Digital Common Sense

I get a lot of news items from different sources and follow a lot of web sites pertaining to security issues in addition to all the VoIP and unified communications topics of interest. This was of particular interest because it appears that in addition to widespread concern about Skype security in corporate networks, Gartner has come out posing Skye as a security threat.

May 30, VNUNet — Gartner: Firms must act now to fight Skype security threat. Companies should “act now” to combat the growing security threat posed by Skype and other voice over IP telephony services, industry experts warned Tuesday, May 30. Analyst firm Gartner said that the latest vulnerability in the Skype for Windows client highlights the risk of using the application in enterprises. Lawrence Orans, a research director at Gartner, warned that, because the Skype client is a free download, most businesses have no idea how many Skype clients are installed on their systems nor how much Skype traffic passes through their networks. According to Gartner, businesses must assess the risks of using Skype for enterprise telephony and “take appropriate action.”
Referenced Skype vulnerability: http://www.skype.com/security/skype−sb−2006−001.html
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2157124/firms−act−fight−sk ype−security

Technorati Tags: Skype, Gartner, Infosec, VoIPSec, VoIP Security

Filed by Ken at 9:04 am under InfoSec, Unified Communications
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May 25, Federal Computer Week — DoD: China fielding cyberattack units. China is stepping up its information warfare and computer network attack capabilities, according to a Department of Defense (DoD) report released last week. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is developing information warfare reserve and militia units and has begun incorporating them into broader exercises and training. Also, China is developing the ability to launch pre−emptive attacks against enemy computer networks in a crisis, according to the document, “Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2006.” The Chinese approach centers on using civilian computer expertise and equipment to enhance PLA operations, the DoD report states.
The referenced report can be found at: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/china.html
Source: http://www.fcw.com/article94650−05−25−06−Web

Technorati Tags: DoD, China fielding cyberattack units

Filed by Ken at 9:58 am under InfoSec
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May 25, NetworkWorld — Telephone excise tax abolished; millions in refunds expected. The U.S. Department of Treasury abolished a tax law Thursday, May 25, which will likely result in multimillion−dollar refunds for business users. Many business users started filing for refunds as long as three years ago, as the government debated this issue and it was dragged through litigation. The federal excise tax of 3 percent on all long−distance calls has been on the books since 1898, but it is no more. According to the Department of Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service will issue refunds to consumers and business customers for taxes paid over the past three years in their 2006 filings.
Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/052506−excise−tax.html

Technorati Tags: Telephone excise tax abolished

Filed by Ken at 9:57 am under Technology
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Alec mentioned Illumio in his post today and had this to say -

Illumio is a new kind of social networking application.  Like all
social networking applications, it is built around relationships
between people.  However, unlike social networking applications to date
which are designed to facilitate meeting people, or business
networking, or recruiting, Illumio is designed to facitilate finding
expertise. 

What a clever idea!  I’ve signed up for the test.  I’m dying to know
how well it works.  Perhaps we could get a few of the VoIP bloggers out
there to form a small group.

I think it’s a great idea and signed up too.

Technorati Tags: Illumio, VoIP, social networks

Technorati Tags: Illumio, VoIP, social networks

Filed by Ken at 2:38 pm under Technology
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Filed by Ken at 10:30 pm under General
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You’d never really think a national park like Rainier would be secluded, especially if you’ve been there in peak season. But in the rain on the first open day for campgrounds, it’s very relaxing. 40s ans steady drizzling rain, but nice and quiet.
This will get posted later when it’s all behind…actually, automagically along the drive when signal reappears.

Filed by Ken at 12:45 pm under General
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This morning I spent some time chatting again with Peter Csathy, CEO at Sightspeed. As I noted here yesterday, the new Sightspeed has now been released. It’s labelled version 4.6 as an early peek at the version 5 that’s coming soon. The podcast of our chat is now up online in the Realtime Community.

Peter and I initially connected via Sightspeed and I captured the screenshot below so you can see the Sightspeed interface firsthand, and see Peter face-to-face. The small picture in the lower right corner is me. After our intial connection, Peter used the new Sighspeed Phone Out feature to call me on my SkypeIn number so I could record the podcast. So what you’ll here is a call from Sightspeed, out over the PSTN, to Skype. The quality is pretty darn good, and overall I’m pleased with the result. Multiple VoIP connections and the PSTN can indeed work together in the mix to provide good voice quality.

