MJ's Business IT Blog

It's Not just the Droid Incredible...

Apple is reporting that AT&T and Apple itself, have run out of their launch day supplies of the new iPhone 4.   AT&T has reportedly stopped taking orders because demand has been so high and they need to regroup and clearly communicate when the device will be available again.  Demand for these smartphones is simply crazy!

Subscribe to Wireless Amber Alerts

You are probably familiar with what Amber Alerts are.  If not, simply stated, the are alerts put out by public safety officials about missing children.  It is widely believed that the first hours of a missing child, especially an abduction, are critical to the success of finding the missing child.  These alerts are typically broadcast over the radio and streamed across TV signals, to alert as many people as possible.

Now, you may also get Amber Alerts for free on your mobile device, thanks to an initiative to take the idea to the next level.  I encourage you to go to Wireless Amber Alerts and enter your mobile telephone number and subscribe to alerts in your area.  You may be able to help save a missing child.  It's a good thing, and the right thing, to do.

The Importance of ICE and Registering Portable Electronics

I am writing this post to urge every reader of this blog to setup your ICE contact on your mobile phone and iPod as well as to register your portable electronics.  This post is influenced by a serious accident that occurred to a relative last week.  Without providing too much detail, in order to protect the privacy of the injured person, this person was stuck by a car while jogging one morning.  All that was on this person was their iPod.  The injuries were so severe that this person was unconscious and remains so nearly one week after the accident.  During the first 30+ hours following the accident, this person remained unidentified because all they had no ID, only their iPod on their person.  Through some truly smart thinking a nurse used this persons iPod serial number to track down their identity and find their family.

While we all tend to carry our drivers license or other form of identification on us most of the time, there are times when that may not be the case, like when you are out exercising.  I know that myself, I nearly always have my mobile phone or iPod with me.  So, as illustrated by the real world example above, if you have not registered your iPod, do it, right now, before you forget.  It could just save your life.  As well, you should setup your ICE contact on both your iPod and on your mobile phone.  I checked my kids and my wife's phones and iPods immediately and our oldest had it setup, but we set it up on the others.  What is ICE?  If you're not familiar with it, get familiar and teach it to anyone you know.  We even made this an agenda item for our staff meeting today.  I encourage you to do the same.

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency.  On many mobile phones, there is a built in feature called ICE.  What's unique about ICE is that it will work whether or not the phone is locked.  More and more people are enabling the lock features of their phones for security and to prevent unauthorized use.  In short, the ICE contact allows you to setup emergency contact names and numbers, as well as critical information like medicines you take, conditions you have, etc., that will be accessible to anyone who finds your device, regardless of whether you have enabled security or not.

On your iPod, you can setup an ICE note.  If you have never used the notes feature on your iPod, go to Extras and select Notes and follow the instructions to setup your ICE note.  It's very easy to do.

On smartphones, there are even more powerful ways to setup ICE.  Both the iPhone and Blackberry  have ICE applications available.  For the iPhone, just search the App Store for an ICE application.  There are a few available and all address the need.  To the right is a screenshot of an ICE application, which not only displays your ICE information, it can also be set as your iPhone wallpaper, to display whether the phone is locked or not.  It may not be the coolest wallpaper to have, but it may be the best one you could have.

On the Blackberry, you can use an application, just like on the iPhone, called ICE that is available at the Blackberry App World.  It provides the following features:

--One button calling of emergency contact
--Multiple contacts in order of priority
--Fully editable entries
--Covers medications and allergies
--Summary for quick access in one-button
--Private to your phone, no online access

Some Blackberry users also the built in Security Options for this.  Here are the simpe steps to set it up:  Under Options --> Security Options --> General Settings, you can set Allow Outgoing Calls While Locked to Yes, and include your ICE Phone Number under Options --> Owner in the Information section so that it displays on the home screen when the device is locked.

If you have a Windows Mobile phone, you can set your owner information to display on power up, even if the device is locked.  You can use the note section of the owner information to put extended instructions and create your own ICE.  An example of mine is to the right.

