Today I received a message that purports to be from Discover regarding a 5% cashback program on gas purchases on that card. (For the non-American readers, Discover is a credit card widely used in the U.S.). The e-mail had a couple of links to click, both...

This is a post I was asked to do a while ago and have been procrastinating on. I apologize for that. For various reasons, every so often, certain FAQ items come up again. One of them is whether certain password policies are enforced when a system is not...

Several times in the past year someone has brought up an issue where they needed to "temporarily" grant someone administrative privilege to a system or a domain. Each time my answer has been the same: "why not just put them in the Administrators group...

Every parent knows that the main reason you have kids is for the comic relief they provide. However, watching them grow up is also fascinating. Yesterday my oldest son, who is now seven and a half, and I were sitting in front of the TV when he asked...

Recently I was standing in a Geek bookstore in Sydney, trying to burn half an hour between meetings, when a book on passwords caught my eye. Naturally, given my somewhat odd interest in passwords, I picked it up to see if I had head of it before. Given...

Bruce Schneier has been a very vocal opponent of the move to put RFID tags, or at least ones without security, on passports. For instance, there is this blog post , and this article . Passports are, of course, interesting, particularly when you have to...

It appears I will be at TechEd in Boston this year after all. There are precious few sessions going around. Attendees have voiced a desire to hear more external speakers so the MS people are getting fewer sessions this year. Steve Riley (henceforth known...