President's Message

February, 2007

One to go… I’ve greatly enjoyed my tenure as DACS President.This is a great organization and I’ve been privileged to work with truly outstanding people. In a way, I’m sorry to see my term end but at the same time the truth is I’m burnt out and I need a break.

I joined DACS in 1993 and I’ve been an active member for more years than I can count. Unfortunately I don’t have the time or the passion I once did for DACS activities so it’s time for me to step back and let someone else take over.

Election of Officers
Ok folks, it’s time to step up. Next month the Board of Directors will elect the officers who will conduct the dayto- day operations of DACS for the coming year. We need your ideas and energy if DACS is going continue to thrive in the future. Officers do not need to be members of the Board of Directors; all you need is a willingness to share a little of your time, energy and talent with DACS.

We have two openings that must be filled, President and Vice President of Programs. Jamie Yates our current Vice President of Programs has decided not to seek another term. I’m sorry to see Jamie go; his passion and tireless energy will be greatly missed.

For me the hardest part of being President was finding the time to write these columns. They are almost always a last minute, shoot from the hip affair that end falling far short of what they could be… All in all, it’s been a rewarding experience .

If you are interested in running for President or VP of Programs please contact a member of the Board… DACS needs you!

iPhone
Have you ordered your iPhone yet? Me neither… As cool and innovative as Apple’s iPhone is I don’t think I’ll be ordering one anytime soon. First, I just got a new phone – a Motorola Razr 3M – it does everything I need a cell phone to do and second, I’m not going to switch providers just for a phone.

said, the iPhone is the first really cool and innovative product I’ve seen in the cell market in a very long time. It’s based on a slimmed down embedded version of Apple’s OS X operating system and has real web browser and e-mail client capabilities. All in all, I think Apple has a hit on its hands. I don’t think the iPhone will achieve the same kind of dominance that the iPod has, though. Not unless Apple enters into partnerships with other service providers.

Say What?!?
Have you ever read a news story and found yourself saying “What the, that’s ridiculous”? That was my reaction when I read the story about substitute teacher Julie Amero; she was convicted of 4 counts of risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child in Norwich and faces up to 40 years in prison.

As best as I can reconstruct from news reports, Amero was substituting for a seventh- grade language class at Kelly Middle School. On Oct. 19, 2004 while surfing the web on a classroom computer, Amero and her students were bombarded with a series of pornographic images appearing in an endless cycle on her computer.

What’s disturbing about this case is that everything I’ve read about leads me to believe that the computer in question was infested with spyware. Amero’s description of and endless series of pop ups is a very common occurrence on an infected system.

In fact, a computer expert hired by the defense testified he found spyware on the computer and that the pop ups were caused by the spyware. I also find it disturbing that the detective who examined the computer testified that he did not check for spyware. Why?

There are other things that bother me; among them the school had no active content filtering system… I saw one report that said the license had lapsed… and I’ve seen no mention of whether or not the system in question had updated anti-virus software and anti-spyware software or if all the appropriate patches and updates had been installed… All questions that need to be answered.

One other question needs to be answered… Amero testified that she told at least four teachers and the Assistant Principal at the school about the problem, but received no help. Why not?

This case should serve as wake up call for parents, teachers and school administrators… Parents need to be asking what steps schools are taking to prevent this from happening in their children’s classroom. Teachers and administrators must make sure that computers in their classrooms are fully patched and updated and that quality up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware software is installed and maintained and that content filtering software is installed and maintained on the schools’ network.

Hopefully, Amero’s conviction will be overturned on appeal. Alex Eckelberry, President of Sunbelt software— the makers of CounterSpy—has been in contact with Amero’s attorney’s and made their experts available to the defense on a pro-bono basis for any analysis of the infected machine.

For more information on this case, spyware in general and some useful tech tips checkout the Sunbelt Sofware blog @ http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/. By the time you read this, you’ll probably have to do a little searching to find the post related to this story but it’s worth the effort.

End Notes
Ok, that’s pretty much all I have time for this month… I haven’t had a chance to start a new book yet but have a few on tap.

Feel free to contact me at jasetaro@mags.net or jasetaro@yahoo.com with your comments, questions, criticisms or book recommendations.
Cheers;

—Jeff Setaro



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