Lastly, no matter what device you use, I recommend creating an extensive ICE contact record in Outlook or whatever other contact application you may be using to sync your contacts with your mobile device.  You can use the built in fields to enter your work and home telephone numbers and then the notes section to enter your extended contact priorities and other important medical information.  If your device is accessible, this information will be critical to first responders.  If you lock your device and are part of a corporate network, your IT administrators will be able to access this contact record and relay this critical information in a timely manner, provide your ICE contact is setup and provides the basic contact information.  An example ICE contact record is below.

 

As I said earlier, please take the time and do this now so you don't forget.  Most importantly, I hope you never need to have this information used on your behalf.  As I like to believe, it's far better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.  And as my police friends say, Stay Safe.

Here is the link to the video aired on the CBS affiliate in Atlanta:  http://www.cbsatlanta.com/video/21119080/

Social Networks and the Workplace

We all know that Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace and other social networks are a rage right now.  Most businesses look at them as a waste of employees time, though a growing number, like Jenaly, look to them to help spread the word about the good work they do for the people and their customers.

In our work, as IT Consultants, the majority of our clients are concerned about their staff wasting time online and possibly posting inappropriate things to these sites that could reflect negatively on the business.  These are valid concerns, though it really does seems that most of our clients employees are very responsible individuals.

A growing area of business use for social networks is the hiring process.  When you are interviewing potential employees, are you checking their social network presences as part of your routine screening?  More and more companies are doing this and claiming that it helps in the hiring process.  There is an active debate underway as to whether this is a good thing or not.  If a potential employee is using their social network presence to express themselves in a somewhat private way to those they associate with on these networks, is it really and apporpriate measure of their value as a prospective employee?  That's a very difficult question to answer and one that will only get more mired in controversy as social networking continues to evolve.

Helping to Promote Sustainability

We are fortunate to be located in the beautiful Seacoast region of New Hampshire.  Nearby, slightly inland in the Town of Durham, we are also fortunte to have the University of New Hampshire, one of the nations premiere public universities.  Regular readers of this blog may remember that I am an alumnus of the University and an avid fan of the Men's Hockey program.  You also know that Jenaly has taken some specific undertakings this past year to promote Green IT and we have launched a Green IT section of our web site and a month Green IT tip in our Jenaly FYI.T. newsletter.  So, I am very pleased to announce that Jenaly is supporting UNH's sustainability efforts and participating in the first GO GREEN with the Wildcats, taking place during the opening home football game on September 5th.  Jenaly will have an educational booth offering infomation about Green IT and how businesses can be more sustainable in their use of IT.  If you will be in the area of Durham of Saturday, September 5th and want to see a great football game and learn more about sustainable practices, I hope you will come to the event.

Following is a copy of the press release put out today by UNH Athletics:

Aug 17, 2009
GO GREEN with the Wildcats: Join UNH Football to learn ways to protect the environment 

DURHAM, N.H. – Recognizing the rising interest among students to support environmentally responsible choices and the university’s commitment to sustainability, University of New Hampshire (UNH) Athletics is partnering with UNH’s sustainability office to focus on eco-friendly products and choices at the first football game of the season on September 5, 2009.

“The 'Go GREEN with the Wildcats'” event will set recycling and sustainability more broadly as the standards that will carry on throughout the year at all athletic events,” says Marty Scarano, director of UNH Athletics. “We are excited to give UNH fans ways to lessen their environmental footprints.”

Wildcat Corporate Partners will have tables around the stadium displaying their "green"
products and services. Volunteers will be on hand to remind fans to recycle. Some of the featured vendors will include: the Green Alliance, Ultra Geothermal, SEA Solar Store, the Jenaly Technology Group, ReVision Energy, The Fiddlehead Loop, Simply Green, The Green Tee, UNH Energy Club, and the Southeast Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. To learn more, click here.

UNH is a leader in integrating sustainability throughout its curricula, operations, research, and engagement efforts. Committed to being a model sustainable learning community, UNH has earned several awards for its sustainability initiatives, which range from having the largest transit system in the state and being the first in the nation to receive an EPA Energy Star building rating for residence halls to innovative research and engagement through efforts like Carbon Solutions New England and the NH Farm to School program. Discover the sustainable learning community at UNH at www.sustainablelunh.unh.edu and www.discoversustainability.org.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea and space-grant university, UNH is the state’s flagship public institution, enrolling 11,800 undergraduate and 2,400 graduate students.

