49th QCESC Banquet and Awards Ceremony

Date: 24-February-2011
Time: 05:00PM to 09:00PM
Location: Putnam Museum, Davenport, Iowa

This year's Engineer's Week banquet will include displays from some of the 35 technical and professional science and engineering societies in the Quad Cities. There will be schoarships and awards and an induction to the Order of the Engineer, as well as a keynote speaker.

Food Catered by Iowa Machine Shed Restaurant with Italian Chicken and Lemon Peppered Cod, with bread, potatoes, coleslaw, cottage cheese, and a cobbler for dessert. Water, ice tea and coffee are included. A cash bar will be open all night.

Cost $35 and $20 for full-time students (open to the public!)

Link here for more information and registration.

The End of Privacy - Personal Information on the Internet

Date: 18-February-2011
Time: 05:30PM to 07:30PM

Announcing the upcoming talk by Mike Bazzell on Internet privacy, sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society of Iowa-Illinois, and the Quad City Cyber Security Group.

This presentation identifies many unknown repositories of personal information available to anyone on the internet. Through data mining companies and those that post personal information about others, data once considered private is now public. This look at our new lack of privacy will surprise even those that think they are not vulnerable. Over 120 sources of online information will be discussed. Aside from web sites, other technology such as digital camera data, document meta data, and files being unknowingly copied to your computer will be explained.

Link for more information and registration.

Cyber Security Strategies Summit

(GSMI) Cyber Security Strategies Summit

Date: May 10-12, 2011

Location: Kellogg Conference Hotel, Washington, D.C.

I will be speaking on enterprise metrics, the afternoon of May 11th. Early registration ends March 4th.

Cyber Spoofed White House eCard Targets Execs

My friend, Mike, at NetWitness, sent me information on a fake White House email that is circulating.

We were involved in the discovery of a Fake White House email that targeted senior government and a few corporate officials as part of Cyber Espionage campaign. The attack was Kneber again, a Zeus variant designed to steel credentials & confidential documents.

Fake White House holiday e-mail is cyber attack
Associated Press: January 6, 2011

Espionage Via Spoofed White House eCard
Network World By Ms. Smith – January 3, 2011

Kneber botnet strikes again, targets gov't agencies
ComputerWorld.com: By Gregg Keizer - January 4, 2011

Malware Campaign Cyber-Espionage or Cyber-Crime?
eWeek: By: Brian Prince – January 3, 2011

Spam Attack Captures Government Data
InformationWeek: By Mathew J. Schwartz - January 5, 201

Government computers hacked by fake e-mail
WashingtonTimes: By Shaun Waterman - January 5, 2011

Threatpost.com: White House E-Card Scam Part of Larger Zeus-Related Attack
By Dennis Fisher – January 4, 2011

RSA Conference 2011: On Enterprise Metrics

My proposal for a peer-to-peer discussion on "Gathering and Applying Meaningful Security Metrics" at this year's RSA Conference in San Francisco was accepted. This means I will facilitate a discussion a peer-to-peer group discussion on the topic (P2P-201B), on Wednesday, February 16th at 8:30 AM.

Security metrics are somewhat subjective, but I feel that the more data we can gather, the more we can do. Sounds obvious, but very few security programs are based on objective data. This will be an opportunity for conference participants to share their experiences and learn from experts in the field.

FIRST Lego League Regionals

What? 2nd Annual FIRST LEGO League Regional Qualifier
When? Saturday, December 11, 2010 (8am-4pm)
Where? Putnam Museum, 1717 W. 12th Street, Davenport, Iowa

Join us for the second annual, QCESC Co-Sponsored, FIRST Lego League Regionals at the Putnam Museum, in Davenport! This is a great event and we expect about 300 people at the museum tomorrow. [map]

Understanding Cyberwarfare: Stuxnet

Follow this link, or click on the icon above to view an excellent video prepared by The Cyber Security Forum Initiative group on the threat posed by Stuxnet. For those of you unfamiliar with Stuxnet, it is a computer worm believed to have been developed in Belarus, which is designed to reprogram SCADA controls. These PCLs are used to control sensitive systems for utilities and other industrial systems, many of which are considered critical infrastructure. Stuxnet has raised the bar on cyber warfare, and confirmed that nation-states are actively using computer attacks against each other. The systems affected, appeared to have been nuclear systems in Iran, but similar attacks could, and probably are being used against other nations and industries, for the purposes of offensive cyber-warfare and industrial espionage.

2010 Moms Night Out

2010 Iowa Moms Night Out

to Raise STEM Awareness

Event Purpose: A fun night that will inspire and educate moms/parents about the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and the vital role they play with their children.
*Note: Free childcare (ages 2 and up) will be provided with advanced registration

Location:
Putnam Museum and IMAX Theatre
1717 W. 12th Street
Davenport, Iowa

[map]

Date: This coming Monday!

October 18, 2010
7:00 – 8:30 PM

Register:

On-line at (preferred method):

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D2N8LZB

For further information for Moms Night Out at the Putnam:
Phone number 563-324-1933

Keynote Speaker:
Joanne Howard, Manager Energy & Climate Strategy at John Deere, who will be discussing the importance of the STEM courses and how those lessons are used around the world.

Event Sponsor:

The state-wide sponsor for Moms Night Out for STEM is John Deere with generous support from Iowa Public Television and Hy-Vee.

The Moms Night Out satellite event is part of numerous other events scheduled across the nation during October in celebration of the first USA Science and Engineering Festival, to be held in Washington D.C. on October 23-24, 2010. The Moms Night Out event is being held on October 18 simultaneously at 20 locations in Iowa including Muscatine, Ottumwa, Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Des Moines, Ankeny, and Iowa City. You can register free for any of the sites per the link above.

Further Information on Mom’s Night Out for STEM:

Flyer for Moms Night Out Event at Putnam:

http://www.qcesc.org/MomsNightOut-putnam5.pdf

Moms Night Out on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Moms-Night-Out-for-STEM-IOWA/126911334024570

Iowa Mathematics and Science Education Partnership (IMSEP):
http://www.iowamathscience.org/moms_night_out/

USA Science & Engineering Festival:
http://www.usasciencefestival.org/

National Science Festival

National Science & Engineering Festival

October 10-24, 2010

We are in the middle of the National Science & Engineering Festival, October 10-24, 2010. As a part of that, and as a science educator, I encourage everyone to find, volunteer for or sponsor science and engineering related events. Don't feel discouraged that October is flying by so fast; try to find opportunities to participate in science events, even after this festival ends! This is a nationally sponsored activity, to raise awareness, but enthusiasm about science and engineering should continue, year-round!

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), and the theme this year is, "Our Shared Responsibility". If you are part of the cyber security industry, or someone with knowledge to share, this is a good time to raise the topic of computer security. Visit the link above, by clicking on the NCSAM image.