Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Hacking Data

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 23, 2011. It is being re-run as Steve is away on vacation.

    I saw a note recently that researchers had successfully hacked a car using only an MP3 file on a CD. They were able to lock the doors and kill the engine in a car. That doesn’t necessarily sound too scary until you consider that the ability to kill any percentage of car engines during rush hour traffic could have catastrophic results.

    How much of an issue is this? I don’t know, but as long as there is some interpreter that has to decode digital data and render it as audio, video, or even text, there is the chance that additional code could be added to hack the system and allow someone to take control. When I think about all the ways that we get digital data these days, it is truly a scary thought that we could have these security holes.

    Think about it, MP3s could be sourced at a retailer like Amazon. Adding code to a popular MP3 song could infect millions of people that burn the MP3 to a CD, or connect their iPod to the stereo. The advent of HD radio could invite hackers to target broadcast centers and alter those files. Navigation systems and traffic data streams could potentially be carrying digital viruses that infect our systems.

    However that same idea could be extended in other ways. The more knowledge someone has about your internal systems, and the more they are connected, the more likely that just the addition of data to streams could have unexpected events. Suppose someone understood the complex relationships between various ordering and supply chain systems. Is there a chance that they could send in a sequence of orders that would disrupt your systems? Could someone inject data that somehow starts a chain reaction of workflows across your enterprise?

    It seems unlikely to me, but then again, 5 years ago I would never have considered an MP3 file might allow someone to gain control of a modern car. Security is a tough business, and there will always be new, creative, unbelievably exploits that are discovered. The best defense I can think of is to share information and never assume your systems are invulnerable to a new attack.

    Steve Jones

  • Are We Suckers?

    I written about learning to say no. I’ve noted that we must find a balance in life with work. I try to encourage you to work hard, get better at your job, and bring value to your employer. I certainly know there are plenty of employees that coast along in their jobs, doing often less than what I would consider the minimum. I’m hoping that more and more of you are trying to do better.

    However, when I read pieces like this one where a CEO wonders why employees don’t work harder, I get frustrated by managers that don’t seem to understand that work is merely work for many of us. We enjoy it, we want to do well, but it’s just a part of our lives. We have other things in life that we love and are more important than work.

    However I also know there are plenty of you that go the extra mile. You routinely work outside the normal business hours to solve problems, or just deploy changes to system. I’ve been there, and I’ve wondered why I’d bother working from 11pm Sat – 4am Sun for “routine maintenance” if I wasn’t being paid an hourly wage. This week, what do you think about this?

    Are we suckers for working extra hours?

    I know plenty of people enjoy the work, and they rise to the challenge of responding in a crisis. One of the hardest things I had to manage was getting people to go home and rest when faced with an extended crisis. It seems I had no shortage of employees that wanted to work 30, 40 or more hours in a row, and I’d argue to send them home to rest because I’d need them to work tomorrow night.

    I think that we should make an honest effort to give our employers value. We should do the work assigned, perhaps do it better today than yesterday, and be flexible when more work is needed. I also think employers should do the same thing. Extra hours at work should be extra time off. Compensation should relate to to performance, but not hours worked. Sacrifice by employees should be met with sacrifice by employers.

    In other words, just like my balance between work and life, there should be a balance between employers and employees with each side respecting the other.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • A Few Days Off in Space Country

    The new Star Wars film opens today, and while I won’t see it then, perhaps I’ll get to it early next week in the shadow of the US space program.

    My middle son is in his last year of high school before he goes off to college and as his birthday present in 2015, I’m taking him down to Florida and Cape Canaveral for 4 days. We leave early tommorrow, not returning to Denver until late Tuesday.

    A couple days of vacation for me, and hopefully some memories for my son. He was there a long time ago, at 2, so he doesn’t remember much. However he’s interested in flight and space, and looking to study aeronautical engineering in college, so this is a treat for him. In fact, when we were talking about where to take him, his eyes lit up when I suggested this trip.

    It will be an interesting trip, with the chance to visit the Kennedy Space Center, meet an astronaut, and study some of the history of US space travel in person.

    I’m also excited to go. Not that I want to go into space, at least not until they get artificial gravity, but I find the subject fascinating and I felt rushed the last time I visited. It will be nice to be able to spend time and not hurry around as we get the chance to vacation together.

    Enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you briefly next week before I close down for the year.

  • The Machines are Learning

    One of the technologies that Microsoft is promoting heavily is machine learning. This has rapidly gone from a technology that I heard little about to being in multiple keynotes that I’ve seen at large conferences this year. It almost seems that I can’t go a week without seeing some sort of machine learning article, announcement, or reference.

    How applicable is machine learning for most of us? I’m not sure, but banks have certainly taken advantage of machine learning to reduce their risks associated with fraud and their systems work well. In fact, given the ways in which I travel, I’m amazed that I don’t get more calls about fraud related to my card use. With me in a new state almost every month, on a very irregular schedule, sometimes buying computer supplies far from home, I get called by a bank once or twice a year.

    Across the ten or so calls I’ve gotten in the last few years, only one questioned legitimate purchases. The rest caught fraud on the same day that someone tried to use my card without my knowledge. That’s a very successful rate of both true positives, and a very, very low rate of false positives. I’m impressed.

    If you haven’t played with machine learning, Microsoft has made it easy to give a try in Azure. You don’t even need to put in a credit card to get up and working with machine learning. Whether it’s applicable to your industry or not, you’ll have to decide, but I do think that lots of tedious analysis that humans do now could be better done by a machine.

    At least after one of us humans has configured the algorithms and trained the machine to recognize patterns. And, of course, with one of us technologists periodically tuning the system to work better  and monitoring the analysis as data changes.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.6MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.