SecPoll

Finally, a competition where you can win, too, seriously.

Yes you can, I’m serious. And you win something serious…
The deal:
Your top-3 predictions, in comments, about what new ‘cyber’security stuff (#ditchcyber) will happen in 2017.
In return, if you’re the top predictor (NO.), to celebrate you’ve best found ’17’s bubbles of the year you’ll receive a perfect bottle of ’17 bubbles.
The things you describe can be of any sort, related to information security in the widest sense. Something-cloud, something-privacy, something-Docker, something- Layer 7 or 8 firewalls, something-systemic-breachlike, whatever, it’s up to you. However:

Some terms and conditions [subject to updating when needed..! My call and prerogative]:

  • No editing your predictions after entering them;
  • Three apiece;
  • None should not be around per second half of December 2016;
  • All should be measurable, and measurably the largest over 2017, suggestions for measurement/metrics should be attached.

I’ll be awaiting your wisdom / totally random stuff with:
DSC_0789
[Who would’ve predicted the success, and beauty, of this/these, eh? DC]

Mumbling, much ..?

How come that almost (?) everyone (for sure) recognises the tune of this, but none know the lyrics — well, by heart, and able to sing somewhat proficiently…?

Just asking.

And:
dsc_0599
[Beautiful, but linked to tragedy; Prague — only need to straight the horizon…]

Plusquote, nevertheless good to have been ousted

Of course referring to the little guy’s family name. Here, because of his sound advice on how strategic planning should be done:

You engage, and then you wait and see.

First off of(f) course, he wasn’t particularly little it was just that his generals next to him, were long.
Second, he’s right, about the above approach. Reminder: Some later giant took the above and expanded, explained, it more in the style of his countrymen’s need for rambling-on notation. And quoting some latter-day possibly (!) overrated general, “Plans are nothing, planning is everything.” which again is the same thing. In the core, right. Also for business today; how could anyone pretend to be able to predict even the nearest of future better than such an eminent strategist ..? If, then despicable.

Third, did anyone mention that the abovementioned frog, and all others involved except some who couldn’t handle the truth (sic), found William II superior to some other, now much revered, general (Et moi je vous dis que Wellington est un mauvais général, que les Anglais sont de mauvaises troupes et que ce sera l’affaire d’un déjeuner) that just sat there and was almost annihilated by the French if it hadn’t been for the protraction and depletion at Quatre Bras and other places (Hougoumont, much?), by others mainly, so Blücher could arrive in time.

Enough for now, with:
20161025_164149
[Myopia, caused; Amsterdam]

The Risk of Human Existence

Where Risk should be in the ‘first’ line of any defense, and subsequent lines are mere (subsumed …!) support, as in the line of reasoning where Risk or rather Uncertainty [don’t start me on the semantics pure kindergarten discussions per definitional differences] is essential to do business; nay is essential to any organisation’s ‘business’ even when as non-exposed to market conditions as e.g., government departments.
Which, and this is the title reference, of course hinges on: all human endeavour seeks to eliminate uncertainty as uncertainty in the state of bare survival that humankind still is (sic; on average, and in the near future thanks to global warming [no thanks, global warming!]), would mean deterioration i.e. extinction.

Against which we (well, I; uncertain about you dear reader) have developed these whimsy precious things called brains (i.e., including the prefrontal cortex) to enable us to not only cope with the most complex of things including paradoxes, infinity et al., but also with uncertainty. Through induction and Big Data-like pattern extraction, sometimes taken to the levels at which most current Big Data analysis stands (turning spurious correlations however weak, into causation theorillets and/or rites), sometimes actually achieving something — models that ‘work’ to sufficiently accurately predict some aspects of the future (i.e., behaviour of predators) to enhance survival by staying away from the most unsurvivable situations.
Now that a precious few (??) have managed to ward off the evils of existential threats, such death scare of death has turned into a death scare of anything that doesn’t go according to our plan of doing the least possible to do nothing but eat ourselves into obesity.

Meaning, not accepting that now all reasonable threats, uncertainty, has been reduced by extreme CYA everywhere, at the same time we (not I) accept less and less that bad things just happen, and will ever more fanatically look for someone(s) to blame.

Solve the latter by ‘solving’ the former. Fight CYA!

