I live and work in New Jersey. Throughout my life, trips to Manhattan and DC have been and remain commonplace. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember.

In August of 2001, a few short weeks before, I interviewed for a job in The WTC. I remember getting done and walking through the PATH station. I glanced up at the signs and saw directions to the observation deck. I thought about going up but didn’t. I remember saying to myself, “Eh, it’ll always be here.”

Little did I know.

On 9/11, I was home. My Mom was staying with me as she recovered from a heart attack. Good to have Mom around on a day like this. I got a call from my then girlfriend who asked me to turn on the TV to see what was going on in New York. It was eerie.

As the horror unfolded in Manhattan, DC and “somewhere else in the skies” live on TV, Mom started panicking. I didn’t really know why.

See, we had the very unique experience of having one of my sisters working in the financial district of Lower Manhattan, my oldest brother was on a flight to somewhere and my #2 brother, the now Admiral then Navy Captain had been recently transferred to a new gig with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.

In one fell swoop, three of her six living children could be dead!

Since we’re a large Irish-American family, we know the tragedy of losing loved ones well before their time intimately. We aren’t really proud of that fact. It just is what it is. God’s time is … well … whether we admit God exists or not, we are all on His timetable. But this … fuck … this would be too much to bear.

Minutes ticked by … there was no word from anyone. You couldn’t get through on the phones or emails went unanswered. The news coverage of the carnage didn’t help. The minutes turned to hours and still no word from anyone.

Mom finally got a call from my sister at about 2 PM. She wasn’t downtown but, as you can imagine, couldn’t get a call out. About 3 PM, my sister-in-law, wife of my oldest brother, called and told us he was fine.

The only one left was The Captain at The Pentagon. When I heard that it was the Navy’s side of the Pentagon, I couldn’t help but think that tragedy had befallen my family again. When the news would go back to Pentagon coverage, and remind us that it was the Navy side, Mom would start sobbing. I, of course, had no way to comfort her. I made feeble attempts but Mom has had all sorts of tragedy in her life. What could I really say?

Finally, around 7 PM, The Captain called and was fine. Turns out, he had been in a meeting with Rumsfeld and the JCoS on the other side of the building and had been helping rescue efforts.

Simply by His grace, my family spared that day. For that, I was then, am now and will always be tremendously grateful.

In the years since, I have met others whose lives changed that day; some lucky, some not but all undoubtedly changed… [Part 2 later today]

Now, my question is, ummm really, considering all the patching that will be going on this weekend, is this such a hot idea?

Then there is finding the woman that could be the love of my life. We do have one slight glitch though. No, it isn’t that she’s an Exchange admin. She actually uses Notes and has for years. See, her company is STILL on ND7 and her BlackBerry is at 4.2. I mean … ewwww to all of that! I mean … how could I be with someone who is still working with 7? I feel dirty just thinking about it! :o) Seriously, if I don’t marry this woman, there is something wrong with me.

The nutshell is, The Good Lord has blessed me on so many levels. So, I suppose on Good Friday, I will thank The Lord not only for dying for all of our sins but also all of the blessings.

As a result of all the blessing rained down upon me, in addition to not writing much, my PS3 and DVR have become a tad bit dusty. Well, I had some time tonight … er morning and just got done 2 of the best hours of TV I have watched in a long time.

The Chris Isaak Hour on the Biography Channel, Thursday @ 10: Music related TV does not get any better than this. http://www.biography.com/chris-isaak-hour/ (Sorry for the poor coding there, it’s late and buttons don’t work)

Anyway, I just watched his interviews with Stevie Nicks and Glen Campbell. I have got to say Stevie Nicks at 60 is still hot as anyone half her age. Glen Campbell, I had no idea how amazing he is.

Isaak does such a great job interviewing his guests. It isn’t the typical host celebrity interviewing another celebrity where the host turns it back on themselves. Isaak has done his research and asks really interesting questions. They even manage to work in a few tunes.

For example, I’m not the biggest country fan in the world and I am as cynical as the next Gen-Xer. But, Isaak made it interesting. I actually enjoyed hearing Campbell’s stories. I’d really like to see the raw footage of that one. The two of them just sitting around with guitars talking about Campbell’s career. I had no idea how many artists and records he did as a session guy: Sinatra, Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Dean Martin and he was part of Phil Spector’s infamous “Wall of Sound".

The upshot is, Chris Isaak does a great interview and there is something for everyone. In addition to the aforementioned, he has so far interviewed: Chicago, The Smashing Pumpkins, Michael Buble’, Trisha Yearwood, Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) and next week, Jewel. Check out the website. Previous episodes are there.

OK enough already … it’s 3 am!!

Happy Easter!! Zizen Pesach!!

I just started a book to which a gent who claims to be some sort of Exchange guru contributed. I’m on page 11 as I write this. So, here’s the thing …

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, I DON’T CARE WHAT DIALECT OR LOCALIZATION YOU USE, IS THE USE OF “BEING THAT", “BEINGS THAT” OR “AS” EVER ACCEPTABLE FOR THE WORDS “BECAUSE” OR “SINCE"!

I mean, if you want to look like a moron, go right ahead. But, you must understand, that you will look like a complete idiot and your message will be lost no matter how relevant or important it is.

From the press release:

[The purpose of the CAG] is to define the most critical security controls to protect federal and contractor information and information systems. The draft may be found at http://www.sans.org/cag/. The public review period runs through March 23, 2009.

Below is the proposed list of critical controls:

Automated Measurement and Validation Controls

1. Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Hardware.
2. Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Software.
3. Secure Configurations for Hardware and Software For Which Such Configurations Are Available.
4. Secure Configurations of Network Devices Such as Firewalls And Routers.
5. Boundary Defense
6. Maintenance and Analysis of Complete Security Audit Logs
7. Application Software Security
8. Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges
9. Controlled Access Based On Need to Know
10. Continuous Vulnerability Testing and Remediation
11. Dormant Account Monitoring and Control
12. Anti-Malware Defenses
13. Limitation and Control of Ports, Protocols and Services
14. Wireless Device Control
15. Data Leakage Protection

Additional Critical Controls (not directly supported by automated
measurement and validation):

16. Secure Network Engineering

17. Red Team Exercises

18. Incident Response Capability

19. Assured Data Back-Ups

20. Security Skills Assessment and Training to Fill Gaps

Security is one of those areas that many IT people ignore. There is a certain ambivalence about it. Since we are all SMEs in our own particular environments, it behooves us all to learn what we can about security. Even if you have a specific internal audit and/or security team that focuses on IT, ultimately, everyone in your organization is looking to you to be the cyber cop for your area.

For develppers, this will help you understand how your data flows through your organization. I know a number of developers who don’t know how many firewalls their apps traverse or if their network traffic is encrypted.

If you don’t know that, how then can you design apps to either take advantage of these features OR prevent unauthorized access to the data? You can’t always rely on the admin.

Admins, we know our bollocks are always on the chopping block for security. After a breech, there is always the “why didn’t the admin do …” If you’ve ever had a breech, you know what I mean. It is quite a sweaty time, to say the least. You can’t always rely on the developer.

The bottom line is, if you don’t have a firm grasp on your firm’s IT security, these guidelines are a great primer to expose you to what you need to know.

Lastly, they are looking for worldwide input. Don’t think that because you’re in the EU, India, NZ or elsewhere that you can’t contribute.