I’d like to thank Peter again for sharing his valuable time as we all get ready for a holiday weekend here in the States. For those of you who haven’t tried Sightspeed yet, I encourange you to go grab the free software and check it out for yourselves. It’s a pretty amazing collaboration tool that takes vidoeo conferencing for the PC used to a whole new level

Realtime VoIP podcasts are a pivotal part of the ongoing conversation within the VoIP community about standards, new technologies, and techniques for successful VoIP deployment. Realtime VoIP Community podcasts cover the high points in VoIP news and current events. In addition, tips and best practices for evaluating, implementing, and troubleshooting VoIP solutions will be discussed. We will conduct interviews with industry leaders, vendors and consultants. VoIP conferences, special events and seminars will be podcast from location at times.

To subscribe to this podcast, click one of the buttons below or click on the orange PODCAST button and paste the IP address into your podcast client. You can also pick up our podcast on Feedburner at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/realtime-voip/KenCampVoIPPodcast

Technorati Tags: Sightspeed, Peter Csathy, video, video collaboration, VoIP, podcast. Ken Camp

Filed by Ken at 12:29 pm under Unified Communications
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Here’s a story that caught my eye, in part because I’m typically guilty. I’ll plead guilty to having taken a laptop on a cruise. Cell phone too. I’ve made business calls from Royal Caribbean off Catalina or Ensenada. I suspect I will again later this year on an anticipated Alaska cruise.

I wrote some time back about being a hyper-connected individual. It’s not without negative aspects

Vacation packing list: sunscreen and briefcase

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Attorney Dennis Kerrigan just spent a week rising at daybreak to answer e-mails and field conference calls for several hours a day before eating breakfast with his family.

He says it was a relaxing vacation.

Memorial Day, the unofficial kickoff of summer holidays in the United States, may be near, but that doesn’t mean Americans will be kicking back and relaxing. Instead, U.S. workers keep working while they are on vacation, experts and studies say.

More than a third of vacationing Americans check office e-mails, telephone voicemail and respond to all their messages, according to a recent poll.

A mere 2 percent said they were “unreachable” while off work, said the same poll conducted by FPC, a New York-based executive search firm.

Another survey showed Americans spend an average of more than five hours answering e-mails and checking telephone messages on vacations, which are typically less than a week long. That study was conducted a Pennsylvania-based maker of organizational products, Day-Timers, Inc., a unit of ACCO Brands Corp..

This weekend, I won’t be hyper-connected. Heading up Mt. Rainier to a spot that is sans signal of any kind. At least it was last year.

Tags: connected, vacation, work habits

Filed by Ken at 6:06 pm under General
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Kudos to Verizon for delivering on what they promise. This is an example of how systems get stressed and tested unexpectedly. Judging from Erik’s post, they performed well.

Thanks to Verizon, Business Continues During Amtrak Outage

By Erik Linask

Associate Editor

 

When a power outage along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor rail lines during this morning’s rush hour halted trains for more than three hours, thousands of commuters were stranded aboard Amtrak and other passenger trains on their way to work — including TMC’s Rich Tehrani and Dave Rodriguez. 

While it may have been an inconvenience, many business travelers took advantage of the delay, and their communications solutions, to conduct business on their own or with colleagues or clients.

Of course, that put a strain on cellular networks, since anyone with a cell phone, voice-enabled PDA, or notebook computer with a wireless card was using them to call, email, or SMS. Verizon Wireless, for instance, said its network saw ten times its normal call volume between 9 and 10am. Verizon also indicated the spike in usage resulted in no network outages, abnormal call blocking, or other difficulties. 

Technorati Tags: Verizon, EVDO, wireless broadband, can you hear me now

Filed by Ken at 5:46 pm under Technology
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Two family news highlights that I’m just copying directly from my son Ken’s blog.

Thurston County Blue Debuts

By Ken Camp on General

Thanks to Emmett
giving a copy of Keep Washington Blue (my white paper on internet strategy for the Washington State Democrats, click the link on the right) to Thurston County Democrats Chair John Cusick, who circulated it to the TCD E-Board, we are announcing the launch of Thurston County Blue.  That’s right, the Thurston County Democrats have officially launched into the blogosphere. This after State Party Chair Dwight Pelz gave me a thanks but no thanks. Hopefully we can show Dwight the error of his ways.

Emmett and I will be the primary administrators of the blog, however all dues paying members of TCD, all PCO’s and PCO proxies are eligible front-page posters. All others are invited to comment on posts.

