Classification « Frittmann Forensics

Duel of the Designers: New Industrial Espionage War Zone 8 November 2009

Economic and commercial espionage has a much lower profile than it deserves – dangerously low. It’s an area where many companies remain unaware of their vulnerability, believing that unless they’ve invented something like a cure for the common cold, no one is likely to be interested in what they’re doing. That’s definitely not the case, [...]

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The Cyberspace Explosion: Five Tips for Survival 4 November 2009

The new digital world of easy communications and social networking is so surprisingly open that many no longer see the problem as one of Big Brother watching us. It’s more a matter of us being obsessed with watching each other. And sharing, too. As The New York Times put it in September, “Your parents probably [...]

admin

McKinsey Partner’s Arrest Spotlights White-Collar Crime 2 November 2009

The elite US consulting firm of McKinsey & Company, long known for its prudence and caution, must have been low on anybody’s suspect list of those likely to be involved in financial crime. Even the suspect himself was shocked when federal officers arrived at his California home recently to arrest him on charges of conspiracy [...]

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McScam: Fast Food Customers Fleeced 30 October 2009

Australia’s Daily Telegraph reported on October 21 that McDonald’s – the largest fast food chain in the country – will overhaul security on its EFTPOS machines after customers were stripped of $A4 million. Criminals had snatched the devices at McDonald’s outlets across the Western Australian state capital of Perth, a city of more than one [...]

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FBI Operation Catches Online Bank Fraudsters 27 October 2009

In what the FBI is calling Operation Phish Phry, it has arrested 53 people on charges of conducting a vast financial fraud based on phishing. Numerous Internet users have been tricked into revealing vital information, according to an 86-page indictment filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles. The New York Times reported on [...]

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Saab, US Company Accused of Bribery in South Korea 25 October 2009

The Korea Times in Seoul reported on October 6 that an investigation into bribery cases involving foreign defence firms is widening as more evidence of illegal lobbying activities emerges. The move comes as the country’s authorities conduct a probe into the Swedish defence and aerospace firm, Saab, whose Seoul office has been raided on suspicion [...]

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‘Canadian Madoff’ sentenced to jail for 200 fraud charges 21 October 2009

This week in a Montreal Court saw former Norbourg CEO Vincent Lacroix sentenced to 13 years in jail after he recently plead guilty to nearly 200 fraud charges in relation to the financial collapse of the Norbourg Group. The charges included multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit forgery, fabricating documents and [...]

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Japanese Banks Call Gangs to Account 15 October 2009

If your company is about to go into business in Japan it will pay to know where gangs – referred to as yakuza – fit into the scene. In more ways than one, Japan has the most overt, upfront gangs in the world. They hold annual general meetings and are sometimes seen on TV. But [...]

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If Fake Anti-Virus Software Doesn’t Get You, Something Else Will. 11 October 2009

A Russian security researcher who heads Canada’s virus lab, Sophos, has recently shown how most spam on email, search engines and social networking sites originates with ‘affiliate networks’. These networks pay generous commissions to geeks who refer unsuspecting web users to their illegal products. Not only are they selling fake anti-virus software but also […]

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Cyber scams and cheats target job seekers: Six tips to protect yourself 7 October 2009

As more and more job seekers turn to the internet looking for positions, scammers are finding ways to dupe them of their money. Cyber fraud, money laundering and scams are confronting online job seekers. Authorities have reported a large rise in online scams targeting those looking for a new job or part time position. Investigators [...]

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Discerning e-Discovery

Bringing Order to Chaos: “Be quick but don’t hurry” during project crisis 8 October 2009

John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach, had many famous quotes as part of his pyramid of success. One of my favorites is “Be quick but don’t hurry.” The quote means (1) do the right things, (2) learn to do them quickly, but (3) never be out of control. This quote also has application for project managers facing a crisis. As project managers, we all […]

Tom Mighell

“That Proclamation and a Dollar Will Get You a Cup of Coffee Down Here in the Valley, Son” 10 September 2009

by Dennis Kiker - Director, Professional Services, Fios, Inc. I’ve noticed a theme in many of my conversations with outside counsel recently when the topic of the Sedona Cooperation Proclamation comes up. First there is a tightening around the mouth and the eyes narrow just a bit. It is not dissimilar to the look my daughters would give me when I asked whe […]

Tom Mighell

Building an e-Discovery Team - Part 3 3 September 2009

by Nancy Patton, Professional Services, Fios, Inc. In the first two posts in this series, I’ve emphasized that Legal and IT are the core building blocks of any Discovery Response Team. Representatives of other departments can be added to the team as required; depending on the organization’s structure, individuals from records management and compliance […]

Tom Mighell

Building a Discovery Reponse Team - Part 2 27 August 2009

by Nancy Patton, Professional Services, Fios, Inc. In my first post in this series last week, I discussed why a Discovery Response Team is a critical component to an effective e-discovery response. This week, let’s talk about the steps you must consider in order to assure the greatest success in building your Discovery Response Team: Establish a team […]

Tom Mighell

Improving Review Efficiencies 26 August 2009

by Richard Wersinger, Technical Trainer, Fios, Inc. In their August 2009 Law Technology News article, Robbery?: Are we cheating clients if we don’t purge duplicates? (Law Technology News, August 2009, Vol 16 No. 8, ) authors Anne Kershaw and Joseph Howie suggest it is possible to gain review efficiencies by deduping across multiple custodians. They wrote: W […]

Tom Mighell

SANS Forensics

How to Disrupt a Botnet 8 November 2009

The following note is inspired by the steps the folks at FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab took to disable the Mega-d/Ozdok bot network. People often wonder what it takes to shut down a botnet. Here are the key steps, which apply to “traditional” botnets, which don’t rely heavily on peer-to-peer protocols for their command and control [...]

