April 2010 MilSec Event

The next MilSec event will be April 15, 2010, at Sugar Maple. See http://www.milsec.org for details.

My Resume

I’ll add an HTML version soon, but for now, here is a link to a MS-Word version of my resume.

Resume of Clint Laskowski

Policy-a-Day: Asset Owners

Statement: Each Information Asset must have a documented Asset Owner.

• Does your organization document an asset owner for each information asset, or only significant assets?
• Is the asset owner the person who is ultimately responsible for making decisions about that asset?
• How do you document your asset owners (i.e., in a spreadsheet, database, or some other register)?

Please add your answers as a comment below.

Next MilSec: Feb 18, 2010

The next MilSec event will be February 18, 2010, at Sugar Maple. See http://www.milsec.org for details.

MilSec Event was Tonight?

I just discovered MilSec, Milwaukee Information Security Social Events. Unfortunately, they had an event tonight and I didn’t know about it in time to make it. I’ll follow them on Twitter (@milsec) and I hope to make the next event.

Help! How did I get here?

In case you’re wondering how you got here, this blog is the landing site for the following domains:

• blackhatsystems.com
• bluehatlabs.com
• bluehatsecurity.com
• clint326.com
• clintlaskowski.com
• clintonsecurity.com
• policyworkbooks.com

If these domains aren’t pointing back here to Clint on Security, please leave a comment.

What is an Information System?

We use them all the time, but what exactly is an “Information System”?

Let’s break down the words…

To me, a System is “a collection of components organized to meet an objective.”

What kind of components? What ever components are needed to meet the objective! Traditionally, that means “people, processes, and technologies.” And, what is the objective of an Information System?

To me the objective of an Information System is “to transfer, process, store, and manage” information.

But, what is Information?

Information is data that is relevant and has meaning in a context.

So, the numbers 7155551212 are not information; they are data. But, if I ask you to call Linda at 715-555-1212, those numbers become information in the context of making a telephone call.

Now, our definition of an Information System is more complete. Let’s put it all together:

An Information System is a collection of people, processes, and technologies organized to transfer, process, store and manage data that is relevant and has meaning in a context.

It’s quite interesting because data are only representations of aspects of the real-world and of our ideas. There really is no physical thing that is the letter “A”. “A” is just a symbol to represent something in the real-world (perhaps the sound we make when we say the letter “A”), or an idea (what ever that “A” sound represented long ago).

So, in reality, an Information System (such as a computer) is just a collection of components organized to transfer, process, and store relevant and meaningful representations of the real-world and our ideas. Simple enough. But, take that collection of components and make them operate very, very fast, and now you have something that can really transform our world and our ideas.

Source: Laskowski, Clint. What is an Information System?:We use them all the time, but what are they, exactly? [Internet]. Version 3. Knol. 2008 Jul 24. Available from: http://knol.google.com/k/clint-laskowski/what-is-an-information-system/3v4qe269ituzc/2.

UV Outliner

OMG! A modern single pane outliner for Windows! I’ve been looking for one so long that I seriously considered coding one myself. I don’t know how good it is yet, but the screenshots look fantastic.

UV Outliner is by Fedir Nepyivoda (Kiev, Ukraine).

My New Blogging Platform

WordPress.Com will be my new blogging platform. I’ve used WordPress software many times in the past, but I’ve never hosted with WordPress.Com. So far, the experience has been wonderful. Getting this blog up and running, for example, has been a breeze. The hardest part by has been picking a theme.

Update: I’m quite taken with the Journalist theme by Lucian Marin and will stay with it for now.

My First Computer

In 1979, at age 16, I saved money from my paper route and purchased my first computer – an Ohio Scientific (OSI) C2-4P – from Allied Electronics in West Allis, Wisconsin. It had a 6502 microprocessor and 4K(!) of RAM. I used a cassette tape recorder for mass storage (transfer rate was 300 baud), and an RF converter and a television set as my video monitor. This provided a stunning monochrome 80×40 character display!

Within a few months I grew tired of the 15+ minutes it took to load BASIC into RAM from cassette and decided to learn assembly language. This was better since there was a “monitor” program in ROM and therefore always available immediately.

Today, I flip-flop back and forth between thinking, “Those were the days!” and “How could 30 years have gone by so quickly?”