You know, normally I blog about all the different security challenges we are facing. This time it is different J (even though I have to care about physical security in the mountains)

At the moment I am sitting at an altitude of about 1800m above sea level having a great time. I am taking a big break (as I usually do during summer) and have some weeks off with my family. I was asked several times before, where we would go. You know, I was asked about all the big and well-known locations: Spain, Italy, US, the Far East – just where everybody else is going during the summer. Hmm, it seems that we are different. We are staying in Switzerland and enjoying the beauty of the Swiss Alps. It is anyway funny: My two sons know more about Dolphins, Lions, Tigers and Elephants than about Marmots or Eagles. Therefore we are going hiking with them and visit quite some mountains and glaciers. This gives us the challenge to motivate the kids to do hiking. Where we are there is a Marmot trial (cool stuff) or a Planet hike (where you visit all the planets) and finally we searched for a Geocache (they love running around and looking for a treasure with a GPS – there is even a Swiss site) – there are even two more just around the corner.

And finally I did running trainings on this altitude for my first half-marathon on September 22^nd. Geeze – I am just enjoying my time.

I will be back later this summer.

Looking forward to your comments about the summer break(s)

Roger

It was to be expected – not because Apple built bad security in their iPhone, I am definitely not in the position to judge, but because it was going to happen. Any software product is going to have vulnerabilities as a matter of fact. The more attractive a device or a piece of software is, the more likely it is that the bad guys look at it and publish exploits and vulnerabilities – and the iPhone is very much on top of this list.

We have been blamed for several years now with regards to security and we have been in the key focus of this movement. We accepted this and changed heavily. During my first speech about Trustworthy Computing about 5 years ago I said that the whole industry will finally have to move…

Read yourself about the iPhone: IPhone Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over, Security Firm Says. One quote actually underlines my statement above: "Windows gets hacked all the time not because it is more insecure than Apple, but because 95 percent of computer users are on Windows," he said. "The other 5 percent have enjoyed a honeymoon that will eventually come to an end." – this quote is from Aviel D. Rubin, Independent Security Evaluators' founder and the technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Roger

It is probably the most important and known encryption device ever: The Enigma – the machine that had a strong influence on WWII. Now you can buy your Enigma on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270146949978

Roger

If you are working with Microsoft and security you definitely know him – Stephen Toulouse one of the long-term people you know from Microsoft's security units. He worked within the Microsoft Security Response Center as one of our key spokespersons and later on used to be one of the key faces for Trustworthy Computing outreach. There is even a ZDNet article about his job-change: Stepto leaves MS security, goes gaming

He is one of the persons who is internally only called by his e-mail address – being stepto. He once told me that the only time he is called Stephen is, when there was something wrong.

Stepto, thank you for all you did for us out there in the field as well as for our customers. I wish you all the best in the XBox 360 team and I hope that we will have some interfaces together some when later.

Rpger

I love that one: Somebody sends e-mails to Hotmail users that their account would expire and they should renew it – the attacker gets UserID/Password… Then a mail is sent on behalf of the user to their friends to tell them that they are stuck in Nigeria (got it already) and lost Passport, Money, Cards, everything and now need money…

Read the whole story: Nigeria Calling: Indians beware!

Roger