Secure San Diego

This week in SD

This week has been a busy one here in San Diego with the news. Some security related and others not so much. The two stories that caught my attention this week and have some security relevance are Economy Could Force Police Protection Cuts and Quake Drill Leaves San Diegans Shaken.

How would a city compensate for loosing around 19 officers? Seems like a knee jerk reaction in attempting to balance the budget. There has to be other areas they could cut budget. Idea – Instead of using city employees to manage and clean parks, call for a citizen group to volunteer their time in coming out to clean. Leave the police alone when it comes to budget. The last thing the city of Escondido needs is to cut loose some of its officers.

The Big One

What would you do if the big one struck southern California? Do you have all your items stored in containers that could resist fires, flooding, or just the collapse of your house? Well I can say not all of our “stuff” is protected to that nature and this drill does hit home a little. One thing we have done with our children is, to have a drill of our own. How to get out of the house in the event something happens. Some items that my family is thinking about when it comes to the “big one” or even a break in and theft of all our stuff are:

• How are our financials stored and backed up
• How do we store our birth certificates and other personal identifying information
• The storing of other valuable items will they make it through a fire, flood or other disaster

Some recommendations are:

• encrypt your hard drives or at least password protect and/or encrypt financial information on computer systems
• Make sure you have a backup of those items stored elsewhere – there are some good and inexpensive online backup companies (we use carbonite)

As you read this I am sure that you can come up with items yourself that needs to be mentioned please do so.

Reminder to anyone that reads here. I will be teaching the above course here in San Diego starting December 9th. You can get event details here http://www.sans.org/mentor/details.php?nid=15064 and to register go here https://www.sans.org/registration/register.php?conferenceid=15064

Summary of the course.

This course addresses the latest cutting-edge insidious attack vectors and the oldie-but-goodie attacks that are still so prevalent, and everything in between. Instead of merely teaching a few hack-attack tricks, this course includes a time-tested, step-by-step process for responding to computer incidents, a detailed description of how attackers undermine systems so you can prepare, detect, and respond to them, and a hands-on workshop for discovering holes before the bad guys do. Additionally, the course explores the legal issues associated with responding to computer attacks, including employee monitoring, working with law enforcement, and handling evidence.

I hope to see you there.