Briefing on the Cybersecurity Excercise

A Military Affairs Committee meeting was held by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber entitled “An Update from Ft. Lewis”. Along with presentations from Col. Cynthia Murphy, Garrison Commander and Mark San Souci, Regional Liaison for Military Families, DoD-State Liaison Office, (who gave updates on the base and discussed Pay Day Lender laws respectively), I gave an update on the Cybersecurity Exercise that was conducted a little over a month ago.

Sponsored jointly by West Point, Fort Lewis and the University of Washington Tacoma, the day-long event brought in students from multiple locations where they were lead by Lt. Colonel Ron Dodge from USMA West Point through a series of cyber attack/defense exercises.

West Point gave the participants some preliminary materials to practice with so that the students who were invited would be familiar with the scenario. This way each team would have at least one member who was comfortable with the equipment.

The students brought the necessary ID and met to carpool in order to minimize the number of cars driven on to the base. When they arrived, they formed groups and were given a pod of workstations that comprised a small network. The networks had some security problems that each group had to discover and secure. After giving the groups some time to secure three high powered workstations and six monitors, the people from West Point started attacking.

Don McLane, lecturer at the Institute of Technology, was the organizer of the UWT contingent and deserves credit for how well the students did. He teaches TCSS 431 (Network Security) which covers “cryptographic methods including public and private key algorithms. It examines protocols that utilize such methods, such as secure email, digital signatures, authorization, e-voting, and electronic cash. The course includes a lab component for demonstration of security techniques such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and virtual private networks.”

He reports “Everyone learned…even me, so we’ll be better prepared next time.” And that “Fort Lewis provided an EXCEPTIONAL environment.”.

Also there was Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Director, Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity (CIAC), University of Washington who said “Don did a great job..His group was given special mention for their success with the exercise. There were between 60-70 people there. Huge group."


Next time the exercise will be part of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, so Don intends to have an official team prepared for that. Given this years challenge was more difficult that the year before, the expectation is for the difficulty to be further increased yet again next year.

Armchair Space Flight

The image to the right is from the www.nasa.gov website.

“NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has found a patch of bright-toned soil so rich in silica that scientists propose water must have been involved in concentrating it.”

It was taken only last month. That is three and one half years after the mission began. What I remember most vividly about the early days of the mission were the pictures that the Rover began to send back. Would there be water? Would there be Furbies? What we got from the middle of a crater were pictures of red soil and rocks. And those pictures were fascinating. In particular I loved the 360 views that were provided.

In 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong took “"one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" onto the surface of the moon. It was monumental not only for the historical moment in space exploration, but for the pictures that were sent back. It is funny how there are still hoax theorists challenging the images.

Today, it’s like being on the mission itself. The NASA site is abundant with images, videos, interactive flash and information about not only the past, but the recent present and real time. Check out the mission clock on the Shuttle’s main page.

The shuttle Atlantis just launched on NASA’s most recent Space Station mission. Would you care to know watch’s happening today?

“The STS-117 and Expedition 15 crew members will put on their construction hats today to continue the assembly of the International Space Station. They will use the station’s robotic arm and conduct a spacewalk to attach and activate a new truss segment.”

The video will no doubt soon follow and it is there for you to enjoy.

Lots of Tacoma Love

People fall in love online all the time. Sometimes it is accidentally, by virtue of hanging out in the same virtual community. Sometimes it is deliberate, such as seeking that certain someone through a Match.com, Harmony.com or simply reigniting that high school flame through Classmates.com. Of course, the catch is that eventually they have to actually meet.

It turns out that there are also those who want you to fall in love with a city. And they want you to meet in person as soon as is possible. Want examples? Here are two.

As many south sound blogs have already featured, check out Daniel Blue and his ode to Tacoma on www.exit133.com. Public professions of love are the best type of romance.

Alongside comes the pronouncement of affection from Love Tacoma. Their website domain says it all. www.lovetacoma.com.

Not only do they love Tacoma, they want you to fall in love as well. Let’s call it “metrogamy”. On second thought, don’t. That’s what the metronatural folks would probably call it.

So what are they all about? Let’s ask. What are you all about?

“What We're All About
Discovering what's hot. We want you to see for yourself what makes Tacoma unbeatable. Love Tacoma's just making your life easier, offering you the happenings that you're after to catch up with friends and discover what's out there in our urban play place.”

So get out there and fall in love.

Creating a Virtual Space for Your Media Transfer

Some of the Internets application protocols are well known and used, such as email and http (the server engine behind the web). Others have been and are critical to the web but are not as visible as they used to be. Two examples are FTP (file transfer protocol) and NNTP (network news). Though these protocols are still and will continue to be vital, other internet applications with larger feature sets and therefore greater application toward providing solutions are taking the forefront.

Take local Tacoma software company Topia Technologies Skoot. Though the rudiments of large file transfers might be satisfied by an FTP server, there are too many limitations and vulnerabilities to provide a broad range of file sharing and transfer solutions. Skoot attempts to address these issues and more.