Lenny Zeltser

3 Lists for Investigating Malware Incidents 7 November 2009

When investigating an incident that involves malicious software, it helps to understand the context of the infection before starting to reverse the malware specimen. Some of the ways to accomplish this involves: Examining the websites that may be associated with the incident, often because they are suspected in hosting exploits that acted as the infection ve […]

Lenny Zeltser

An Analysis of SpyKing 3 November 2009

In this post, I am going to touch on several methods of analysis used in discovering how a potentially malicious program functions. In this case, I have selected a covert surveillance program called SpyKing. The marketing hype concerning this program states: “SpyKing Vista Spy secrectly logs all keystrokes, web sites, emails, chats & IMs: MSN Messenger, […]

craigswright

Where is my data?

DNA Rention Limits – More of the Same 11 November 2009

DNA - 6 years retention

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PunterNet, PR, and Bad Driving 5 October 2009

Harriet Harman is not having a good time. She is accused of failing to stop at road traffic accident, she was embroiled in the expenses claims fiasco, and she is the deputy leader of a party that just got dropped by the biggest selling paper in the UK. But, this is not why she is [...]

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Electronic Discovery: MS and Autonomy 3 October 2009

If the rummors are true, this would be big news in the ED world, Full Article If Microsoft, as rumored, were to buy Autonomy, there would be a seismic ripple felt through eDiscovery-related markets. First, Microsoft would own two of the leading search products in the market (Autonomy and FAST). Second, Microsoft would have applications to provide [...]

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Wired: Threat Level

Convicted Murderer Sues Wikipedia, Demands Removal of His Name 11 November 2009

Wikipedia is under a censorship attack by a convicted murderer who is invoking Germany’s privacy laws in a bid to remove references to his killing of a Bavarian actor in 1990. Lawyers for Wolfgang Werle, of Erding, Germany, sent a cease-and-desist letter (.pdf) demanding removal of Werle’s name from the Wikipedia entry on actor Walter Sedlmayr. [ […]

David Kravets

Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spying Suit 10 November 2009

The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, the government has [...]

Kim Zetter

Feds Charge $522K for FOIA Request 10 November 2009

The Treasury Department wants more than $500,000 to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, a fee an attorney on the case suggested Tuesday might be one of the largest bills of its kind. “I have not seen one that has been larger,” said Noah Wood, a Missouri attorney suing the government to comply with [...]

David Kravets

Classification

Posted by Robert Frittmann on 1 June 2009

My wife, with over eight years of close observation of my personality, has come to the conclusion that I must have Asperger’s Syndrome. A quick look over the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s reveals some consistencies with her assertion. Of particular note is the “Imposition of routines and interests on self, in aspects of life”. My recent efforts in creating a personal ontology, using the PersonalBrain mindmapping software, may have contributed to my wife’s diagnosis. Sure, there may have been one or two other criteria in the list that collude also. Those who know me almost as well as my wife might even find other propinquity.

Creating a personal ontology is something that I have been considering for a long time now. A visual platform, such as a graphical mindmap, is much more alluring to me than trying to force an existing textual platform, such as DAML or OWL (or a knowledgebase or a wiki) to conform to my own understanding of what a personal ontology should be. So, what exactly is a personal ontology? I found this little gem on the gapingvoid website…

An ontology as defined by dictionary.com is:

“An explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them.”

A personal ontology by extension is simply one persons ontology as opposed to a global, all encompassing ontology [...]. A personal ontology on the other hand is more relevant to the individual.

In simple terms, I am trying to create a classification of myself, and anything and everything to do with myself. Does this sound like a particularly Asperger’s thing to do? Well, maybe, I guess, but I do have a good reason for doing it. I am finding it harder to keep track of everything going on around me, both in real life and in cyberspace. Maybe this is a symptom of my steadily advancing age. Maybe it is to do with the rapid advancement of technology. Whatever the reason, I think that traditional solutions such as memory improvement, stress management, and time management will not be as effective as practical creativity.

The outcome of such an undertaking must be effective in reducing the chaos that surrounds me. What I expect to get out of my personal ontology is a logical, easily traversed, searchable, and portable catalog of my life, with both online and offline components. The ideal goal is to have a mindmap on a PDA or Tablet PC that contains navigable links to my documents, links to websites I frequent, metadata, secure login credentials and personal private data. This information will be collated from, and relevant to, all aspects of my life.

To begin my personal ontology, I have downloaded the latest version of PersonalBrain, from TheBrain Technologies website. The home thought of my brain is my own name, and fanning out from that starting point are the major aspects of my life, which after some brainstorming came to:

Citizenship
Creativity
Culture
Education
Employment
Ethics
Faith
Family
Finance
Friends
Goals
Health
Interests
Perspective (Worldview)
Recreation

While this is not an exhaustive list for an ontology, it is a starting point. I will no doubt add to this list as I go, and possibly rename some of them. From there I created a new thought under each one, for the goals of each aspect, and then linked them all back under the Goals aspect itself. So I can define goals for each aspect of my life, which are then accessible as a single collection under the aspect of Goals. I have also begun to add extra thoughts under each aspect.

Employment Mindmap

Educational Mindmap

I don’t see this project as having an expected completion date, as it will require constant modification, like a wiki or knowledgebase. There is currently no Mobile version of PersonalBrain, but I anticipate a Java-based version in the not-too-distant future. Either way, if I can get my personal ontology to achieve what I plan for it, while at least running on a laptop or Tablet PC, it should help to unscramble the pandemonium in my bookmarks / favorites, My Documents, and other aspects of both my online and real-world lives.