And:
20160805_134239
[What’s our love … but the Art of Glass; Blondie for no apparent reason, Dordrecht]

Commoditised exploits

What was first; the exploits or the use of them ..?
When now, we have this kind of reasoning, aptly, there already was this, too.

So, … What now ..?

20161025_163321
[This being the state of (the best of … ;-[ ) Duts design nowadays. Yes the rest is worse, much worse. Law of handicap of head start; Zuid-As]

Fuzzy Vocabulary (Cross-)Boundaries

When discussing Risk …
There will always at some stage turn up a discussion (or multiple, if you’re Lucky; not) about the meaning of certain key words. Which is a pity, because … no, not because it distracts. Though it does, the main issue is that the secondary, meta, discussion about vocabularies is never / rarely resolved.
At strategic levels, talk is about risk appetite and risk tolerance, and foremost about business opportunities (of which the exitement is) spoiled by “risk managers” that point out the world might not be perfect and hence one is all but certain not to achieve the objectives. Smart business leaders push forward anyway, at best keeping the risks in the back of their heads while sanding off the rough edges of progress at that goes along all quite well. When strategies turn out to fail: Well, such is life as it has been since the dawn of humanity.
At tactical levels, talk is about risk portfolios and … not much, really; mostly project and program risks. Of the Boy Cried Wolf kind.
At operational levels, quasi-(sic!) quants do their stuff and come with all sorts of fabulous fables of formulas that wouldn’t stand scrutiny at the most basic of math levels. What idi.t would translate ‘High’ to ‘5’ and then multiply it with some other ‘4.5’ to arrive at a ‘22.5’ “risk” ..!? Heat maps are the reflection of the own moronic brain functioning onto what are supposed to be Managers’ levels of understanding. Though the outcome is correct, the origin of the reflection should be kept in mind instead of forgotten.

And all talk about ‘risk’ (‘operational risk’, even worse), ‘impact’, ‘High’, as though these were somewhat the same thing for all involved, disregarding most of time- and situation-variance or rather completely -determination. Right. Wrong. Just regurgitating definitions from ISO standards demonstrates to not understand the nature of the problem…

Any theoretical science logical-AND linguistics specialists that can help? And:
20161025_1442361
[Tinguley in a picture is quite different from the message of it …; Stedelijk Amsterdam]

Hurt Spree at American University: 17 Millennials Insulted

Tragedy causes discussions about freedom to carry opinion

October 18, 2016 by Hank Grohl
crimescene

During a hurt at a university in Nebraska, 17 students have been insulted. The victims are all millennials that were attending a class on civil rights movements.

The hurter was a white, privileged man who worked as tenured professor of social history at the university. He is said to have just walked into a classroom where he started to fire off historical facts at students. Panic broke out immediately, but thirty students managed to flee the classroom. Even before the hurter could be arrested, he hurt himself.

This is not the first time that America wakes up to a hurting incident with insulting outcome. Even last month, in Colorado fifteen students were seriously hurt by a remark about gluten.

The Nebraska incident has yet again raised questions about the right to have an opinion. More and more Americans are are calling for limits to carry opinions.

[If you took the previous as a ridicule of gun violence atrocities: It is not. Maybe on the contrary, ridiculing whining over if-possible-less-than first world problems. Geddit now?]

[Original, in Dutch, on the Speld; translated with permission]

Spinning Wheel — wait, for it: Clock or Counter-Clock ..?

Anyone noticed that IUs seem to make a thing of having replaced the clearly-archaic hourglass wait icon, with a spinning wheel — that was the Obvious part & mdash; but that the circle sometimes runs clockwise, sometimes counter-clockwise ..?
Part of the why is resolved, e.g., here, but the issue is that it seems to go all sorts of directions in/at all sorts of apps, sites, et al., as far as I can tell not seriously related to the linked explanation.

Yes, I’ve studied this here foundational theory, but also there, not much on directions. Didn’t even know Throbber was a thing.

Then, surely there’s an authoritative UX/GUI protocol (huh?) that has the definitive answers ..? Anyone ..? Oh well:

20160611_153611
[Keeps on [ slipping, slipping, slipping | turning ], [ back to | into ] the future circles; Stedelijk Amsterdam]

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord