a very special wife.  Happy Birthday Bonnie and many, many more!

Would you pick your restaurant by the security of your credit card data?

Was reading a good article by Jaikumar Vijayan today in ComputerWorld about the steps the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain is taking to better ensure the security of their customers credit card data.  I applaud what Ruby Tuesdays is doing, upgrading their POS systems to not store any credit data, eliminating middle men who represent another potential hole and using stronger encryption. 

All of this is good and I like their salad bar on top of it.  Then I read this quote, "This, in reality, is not helping us create more sales," Ibrahim said. "This is purely about the privacy and security of our customers".  This is from Nick Ibrahim, senior vice president and CTO at Ruby Tuesday. It seems that the only reason they are doing this is to comply with PCI regulations.  I know I have said in the past that security is good for business and if you run a secure operation, compliance will take care of itself.  However, that does not seem to be the case here.  Ruby Tuesday is flat out saying that putting in better security is not going to help put customers in the seats or increase sales. They are doing it for compliance sake alone. 

Is this logic faulty.  Would you be more likely to frequent Ruby Tuesday over say a Chili's, if you know your data is safer at one over the other?  I don't know if it has come to that yet, but if I were Ruby Tuesdays I think I would try to use my enhanced security as a reason to come here versus the other guy.  What do you think?  Would you consider the safety of your credit data in choosing a restaurant? Are you still shopping at TJX stores?  I wonder, am I being too much of a security freak?