Sebastian Thrun and the 21st Century Textbook

About a month ago I was attending the Tech-X conference at USAA's main campus.  What a great setup they have for all their Information Technology employees.  They push for employee innovation and customer satisfaction at every turn.

The keynote speaker for the event was Sebastian Thrun (DARPA Grand Challenge, Google Glass, Google Autonomous car, Standford Professor, Udacity, genius...)

This guy has been around the block in new technologies and has a complete and contagious passion for his work.

NIST Cybersecurity Framework Draft - Not Ready For Primetime

When Executive Order 13636, “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity¹,” was released earlier this year, it called for the development of a cybersecurity framework.  The purpose, as expected given the myriad of news articles covering critical infrastructure cybersecurity, was to improve the cybersecurity posture of these organizations by giving them a voluntary framework that enables them to identify, assess, and manage cyber risk.  Fortunately, the “Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework²” is still in draft form, with the latest round of development workshops just completed in Dallas, TX, because it seems like the lessons that should have been learned by other similar frameworks have not yet made their way into the current discussion.

3 reasons why you need to learn to code

You don't need to have a degree in Computer Science to write a little bit of code.  Sure it may be daunting at first, but spend a weekend doing some research and working through hands-on examples, and you will be hooked!  Now I'm not talking about developing the next Angry Birds or some complex networking application.

Start small, start with "scripting", and after the initial hurdle, your momentum will keep you moving.

Why would you want to do this?  Well here are three reasons you need to learn to code:

Tactical Communications Demand Adaptive Software

In a recent newsletter, The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) published an article about research they are doing with the military, tactical communications, and agile computing . I'd like to share the newsletter and a few thoughts.

IWBC to change testing procedures

The Information Warfare Basic Course (IWBC) is going to change how they test students.

Wi-Vi: Exploiting Known Technology

This is really neat.  Apparently in our information age, WiFi can transmit information in more ways than you might realize.  While 1's and 0's might transmit on the waves, have you ever thought about the propagation properties and the information that can be gleaned and derived from it?

A fairly extensive article over on CIMSEC offers the following description on Wi-Vi:

Modern Day Wizard War

"This was a secret war, whose battles were lost or won unknown to the public; and only with difficulty is it comprehended, even now, by those outside the small high scientific circles concerned.  No such warfare had ever been waged by mortal men.  The terms in which it could be recorded or talked about were unintelligible to ordinary folk.  Yet if we had not mastered its profound meaning and used its mysteries even while we saw them only in the glimpse, all the efforts, all the prowess of the fighting airmen, all the bravery and sacrifices of the people, would have been in vain." Winston Churchill¹

World War II.  This "secret war", this "race for electronic superiority"², this "Wizard War"³, as Winston Churchill so eloquently called it, led to the development and deployment of so many new technologies, it makes you wonder what great advancements of the 20th century may not have come to fruition had there not been the price tag of war.

CNO's Rapid Innovation Cell

Have ideas about enhancing our Navy and bringing it further into the 21st century by utilizing things like Google Glass, 3-D printing, and crowd-sourced war-gaming?  All with a budget upwards of $2 million?  Hey IDC, this is a call to us!

The CNO's Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC) application period for FY2014 is now open and ready for you to make a submission.  What is this thing called CRIC?  What are the expectations?  How do I apply?  As this was a first heard for me a week ago, I had the same questions...