School Reunion

Last week, I went to my 30th School Reunion. YES! I am that old!

I was interested as to how many people I mentioned to that I was coming responded with groans: "how awful" or "boring".  I was strangely excited- and nervous. I was not at all a fan of my school. While there were some teachers that stood out and some wonderful fellow students, this school had too many nasty experiences.

The event brought a range of thoughts.

I am amazed at how rapidly, 30 years has vanished. It is cliched, I know, to say in the blink of an eye we were all 18 year olds in school uniforms. Today many of us have children older than 18. Looking at some of the photos, I realised how young we were and we thought we were old!

 We are getting to the point where we will start to be the "older generation". The "old fogeys" are well and truly us! Am I ready for that mantle?

 It was interesting the choices people had made. Some choices had worked. Some had definitely not worked. Some choices had been discarded. A lot of people were not working in the career they studied for after school.

The reunion group seemed split between teachers, health professionals and finance people.

Terrifying Possibility of the new world.

It sounds like something from a Science Fiction movie.

Mat Honan was playing with his daughter on Friday August 3, when his iPhone died and then rebooted to the setup screen. This was irritating, Mat wasn’t concerned,  assuming it was simply a software glitch. As the phone automatically backs up every night. he just assumed it would be a "pain in the ass" [sic], and nothing more. Mat entered his iCloud login to restore, and it wasn’t accepted. Again, he was irritated, but not alarmed. 

Mat decided to restore the phone from his computer's backup. When he opened the laptop, an iCal message popped up telling Mat that his Gmail account information was wrong. Then the laptop's screen turned grey, and asked for a four digit pin number to access the laptop. Mat didn’t have a four digit pin. 

Now Mat, knew "something was very, very wrong". He walked to the hallway to grab his iPad. It had been reset too. Mat could not turn on computer, iPad or  iPhone.

Using his wife’s iPhone Mat called Apple tech support. While on hold, he grabbed her laptop and tried to log into his gmail account whereupon he discovered his password had changed. He couldn’t reset it either because the backup went to iCloud. Of course, the ICloud had already not let him in. 

Mat tried to log into Gmail again, but was told that his Google account had now been deleted. The way to restore it was to send a text message to my phone which Mat didn’t  have access to.

Apple tech support weren’t able to stop the wipe on the Macbook. Or provide the four number pin to log into it. Or give immediate access to my phone. 

What was going on?

At 4:50 PM on August 3rd, someone got into Mat's iCloud account, reset the password and sent the confirmation message about the reset to the trash. The backup email address for his Gmail account is that same .mac email address. At 4:52 PM, that person tried to log into Gmail by requesting a password recovery email. An email changing the Gmail password arrived two minutes later to the mac email account. 

At 5:00 PM Using ICloud,  the hacker remote wiped my iPhone. They then remote wiped the iPad at 5:01pm and followed that up with his MacBook Air at 5:05pm. A few minutes later, they had access to his Twitter account. Because Mat had linked his Twitter account to his ex employer's Twitter account years before, the hacker had access to that Twitter account too. A series of nasty tweets started being sent  from the ex-employer (Gizmodo).

Mat lost at least a year’s worth of photos, emails, documents, and more. 

Someone claiming to be the hacker got in touch to says “didnt guess ur password or use bruteforce. i have my own guide on how to secure emails.” Apple then confirmed that Apple tech support provided the hacker with access to the iCloud password. Before yelling too loudly at Apple, the hacker was able to use "

some clever social engineering that let them bypass  security questions"

My learnings:

1. Have a company policy around passwords eg when changed, length. We need to emphasise how careful we must be with passwords
2. do not write down passwords in public places
3. do not use the same password on every account
4. Have an email account that is only for backup password requests and the like. Give it out for no one and nothing
5. Be aware of who has password access to your organisation's server, email, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Change common codes when an employee or volunteer leaves
6. Do not use your Mother's real maiden name when asked that security question. This is the most common question asked. It does not take a genius to find out what most people's mother's maiden name is
7. Think about the other common security questions asked by companies. Eg where born (Facebook tells me that). My First car? If your facebook timeline says: Got my first Volvo in 1996 or if you sent a tweet that said " said good bye to my first car today. will miss my Toyota" then anyone can get that information
8. Do a password audit. What are all of the passwords in your organisation? In your personal life? Who knows what?

