[SecurityRatty] tag: flowers

Europe and the U.S.: The one way mirror

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:00:00 +0000

If you're an American and want a good chuckle, ask a European the following three things: 1) ask them to count to five on their fingers (Europeans will start with holding out their thumb to indicate the number one whereas Americans will start with their index finger); 2) ask how they would carry a bouquet of flowers (Europeans carry them with the flowers facing down so that the water can drain downwards to the flowers; Americans carry them with the flowers facing up--don't know exactly why-probably just to show off the flowers).

Lamphun Botanical Garden and Terracotta Arts

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:25:17 +0000

My dear friends in Lamphun, Thailand have been building a botanical garden. Enjoying life, I have working on various projects with my friends and have just made this YouTube video on their 150 rai (60.7 acres) of land in Lamphun. The project, under development, features trees, flowers, plants and herbs from all over Thailand in a setting of traditional Khmer motifs cast in Lamphun terracotta.

Now you know why I have not been travelling the world, speaking in conferences this year. Event processing is great fun, but there is more to life than processing complex events!

Bumblebees Making Security Trade-Offs

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:52:11 +0000

I have long been enamored with security trade-offs in the natural world:

A 3D video tracking system revealed that although the bees became very accurate at detecting the camouflaged spiders -- they also became increasingly wary.
"When they come in to inspect flowers, they spend a little bit longer hovering in front of them when they know a camouflaged spider is present," said Dr Ings.

With this "trade-off", the bees may lose valuable foraging time -- but they reduce the risk of becoming the crab spider's next meal.

Gartner Event Processing Summit (and EPTS Meeting), Sept 2008

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:57:00 +0000

Many folks have been sending me email, inquiring if I will be attending the Gartner Event Processing Summit, September 15-16 or the 4th Event Processing Symposium, September 17-19, 2008 (the EPTS meeting). I regret not attending either event this year and will miss getting together with everyone. In addition, I would like to thank Opher and the EPTS team for inviting me.

As we get closer to the conference dates, I wish that I had made plans to fly back to the US to meet everyone. However, I have been cutting back on public speaking, taking a break since May. In addition, Gartner did not ask me to speak at their Event Processing Summit this year, I assume because they did not want to pay airfare for my flight from Thailand to the US. Also, Gartner always likes to fill their conference speaking slots with as many Gartner speakers as they can, unless you are a paid sponsor; and I noticed a number of Gartner employees speaking in multiple slots.

(Editorial Note) Then again, maybe I complained to much about the lack of organization and conference problems when I was invited at be a Gartner keynote speaker last time - reservations not made propertly, problems with the guest speaker registration list at sign-in, rooms shifted without notifying the speakers and panelists. Admittedly, I was not happy with the conference organizers at the last get together. This was my fault, as I am accustomed to better conference execution and am probally too “picky” about details these days - my bad. Anyway, the Gartner organizers apologized numerous times, saying they had too many conferences going on at the same time and not enough people to cover them all.

One of the problems with spending so much time in Asia, especially in Thailand, is that guest speakers are really treated as VIPs. There are usually special comfy couches set up for the speakers and the conference staff really treat you very nice, taking care of you every step of the way. In fact, there is an entire very nice culture around how guest speakers are treated in Thailand. Often, they pin flowers on the VIP speakers and take your photos like you are a star. Very nice culture.

I absolutely look forward to speaking on event processing or CEP at a future venue and meeting everyone face-to-face instead of over the net. My sincere and deepest apologies for not attending either the Gartner or the EPTS event this year.

PS: If you take up a collection and send me a RT business class air ticket, I might change my mind

Things that happen in China when nodoby is watching

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:33:00 +0000

Here is another reason to pay attention for your own safety when you visit China - especially during the Olympics.

The BBC World News ran a story yesterday of a local Beijing woman whose house was about to be torn down, leaving her homeless. Why was her home being demolished? The Government had decided that her house would not look nice enough to the foreign visitors coming to Beijing for the summer Olympics. They planned to plant flowers in the spot where her home stood.

Apparently, the authorities knew that the woman was not going to willingly accept this obvious abuse of power. A couple of Police vans watched the house from about a block away. Then the cameras left after interviewing the woman. When the television cameras came back the next day, the house was gone and so was the woman. The house had been torn down in the middle of the night when there were no witnesses. Nobody could say what happened to her as the flower planters went about the task of digging flower beds.

