climate and comms

con·text /ˈkäntekst/ The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. authenticate [ɔːˈθɛntɪˌkeɪt] vb (tr)   to establish as genuine or valid What does context have to do with authentication? When you log on to a web site and enter your user name and password so as to ‘authenticate’ yourself all you are presenting are self reported credentials to the site.  If you present the correct credentials then the site accepts you as - who you say you are.   It takes you at face value.  It identifies you.  Liken it to a knight of old arriving at castle and announcing himself.   When you log on to a web site and it asks you to log in with a user name and password – you are in effect – announcing yourself – identifying yourself.   What happens if someone steals your password?   Then they can log on as you – the site is none the wiser – the thief has presente...

I know,   I know – I hear the howls of protest even before finishing this first sentence.   “What about all the innocent lives exposed by the irresponsible publication of peoples names in positions of authority or in sensitive roles. ?”    But where does the fault lie ?  With those doing the breaking and entering?   Or those not providing adequate protection??  It is liked leaving your house locked without an alarm system, going on holiday, and coming back and finding it broken into.   Don’t be surprised.  You have no one to blame but yourself.  “ But these are criminals ! “  – I hear the sounds of self righteous chest thumping.    Maybe, but what they have done – I hope – is scare the s**t out of anyone who has anything (data) that is accessible via the Web  - and into ensuring that their ‘security’ ( if any ) - is rapidly upgraded.    This ranges from personal users who ...

Well - you’re probably thinking - this is going to make a fun read !!   Does my website have a log in ??  Well damn right it does ( you’re saying to yourself) – we can’t just let any old passer by onto our site!! I mean look at all these big cheeses being hacked like RSA , SONY and even the CIA !! But if users have to log in - that means they need to register and they need to remember yet another user name and possibly -  but not necessarily - another password.    Well - that means that customers desert in droves !  Or does it? Are customers put off when they have to log in ?  Well I guess a lot has to do with whether the service you offer is valuable enough.   Lets see – Twitter, Facebook and Gmail just to name a few at random – you would expect to see some kind of ‘identification ‘ process going on.  And indeed you do.  And now to make it all that much easier – SSO (Single Sign On) ,  OpenID and now BrowserID co...

The recent attack (it seems by Anonymous) on SONY which compromised the personal details of almost 100m of their gaming customers has caused massive damage to the SONY brand.   According to Interbrand in 2009 SONY’s brand value was $12bn.   You can safely assume that it will have taken a hit in the order of billions of dollars.  ( This excludes any legal action and the resultant loss.)  The same could be said of Epsilon and RSA who like SONY did not have a major financial breach but their good names have been severely compromised.   The loss to brand value as well as enterprise value could be massive due to the loss of future business.    (There is a report circulating citing research done on RSA’s customers of whom more than half stated that they would not be renewing their contracts. )    If not obvious before,  then now,  executives charged with the stewardship of large valuable corporations must r...

Many of you have probably wondered about what Live Ensure is all about.  Well there is no more powerful medium than multi-media.  So watch this video ... let me know what you think