Olympic Pity Party

Australia is having a bit of a Pity Party at the moment. Out of the 61 countries that have won medals, Australia is in the 24th place with 20 medals (one Gold, 12 silver and seven bronze).

This is unusual for Australia who are used to much greater wins.

For example, Australia won a total of 14 gold, 15 silver and 17 bronze medals at the Beijing 2008 Games. In Athens, Australia got  17 gold, 17 silver and 16 bronze. And at the "home" games in Sydney in 2000, the hauls was 16 gold, 25 silver and 17 bronze.

What does one do when one is used to winning and life takes a different turn?

Friday Facts: Aussies and Charities

A brilliant report came out last week from Millward Brown, a research company who specialise in research about advertising, marketing and brands. Australian Charity Perceptions Report 2012 gives not only some very solid information but also demonstrates that fund raising in the Australian market is different to other markets.

Too Many Charities
There are approximately 200 000 charities registered on the Australian tax system. Of those about 25 000 have DGR status which means they can collect tax deductible donations. Of those, Millward Brown found that Australians remember Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of Australians are loyal to a select few charities. People over 50 are liable to be much more loyal to a small number of charities. A very important finding is that only 13 percent of Australians do not think there are too many charities. 57 percent think there are too many and 30 percent neutral. In the state of NSW 66 percent think there are too many.

What do Aussies want to donate for?
The  most important types of charities for Australians were:

• Disaster relief 64%
• Health 61%
• Poverty prevention/relief 52%
• Human rights 37%
• Animal welfare 37%

Which Charities are the best known?
Who has the pubic consciousness? Unaided, the first charity mentioned by the sample was The Salvation Army (19 per cent). Fully half the people talked about the Sallies. Red Cross came next (41percent mentioned- 17 percent first charity mentioned). St Vincent de Paul came next but only had six percent of first mentions (28 percent of respondents talked about them).  In order the most commonly mentioned charities were:

Fred Hollows (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Salvation Army                                                                                                                              
2. Red Cross
3. Saint Vincent de Paul                                                                                                                         
4. RSPCA                                                                                                                        
5. Cancer Council                                                                                                 
6. Heart Foundation                                                                                                             
7. Oxfam                                                                                                                        
8. Smith Family                                                                                                                 
9. Guide Dogs Australia                                                                                                               
10. Unicef                                                                                                                       
11. WWF                                                                                                                          
12. Fred Hollow Foundation                                                                                                           
13. World Vision                                                                                                                 
14. Greenpeace                              

Of those charities, The Salvation Army Red Cross and Cancer Council were the most trusted which suggests Red Cross (who I volunteer for) have shaken off the bad publicity from misleading communications after the Bali Bombings.

With the exception of Fred Hollows, Greenpeace and Oxfam Australia, the above charities are very old long standing institutions. I was interested Reach Foundation, Starlight, Alannah & Madeline Foundation (who sacked one of their patrons Grant Hackett in May), Cystic Fibrosis (65 Roses), White Ribbon who have some fairly high profile events didn't appear at all. 

Don't ask us to give

Another key learning is that only 15 percent of Australians are okay with being asked for donations. 60 percent are tired of being asked for donations - almost a quarter are sick of being asked. This has some important consequences for the next few months and years. For me, there seems to be a key Australian psych that occurs in day to day life. Many of us are happy to help people (family, friends, strangers) but Aussies hate whingers/complainers. Don't ask for help and don't keep on asking. Charities need to remember this. 

Charity Efficiencies

While only 56 per cent believed charities should be run like a business,  87 percent of people want to know more about how their money is being spent.

Ways of Support
While 61per cent of people were interested in donating, 31per cent were interested in volunteering. Fully half of people would buy charity merchandise and almost half would buy a product where money went to the charity as a donation. (Take note charities). I would be interested in the overlap eg how many people would both volunteer and donate.  How man would buy merchandise instead of volunteering.

Klout Kollapse

Klout claims they are a way of measuring your influence on-line. My Klout score sits at 56-57 which is considered to be a very high score.

