Data Control

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“He who controls the spice, controls the universe!” - Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Dune

Who would have know that a drama based fictional character would hit the nail on the head with his quote. A quote that only needs one word changed to make it applicable to modern times, the word, “Spice” to “data.” 

“He who controls the data, controls the universe!”

Layered Security Goal

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

When a person decides to take up the creation of a security model it is recommended strongly they create a, “Layered Security Model.” Since this involves the safety and security of your electronic-home environment, i.e., your home network and devices including those that are mobile as you carry them with you where ever you go and wherever you are, you don’t have to actually take the step to self-assess your vulnerabilities. The reason, in iSD and in our technological age the predatory efforts are pretty much the same across the board. It is not personal but process and resource based.

The threats out there are the same for everyone so the analysis of the dangers is already done and you are all exposed to them regardless. So, we can go directly to the layered security creation for you. The only self-analysis you may want to consider is this, “Are you willing to make those sacrifices necessary to protect yourself that will involve a considerable discipline to life without?” In order to create your security posture you may have to give up things you have come to expect as an intricate part of your electronic-life. 

In addition, you have to take personal responsibility for that security model and posture by accepting the fact that “Others” are not going to go the distance to keep you safe regardless of what their ads and service agreements may or might indicate - on the surface. You have to take personal action and realize that those “Other Security Methods” outside you are simply inadequate. You cannot assume and depend on technological apps, programs and devices to do all the work for you, that is impossible. 

You have to create a mind-set and mind-state that says you will put enough protection between the predators and yourself they cannot breach your security and cause you problems, issues and damage. 

You may have noticed I did not say, “Create enough security they will go elsewhere and attack those more vulnerable.” I did that because in the tech-age of predatory attacks it does not require any effort at all once a program is triggered and it attacks you. It is one of those things that goes on behind the scenes while the actual person does something else. This is what makes it so nefarious and dangerous, it runs forever through computers, etc. It never tires, it is never disappointed and it never succumbs to fatigue, boredom or breakdown. It is forever and you can only maintain high security status through diligence and continuous on-going effort. Look at it as an alcoholic does when working to remain sober, they are working ever day to stay sober so shall you need to work on it daily to remain safe and secure. 

Everything in the Universe is built on yin-yang, the opposites that ebb and flow where one ends when another begins but in this tech cyber war there is no end, it is continuous and infinite unless some catastrophic event happens where all computers, routers, OS’s, etc. die at the same time - ever hear of redundancies? 

So, decide before you begin if the danger is real, your exposed and susceptible to the attack and you are willing and able to make those sacrifices necessary to stop the attacks? If you are willing to make the sacrifices then by all means continue to follow this effort as the strategies and tactics to set up that layered security will be presented. 

Ok, you have decided to go for it, you want to be safe and secure from predatory cyber-attacks and the following is a view of what layered security would look like in a physical world but in truth those layers will be both physical and electronic/technical. 

In the physical security world when you have a object, etc., that if lost would cause great harm and death you build layers of security, combinations of physical protections as well as electronic, that will deter attacks. For iSD, the gaol is to build and maintain layers that will cause the attacks to not penetrate the layers and access your valuable life. 

In the physical security world to protect high value and sensitive data and devices you combine; fences, Constantine wire, trenches, more fencing, fencing with electronic detection of heat, vibrations, etc., to trigger alarms of warning, armed guards that patrol. guard towers to observe and protect, locks that deter and slow down efforts to break and breach, ariel surveillance to detect airborne approaches, bollards, etc. to stop direct attacks by vehicles, etc., personal training to stop human social attacks, and so on. 

In the electronic-tech world of the matrix-like internet of one’s-n-zero’s we have to combine a human effort and intervention with software driven protections. It must be layered to make it safe and secure. Look at it as the following physical representation but assume the fencing, bollards, towers and trenches are actually cyber-defenses layered. 

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World War III is Here

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

We can’t see it, we can’t touch it and we can’t feel it - yet. It is here and all around us but unlike the older conventional ways humans conducted war this one is not apparent until the individual is effected. 

You won’t get killed (but that is possible too) but your death will be catastrophic to say the least because in essence you can become a form of the “Walking Dead.” Your electron life will come to a sudden and abrupt end, your economic status will cease to exist and the very technology that took it will keep humans from believing you lost it, and they will assume you never had it to begin with. 

You don’t believe it do you? Because you have not personally felt the bullet, you have not personally seen it happen to you - yet, and you have not personally seen the adversary, heard the adversary or felt the adversary attack it must not be true. You are so busy feeling that feeling of satisfaction when you click the links or press the send button or type out that tweet, Facebook like or text - it just can’t happen can it?