Sharing large files (like audio, video and high resolution photos) can be problematic. This is especially if you just want to share them with close family and friends, or if they are sensitive in nature. The internet and several sites such as YouTube, flicker and the like provide a great resource, but they don’t provide much in the way of exclusivity and protection.

If you are a graphics artist or work and film and video and you leverage the internet, you should be paying attention. Worried someone can come in and steal your work? In answer to that question, (and because it uses the work virtual, (I love that word)), here is a sample from Topia's Q and A on it.

“Q3. Can the members of my Skoot Workspaces get to the other files on my hard drive? A3. Absolutely not. Think of your SkootSpace as a virtual environment—because it’s virtual, people sharing any of the Skoot Workspaces within it cannot access anything you don’t want them to—and nothing other than your Skoot Workspaces. Others can only access files in a Skoot Workspace you invited them to join.”

In putting their solution into practice, Topia has introduced TroopSkoot as a solution for our troops, separated from their family and friends. As Topia puts it “The Skoot service lets them send photos, videos and other information they wish to share – securely and effortlessly. Skoot is their very own "Private Family Network.” Topia has gotten the attention of Congressman Adam Smith for their efforts, and he mentions them and the program in his technology update.

For another customer viewpoint, check out the article by Darrel Bowman, CEO of solutions provider AppTech written for the ChannelWeb network.

Cell Coverage in NE Tacoma

Erik over at www.erikemery.com is drooling over the upcoming iPhone. It does seem to provide quite a few features and looks pretty cool. I own a decent cell phone and use some of its non phone related features like games, text messaging and the camera. From what is coming up around the technology corner, we might believe that soon our cell phones will be making our breakfast and parking our cars. However this morning I took an online survey which gave me pause.

As I have mentioned before, I call online surveys “voluntary data entry”. Every time you or I fill one out there is that much more information about us available to a larger group of companies and people. And yet, I still will occasionally fill them out.

This morning before work I chose to spend five minutes of my life providing personal information to a survey being conducted off of an ESPN pop up solicitation. It was in regards to get streamed television to your cell phone, a service the Verizon is now touting.

I didn’t know it was Verizon when I started the survey, but it became clear after several questions what the purpose of the questions were. Would I be interested in switching to Verizon for this video service? The funny thing is that I have always LOVED Verizon for their clarity and coverage around the NW, but I don’t use them as my cell company. I have Cingular, which I listed as having a somewhat unfavorable opinion of, due to the overall quality of my connections through them.

But Verizon doesn’t provide coverage for my neighborhood in NE Tacoma. I have a hard time with any decent connection as soon as I near my home. It works great everywhere else I’ve tried and it has never dropped me in the past when I would drive up to Seattle. I even tried to switch back to them during a trial period, but no go for NE Taco.

I don’t know whether I would go for the streamed TV over the phone. I do like Cingular’s family plan, which I use. But when it comes down to it, it is about the phone calls. Everything else is just a bonus.

Commercials As Entertainment

Last week I mentioned Nielsen's new advertisement ratings, which are meant to capture just how many folks are sticking around to be sold Hondas, coca cola and iPods. Whatever the ratings figure, you can imagine that it will be a lower number than the program ratings are, and trickier to measure after that program has been recorded.

Quite frequently, and with growing numbers, the commercials are the entertainment themselves. It can be argued that the popular Pokemon cartoons my older kids used to watch were just half hour commercials, as can many of the Saturday morning fare. Now ABC is launching a half hour comedy based on the Geico ads featuring put upon cavemen offended by the slogan, "so easy a caveman can do it". I wonder if Geico is fronting any of the production costs? Will the Gecko make a guest appearance?

With the internet, commercial are often entertainment destinations for the kids. Where are the most flash games? Check out M&M's fun and games portion of their site, or just about any breakfast cereal aimed at children. Brands themselves are destination points for Barbie and Polly Pockets game players.


With more video being seamlessly added, the commercials are coming in from all sides. Thank goodness your TV can't switch channels for you. More than once I have inadvertently clicked on an ad that popped in from the side after an accidental roll over. (sounds like a car accident).

So get ready for product placement, sponsorship and entertainment not imagined since "The Truman Show". I don't mind it so much because I am aware of it. Just make sure that you teach your kids to spot it as well.

Here is an exchange you might hear in my home.

"What are you watching, sweetie?"
"A commercial."
"Can you tell me what they are trying to do?"
"They're trying to sell me something."
"Way to go, Kiddo."

Spam King Arrested in Seattle

The man who was nicknamed the "spam king" because he set up untold numbers of zombie computers to send out millions of junk emails has been arrested in Seattle. Robert Soloway, 27, has been indicted on charges of mail fraud, identity theft and money laundering. He's the same guy who lost a civil suit that Microsoft filed which was levied a pretty penny against him. Because of the Federal statutes and identity theft laws broken, it looks like jail time for him.

Just keep him away from internet access in the prison library.