If you’ve ever been on a low carb diet, you know how hard it is to find a decent variety of things to eat so you don’t get burned out too quickly. One of the hardest things is going without sweets or desserts. I’m not much of a sweet-eater, but after about 6 months of low-carbing it (and losing about 35 lbs I might add!) I begin to have severe chocolate withdrawals. Forget the sweets, I just want chocolate!

Among things like Hershys sugar-free dark chocolate (oh-so-good) and Russel Stovers net-carb line of products, I found Mootopia at HEB. Their chocolate Mootopia is about 11g carbs per cup. This was good, but not great. Still, a cup once in a while was acceptable – and when mixed with ice and whipped cream in a blender – a cup goes a long way towards a nice cold shake!

  

I ran across this article from the CERT Coordination Center which is a very long and thorough ready about securing home networks. Unfortunately, that’s just the problem… Unlike myself, most typical end-users are not going to be interested in reading through a long article like this to learn about network security. Just like someone would not be interested in going to police academy and taking courses in criminal justice and psychology to learn how to protect themselves and their house.

In the same way someone simply pays $99 to a security company for an alarm system, and $20 a month to have it monitored, end-users truely interested in securing their home network would be willing to pay an upfront hardware fee and monitoring fees for a managed firewall service of sorts to give them peace of mind when it comes to the security of their home network.

Now, don’t run out and start a new company based on this idea – I’m not giving anything away. There are already services like this, typically way overpriced for the home user since they are aimed at organizations and corporations who understand the necessity of such a service.

The unfortunate reason why this would not be successful in a home market (at least not yet) is because most home users do not see the need for such measures. Why waste money installing burglar bars and an alarm system on your home? But wait until that person has been robbed, especially if their life is also threatened. They’ll be thinking twice about that alarm system, and $20/month for monitoring won’t be a problem any more.

Even if someone’s home network is compromised (either by a virus, worm, or hacker) the end-users still do not take it seriously. They do not see the real danger, or even the havoc caused by having a worm-infested computer for example. Slowing down their internet connection, unknowingly spamming other internet users, “phoning home” their private data, passwords, even credit card info to some script kiddie on a chat channel somewhere.

“Oh well, my hard drive crashed, I guess that happens… I wonder if it has anything to do with the warnings my antivirus program has been popping up the last 2 months? Time to go get a new computer.”

“I don’t know how my credit card got stolen, but thats ok, my bank is sending me a new one and is refunding the fraudulent charges… I wish it would hurry up and get here, I found a darling new sweater online for half the price it was at the dept. store!”

Maybe someday a) users will realize the importance and take security seriously and b) companies will realize the importance (not just the marketing potential) and offer managed security services for reasonable rates.

Imagine, paying an extra $10 per month to have a managed firewall appliance protecting your home network from outside intruders and emailing you when it detects suspicious traffic from within your network (such as a virus trying to spread) or even having a representative call you when something is detected and offering to walk you through detection and removal right there over the phone.

Microsoft is already getting stronger in their patch delivery methods, making it easier for machines to be kept up to date. Antivirus software does the same thing for the most part. There are free/open source solutions to do most of this (check out the IPCop Firewall) but none of these solutions are idiot-proof, and in the case of ipcop, even confusing to the average home user.

  

From this article on Bruce Schneier’s weblog, he states:

VOIP calls are vulnerable to a variety of threats that traditional telephone calls are not. Encryption is one of the essential security technologies for computer data, and it will go a long way toward securing VOIP.

And as he also points out, encryption can protectagainst almost all common security threats to VoIP. However, for end-users using softphones on their computers encryption cannot protect you against some malicious software or a hacker who has gotten into your system from monitoring your phone calls.

On a business side, implimenting VoIP telephony for a company should not be seen as simply adding ip telephony. In my opinion, it should be completely seperate from your existing network. Voice traffic should be encrypted from the end points to the softswitch (or software pbx such as asterisk) and should be run on a completely seperate network or VLAN. I would personally run completely seperate cabling connected to seperate network switches for all voice traffic. Devices would be restricted by MAC address, and routing to/from your existing LAN would be restricted based on an as-needed basis. (Some ip phones can link to an LDAP directory or pull other data via the network to display on the phone before/during a phone call)

By seperating the traffic you minimize the chance of network eavesdropping, limit the possibility of DDOS or other network traffic issues hindering voice quality and/or network/internet connectivity.

Imagine 1000 employees in a single building, on a single LAN shared with VoIP traffic. Some IT engineer decides to re-run a backup that failed the night before from a server on one end of the building over the LAN to the storage server on the other end of the building, eating massive amounts of bandwidth… but hey, they’re on a gigiabit backbone right? Lunchtime hits and everyone starts browsing their favorite websites, and clicking on email links to online videos. Some people are listening to streaming radio, and a good majority of people are calling their spouse, friends, the repair shop or whatever… Suddenly the internet is slowing to a crawl and voice quality drops. Networks apps become sluggish, and the big boss man isn’t happy!

Why wouldn’t this be something taken into consideration when the technology was being deployed? VoIP isn’t just another simple add-on to your network if you are serious about deploying it system-wide. It’s potential use and impact need to be taken into consideration. Yes it can save money, but as with anything it takes money to save money. Spend a little to set it up right, and you see the savings (without the headaches) down the line.

  

So Houston has now become the new temporary home to thousands of “refugees” from Louisiana. Many fled here on their own before Katrina hit in addition to the approximate 19,000 that have so far been bussed in to the Astrodome, Reliant Arena, and now the George R. Brown convention center. Over 220,000 refugees have already come to Texas. With all these new temporary residents, I find that I have a few concerns – Mainly regarding crime rates, regardless of what the Police Department or Media is saying. I know people with personal accounts of increased vandalism, theft, prowling, etc. as a direct result of our recent visitors.

One family stated their typically quiet neighborhood near the Astrodome has become prowling grounds for bored refugees, and in the first night alone, they had to call the police several times because some stranger was wandering around their house, knocking on windows or doors, etc. This family is now terrified that their house will be broken into and has resorted to guarding their front door with a shotgun.

Someone else I know was the victim of a family of claimed refugees, who, after eating a nice expensive dinner and telling the waiter afterwards that they were from Louisiana and couldn’t pay, broke into my friends car along with 2 others in the restaurant parking lot.

There are many more similar experiences fellow Houstonians have to share, and after a few weeks I guarantee that HPD will be changing their story. If you are the victim of a crime, or even harassment by our visitors, I would suggest you notify the police! Once they begin to see the resulting crime rate they will realize that harsher steps are needed to control these people.

I sympathize with what they have been through, and am deeply saddened by what has happened, but this does NOT give them the right to act like morons, hoodlums, and thugs. I will gladly treat any one of them I come into contact with; with the same respect and dignity I would anyone else including my own family members. I would gladly offer any assistance I can within reason. But I guarantee I will not put up with someones ignorance, disrespect, and unthankfulness – and if they expect Houstonians to continue helping them and offering our support they should acknowledge and accept what they can get with dignity rather than an indignant attitude towards us.

It will be interesting to compare the Houston crime rates for July, August, and September. Come back and check it out, as sometime around the middle to end of October I should have the September crime stats online and we’ll see what the results are.

  

And Katrina Proved It!