You know that we have Tablet PCs since Windows XP and I think I did not have many PCs at Microsoft which were not tablets. How often do I use them as a tablet? Not too often but when I am in a customer meeting and do not use my notebook to present, I use it to take notes. That’s basically to me the application I use it and it does good service.

The question often is, why did Tablet PCs not really take off as they did not broadly – and I do not know. Now, Apple launched the iPad and before it was on the market, tablets are hype – great marketing I have to admit. And then, finally, I read this article today: Tablets to outsell netbooks by 2012, report says – wow. The interesting part of the article is Consumers “didn’t ask” for tablets. Apple is successfully teaching consumers to want the iPad – as I said: Great marketing, great demand generation

Let’s see whether this really happens the way Forester predicts.

Roger

Well, it is not me saying that, it is actually Clint Boulton, eWeek. He published an article on 10 Reasons Why Google Won't Beat Microsoft in Cloud Collaboration and they are:

1. Microsoft Is Big, Getting Bigger
2. Local Still Preferable?
3. Microsoft Now Lives in the Cloud
4. Bang for the Buck Lies with Microsoft
5. Serena Said It and Did It (Serena moved from Microsoft to Google Apps and then came back to our Cloud solution)
6. Limited Browser
7. Customer Service
8. Enterprise?
9. Google Billboards?!
10. Good Enough

I do not agree with all the points but what is really interesting to me is that he does not really talk about security. I am convinced that there have to be a few areas where the solutions of the different cloud providers have to be compared like the security and transparency of the the way the Cloud is run (e.g. we are ISO 27001 certified), the ability to federate the identities from on-premise to the Cloud (ask your provider), monitoring and management from the client to the server on premise to the cloud…

I am convinced that this discussion will change fairly soon as well!

Roger

Probably not. However, it indefinitely is a security risk. We are talking about this since a looooooong time as such copiers are sold since 2002. I just recently heard that the criminals are looking into this heavily and now it is even discussed publically on BCS News: Copy Machines, a Security Risk?

Actually a really good video.

Roger

From time to time I do speeches to parents here in the community with regards to online safety for the kids and the teens. Being a parent as well, I have a natural interest in this theme, knowing that I probably have better insights in some of the challenges than most other parents.

Therefore I am always interested reading studies on this and I just found that one: The Secret Online Lives of Teens – a very interesting survey by McAfee. For me, there are a few take-away:

• I tell the parents to engage with the kids and show interest in what the kids and teens do. Looking at the key findings, it seems to be the right approach: About a third (32%) say that they don’t tell their parents what they are doing online, and would change their behavior if they knew their parents were watching (31%). Therefore engaging with the kids seems to pay off.
• This leads us to the next point: When it comes to social networking, 73% of 13- to 17-year-olds today say they have an account on a social networking site, compared to 59% in 2008. Even though I am not completely clear whether I like that or not but at least we – as parents – should be interested in what the teens do there. Looking at the information which is sometimes shared on these social networking sites, it is clear to me that we have to talk with them to understand what they do and help them around.
• Now the real scary stuff: One in four kids (25%) report that they wouldn’t know what to do if they were bullied or harassed online – what about talking to a trusted person? Maybe mom, dad, the teacher, an uncle etc. but it is really scary that they do not know that. However, what about the “real life”? Do they know what to do there? This is – to me – exactly the same problem. We are trying to have a relationship trusted enough to get this information if it happens to our kids. Would they come? I hope but I cannot be sure. And then: Do the parents know what they should do if the kid comes with this information????

So, a lot of things to worry about but in my opinion, there is not too much difference between raising a kids in the real world and raising it online. The biggest difference is that the kids most likely know more about these technologies than the parents. To learn what you could/should do, there is a website you could look into: Online Safety and Privacy Education. In there you find everything about How to Protect Your Family, how to Protect Yourself and how to Protect Your Computer.

Roger

Today, I had the opportunity to talk to a group of partners on Cloud and security. The goal was to make them ready for the Cloud and make them ready to answer the customer’s questions. One block – obviously – was about security and as I look at it (and as I said), this starts with the customer's processes. In addition, you need a clear and implemented data classification scheme. I am convinced that a Cloud provider, which offers the needed transparency and a secure environment (and does not only tell you that they are as secure as e.g. a bank) will often reduce your risk exposure if your overall IT organization is mature enough.

Now, I read this study: New Study Says Senior Leaders are Increasingly Distant from Security, Privacy – a study by Carnegie Mellon and therefore not from a consulting company who wants to sell services. To look at some data and quote the article:

Westby says a comparison of the level of board participation in key areas for IT security governance show the facts:

• Review/Approve Annual Budgets - Sixty-one percent of 2010's respondents say they never review budgets, compared to only 40 percent from the previous survey;
• Review/Approve Top-Level Policies - 2010's survey shows that 33 percent say they never do, compared with 23 percent previously.
• Review/Approve Roles & Responsibilities - 43 percent of respondents say they never take part re: IT security personnel, compared with only 28 percent last time.

And these are the customers who want to move to the Cloud? In my opinion the board is key, when it comes to risk management and they have to get involved and take part of it.

Is this the board’s fault? This would be too easy from my point of view. This is just the way a lot of security professionals handle this problem and complain that the board is not interested in such themes. What did we as a community do to change this? In the best case we implement risk management process and include the board in those processes – and speak techie language, not the board’s language. We rarely show how a risk might affect the business process but how it affects the technology. Last but not least we never show the board how we could use security to help the business to grow.

Let’s stick with the Cloud for a second. The standard security person tells his/her board that we cannot go to the Cloud because of security (heard that very, very often). Why do we not approach it the other way round: We should actually move our “company internal” data to the Cloud to reduce cost and increase security? This is actually true in a lot of cases.

All of a sudden security becomes an asset instead of a blocker – we have to change our attitude! It starts with us!

Roger