Thurston County Blue is the official online community of the Thurston County Democrats, a forum to turn online action into off-line action, build the party and engage our neighbors. We will be discussing issue of concern to all Thurston County residents, from a local perspective. We invite your comments, your criticisms and most of all your participation.

Speaking of participation, Thurston County Blue is the name the blog was originally given, but we realize some may not like it. So, we’re asking all Thurston County Democrats to Name That Blog. In 10 days we will collect all of the suggestions, and the TCD E-Board, Emmett and I will determine the official name of the blog.

Thanks and kudos to John Cusick and the TCD E-Board for allowing us to move forward with the blog.

This is big news and something Ken’s been pursuing for a while. Actually, if you follow his blog, you know he’s been pursuing shifting the minds of some luddite leadership in the state Democratic. Sadly, their tinfoil hats persist. Like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, even progressive Democrats are often afraid to step into the light. But not all, and this proactive move on the part of Thurston Count shows great foresight and vision as they move toward the next election cycle.

Ken’s other news is also personal and political -

Time For Me To Fly

By Ken Camp on General

Today I finished up my last day, nearly four years later of working for a Washington State Senator. I’m moving on to become Operations Manager of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, the folks who are working to expand our majority in the Washington State Senate. I’m looking forward to the new challenges and getting to serve our caucus in a different way. And I’m looking forward to being a bit more partisan and doing what I can to tilt our majority more in our favor.

I start the new job tomorrow morning. No rest for the weary, the battle is at hand.

This is a good change, and he’s needed a change for a while now.

Filed by Ken at 4:16 pm under General, Politics
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We’ve seen several posts covering the SightSpeed announcement recently.

Last night SightSpeed released the next version of our software. This new release includes some significant new beta features, including SightSpeed Phone Out, for maknig great quality, low-cost telephone calls from your PC or Mac.

Some Highlights -

• SightSpeed expands its voice capability from pure ‘VoIP to VoIP” to “VoIP to PSTN” (Phone Out launched May 24) and “PSTN to VoIP” (PhoneIn to be introduced soon).
• Rates for calls within North America are 2 cents per minute; rates to Europe start at 2 cents per minute but vary by country and modality (land line or mobile)
• Improved video via a beta codec
• Enhanced Contact List Display options

I have followed SightSpeed pretty closely the last few months since interviewing CEO Peter Csathyon the Realtime Conversation blog.

SightSpeed’s technique for delivering the audio/visual stream at 30 frames per second through patented, human perception-based technology is based on more years of research and works very well. SightSpeed has always been recognized for its superior video quality., and with this version, they’ve turned in up another notch.

Sightspeed has always provided VoIP as a component alongside video. Their “SightSpeed Pro” service offers additional features such as multi-party voice and video conferencing for up to 4 participants.

I’m not a Mac user, but SightSpeed also has a Mac version. With this new release SightSpeed raises the bar and positions themselves to become the clear market leader in delivering combined video and PSTN phone connectivity.

I installed the upgrade last night on one machine, this morning on another. Their efforts show. Here’s the user interface in this latest release.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be chatting again with Sightspeed CEO Peter Csathy in what we hope will be a podcast posted over on the Realtime blog soon after. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Sightspeed, PeterCsathy

Filed by Ken at 3:53 pm under General
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Here’s the news on Enron -

Guilty, But Not Over
Daniel Fisher, 05.25.06,
12:10 PM ET

A federal jury in Houston today found former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling guilty of securities fraud in the collapse of the once high-flying Houston energy company.

The
four-man, eight-woman jury convicted Lay and Skilling of misleading
investors with false statements designed to hide Enron’s tottering
finances.

Lay, 64, was convicted on six counts of conspiracy and
fraud. He faces up to 45 years in prison. Sentencing will take place on
Sept. 11.

Skilling, 52, was convicted on 19 of 28 counts of
conspiracy, fraud, insider trading and making false statements. All
told, he faces a maximum of 185 years in prison. He was found not
guilty on nine criminal counts.

Skilling said “Obviously, I’m disappointed [by the verdict]. That’s the way the system works.” He’s surprised because sometimes the system works and the guilty bastard get caught. Sometimes.