You assume and feel that the company that provides your service and data is secure; you feel strongly that because you update frequently to stay with the pushes and patches  that secure your stuff you are safe; you assume that all those web sites, programs and apps are created securely and are updated and patched almost every week you are safe. You are not actually all that safe. 

WWIII is out there and going on as you type that text, enter that Facebook personal information about your day, and sending out those minute-by-minute tweets and just because the Shelling of bombs has not hit you yet and just because the bullets have not hit you does not mean the war is not in full swing. 

This is the nature of the Cyber Wars, WWIII, the fact that you don’t think it can happen to you and that you are fully and completely protected by the AV programs, the firewalls and the encryptions does not mean the war is not on right this very moment. You just have not as yet become a casualty of that war but the time will come and sooner than you think when your screens and electronic life will suddenly go black. 

If you don’t believe me and if you don’t believe that all the information out there has not indicated this then take a moment to seek out the answers for, “The information is out there, you just have to let it in!”

It is so much easier to ignore it, you can’t see it, feel it, or hear it like conventional wars where humans are facing one another across a battle field firing weapons and feeling, hearing and seeing the bullets, rockets and mortars whizzing, whistling and exploding all around you until that, “One bullet or fragment” hits you and you bleed out. It is easy as heck because the Cyber War is one that is fought silently, swiftly and most deadly. Do you really want to wait till that adversary you will never see, “Clicks that mouse just once” to trigger that silent but deadly weaponized code? 

Now, you expect me to say, “There is still time to safeguard yourself, your data, your personal life and welfare, etc.,” but there isn’t, it is all just LUCK that we have not yet succumbed to the predatory nature and actions of those who would see us all dead, destitute and economically destroyed. Start NOW, Start HERE: Goodman, Marc. “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It.” Doubleday. New York. 24 February 2015. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Count to Ten

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

You know, when your emotions are a flame and you are ready to spout out some expletive to another human philosophers say we should count to ten before we say or do anything. This count to ten routine has a purpose: you get a chance to breathe deeply and into the diaphragm; you get a chance to stop and let the human logical brain chime in over the protests of the monkey brain chatter; you get a moment of clarity to consider the repercussions of your words and actions - all a means to avoid conflict and avoid possible violence. 

Now, lets take that to the internet and giving up “Personal Information” with a quick click of the little buttons that permeate every corner of the WWW. When you are asked for data or when you put out personal stuff and just click the button you are exposing yourself to everyone and every business and every predator, really - your making it easy for them.

So, in that light, while using all that wonderful connectivity technology take a moment before every single click of the mouse and ask yourself, “Do I really want to put this out there for everyone? Is this a necessary thing to do? What benefit do I get from clicking this button? and most importantly, “How can this be used by predators to hurt me?” 

Count to ten, count again; consider, contemplate, evaluate and decide - then and only then, click. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Defense - Offense - Reactionary: iSD Initiative Proaction

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Defense is that exclusion zone of the body and mind we erect to protect ourselves from predatory actions that would cause us harm; bodily, psychologically, spiritually and technologically.

Offense is that set of strategies and there resulting tactics taken to protect ourselves from predatory actions that would cause us harm; bodily, psychologically, spiritually and technologically.

Reactionary is that action based on the reality of an attack in the now, the present moment and to our total and complete surprise. Reactionary is that status humans are in now in this most modern technological society. We are currently in a state of denial and ignorance because of some very human frailties and a lack of evolutionary progression. What?

Lets take a look at how we currently defend, we build what we have come to believe as acceptable technological oriented software driven security measures to create what we assume are impenetrable walls of protection but that is just not so. The defending software driven security measures are playing a dual role, role of defender and offensive protection that are believed within the same software techie security measures. 

“The defender must build a perfect wall to keep out all intruders, while the offense need find only one chink in the armor through which to attack.” - Marc Goodman, Future Crimes.

Lets add in another human frailties or short coming that makes us even more vulnerable and easy prey, our linear thinking processes. The human condition is still based on survival instincts of when we roamed the plains of the Serengeti running to avoid being eaten by the larger predators such as Lions, Leopards, etc. We didn’t and still don’t need much more than linear thinking processes to survive but then again with the rapid spread of technology and the growth of predatory technological process and resource attack strategies and tactics we have to either stop or find a way to protect ourselves as individuals, families and societies. We need iSD or Information Self-Defense/Internet Self-Defense, etc. 

The key word now is, “Proactive in Offensive Strategies and Tactics.” Not defensive for that is what we do now, spend an exorbitant amount of time, energy and expense to build a wall to give us security and safety while we fail to put our Military on that wall with all the tools and equipment to protect us. If we fail to think outside the box and take the fight to the adversary before they can act we are doomed to build the wall and miss all the chinks therein that are the only means an adversary needs to get in our space and cause us grate harm. 

