So you've been asked to provide a review or summary for the boss' boss or even higher up. Top, middle or bottom... your rank is moot! You have been chosen for a reason. That reason could be technical, social, or political. The most important thing for you to know is that -- IT IS A BRIEF.

Prime Directive: Simple, simple, simple.

"Today." Where are we now?
"Tomorrow." Where are we going?
"When in doubt - Leave it out."

America’s water and power utilities under daily cyber-attack. America’s utilities face constant cyber-espionage and denial-of-service attacks against industrial-control systems (ICS), according to the team of specialists from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who are called to investigate the worst cyber-related incidents at these utilities.

DHS’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) assisted utilities in network and forensics analysis on seventeen (17) major cases in 2011. Seven (7) of the security incidents originated as spear-phishing attacks via e-mail against utility personnel.

Do you know what kind of personal information about you can be found from Internet? Do you know how to remove your name, address, phone number, unwanted pictures, bad publicity, and negative comments from Google and other search results? Do you know how to delete your personal information from online people search database records and the deep web?

Like it or not, Google does not accept complaints for defamatory, inaccurate, or incorrect content in their Search Engine Results. Should you desire to scrub unwanted content from third party websites appearing in Google Web Search Results pages, you must contact the Business Owner of the respective website(s).

Embark on a spiritual journey and immerse yourself in the footsteps of the Buddha as you traverse the significant places that shaped his life and led him to enlightenment. This informative travel guide will take you on a pilgrimage to sacred sites where the Buddha walked, meditated, and shared his teachings. From the birthplace of Lumbini to the enlightening grounds of Bodhgaya, each destination carries deep spiritual significance, offering a profound opportunity for introspection and serenity.

Censorship in the Age of Freedom...

Many of us live in an age of boundless freedom. As the digital winds whisper tales of liberation, it is tempting to believe that the shadows of censorship have been vanquished, relegated to the annals of history. Yet, dear readers, if we dare to look beneath the surface of this illusion, we will discover a truth that is as disconcerting as it is undeniable. For, as the brilliant mind of Nick Cohen reminds us, there exist countless books not written, volumes that shall forever remain enigmatically absent from our literary tapestry.

How does one deal with unfair behaviors? Today, there is unique neurobiological evidence to account for individual differences of reaction to unfairness. This subject has long been investigated by various disciplines including philosophy, psychology, economics, and biology. However, our reactions to unfairness differ from one individual to another.

Experimental economics studies using the ultimatum game (UG), in which players must decide whether to accept or reject fair or unfair offers, have also shown that there are substantial individual differences in reaction to unfairness. We combined a molecular imaging technique, an economics game, and a personality inventory to elucidate the neurobiological mechanism of heterogeneous reactions to unfairness.

The Norquist Pledge has nothing to do with tax reform as understood by most American taxpayers. For example, the majority of Americans favor increasing -- rather than capping -- the marginal tax rates of the top 1%. (By the way, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) -- a tax-exempt institution -- pays no taxes on its annual revenues of about $5 million per year, according to ATR tax forms.)

Grover Norquist even emphasizes that the pledge has no exceptions for war, natural disaster, or other misfortunes. For example, a signer of the Norquist Pledge isn't permitted to vote to increase tax rates on America's 1% -- even if such changes would be revenue neutral, and/or are desperately needed for a national emergency. Mr. Norquist's real goal (explained in his other writings) is to substantially shrink the size of government.

Disruptive and aggressive behavior in classrooms as early as the first grade has repeatedly been identified as a risk factor for this spectrum of problems later in life (Kellam et al., 2008).

The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a universal (classroom) behavior management method, was tested in first- and second-grade classrooms in Baltimore beginning in the 1985–1986 school year. Followup at ages 19–21 found significantly lower rates of drug and alcohol use disorders, regular smoking, antisocial personality disorder, delinquency and incarceration for violent crimes, suicide ideation, and use of school-based services among students who had played the GBG.

Substance abusers seek help quitting drugs not as an end in itself, but as a means to escape these negative consequences and to gain a better life. Accordingly, while substance abuse treatment seeks to promote abstinence or at least significant reductions in substance use, its ultimate aim is to improve the patient’s quality of life (QOL).  Unfortunately,

Clinicians tend to focus on symptoms, whereas for clients, symptom management is a means to an end.

Alexandre B. Laudet, Ph.D., presents current concepts of QOL and tools used to measure it, summarize recent paradigmatic shifts in the SUD field that are leading to an emerging interest in QOL, and review the evidence bearing on QOL in the treatment of addiction.  Dr. Laudet also presents implications of incorporating QOL concepts into clinical practice and research.

Recognize This! – You can’t engage employees. You can only create a culture in which they want to engage.

An article in Knoweldeg at W.P. Carey pointed out the importance of company culture to achieving the company strategy – and the peril of ignoring that importance.

Why is culture so important? Culture is simply the shared beliefs, values and behaviors of a group of people.

Your culture produces your results. If you need a change in results, then you need a change in culture. Your culture is always working, either for you or against you. To accelerate a change in the culture, start by defining the new results you wish to achieve. Everyone in the organization needs to be focused on and aligned with the desired new outcomes. Culture changes one person at a time.

Your people must believe that these new results are obtainable. Only then can they change their thinking and actions — something that usually happens when they can verbalize their job descriptions in terms of how they contribute to successful outcomes.

Misconfigured networks account for more than three quarters of breaches. A survey found that a badly configured network is the main cause of network breaches because IT professionals "don’t know what to look for."

The survey, conducted by Tufin, also revealed that 18 percent of security experts believe misconfigured networks are the result of insufficient time or money for audits, while 14 percent felt that compliance audits that do not always capture security best practices are a factor. The CTO and co-founder of Tufin said: "The really big question coming out of the survey is how to manage the risk that organizations run dealing with the complexity that is part and parcel of any medium-to-large sized company’s security operations.

Is the information-technology function at your company focusing on the same priorities as the business? Based on a recent survey by The Corporate Executive Board's IT Leadership Exchange, the overwhelming answer to this question is—No.

Through a survey of 150 IT departments at mid-sized companies, the IT Leadership Exchange found that 90 percent of CIOs expect that the IT department will be misaligned with business needs in an economic recovery, and more than half feel that this will threaten the business's long-term competitiveness.

China is the number-one source of email-borne targeted attacks of the sort Google and at least 30 other companies are believed to have suffered, according to the latest monthly MessageLabs Intelligence report from Symantec Hosted Services. The firm analyzed the email headers of suspect messages intercepted last month to identify the true IP address of the senders, and found that around 28 percent of targeted attacks originated in China.

More than half of IT and security professionals worldwide believe their company’s laptops and other mobile devices pose security risks to their organizations, and only half of them have CEOs who are strong advocates and supporters of data security efforts, according to new report issued today.

[Rich opinion: Information Technology (IT) is nothing but "chop wood and carry water".  Technology leaders must be so much more than technologists with business titles. They must be strong business leaders to successfully participate in risk management. In the end, it's all about money, politics, and time value. Are you part of the accountability or part of the risk?]

California intends to create a state-of-the-art information security operations center to monitor cyber-threats and protect state and local government networks from attack. The center also would support local government networks that need assistance.