GO GREEN FACTS:  Did you know…….?

1. UNH has committed to reducing its carbon emissions to 50% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 under its Climate Action Plan, WildCAP.

2. UNH's ECOline project will meet up to 85 percent of campus energy use with landfill gas. Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) will be sold to help finance the project and to invest in additional energy efficiency projects on campus.

3. UNH Dining services purchases produce from an on-campus organic garden as well as food from 88 local farms and producers.

4. UNH Dining offers beverage discounts for bringing reusable mugs.

5. UNH Dining composts 90% of pre- and post- consumer food waste in the dining halls. The composting program collects over 92 tons of compostable material annually.

6. UNH mandates that new construction and renovations meet LEED Silver or equivalent standards and use low-flow toilets, urinals, faucets, and showers.

7. UNH is installing a rainwater reclamation system at James Hall as part of its renovation; James is registered to pursue LEED certification.

8. The UNH campus features eleven Energy Star-labeled buildings. Congreve was the first Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR rating for residence halls in the nation.

9. The UNH Ecological Advocates is a student group that raise awareness about living sustainably at UNH. Students can also participate in a variety of organizations, including the Energy Club, the Organic Garden Club, and the Student Environmental Action Council.

10. A Living Green community will house 25 students during the 2009-2010 academic year.

11. The Sustainability Internship Program engages students in internships on and off campus.

12. UNH strives to run all of its diesel fleet on B20 low sulfur diesel and is expanding its compressed natural gas, hybrid, all-electric, and other clean technology vehicles as part of its Clean Fleet program.

13. The Cat Cycles bike program allows any member of the university to sign out a bike and accessories for up to one week at a time.

14. The university has an extensive public transportation system with numerous routes both on campus and off and with links to regional bus and train services.

15. UNH uses GoLoco ridesharing and will offer ZipCar in the 2009-2010 academic year.

Happy 4th of July Independence Day Holiday

I'm taking off a little early for the Holiday weekend and our office will be closed Friday.  Best wishes for a Happy Independence Day and a relaxing weekend.  Thanks for reading this blog!

     

Green IT Seminar June 29th

If you are an area business and would like to learn about Green IT and how it can save you money and make your business more sustainable, I invite you to join us on June 29th for an educational seminar.  I will be speaking about what we are doing here at Jenaly to be more Green and we will have speakers from Xerox Corporation, e-Waste Recyclers and the Green Alliance.  Visit our events page here to learn more and register.  Hope to see you on the 29th!

Cyber Czar

President Obamais due to announce, in just a few minutes from now, the creation of the nations first "Cyber Czar".  This new position will be charged with protecting both federal and private sector data.  I just read an interesting article about the announcement here, over on My Freeze.

If you've been reading my blog and my experiences in Washington, DC over the past few weeks, you know that I am a proponent of these developments.  Unique to this announcement, is that this position will be part of the National Security Council infrastructure and will have reporting responsibility to both the NSC and the National Economic Council, ensuring that whatever the Cyber Czar may propose, will address security with concern for the impact the recommendations this may have on our economy.  This is a difficult set of priorities to balance and I hope they get it right.

Congratulations to the public policy team at CompTIA for getting language into this appointment that helps to accomplish these goals.

Video of My Congressional Testimony

There were camera's in the House Hearing Room on Tuesday and here is the YouTube video that has been made available of the complete hearing.  This is a fairly long video, a little over one hour and forty minutes.  I am introduced by Chairwoman Watson at 16:18 into the recording and Chairwoman Watson makes a special acknowledgment of my daughter Hannah's presence at the hearing at 16:48.  My testimony begins at 40:56 and lasts approximately five minutes, after which time the hearing moves to an interactive question and answer period for the remainder of the hearing.

My Testimony To Congress

Yesterday, May 19, I was asked to provide expert witness testimony to The House Subcommittee on Management, Organization, and Procurement, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the subject of "The State of Federal Information Security."  This was my first time testifying before Congress and was a result of several meetings last week, with various House and Senate Committee's, that I recently blogged about here.