The BBC had obtained similar footage that had been covertly recorded earlier at another house. In this instance, a couple of the homeowners tried to resist the authorities tearing down their house. The camera graphically recorded two men who attempted to protest on the roof of their humble abode. A couple of "heavies" pulverised the seated men with vicious blows and kicks. One poor man was kicked full-force in the face and head several times. The camera shot him being taken away by ambulance and his whole face was swollen and lacerated. It seems that the Chinese Government are very serious when it comes to planting flowers. They certainly appear to have a higher regard for flowers than they do for human rights.

Our advice to you if you are visiting Beijing this summer - don't pick the flowers. I have seen how they treat people when they think nobody is watching. It isn't pretty.

Woman fired over death threat sent from work e-mail

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

An employee of 1-800-Flowers.com has been fired after an e-mailed death threat was linked to her account.

Employee fraud hits Baptist Health in Arkansas

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:00:20 +0000

Technorati Tag: Security Breach

Date Reported:
7/2/08

Organization:
Baptist Health*

*Baptist Health is the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in Arkansas

Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None

Victims:
Patients

Number Affected:
~1,800

Types of Data:
"name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and reason for coming to Baptist Health"

Breach Description:
"LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A North Little Rock woman has been arrested for using financial information from patients at Baptist Health to illegally obtain Wal-Mart gift cards for her own use. The hospital has notified about 1,800 patrons of the ID theft."

Reference URL:
Associated Press via WXVT Channel 15 News
KARK Channel 4 News
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Report Credit:
Toby Manthey, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Response:
From the online sources cited above:

Baptist Health has sent letters warning about 1,800 patients that the hospital system’s records may have been breached
[Evan] Uh, "may have been breached"?!

The notification came after the arrest of a Baptist Health employee at a Wal-Mart store on 25 counts of financial identity fraud.
[Evan] Wouldn't life be grand if we could trust our employees? Maybe, I suppose.

The letters, mailed last week, follow the firing of the woman in early June

North Little Rock police say Tamara Hill, 30, of that city worked at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock in the emergency department.

Hill, an admissions clerk, was arrested May 30 at the Wal-Mart

Ebony Flowers, 25, also of North Little Rock, was arrested at the store the same day on three counts of identity fraud

Flowers was listed in a police report as a janitor for the North Little Rock School District
[Evan] Key word is "was".

Baptist Health recorded more than 950,000 patient visits systemwide in 2007, a number that includes repeat visits.

Mark Lowman, spokesman for the Little Rock-based Baptist Health system, confirmed that the system fired the employee after notification of the arrest.

Police reports say the women used a victim’s personal information to obtain temporary Wal-Mart "account authorization numbers" - credit cards, essentially - used to buy Wal-Mart gift cards.

The victim reported to police that he had not authorized the transactions

the same victim confirmed he was a Baptist Health patient

He expressed appreciation of the handling of the case by the system and by the North Little Rock police.

Among the items found during a search connected with the arrest of Hill was personal information for 24 other people, including "screen shots" - printouts showing the exact appearance of the images on a computer screen - that showed victims’ personal information.
[Evan] This seems like confirmation that "may have been breached" is not all that accurate.

Also found were four Wal-Mart gift cards and $ 1,490 in cash

Police found a small bag of marijuana on Flowers, according to the reports. In a search connected with her arrest, they also discovered a. 25-caliber magazine with six bullets, as well as a receipt for four of the gift cards and information on three-identity theft victims.
[Evan] A thug.

The U. S. Secret Service is helping with the investigation.

"Due to a breach of our information systems security policies, there is a possibility that some personal information, such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and reason for coming to Baptist Health, was accessed by an unauthorized person."
[Evan] This is from the letter to the victims.

No information in the patient’s "medical records" and no information about the patient’s diagnosis or prognosis was accessed

while no "medical record" information was accessed, the letter mentioned the patient’s "reason for coming" to the system possibly was accessed

Lowman said a reason stated by a patient using the system isn’t considered medical information because the reason is a layman’s explanation, not one from a medical professional.
[Evan] This is Mark Lowman, spokesman for the Little Rock-based Baptist Health system

He said the breach wouldn’t violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.

But Pam Dixon, executive director of the San Diego-based World Privacy Forum, a privacy advocacy group, thinks all the information mentioned in the letter falls under HIPAA.

"It doesn’t matter that [it’s not ] a prognosis or diagnosis," she said.
[Evan] Splitting hairs. The bottom line is that confidential personal information was stolen and there are victims. Whether or not it is a HIPAA violation seems somewhat irrelevant.