I recently took a three week vacation. While I did answer some emails, I enjoyed eating, drinking, exploring and visiting friends in Europe. My Facebook usage dropper right back and I almost completely stopped tweeting.

The effect on my Klout score has been dramatic. By the end of week one of my vacation, my klout score was 55. End of week two it had fallen to 54 and then 52 at the end of my vacation. It had a slight bounce in my first days back but after a week back at work, it is now 50.

I am interested to know whether it has any more room to fall or if this is it. Now to see if I can become influential again. Will people have missed me? (By the way 50 is still considered to be a very good score!)

Some great rules!

Lives Cut Short

I have been struggling for a title for today's Blog.

It is the opening night for a long awaited movie. You are in the front row of the movie theatre. The emergency exit door opens and a suited figure comes in. He starts firing - something. You think its part of an opening extravaganza. As the bullet hits you, you realise its not an act but the real thing as your life ebbs out of you.

12 ordinary men and women died in a senseless act of calculated violence and 71 were shot:

• Alexander C. Teves pictured here in an undated photo released by his family through AP, aged 24
• Jonathan Blunk, 26,  Navy SEAL goal, certified firefighter and emergency medical technician
• Alexander J. Boik, an 18-year-old known as AJ
• Jesse Childress, 29, Air Force cyber-systems operator
• Gordon Cowden, 51, businessman
• Jessica Ghawi: Recently survived Toronto mall shooting, 24
• John Larimer, 27 Navy sailor
• Matt McQuinn, 27,
• Micayla Medek , Student
• Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6
• Alex Sullivan, 27
• Rebecca Wingo, 32

Rest in Peace.

One reaction to the shooting in Colarado has been a 43% growth in the number of people wanting to buy a gun in the state. It appears, that in the USA, one way that people seem to feel safer is by getting more guns out in the community.  In Australia, people felt safer by removing guns. After Australia's worst ever massacre at Port Arthur, Australians handed their guns back. "The 1996 "Buy Back",  coincided with an end to mass shootings and dramatic decreases in shooting deaths in Australia.
People keep saying guns don't kill but people do. I am not judging one country but last year, 100,000 people in the USA were wounded by guns  and 31,500 died because of a gun. By comparison, 42,636 people killed on US Roads. The probability of being shot is 40 times greater in the USA than in Canada, England or Germany. A fact we saw this week.
My dream is that my nephews and nieces will grow up in a safer world. For me,  a safer world is a world without weapons - anywhere. Why in the 21st Century, are we still killing each other in this way.

Tuesday Tech: The Phone Stack

This is from Get Kempt.com. I loved it. ..I am wondering if there is an opening for this in my trainings?

01/05/12

THE PHONE STACK

We usually take a pretty hard line against phones at dinner, but a new trick just popped up that gives us hope for the future.

It’s called a phone stack, and it’s a buzzing, flashing reminder of every phone-etiquette rule the world seems to have forgotten.

It works like this: as you arrive, each person places their phone facedown in the center of the table. (If you’re feeling theatrical, you can go for a stack like this one, but it’s not required.) As the meal goes on, you’ll hear various texts and emails arriving… and you’ll do absolutely nothing. You’ll face temptation—maybe even a few involuntary reaches toward the middle of the table—but you’ll be bound by the single, all-important rule of the phone stack.

Whoever picks up their phone is footing the bill.

It’s a brilliant piece of social engineering, masquerading as a bar game. It takes the phone out of the pocket—where you can sneak a glance and hope nobody notices—and places it in the center of attention at all times. Suddenly, picking up your phone is the big deal you always secretly knew it was. And more importantly, it comes with consequences.

But if, after the third ring, you decide your call is more important than your lunch tab, we’re sure your friends won’t object.

Update: A Few Problems with the Phone Stack, and a Few Solutions

—R.B.

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Learning

Wow. I was blown away by this. Absolutely amazing. I blogged a few weeks ago about how enough s enough. Doing some reorienting, re focussing and rebuilding right now.  What does this teach you?

This one just blew me away. 

Today's News

Between the news from Aurora, Colarado and Damascus, Syria, there are a lot of hurting people out there today.

What can one say?
What difference can we make?