As I blogged about last week, the Federal government, both the House and Senate, are looking at a variety of legislation dealing with cybersecurity.  While these initial reviews are happening at the Federal level and are focusing on government information systems, they are looking to the IT industry to provide advice and expertise as to how to insure the security of the nations information systems, including those of the private sector.  This particular hearing involves the House's review of FISMA, the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 and updating it for today's evolving threats.

Below is my review of the hearing, along with several photo's from the hearing.  You may click on any photo to view an enlarged version is a new browser window.

Rayburn House Office Building

My day began with an 8 AM breakfast briefing in the cafeteria of the Rayburn House Office Building with the public policy staff from The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), to review my oral testimony and the questions I may be likely to receive from the Members of the Subcommittee.  At 8:40 AM we went up to the second floor to the Hearing  Room, room 2247. 

  Hearing Room 2247 prior to the arrival of the Subcommittee Members and the various staffers and observers.

The Subcommittee heard testimony from a panel of six experts, representing various elements of the Federal Government, one witness representing a large IT business and one witness representing a small IT business, me.  The panel included Mr. Vivek Kundra, the new Federal Chief Information Officer, Office of Management and Budget, recently appointed by President Obama.  I have blogged previously about Mr. Kundra's appointment, which you may read by clicking here, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet him and honored to be testifying alongside him.  Also on the panel were Mr. Gregory Wilshusen, Director, Information Security Issues, Government Accountability Office, Ms. Jacquelyn Patillo, Chief Information Officer, US Department of Transportation, Ms. Margaret Graves, Acting Chief Information Officer, US Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Samuel Chun, Director, Cyber Security Practice, U.S. Public Sector, EDS, a division of the Hewlett-Packard Company and me.

Mr. Kundra, Ms. Patillo, Ms. Graves, Mr. Chun and me, awaiting the arrival of Mr. Wilshusen and others before the start of the Hearing.

The Hearing was opened by Chairwoman Diane Watson, D-CA, and we were then sworn in to provide our testimony.  For those unfamiliar with Congressional Hearings, the House operates on a 5 minute rule, so each Member was allowed to deliver a 5 minute opening statement, followed by each witness reading their 5 minute oral testimony, which is extracted from the lengthier written testimony that is submitted to the Subcommittee in advance of the hearing.  Because I was invited to testify just last week, as of today, my written and oral testimony is not yet posted on the Subcommittee web site, but I expect once they post the Hearing record, it will be there.

Swearing in of the witness panel by Chairwoman Watson. 

Chairwoman Watson delivering her opening statement.

At this point, I need to interject a few personal comments.  At my wife's suggestion, I brought our oldest daughter Hannah with me to Washington.  Hannah is a senior at Portsmouth High School and an Honor Student.  She will be heading off to college next year and after discussing it, we felt this would be an unparalleled opportunity for Hannah to see how our Federal system of government works.  Here is where I owe a very large and sincere thank you to Chris Kotopis from CompTIA.  Unbeknown to me, Chris had informed Chairwoman Watson's office that Hannah would be traveling with me to attend the Hearing.  After Chairwoman Watson completed her opening statement and introduced the witness panel, she then acknowledged Hannah for traveling to be present at the Hearing and asked her to stand and be recognized.  I was completely surprised by this and immensely proud of my daughter for this incredible learning opportunity which just took on an entirely new dimension.  I quickly modified my own opening statement, to thank Chairwoman Watson for her kindness in recognizing my daughter.  After the Hearing concluded, as seen below, the Chairwoman continued to be quite gracious with her time, talking with Hannah about government, youth and the future, as well as inviting her behind the Committee table for a photo.  What an impression to make on a High School Senior!  I am sure this will be a life long memory for Hannah, as it is for me.

Chairwoman Watson speaking with me and Hannah after the Hearing concluded.

 

Ranking Member Bilbray, my daughter, Hannah Shoer and Chairwoman Watson.

Every Congressional Committee has it's Chairperson, from the majority party and then a Ranking Member, from the minority party.  For this Subcommittee, the Ranking Member is Congressman Brian Bilbray, R-CA.  Ranking Member Bilbray delivered his opening statements immediately following Chairwoman Watson, followed by statements from any other Members who wished to speak.

Ranking Member Bilbray delivers his opening statement.

