San Francisco

San Francisco hunts for mystery network device

Paul Mah — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:58:55 -0400

The San Francisco case in which a rogue network administrator purportedly hijacked the city's network continues as city officials say they are now searching for a router whose location remains a mystery. Investigators who attempted to log into the device were greeted with a login prompt with an explicit warning that "This system is the personal property of Terry S. Childs." Childs, a network administrator with the Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) was arrested when he refused to hand over login passwords to his superiors. A jailhouse meeting with the mayor finally got Childs to surrender the information. However, DTIS say that the city will need to spend more than $1 million to clean up the mess, with $182,000 already paid out to Cisco contractors so far.

To find out more about:
- check out this Network World article

The enemy within

Judi Hasson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:12:10 -0400

Everyone knows that predators are lurking about, ready and willing to steal data, and that the threats that come from everywhere in the world are numerous and real.

But Cooper Bachman of ID Analytics said that insider data thefts are emerging as major compliance and reputational risks for organizations. As we reported this week, the City of San Francisco learned this hard lesson when one of its employees gained sole access to their systems and locked everyone else out. Bachman said recent studies suggest that over 60 percent of data breaches originate from an internal source or event. This sad event makes it difficult to balance the protection of sensitive data while granting access to employees who need it.

In 2007, ID Analytics performed a study of more than a dozen incidents of internal data theft involving over five million identities from consumer and employee files across the government, education, and commercial sectors. It found that fraudulent activity resulting from internal data theft tends to occur in close proximity to the office location where the data was removed; that personal data stolen by an employee is misused more frequently than data obtained through an external breach; and that employees abusing internally stolen data behave in a similar manner to traditional identity thieves.

To read more about this threat:
- see this CSOonline.com article

Sabotage can come from the inside

Judi Hasson — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:42:43 -0400

The arrest last month of a technology administrator from the City of San Francisco for hijacking the municipal computer network and blocking access to everyone but himself has been a real wake-up call to anyone involved in technology, whether in the private sector or the public one. It renews the urgency of checking your security networks and making sure they cannot be penetrated.

The city now must overhaul its computer security for the network that controls data for its police, court, jail, payroll and health services. Terry Childs was arrested on July 13. Authorities said employing the user name Maggot617, Childs took control of the network and refused for eight days to turn over passwords that only he controlled

The crisis prompted the city's IT department to belatedly bolster network oversight, and to consider hiring outside auditors to monitor a security upgrade. City officials also will review all access to its network that handles payroll, email and criminal files. Dawn Cappelli, of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute's Computer Emergency Response Team, told the Washington Post in an article published on Aug. 11 that there is always a great risk of insider sabotage. "If you have IT, then it can happen to you," she said.

For more on industrial sabotage:
- see this Washington Post article

Microsoft tosses hat in virtualization arena

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

While VMware was the belle of the virtualization ball in San Francisco, the company was not alone in expressing its interest in this exciting market. If there's money and a computer is involved, then it should come as no surprise that Microsoft wants to enter the picture. According to InformationWeek, Microsoft is betting that virtualization in the Windows operating system will further establish the company in the enterprise. Microsoft plans to integrate the Viridian hypervisor software into Windows Server 2008, which is scheduled to be released in February. VMware, is not too worried, though. The company believes that all the virtualization action will take place within the hardware. Market researchers believe Microsoft has a long row to tap into VMware's current 70 percent market penetration.

To get more details on virtualization:
- see the article in InformationWeek

Virtualization goes mainstream in San Fran

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Over 10,000 attendees this week converged on the fourth annual VMworld conference in San Francisco. After pulling off a successful IPO, VMware President and CEO Diane Greene declared that virtualization has officially gone mainstream in the enterprise. She predicted a complete overhaul of the IT environment as virtualization adoption accelerates, affecting everything from disaster recovery, security, provisioning, and infrastructure consolidation. As an additional side benefit: "We're helping companies save lots of money by using less electrical power." VMware's coming out party has marked the start of what promises to be a dynamic foot race to see who captures the lion's share of this nascent market. To maintain its early lead in the market, VMware has hooked with a who's who of big name technology partners that include: Dell, IBM, NEC, HP, EMC and NetApp.