When the attack and we simply react, do we have the training, tools and understanding to respond or react adequately and will that be enough? Reaction means we have been put into a mind-state directed on that attack while other strategies and maneuvers of the same attackers are breaching our protective walls faster than our administrators can patch them. Patching like many such security strategies is a short-term solution in the hopes it will provide us the time, very little time too, to build a better wall. 

In truth, my strategy is to create tactics that take the fight to the attackers, the enemy, to take them out quickly, silently and with deadly intent. My strategy is to create a war zone where the enemy fears to tread for the repercussions of attacking us are just too high. The basic flaw here is this, “It cannot be done alone, individually, but only as a knowledgable collective toward technological survival. 

Yet, it starts with the individual. All armies of any society is first made up of trained individuals whose training led them to a more cohesive collective of military that makes up an Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. 

Lets cover the human factor a bit. First, we defend and protect through the use of eyes, ears and tactile or touch senses. Here is the rub regarding this new and unique battle zone, it exists outside of the senses for we cannot see them, we cannot hear them and we cannot touch them. If humans cannot see, hear or touch something they tend to ignore it but that is the true danger of the technological war and war zone. We have to take it upon ourselves to make is so personal that we can take back the initiative and get the job done much like the Marines hitting the beaches of histories landing shores. 

We have to find some way to make our human linear minds see that the Lion is on the hunt for fresh meat and we have “Fresh Meat” stenciled across our foreheads. We have to take the hunt to the Lion, track them, unearth their dens and then eliminate them as a threat. 

This is how I plan to take my articles, to present ideas, thoughts and theories that can, would and could lead us to a more proactive status, to take the fight to them and put them in a reactionary defensive posture. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Some Sacrifices = Panic Attacks = Stress = Adrenal Chemical Reactions - Oh My!

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Lets get real for a moment, you are going to have to make some sacrifices to gain a secure foothold on your internet connectivity security. It will, at first, cause you to have a panic attack. You are going to say, “Not just no, but hell no.” You just have to know and understand if you fall to that thinking you will need to accept your vulnerability and then stay open to attack. 

Yea, you may go your entire life and never feel the pain and anguish of being electronically psychologically pummeled. But remember this, it just takes one moment, any moment - that one instance where your entire life falls down into the black hole of the internet. If you feel confident and safe; if you feel confident and safe relying on the protection of others whose sole goal is to earn a living through the demand for others to secure and safeguard your life and livelihood. Really, if you are willing then your reading stops here - have a great day. 

If you don’t want to rely on others for your safety and security then continue reading this blog because I am going to try my hardest to teach myself how to remain safe and secure, as safe and as secure as any one human can achieve in a violent world of the wild, wild Internet. Remember, I don’t have all the answers but I will present material that will help you to create your own questions. It is up to you, YOU, to find out the truth and to create your own security posture and it is up to YOU to implement it and maintain it - FOREVER AND EVER!

A few things about me, first is I am not an expert on the Internet, Internet security or other safety within the Internet. I am a security professional. I retired from a very large organization as their security specialist and I have a degree for security, technology and management. I have spent the last fifteen years working for another very large organization as, at first, a workstation technician where one of my many responsibilities was to maintain a decent security posture for every workstation in my department. I also moved into management of development quality assurance testing and development release management. I am working as a systems administrator for various enterprise applications on the first level service support, etc. 

I also have a good deal of experience in government as a security professional with emphasis on computer security as well as what they call, “Communications Security Management.” So, at least on a very basic and fundamental level I have enough knowledge, understanding and experience to at least write about our needs in this area so that others may venture forth into the darkness and by self-education and research can find the light switch and make it at least harder for the nefarious predators of the Internet to attack and harm my electronic/internet presence. 

Oh, also, I am well versed and at least moderately experienced in the real world of self-defense through learning, training, practicing and applying self-defense by the methods of avoidance, escape, evasion and physical use of appropriate force in self-defense, etc. Look at that experience as one third the physical and two-thirds the academic so I can at least discuss it intelligently and apply it almost adequately. 

This blog is about learning so you can expect that some of them will ask you to consider taking such actions that will put you into a panic mode and cause you great stress but stop and consider all aspects of the recommendations and the repercussions of both applying them or not applying them. Weight the depth and breadth of those repercussions using a smaller emotional influence and let the greater part be decided by your logical side. At least you will be able to research more and then make a educated and informed decision instead of just reacting to the monkey brains need for gratification in the moment with total disregard for our future. 

p.s. overcoming instant gratifications from the key click, i.e., just consider the rush you will get when one day a hacker tries but fails, your safe and secure while living the good life clicking and clacking around all your connective devices. ;-)

Bibliography:

Goodman, Marc. “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It.” Doubleday. New York. 24 February 2015. 

