Month: February 2016

Cyber Blind Spots

In my opinion, of the many challenges that we as information security professionals face, is that the general public, and government and business leaders, have no clue what we do, how we think and why we do what we do.

The industry is constantly changing and evolving thus the threat landscape presents new and different challenges all the time. But that does not mean that we need to create a new profession every time there is a shift in the landscape. As industry professionals we should be ensuring that these efforts are neither duplicative nor wasted and should be well informed of the existing landscape and available materials.

The Information Society has been growing since the 70s and therefore those who have been working with “systems” throughout the intervening years are well aware of an implicit requirement to be information security specialists, alert to all threats across the landscape within which they are operating – and beyond.

Well rounded professionals understand risk within this context. The aspects created by operating more widely within the cyber domain are just another manifestation of this.Andrea C Simmons, FBCS CITP, CISM, CISSP, M.Inst.ISP, MA

As an information security professional, I believe that one of our biggest challenges is the lack of understanding among the general public, as well as government and business leaders, about our work, thought processes, and motivations.

Huckleberry Roasters Ethiopia Zelelu

Ethiopia Zelelu from Huckleberry Roasters (MistoBox)

MistoBox delivers coffee from the top artisan coffee roasters right to your door every month. Answer a few questions about your preferences, and they'll send you coffee you'll love every time.

I didn't taste the grape jam. This coffee wasn't sweet. I have never tasted lavender so had no point of comparison. My wife thinks she detects hints of citrus.

Rating: 3⁄5
Country: ETHIOPIA
Region: YIRGACHEFFE
Altitude: 1,950 METERS
Variety: ETHIOPIAN HEIRLOOM
Process: FULLY WASHED
Producer: ZELELU ARARSO AND KASECH ZELELU

First Impressions

When a restaurant cancels a reservation at the last moment it makes a terrible first impression. #Princeton #Despana

It's been a while since I had a chance to chat with my sister-in-law and catch up. We live in the same town but with school and work schedules we almost never get a chance to talk. Things get busy on the weekends with kids activities and I thought that a weeknight dinner wouldn't stress both our calendars.

Someone recommended I try Despaña, a Spanish restaurant in Princeton. I made dinner reservations with Despaña Princeton for January 20th at 5:30PM days in advance. However, around 12:36PM, on the date of the reservation, I received one phone call and an SMS text message from the manager at Despaña Princeton apologizing that they had to cancel my dinner reservation.

Samuel Quezada, the manager at Despaña, claimed that the OpenTable scheduling system made an error and that the restaurant had actually been reserved for a private event. The manager also claimed that he tried to contact me repeatedly. I checked my email, voicemail and SMS records from the prior two weeks but the only communication I had received from Despaña was the one phone call and the text around from that day.

I consider it poor form when a restaurant cancels a reservation at the last moment on the same day.

After speaking with the manager, who promised to do "right" by me, I received an email at 12:41PM from the OpenTable reservation system that my reservation had been cancelled.

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Assuming that the manager wasn't lying why did it take weeks to realize there was an issue? What wasn't I notified via the OpenTable reservation system? If the restaurant knew they had a private event and the restaurant was fully booked why didn't the manager prevent any OpenTable reservations for that day? Why didn't the manager cancel my reservation via the OpenTable system sooner and update me with a reason?

Here's a screen shot of the SMS of the first message that was sent to me at 12:36PM on January 20th, 2016.

Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 3.05.30 PM

Part of me in angry for not doing my research before booking this restaurant. The reviews on Yelp would have been a warning to avoid at Despaña. It was too late to find a new restaurant and sister-in-law is busy the next few weeks so we'll have to postpone.

I submitted a complaint to OpenTable and received a courteous response.

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