Following the members opening statements, each witness then proceeded to deliver their own opening statements, which you may read in detail on the Subcommittee home page, which I linked to earlier in this post.  For me, I found immediate commonality of concern with both Ranking Member Bilbray and Chairwoman Watson, specifically around the are of training and the fact that the human being IS the last line of defense in any cyber security discussion.  Each witness had their own perspective, as it related to their agency, company or experience.  That not withstanding, there was widespread agreement that training needs to be a fundamental part of any legislation, if it is to be effective.

Delivering my oral testimony to the Subcommittee.

My own statements centered around insuring that any update to the current FISMA legislation, along with any newly adopted legislation "enhance the security of our federal systems and protect our country and its citizenry."  I was asked to represent CompTIA and it's many small business member companies and by extension, the millions of small businesses in the United States that are our clients.  Unfortunately, whenever you engage in a discussion about IT security, whether at this level or within a business of any size, the discussion tends to get too focused on technology.  I saw this during the question and answer phase of the Hearing.  We, collectively, tend to have the view that technology alone should be able to solve any problem that we face.  However, without adequate and verifiable training, it is impossible for technology to do this job.  During our meetings last week with various Committee staffers, we heard case after case of examples of highly sensitive data being exposed to the Internet after someone with access to this information loaded it onto a portable computer that they brought home and left unsecured.  In some cases even letting their children use the computer for games and peer-to-peer sharing software.  This is a training issue, far more than a technology issue.

 Responding to Members questions during the Hearing.

I summarized my testimony as follows: "In conclusion, it is undisputed that we must protect the American public by having a security framework that guards information systems for both our federal critical systems, as well as, the private sector."  I firmly believe this to be true and after my experience yesterday, I also believe that this Subcommittee, as well as the other Committee's looking in to this very important issue, believe this to be true as well.  I was also encouraged to hear, during the questioning period, that the Members are concerned about drafting legislation that is realistic and able to be effective.  They are concerned that the Federal Government set the standard and lead by example, with a model that will be able to be replicated in the private sector, regardless of the size of the business.  As a small business person myself, I am deeply concerned about this very aspect of this discussion and I was very pleased to hear this publicly stated, on the record and I made this feeling known.  Clearly, this is not a quick or simple process.  Any new guidelines will have to be very broad to properly address the wide audience this relates to.  At the same time, it's extremely important that this effort creates a standard and that the Federal government does lead by example.  Otherwise, as I have stated before, there is a very real danger that we could wind up with competing or conflicting standards at the Federal level and within each of the 50 States.  That would create an intractable environment for small businesses to operate within and would damage our economic potential as a nation.  As she made her closing statements, Chairwoman Watson asked each of the witnesses to submit additional written input on several topics that the Subcommittee would like to hear from us on.  There is a clear openness toward and willingness to work with both Federal agencies and the private sector in addressing this critical issue.

Following the conclusion of the hearing, I had the opportunity to personally thank Chairwoman Watson for her kindness toward my daughter and for calling this Hearing.

 Thanking Chairwoman Watson following the closing of the Hearing.

I also had the opportunity to formally meet Vivek Kundra.  I wanted to take the opportunity to properly introduce myself and wish him well, as if you read my blog post about his appointment, you know I am very excited about the elevation of the importance of IT within the Obama Administration.  I hope that these developments will become permanent fixtures within our government, which I am sure they will be.

Talking with Vivek Kundra following the Hearing.

And while Mr. Kundra's presence at the hearing was considered to be the main attraction, my daughter Hannah took on her own rock star appeal after her introduction from the Chair, as Mr. Kundra was very excited to meet her.

Vivek Kundra, Federal CIO, talking with me and my daughter, Hannah Shoer

After the hearing I was also interviewed by a reporter covering the hearing for Federal Computer Week.  If I see the article, I will post a link to it in this blog.  After a long few hours, we left the Hearing Room and received our second nice surprise of the day, courtesy of CompTIA, when we were brought to Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter's, D-NH, office where we were escorted by a staff intern from Exeter, NH on a private tour of the Capitol.  We were able to observe both the House and the Senate from the Galleries and were quite lucky to see the Senate enact the credit card reform legislation which was passed yesterday.

After this, I worked from the CompTIA office for the rest of the day until our flight home in the evening.