Secure Email blog post

Love Thunderbird!  Thanks for the introduction.   Just wish it had a calendar (probably does and I don’t know about it…yet).  This class has been a fabulous experience for me in discovering new applications! 

Original work by author

In keeping with the class assignment, the search for security breach incidents turned out to be a breeze.  It happens with regularity apparently.  Often they highly publicized, but not always.  One such (highly publicized) incident involved BP.  By all news accounts, a BP employee who had personal information associated with approximately 13,000 claimants of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill lost the computer.  According to NPR, the computer was password protected, but the data was not encrypted, so names, addresses, social security numbers, and probably faces in some cases, have been compromised.    

bp-laptop-with-claimants-personal-data-disappears

In today’s highly technical environment where personal information flies through cyberspace with the mere click of a few buttons and not a second’s thought, a company the size of BP should be on the cutting edge of cryptography.  I would suppose that they do not send their proprietary secrets across unprotected cyber pathways, but rather use highly evolved methods to ensure secrecy.  So, distributing laptop computers without encryption to their mobile representatives, who are handling large amounts of highly confidential and personal  information, is a bit careless. 

From a personal experience, the company where I am employed deals with a high volume of information that should be protected far better than it is.   For example, we own protected information stored in a database where access privileges are assigned and managed by the direct supervisor of the location employees.  To make matters worse, the employees at location may or may not be our own employees; therefore, there is absolutely no control over whether or not access to that data base is terminated when it should be, or otherwise effectively managed.  We have had the experience where a disgruntled, clerk level employee “wiped out” the information stored for that location.  The laws applicable in the state of incident required that notification be sent to all victims (since we didn't know what else this person did with the info) informing them that their personal information had been jeopardized, and recourse opportunities were made available.  In addition, because of our unique business model where our customer employees are as important, and sometimes more important, than our own employees to the performance of our contractual commitments to our customers, we routinely grant them access to our company intranet and other critical areas and we have no policies or procedures in place to control and manage that access as personnel profiles change.  We are only now developing them, and all new laptops purchased include encryption capabilities, but we are not a new company.  We have grown to 1500 employees across the US and Puerto Rico.  We are far behind where we should be…in my opinion (which is no secret, by the way). 

Unfortunately, security is often a virtual afterthought, as is demonstrated in the examples documented above.  Many others were available.  As a matter of fact, during the week of the due date for this assignment, another highly publicized incident occurred involving a leading marketing services company, Epsilon.

Epsilon_Notifies_Clients_of_Unauthorized_Entry_into_Email_System

Without the business dedication to a highly advanced technology department with a focus on security, you end up with situations such as these.  The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.  We can no longer, nor do we have to, rely on the simple and original transposition and substitution techniques, with pen and ink, to ensure protection from an illiterate population.   Click on the wikipedia link for the history of encryption.  Times have changed.

wiki/Cryptography

According to ehow.com, two protocol standards of encryption are symmetric-key and public key.   eHow states that symmetric-key is highly sophisticated technology based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which applies a 256 code algorithm to encrypt data.  Under this encryption method, the encryption code possibilities are so numerous that breaking the code poses a daunting task.  In the secure email exercise, which only took about an hour to complete in its entirety, we used the public key technology by installing digital certificates to exchange encrypted emails.  Digital certificates are issued by certificate authorities who use the certificate code to verify the identity of computers exchanging information.   In both cases, both the sending computer and the receiving computer must be “certified” to complete the data exchange.

how-does_computer-encryption-work

Laptops and other technological devices (smart phones, notebooks, etc.) that store information intended to be held secret are lost and stolen all the time.  In business, utilizing these devices is essential, but utilizing the appropriate protection tools is a matter of good corporate responsibility to the stakeholders.  Because the volume of data influences the appropriate method to use, the business application for encryption is much more complex than our email exercise, but this should not be an inhibiting factor.  It is the way of the world – has been since the concept of secrecy originated – whenever that was.  The fact is, we have to keep up.   It is critical to sustainability:  stakeholders will steer clear of any business with known data breach issues. 

The FBI has a fabulous website, and I’ve included a link to their “Be Crime Smart” page.  The internet is a wonderful thing, but as with anything, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly.  Be informed!

fbi.gov/scams-safety

Tutorial Blog 3 – Microsoft Access, Date Criteria

The Database Project with Access was a great exercise.  The project concepts build on top of what we learned or already knew in Excel and applied them within a new application.  There seemed to be a lot of confusion among peer students on this project, and I wanted to take it as an opportunity to explore one concept in particular.  The part of the query that required us to include only those members who “left” the gym during the prior 6 months from the assignment date seemed to cause a bit of unnecessary frustration, so I developed a video and this text to dig into that just a little more. 

First, it is important to impress that the functions within Access are the same as those within Excel.  Dates are counted in numbers of days, and the criteria for the lesson is very simple:  180 days less than the assignment due date, 3/27/2011, or more specifically, membership cancellations that occurred on or after September 30, 2010.  To demonstrate the similarities between Excel and Access formulas, I created these screen shots.  In math, there is more than one way to get an intended result.  I used the concept of counting days, so, simply put, I calculated the number of days in a month and multiplied by six to arrive at the number of days in the previous six months.  Then, I subtracted the result from the assignment due date (as required) to arrive at a cut-off date. 

In the above screen shot, the Assignment Due Date is hard-coded as 3/27/2011 since I don’t want the dates to change for grading purposes.  However, in order for the formula to be dynamic in a business environment, meaning it would update the prior six months over time, regardless of the Assignment Due Date, I would use the “Now” function:

Similarly, these functions are utilized within Access, only within the Expression Builder, which provides expanded functionality, rather than the Excel function bar:

The video I created walks through creating this expression within Access.