Technorati Tags: Endron, guilty, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, justice

Filed by Ken at 12:20 pm under General
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May 22, CRN — Microsoft Word attacks likely to continue. Researchers at the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center on Monday, May 22, issued recommendations for organizations looking to protect their networks from zero−day attacks that use Microsoft Word files. The Word vulnerability is considered “highly critical” because it’s difficult for organizations to block all Word documents in e−mail. To address the threats until Microsoft issues a patch, the SANS Internet Storm Center recommends that organizations use an e−mail system that quarantines attachments for at least six to 12 hours to allow antivirus signatures to catch up. It also suggests setting limits on user administration rights, using proxy servers to control sites accessible to internal users, and employing intrusion−detection systems and firewalls to monitor outbound traffic.
Source

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Word attacks, vulnerabilities, Infosec

Filed by Ken at 7:19 am under InfoSec
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May 23, eWeek — Microsoft: Use MS Word in safe mode. Microsoft is advising users to begin using MS Word in safe mode to protect against targeted zero−day attacks. In the absence of a patch, independent security researcher Matthew Murphy has released a registry script fix that sets a Software Restriction Policy that runs any instance of ‘winword.exe’ with the ‘Basic User’ policy. Because the current attack vector requires that the target is running the admin rights, the implementation of software restriction policies can reduce the effects the attack. Microsoft’s advisory also contains step−by−step instructions for running the vulnerable Word 2002 and Word 2003 in safe mode. The company is recommending that users first disable the Outlook feature to use Word as the default mail editor before changing settings to run Word in safe mode.
Microsoft pre−patch advisory
Source

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, MS Word in safe mode, vulnerability, Infosec

Filed by Ken at 7:17 am under InfoSec
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“We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.” -Unknown

Filed by Ken at 8:45 pm under General
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Nice short in the Seattle PI  on Monday.

How to make meetings more than just a waste of time By CHRISTINE ELLIOTT FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESSIt’s the rare employee who hasn’t grumbled on the way to the conference room.

But why, after centuries of opportunity to perfect the process, do meetings remain what humorist Dave Barry calls “the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential?”

“The biggest waste of time is meeting for meeting’s sake — meaning, we have this meeting every week, so that’s why we’re having it,” says Kara DeFrias, an instructional designer at a West Trenton, N.J.-based insurance company.

“If there’s nothing to talk about, cancel the meeting.”

They had a few bullet points they elaborated on. Go read the article for their view.

• Scrap the traditional agenda.
• There’s nothing wrong with a 20-minute meeting.
• Be prepared for “virtual” meetings.
• It’s OK to have fun.
• Chart your progress.
• Keep up the good work.

I agree that the traditional agenda is a usel artifact. On the flip side, having an agenda that outlines clear objectives sets the stage for a successful meeting. A good agenda can be three bullet points describing why we’re here. Without it, meetings run into circles and cycles of useless wasted time. Above all - If there’s nothing to talk about, cancel the meeting.

Technorati Tags: meetings, productivity, wasting time

Filed by Ken at 3:38 pm under General
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Found a newer plugin to resolve some of the issues. Still can’t figure out why WP shows zero comments even when comments exist. I suppose some flag got toggled somewhere that I might find. It’s just an annoyance. I got my nasty remote procedure call tweaks working, I know, they’re bad things.
I’ll be taking a couple of days this weekend to unwind. Taking the trailer off to a campground with books,journal, and guitar. No connectivty wired or wireless, and that’s a good thing. I need a breather. I may actually write some things that get posted after I return, but don’t count on it.
I haven’t been real invested here lately., The Realtime VoIP Community has been very busy. I’m doing lo of interviews and podcast things that I focus in on and forget to write here. I still read all the things I’ve always read (and more), but don’t seem to spend nearly as much time writing anything of substance here. This has become a repository of notes, Infosec news, and minutia to a large extent.
At least things seem to be working again for the most part.

Filed by Ken at 12:45 pm under General
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Never skip dessert.

Filed by Ken at 12:15 pm under General
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I know I’ve posted this before. Just testing.
< >

Filed by Ken at 12:05 pm under General
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Our first podcast for the VoIP ThinkTank has done very well. Over 650 downloads this month. Thank you to everyone who listened in and sent feedback.

And for those of you who were really paying attention, one of our group, Ted Wallingford, just let me know that he’ll be part of the Talk of the Nation Science Friday  on NPR this Friday afternoon. Ted just told me they’re doing a VoIP feature this week. I checked their web site. If you can’t catch the show live, they post the audio streams at approximately 6pm each day.

Technorati Tags: Ted Wallingford, VoIP. VoIP ThinkTank, Talk of the Nation, NPR

Filed by at 11:47 am under General
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