Eagleman, David. “Incognito: TheSecret Lives of the Brain.” Vintage Publishing. NewYork. May 2012. 

The Black Hole

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

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In the “Whedon Verse” there are many references to the black, the black that is the blackest of blacks that makes up those dark and scary vacuums so cold it is unbelievable and very hard to even imagine. The black hole is also another aspect that takes the mere blackness of the verse into a scarier darkness that even light cannot escape.

Our lives live in the black verse we call the, “Internet.” Like the very galaxies we are connected by the black to other galaxies much like we are all connected and interconnected to: our phones; our workstations; laptops; iPads; iPods; TiVo boxes; televisions and almost every single mechanical/electrical/electronic device known to modern man and their modern societies. The black hole is that part of the black that fills in the spaces where the more nefarious folks travel like “Reavers” wreaking havoc and instilling fear in the very hearts of everyone. 

One day in the near future your phone, during a really great conversation or text thread, may just suddenly go black. Your adrenaline will pump causing your heart to go into your throat, you will get jittery; you will feel panic and then finally after you attempt reboots, etc., the fear will set it deep and without empathy to you or your life, a predatory resource or process event just occurred. You try your iPad, it is black too. You go about and check every single electronic internet connected device and every single one of them is black. You go by your bank where you have to deal with almost all mechanical type devices with only one human with a long line available to talk to about your plight. You wait in line, inquire about your accounts and then find out that those too fell into that black hole we call the darkest parts of the iVerse. You find out that you don’t exist anymore and even tho you are talking to a human being of flesh and blood standing right in front of you trying not to look you in the eyes, you don’t exist anymore. 

Yes, this is maybe the worst thing that can happen to you. From my view, personally, falling into this black hole send chills up and down my spine and instills a fear beyond any fear or damage I could possible endure if physically attacked and gravely harmed. I would rather have my clock cleaned by someone’s fists because in that moment I can actually do something about it. I have trained and practiced for such an event and have far better chance of overcoming and defending then against the totally unknown where my life literally in a micro-second fell into the black hole of the internet hacker/predator. 

We are human and therefore giving due thought and consideration to such things so far out of our control seems to cause us all to say, “It can’t happen to me.” We go blithely along experience an emotional high with every click of the mouse or button or key, etc. We fall into the emotional mode of instant gratification as if we were getting our very next fix, every second of every moment - moment to moment. We as humans don’t want or need to look beyond that next click-fix, we are all in heaven. Until … that one moment hits. Oh, my, what can we do?

First, is acceptance - to accept that our connectivity is like living in the wild west with no law, no enforcement and so little and ineffective protection we have to arm ourselves and find ways to have, understand and apply our own self-defense in a, “PROACTIVE” way to avoid, escape and evade the predatory nefarious bad guy hacking communities. 

Second, is to become educated, at least fundamentally, so that we may understand the dangers we face out in the wild deep black of the iVerse. We must educate ourselves to the truth no matter how hard and scary it might be then we have to learn, practice and apply those iSD methodologies necessary to achieve some semblance of security and safety. 

Third, is to achieve a strategy that will be there if you fall through that black hole. One that will let those who can help know that you are not dead but truly alive and well so that you can take steps to find solace in your situation and see a light on the other end of that black hole, a white hole, so you can travel back into the verse or life, different like coming out of a white hole into a new universe, but with confidence you can return to a state of economical and financial viability to continue living life as you were meant to do. 

The black hole of space is scary and the scientists who are aware of it are still studying and working to find a way to live with it and to overcome it in some way so is the communities that are there trying to make the wild black of the iVerse safer for us to live and travel within BUT you CANNOT simply depend on those others to give you the protection and security and safety you need and deserve, that is your job and this is where you start. Right here and now, through acceptance of the reality of the technological age, by educating yourself to a state of understanding to create your own personal security strategies and tactics, and finally implementation of those strategies so you can detect and protect through avoidance before the intense gravity of the black hole pulls you into oblivion. 

Welcome to the, “iSD Site!” I am glad you are coming along for the ride. Enter your safe secondary free email address so that you are notified when ever another article appears. Don’t hesitate to contact me to comment or ask questions. 

The black does not have to be scary or dangerous but accept that it is today but less so by your actions in taking a proactive stance to your own safety and security. 

Bibliography:

Goodman, Marc. “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It.” Doubleday. New York. 24 February 2015. 

Eagleman, David. “Incognito: TheSecret Lives of the Brain.” Vintage Publishing. NewYork. May 2012.