Coming up next week is the SQL Inspire 2011 event in New York City. It’s an event with a number of SQL Server community speakers that are here to inspire you in your career, your life, and with SQL Server. The talks cover a variety of topics, and they look interesting. I am very excited to attend the event, and give my talk as well.
The event is from SQL People, the brainchild of Andy Leonard and Brian Moran, designed to build a stronger community by having us inspire each other. This event is based on the TED events, which are inspirational and informative talks that look to explore new ideas in a variety of topic areas. I have loved watching many of the talks, and while I’m not sure I’m up to the same level of presenting as many of these people, I’m going to try.
Please come if you are in New York on the 12th of November. It will be a lot of fun, and hopefully a very motivational event.
Today we have an editorial that was originally published on Nov 7, 2006 as Steve is at DevConnections.
It’s not bad enough that people get tons of spam, some of it cleverly disguised and hidden in messages we might be expecting, but this idea is doubly wrong. Apparently someone setup a spam message that informed people they’d been laid off. When they followed a link, a keystroke logger was installed on their machine.
So not only did their emotions skyrocket with the news they might be let go, but they potentially could get let go anyway after someone discovers they’ve installed software on their machine that could compromise the company.
I’d like to think that administrators wouldn’t be fooled by this and get something installed that would grab their passwords, but it’s not that easy. As an administrator, you should be wary of users on your machine without supervision, even under their own accounts. It’s the same reason I don’t let me kids work my computer without me being their; I’m not sure they won’t get some trojan installed.
The other part of this is ensuring that your security paradigm is properly set up. Anyone could fall for one of these and if they had administrative or other “superuser” rights, who knows what would be compromised. It’s also a good reason to ensure that you don’t share passwords, especially high level ones, for some quick fix. If someone needs some extra rights for a day, grant them rights and then remove them as soon as possible.
And change your passwords. I’ve worked in places where passwords were in force for years and everyone knew what they were. Might as well have a blank password.
I think targeted SPAM will become and more common in the future. Writing scripts to change senders, customize messages, change logos, etc. and target specific groups of people is not difficult and as more filters become able to deal with the large blasts of identical email, those looking to trick you will evolve as well.
So spread the word and warn your users. A large part of security is education on everyone’s part.
You should be documenting your day, your week, your month, on a regular basis. Take a few minutes when you accomplish something and make a blog entry. This is a great way for you to keep track of what you’ve accomplished during the year, and be ready to talk about it in an interview, or in a performance review.
You don’t have to publically blog this. You can use Word, emacs, Live Writer, text files, whatever works, but, keep track of it. Read through it when you need it and summarize your accomplishments for the quarter or year. This is also something you consult every quarter when you touch your resume.
And when you get ready for that review, read Kendra Little’s post on asking for a raise.
Happy Halloweento everyone out there. It’s the holiday that my kids love, with the chance to dress up and pretend to be something else for the day. I haven’t dressed up in years, but I still remember being a young IT guy, coming into work at 7am before everyone else with a gorilla mask and hands, in a suit and getting a few screams from people walking into the office.
It’s a vacation day for me, taking a break between my trip last week for SQL in the City and heading to SQL Server Connections tomorrow. Hopefully I’m skiing, and then taking the kids out tonight for some fun before I leave town tomorrow.
It’s not a holiday for most people, but I hope you have a quiet and productive day. For a little entertainment, I’ve got a blooper real below you can enjoy.
