Soft and Music

Came across an interesting story about the halls of Congress being hacked in October 2006. Although no one knows or is saying, some speculate that the attack can be traced to the Chinese, who seem to get accused of hacking into a lot of government systems (worldwide). Of course, the Chinese officially deny these allegations. Shane Harris of the National Journal reported the attack was initially discovered in one office, but cyber-investigators eventually traced it to eight members' offices, where one or more computers were infected. Besides this, seven committee offices, including the Commission on China, Ways and Means and the International Relations Committee were identified as having compromised computers in them. The International Relations Committee (now the Foreign Affairs Committee) had 25 infected computers and an infected server found in it. The virus discovered was a trojan designed to allow malware (malicious software) to invade government machines and steal information. The investigation revealed that the trojan was probably downloaded by an employee, who clicked on a link in a spam e-mail. This method of dropping a virus on a computer is usually referred to as Phishing. Phishing attacks are normally designed to steal personal and financial information, which is later used to commit financial crimes and identity theft. While most phishing attacks (from a historical perspective) have been financially motivated, we are now seeing more person/position-targeted attacks. This type of phishing is referred to as spear phishing or whaling. In April, there were reports of spear phishing attacks against corporate executives all over the country. The unidentified hackers used a wide-array of attack methods and the malware was downloaded from random Internet addresses. It's suspected they were using other infected machines to launch the attacks, which makes the activity even harder to trace. In this latest instance, it makes sense; the intent was to steal confidential and sensitive information. The article points out that there is a lot of evidence that the Chinese have "penetrated deeply" into both government and corporate systems. Just hours before the Olympics, Joel Brenner, the top U.S. counterintelligence official, warned Americans to leave their smart phones and other wireless computer devices at home. He told CBS News that the public security services in China can turn on a cell phone and activate its microphone when the owner thinks it's off. In July, Senator Sam Brownback also warned that China was planning to mount a massive espionage operation on guests staying at major hotels during the Olympics. Last year there was speculation in the press that Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez's laptop was hacked during a visit to China and the information was used to hack into government computers. Even scarier, rumors abound that Chinese hackers have already attacked power grids and that they are developing a cyber-warfare capability. The article's conclusion points to a just released Report of the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency. The study recommends that President Elect Obama establish a Cyber-Security Directorate in the NSC, who would direct a National Office for Cyberspace. As a mere observer of all of this, I think President Elect Obama needs to take this report seriously. We need to remember (especially while a financial crisis is going on) that besides being a threat to National security, hacking also threatens our financial stability. Although this post points to the Chinese, they certainly aren't the only players in the International hacking game, and the problem it presents isn't going away. Sadly, some believe the problem is getting worse. There is little doubt that change is needed in the way we address this problem and hopefully this is what will occur. 

This is the second installment of a three part series on the problems of radio. Consolidation and financial woes have caused chaos and confusion. The industry is in a position to examine, refocus, and plan for the future. Rock Bottom and Rebuild Once radio gets out of the finance business and returns to the business of radio, experienced broadcasters will be necessary to rebuild and make the product viable again. The dominance is over, but with vision, “Intelligent Gut” and a redefinition of success, traditional radio could thrive again. The election of Barack Obama clearly demonstrated old media (Radio, TV, and Print) needs a new direction. During the last 10 years, some astute radio broadcasters have dabbled with e-mails, the Internet, text messaging, blogging, web videos, mp3’s, social networking, cell phones, I-phones, music downloading, and file sharing web companies. On the advice of researchers, consultants, station interns, and geeks speaking geek-a-nese, other broadcasters simply copied their peers. However, it is difficult to play follow the leader with so much uncertainty in selecting the correct path. This is why it is hard for some to make appropriate decisions to re-invent the industry. The legendary Program Director Buzz Bennett, said to me in 1996, radio is like an addict; it will have to bottom out and admit the problem before it can begin a recovery. Buzzy, whose life was an open book, knew a thing or two about addictions and has proven correct. Generations and Technology In order to fix the problem, it is important to understand the birth generations: 1. Silent Generation, born between 1925-1942 2. Baby Boomer, born between 1943-1960, age 48-65 3. Generation X, born between 1961-1981, age 27-47 4. Generation Y, born between 1982-2001, age 7-26 5. Generation Z, born between 2002-2021, age 6- It is important to understand the generations and how new technology has changed traditional radio. The two personal computer gurus responsible for revolutionizing communications, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs are baby boomers, both born in 1955. New media usage can be tracked though the generations.

