5 things I learned in Moscow on day 2.

1. There is a McDonalds no more than 100 feet from the Kremlin. Why cant we be this efficient in America?  2. Rollerblading is still a thing here, a very big thing. 3. They are just as excited about Madagascar 3 as I am. 4. Throwing a coin over your shoulder at Kilmetere Zero is … Read more

5 things I learned in Moscow on day 1.

1.  Just because you don’t speak Russian and your driver doesn’t speak English doesn’t mean you both cant belt out “Walking in Memphis” when it comes on the radio in the middle of a traffic jam. I think we bonded. 2.  Cheeseburgers in Moscow come with an egg on top (Why was I eating a … Read more

SMS Charge Scam

There has been some talk in my office about a fraudulent SMS charge scam on peoples AT&T bills over the last couple of months. There were 3 people in my office who got hit with this scam. I finally got around to examining our bill closer and found out that my wife’s phone had been … Read more

What is Twitter good for?

People always ask me “What is twitter good for?” Here is a good example.  Bank of America has a foreclosure on my block that they weren’t taking care of by mowing the grass and doing basic maintenance. After spending a couple of hours mowing my grass in the 90 degree weather I was tired of … Read more

XPS 13

I have been doing a lot of traveling and speaking over the last year and my old (but trusty) Latitude D630 was starting to show its age (as in wont cold boot unless I remove the battery) and I was running out of room on the lid for conference stickers so I jumped at the … Read more

Isn’t this mostly common sense stuff?

I gave a talk at William Woods University on Friday about protecting yourself on social media sites and after I got done with my talk and was chatting with a group of students who came up to ask some follow up questions they didn’t want to ask in front of the group when one of … Read more

A Security Awareness Program vs. A New Firewall

I had the opportunity to talk to a large group of network administrators and computer professionals for colleges, libraries and K-12 schools in Missouri at the Morenet Connections and HELIX conference this past week about the importance of a security awareness program to their overall networks security. Far too often we get caught up trying … Read more

Facebook could spy on your text messages… but doesn’t (maybe).

A report out over the weekend says that the Facebook app for Android reads the text messages off of your phone. Facebook has responded by saying the Times piece as “completely wrong”, but acknowledges that the Android application permissions require SMS read and write permissions for “testing purposes”. A lot of Android apps ask for … Read more

Securing Your Pinterest Account

Over the last couple of months Pinterest has become a super popular website among people who love arts and crafts and has steadily been filling up my facebook timeline with stuff they want to do or think is “really cute”.  I really hadn’t given much thought to the website until someone asked me how to … Read more

When fired IT staff go bad.

I just read this press release from the FBI.  ST. LOUIS—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that a former employee of a local shipping company has pleaded guilty to damaging their computer systems. According to court documents, Jason Schrum was employed by Axis Worldwide Supply Chain & Logistics, Inc., a company that provides services … Read more