LISA 2016 Presentation Slides

Here's a link to the slides for my presentation on Managing Dispersed Teams for the LISA 2016 conference. The training at this conference is top-notch, with focus on both technical and cultural aspects of Information Technology management. It is well worth your time to attend. I hope to see you there!

Managing Technical Teams

"Survival Guide for the New Manager" at LISA 2015

I look forward to seeing folks at my tutorial "Survival Guide for the New Manager" at the LISA 2015 conference!

Leader's Survival Guide Class in Jacksonville, FL

The Leader's Survival Guide class is coming to Jacksonville.

Leader's Survival Guide
Wednesday, July 16 and 23, 7-9pm
8447 Manresa Ave, Jacksonville FL 32244

This class is a version of the course I taught earlier this year at the LOPSA conference in New Jersey. The class there was well-attended and well-received. We are not charging an entrance fee, but donations to support our hosts are always welcome.

If you will be attending, please send an email RSVP to pr_communications@bbuuc.org so that we can set the room up properly.

The main difference between this course and the one I taught in New Jersey (aside from the cost) is that we will have two 2-hour sessions rather than a 3-hour marathon. The more relaxed pace should allow for good discussion and a chance to drill down on topics of interest.

The course is built around common-sense approaches to problems facing leaders, particularly at a small group level. The main topics are:

• Characteristics of a good leader
• Tools for effective management
• Starting off right--transition planning and execution
• Building a team
• Expectations and relationships
• Creating a learning plan
• Achieving early wins
• Matching strategies to the situation
• Time management
• Taming the meeting monster
• Project management
• Documentation, policies and procedures
• Managing people

"The Technology Manager's Survival Guide" Class at LOPSA East 2014

I had a blast this week teaching "The Technology Manager's Survival Guide" at LOPSA East 2014. The course was based on significant content out of "From Techie to Boss" and featured a lively conversation about the experiences of the technical managers in the audience.

If you were in the class, please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

I'll be presenting a similar class "Leader's Survival Guide," in Jacksonville, FL on July 16 and 23. Space for that class is limited; please contact me if you are interested in attending!

I am pursuing other opportunities to present the course; keep an eye on this space!

Protection against WiFi Viruses and Attacks

Security researchers have designed a virus that spreads silently through WiFi networks. The "Chameleon" virus replaces access point firmware and masquerades the settings and administrative credentials, which makes it very difficult to detect this virus.

Fortunately, the virus can be blocked by following good WiFi security practices. Unfortunately, many WiFi networks are not set up in a secure way.

Fortunately, the steps to secure a home WiFi network are not particularly difficult:

• Use AES encryption. WEP encryption and TKIP encryption have known weaknesses that are easily exploited. (Depending on your router, you would choose WPA2 or WPA encryption and select AES as the standard.)
• Use a password that is hard to break. It should have more than 20 characters, and should include a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, special characters, and even spaces. Entire sentences may be appropriate, if they are not publicly known.
• Change default administrative password and IP address. A surprising number of home installations still use the defaults.
• Turn off remote administration features. Administration should be required to be done over a wired connection.
• Verify that your firmware is updated. There are a number of bugs that have been reported against WiFi router firmware.
• Log out of your administrative sessions when you are done.

Beyond securing your own routers, you need to keep in mind that public routers may also have been infected. There are some steps you can take to protect yourself when connecting to public WiFi routers. Be aware that public networks are by definition insecure, whether WiFi or wired. There is little or nothing to stop a miscreant from trying to snoop your connection.

• Enable built-in firewall features on your computer, especially software firewalls. Deny all incoming connections.
• Make sure file sharing is turned off.
• Be aware that passwords may be sniffed by keyboard loggers, pulled from your computer's registry, or simply observed over your shoulder. By using a tool like LastPass or Password Safe, you can avoid having to type passwords while storing them in a secure, encrypted location.
• Use a VPN if possible.
• Use https (HTTP over SSL) to connect to vendor sites wherever possible.