For more on VMWorld:
- read the article in eWeek

Of wireless wonderlands and city politics

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 07:00:00 -0400

It is disappointing to see Chicago and San Francisco's municipal wireless initiatives falter, because the biggest losers in that delay are the citizens who are disconnected from the digital economy. This summer, Chicago unveiled, to great fanfare, a digital inclusion initiative backed by Mayor Daly, which was to serve as a national model for integrating the disenfranchised into a connected society--a society that increasingly depends on high-speed Internet access to accomplish even the most basic tasks. Indeed, many government services are now being offered online, including everything from paying traffic tickets to accessing financial resources from social services. Wireless access to network resources is a critical component of efforts to improve outreach and to serve those most in need. San Francisco, similarly, has turned muni WiFi into a political game of football, pitting city legislators against a popular mayor. Whatever the merits of the arguments on any side of the negotiating table, the big losers will be the citizens of these great cities.

I hope you have a great labor Day. I'm going to the beach and FierceMarkets is closed, so look for your regular issue of FierceCIO on Tuesday instead of Monday. Enjoy your time off. -Patty

Muni WiFi: One step forward, two steps back

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Well, it certainly wasn't a happy week for people waiting for ubiquitous access to wireless Internet in major metropolitan areas. Chicago and San Francisco, two cities with major initiatives to provide citizens with free or inexpensive access to wireless network resources, announced setbacks in their plans. Problems in Chicago arose after the city was unable to reach an agreement with the two companies that submitted proposals: EarthLink and AT&T. It seems they both wanted Chicago to pay to use the WiFi network for internal services. While Chicago agreed to help the vendors build the infrastructure, city officials were not interested in bringing cash to the table, despite the fact that other cities like Philadelphia have done exactly that. In San Francisco, EarthLink refused to accept city-requested contract terms. While these are obviously setbacks, observers note that the key to these types of projects is starting small and focusing on a couple of applications--then expanding out.

For more on the how municipal WiFi is evolving:
- read this article at Ars Technica

ALSO NOTED: IRS vulnerable to social engineering hacks; Nortel begins trolling for takeover targets;

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:59:58 -0400

> IRS vulnerable to social engineering hacks. Article

> Nortel begins trolling for takeover targets. Article

> Cisco plans to hold onto Linksys brand. Article

> General Motors' CIO in favor of Oracle's latest acquisitions. Article

> San Francisco's voters to weigh in on municipal WiFi network. Article

And finally... After 14 months of blogging anonymously and assuming the persona of Steve Jobs, the 'Fake Steve' finally reveals himself. Article

Patents Slow Innovation, says red hat CEO

Wed, 23 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Red Hat's chief executive, Matthew Szulik, had some harsh words to say about patents at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco: "In the last 30 years, we've continued to see patents really being a challenge to innovation. The industry moves much faster than a remedy process. There is very little empirical evidence that builds a correlation between patents and innovation," he told several hundred attendees. While he said that Red Hat does apply for software patents, he said it plans to use them only defensively. What's the solution? He is proposing a better searchable database, a "cleaner distinction between patents and trade secrets" and a shorter review process for assigning patents, Silicon.com reports.

For more on patents and innovation:
- read more at Silicon.com

ALSO NOTED: CIOs: Too much spend for little business value; HP's ex-CEO gives her version of what really happened in her ouster

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:01:33 -0400

> CIOs: Too much spend for little business value. Article

> HP's ex-CEO gives her version of what really happened in her ouster. Article

> 3G and WiMAX providers battle for Australia's wireless marketplace. Article

> Report: WLAN security could use improvement. Article

> San Francisco mulls different strategy for municipal wireless net. Article

> Defining what all the IT buzzwords really mean. Article

And Finally... Taking the non-tech approach in ATM theft. Article