Alright, you know Illustrator pretty well, but they just came out with a new version called Illustrator CS4. The question is, how exactly do you get up to speed with all of the new features without having to hash through the old just to find the differences? Well, just ask Mordy! Get online at Lynda.com and in Illustrator CS4 New Features, he will show it to you. Mordy Golding has put together a short course that focuses just on the new features of Illustrator CS4. As a leading expert in Illustrator, he covers the latest developments in Adobe's vector image editor, and he leaves no stone unturned. This course lasts 1.25 hours. The first thing that the instructor covers is the changes in the interface. Adobe has been working hard at trying to get all of their products as unified as possible, and here he covers the changes. He then moves on to the use of new multiple artboards. This is a feature that a lot of people have been wanting for quite a while. Here you are shown why you would want to use them, and how to create a set and interact with them. The appearance panel has had a major overhaul in Illustrator CS4, as well as some of the other Adobe products, and here you are shown why it now becomes a focal point in your workflow. It will help you eliminate the need to trudge through menus. Next he looks at the new capabilities of graphic styles like the ability to add-on graphic styles to existing styles in a compounding manner. Clipping masks have made it so much easier to select and mask objects in Illustrator and here you are shown techniques in which you no longer have to lock and unlock layers to get the right object. The instructor then explains the new Blob brush. He first reminds you about the problems with the painting methods in past versions. Then you are exposed to what you are now able to do with the new Blob brush, and how it can make many things you do much easier.

This is the first part of a three-part series about Microsoft and Brickfish teaming up to get the "I’m a PC" campaign all across the Internet. This part focuses mainly on the campaign itself and on the nature of how Brickfish scores a viral medium. The additional two parts will be interviews, one with the CEO of Brickfish talking about their previous and current campaigns as well as how they run the system. The other interview will be with  Microsoft's Group Marketing Manager for Digital Marketing (what a mouthful), focusing on this specific campaign, and the probable campaigns in the future, as well as what Microsoft is doing to recapture the college market. Breaking News  Brickfish, the social media advertising network, joined up in early December with Microsoft to promote a new advertising campaign as part of Microsoft’s "Life Without Walls" overall campaign. The two companies combined to offer an online competition, mainly geared at college-aged Windows users, but accessible to any age. The contest is designed to show cases the individuality of each Windows user. The campaign calls for each person to submit either a picture or a video (preferably one created using a Web cam) and a statement as to why “I’m a PC.” The four winners will be receiving at least a new laptop, along with various other items. For more information about the campaign please visit their Web site where you can look at the official rules, the prizes, and the already-submitted competition. Microsoft’s Goal In a time when Microsoft’s biggest rival Apple is making gains in market share with college students, and the long-time free OS Linux is slowly grabbing more people (thanks in part to a growing netbook trend), Microsoft is attempting to recapture their once-dominated market. For years, Apple has been casting Windows as the operating system of corporate-stiffs and of the conforming masses. Microsoft has finally decided to strike back.  As Marty Collins, Microsoft Group Marketing Manager for Windows, puts it, "'I’m a PC’ is about celebrating the individuality within the global Windows community and the pride we all have in our own unique passions — and how technology can help us further these interests." The battle for the college-age demographic is now under way, with both sides putting out their best attacks.   Microsoft is using the "Life Without Walls" campaign to show that Windows is not only essential in every household and business, but fun and easy to use, too. This competition is designed to showcase that every user is different, and that they all use Windows for a different reason. Combine this with the recent Mojave Experiment, which showed the useful (for parents) controls in Windows Vista and also showed how easy it was to use, and you have a killer combo. Frankly, I believe that these two campaigns should help revitalize Windows; I feel that the campaigns will fulfill their purposes and show that Windows is actually a fun, and diverse, operating system. I mean, who better to sell something than your friend, your co-worker, or the girl next door?

It was revealed earlier in the week that hackers had taken command and control of a free e-bill Web site called CheckFree.com. CheckFree offers their customers the ability to collect all their bills and pay them with a few clicks of a mouse. CheckFree is one the larger companies in e-payment business and serves about 24.7 million customers. Given this, there is little doubt they have a large amount of personal and financial data passing through their site. The hacking method appeared to be a little less than sophisticated. Someone stole the username and password to the site and put in changes that directed users to a page that installs malware on the user's machine. This was done by changing the address in CheckFree.com's domain name system (DNS) to redirect visitors to an Internet address in the Ukraine. Although CheckFree is still analyzing the malware, Brian Krebs at the Washington Post was able to quote Trend Micro as saying the malware was designed to steal user credentials. The registrar, Network Solutions, was quick to claim there had been no breach of their system. At this point in the game — since no one knows or is saying – my guess is that this statement probably means there was one that they don't know of at this time. Network Solutions did warn their customers about a phishing attack on their customers about a month ago. This has led to speculation that the credentials were stolen by information-stealing malware, or by social engineering (someone being tricked into giving them up). The Washington Post story also mentions that U.S. Bank might have been affected by this attack, but isn't commenting. In a subsequent post in Security Fix (Washington Post), Brian Krebs noted that Internet security firm known as Internet Identity reported that 71 other domains were pointed at the Ukrainian domain in question during the attack. Thus far, about 5,000 victims have been identified. As in the past, instances where identities were compromised are being offered free identity theft protection for their unfortunate circumstance. I decided to look at the CheckFree site itself. The reason I did this is because whenever I see the word "free," especially in cyberspace, I've learned to be wary.