IT Insights Blog — Security Pro

The discovery of the long-lost but never-forgotten city of Troy in present-day Turkey was one of the landmark archaeological finds of the 19th century, and, indeed, in the history of archaeology. Heinrich Schliemann unearthed Troy while excavating a 100-foot-high mound on the Aegean coast of Turkey, though the adventurous German was more of a colorful character and archaeological hobbyist than a researcher or scientist. Think Indiana Jones without a professorship or a teaching position.

Welcome to October! We can probably all agree that the most exciting thing about October is the prospect of eating a lot of cheap candy and staying up late to watch scary movies. There will be office Halloween parties, costumes for revelers both young and old, and pumpkins with crooked grins and glowing eyes as far as the eye can see. If Netflix were really on the ball there'd be an all new Stranger Things, like, now, instead of probably sometime in March or April.

When discussing the overall state of information security, it's commonplace to suggest that everyone is at risk, and that hackers will eventually manage to get past anything put in place to stop them. Commentators frequently assert that the question is not whether this or that business or organization will be hacked, but when the hack will occur. It's a gloomy worldview that sometimes feels not just pessimistic, but wholly defeatist, in a "What's the use in even trying" sort of way.

It's funny how we attach romantic allure to things that aren't really all that appealing. Take pirates, for example. Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, because sometimes people are silly like that. And, yes, pirates as they exist in pop culture, as well as in the popular imagination, have a distinctive and amusing way of talking. And sometimes we probably all want to say more things using fun S-words like "scurvy," and "scalawag," and "scurrilous."

For people who are not independently wealthy, retirement is no sure thing. Not the way that, say, death and taxes are. It's like you can't quit your job before you die because you had to pay so much in taxes that you never managed to save anything for retirement. This upbeat outlook brought to you by the Center for Positivity, Optimism, and Hopeful Platitudes.