Dixon found the system’s letter lacking in several respects, such as clarifying the exact meaning of a "reason for coming to Baptist Health." The letter also should have mentioned when and for how long the breach occurred, she said.

"Almost all breach letters have that," Dixon added.
[Evan] Almost all breach letters have what? A mention about for how long the breach occurred? I must be reading some of the wrong breach letters because it seems to me that this information is 50/50 at best. Also missing is the "we have no reason to believe that the information will be misused", but this one doesn't fit does it?

Dixon said Baptist Health should have offered in the letter to set up free credit monitoring for victims.
[Evan] Why? One year (or two) of credit monitoring is almost useless. Credit monitoring alerts a victim after fraud has already occurred and one year (or two) of monitoring is too limited for information that has a much longer lifespan. I guess credit monitoring would be better than nothing, but not by much.

Lowman said the health system continually conducts audits to know which staff members are accessing what information, and whether or not the access is appropriate.
[Evan] Good!

"We’re always looking to provide better audits and better oversight of private, confidential and protected information," Lowman said.
[Evan] And Good!

Commentary:
Preventing and detecting employee fraud has always been a challenge. This doesn't mean we give up though. We have some tools at our disposal such as employee background checks, role-based access control, segregation of duties, and job rotation to name a few.

I don't think that these two crooks are anything more than common criminals. The fact of the matter is that identity theft and fraud are very easy crimes to commit and require very little skill.

Past Breaches:
Unknown

Professor: Computers plus people equals risk

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Ian Angell, a tech prognosticator known for his dark outlook ("Whenever I smell flowers, I think funeral"), suggests that corporate financial meltdowns over the last few years ought to provide a clue that businesses are relying too much on technology.

This Cupid I don't need

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:45:00 +0000

With this weeks festive Valentine's Day celebration upon us, the social engineers are back at work. These folks come up with new and innovative ways to get you to open email and then own your machine. The payload is usually the eponymous Storm worm, so be on your guard. You can get more details about what the FBI thinks is in store for the rest of this week.

Don't fall for it. By using the tactics discussed in Security Mike's Guide you are reasonably protected, but there is nothing that substitutes for good old common sense.

I'm sure you have plenty of secret admirers, hopefully they'll send you flowers. Email solicitations to click on links, you don't need. If it seems too good to be true, it is. If it's a love note from someone that doesn't love you, don't open it.

The best way to protect yourself online is constant vigilance. Expect the worst from folks on the Internet, they rarely let you down.

Cupid image originally uploaded by Shoeless Joe/64.

Oracle to Buy BEA Systems for $8.5 Billion

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:30 +0000

After three months of wrangling over prices, Oracle Corp. will acquire BEA Systems in a $8.5 billion deal.

This means that Oracle will now have an event processing platform, the Oracle WebLogic Event Server to compliment their product line.

Reference: Oracle Strikes Deal to Buy BEA Systems for $8.5 Billion (Wall Street Journal)

By JOHN FLOWERS
January 16, 2008 8:14 a.m.

Oracle Corp. said it will acquire BEA Systems in a $8.5 billion deal three months after BEA slapped away an Oracle takeover offer as too low.

Oracle would pay $19.38 for each BEA share, a 24% premium to Tuesday’s close price of $15.58.

Oracle made an unsolicited $6.7 billion, or $17 a share, takeover proposal in October, but the company let it expire weeks later after BEA said the bid was unacceptable. At the same time, BEA added it was looking to start negotiations with interested parties willing to pay at least $21 a share.

“The addition of BEA products and technology will significantly enhance and extend Oracle’s Fusion middleware software suite,” said Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison. “Middleware” is a general term for any programming that serves to mediate between two separate and often already existing programs.

BEA Chairman and CEO Alfred Chuang called the deal the culmination of a “diligent and thoughtful process” to maximize stockholder value. The company’s largest shareholder, billionaire Carl Icahn, had called for an auction to sell the business-management-software firm.

BEA is one of the few independent, midsize software companies left in Silicon Valley as the technology industry consolidates. Oracle has for years eyed BEA as an acquisition target.

BEA has been battling Oracle, International Business Machines Corp. and others in the market for middleware. BEA, with a product called WebLogic, pioneered one category of middleware called application servers that are used to build Web services.

Oracle expects the buyout to boost earnings by one cent to two cents a share, excluding items, in the first year after the deal closes. That is slated to happen by midyear.

Shares of Oracle fell in premarket trading to $20.80 after closing Tuesday at $21.31.