I hope that reading and viewing this tutorial blog proves to be helpful in some way. 
All material used in this tutorial is self-created by the author.

Database Project Blog

While I have been exposed to Access a number of times in the past, I’ve never really applied Access to work…not really sure why, except that Access was always perceived as difficult and Excel is my beast of burden and has sufficiently served my needs.  One thing that I learned in this project is that Access is very easy to use, and I’m glad to have completed this assignment as a refresher for how easy it is to set up.  The function similarities to Excel makes a transition to Access much easier given my proficiency in Excel.  There is one application in particular that Access will serve well at work, and it will be a project implementation for this work year.

That said, there are several improvement recommendations for the project data base.  Primarily, data validation in some fields would help control the input for consistency.  For example, I applied data validation to the State field, to limit the input to two characters representing the state abbreviation, but it could go a step further and be limited to a drop down list of valid states.   In addition, gender and membership type are fields that would also provide great opportunities for input validation to minimize data variations.  Applying such limitations on input variations provides for better output in criteria filters and other information slicing and dicing techniques by capitalizing on consistency.

Overall, this has been a very valuable project for renewing in my mind the potential usefulness of Access and how it can be applied to certain data management needs within our organization.   More importantly, older versions of Access had the stigma of difficulty in use, but this project has overcome that stigma in my mind.  It is a very easy application.

Presentation Project: Introduction to Self

OK.  I have to admit it.  When I enrolled in this course, I thought it would be a breeze.  I am, after all, a seasoned professional who is by most accounts above average in various technological tools and applications.  But the fact of the matter is that I have learned a ton in this class, and on this project in particular!  I am now a Google lover, having put into play a great number of Google Apps since this class started – after not even having an account before.  What I have been missing!!! 

I’ve reviewed a number of my peer’s work and they were good, but none moved me to evaluate until recently.  I have been impressed by those who successfully used Powerpoint as the basis, and I have been observing the different methods/platforms for delivery.  Of particular note was Michael Stimler’s presentation posted on the 6^th.  This presentation was impactful – exactly what a presentation should be.  He infused a personal experience into his work, and the sincerity of his effort was clearly obvious. 

In my Presentation Project, simply coming up with a topic was a struggle.  I really wanted to use this as an opportunity for getting my presence known in the job market since I’m going to be on the hunt in the very near future (I hope) and time constraints always pose a challenge.  But, putting a video of self out for public critique (or ridicule) was unsettling.  However, it was the right thing to do given my priorities and the current atmosphere of how to find a job. 

I used tools that I had available:  some that I typically do not use a lot (like my digital camera :o), some I’ve never used before (like Movie Maker) and a hand-me-down Apple computer that I had been procrastinating on getting set up (but this made me take the dive), and I plunged into the world of Google.   Learning all this new, cool stuff, including how to really use my camera, has been a very exciting experience, although I must admit there were some aspects that were particularly challenging. 

Preparing the storyboard was not difficult, but the Source Document created some anxiety.  I really felt doomed given that I had no media, no real photographic /videographic talent, and had no idea how to put a Powerpoint file into a Web 2.0 compatible video tool – must less how I should post it to a public forum.    I didn’t have a good understanding of the Source Document assignment requirements, I did not feel my storyboard was sufficient because all I really had was the script, and I was really getting anxious. 

Then, it just got worse.  Although my storyboard passed, my MultiMedia assignment was (as suspected) a failure.  In the meantime, I signed up for all sorts of sites to make this “easier”, but I didn’t really want this to be a one-time thing – signing up for applications that I would never access again seemed a waste.  I’m still getting some of those horrid nag emails.   As suggested in the project instructions, I kept trying a different tool.  All the while, I worked on rounding up photos, or making new ones, and editing them using the Google App Picasa.  My first attempts at making an output file were dismal, trying to use Powerpoint and Movie Maker, and I was still struggling with the delivery mechanism.   Other students were getting their presentations posted and I felt I was falling farther behind.   

I came up with the thought that I should create a web site on my newly created Google account, and I spent some time playing around with that.  I created a video using my digital camera (several times over), but the first few rounds were horrid - I looked bad, the background was not presentable, and I seemed nervous.  But, I put it together anyway using iMovie to edit it.  The finished product was OK, but that’s all it was – other than good practice.  I came to terms with the fact that I may not pass this particular challenge… that I was just going to run out of time.  But I don’t take defeat easily, so I hunkered down, remade the video – taking care not to repeat the same mistakes – and started over once again.   As the syllabus eluded, once I got to this point, preparing the presentation output file was relatively easy.  Things started to fall together.

The final product is the result of using my digital camera, iMovie, Picasa, and Google Sites.  Targeting an audience of potential employers, I feel there is a logical flow to the content, but it is lacking the exciting edge that Michael Stimler was able to infuse into his work.   I feel as if I answered all of the relevant questions such as my primary personality propensities and personal priorities – who I am.   By posting this on a personal website with a link to my resume, I feel I’ve provided an opportunity to discover the history that comes along with that aspect of job candidacy.  I tried to use an upbeat sound byte and an exciting iMovie theme to catch immediate attention and spark interest, and believe that I lead with a concise explanation of the purpose for the videographic presentation. 

 I believe the objective of “getting to know me” was satisfied to the extent that can happen in a five minute, one-way presentation.  Taken into context with the web site as a whole, I’m relatively pleased with the outcome of this version.   I’m still working on a couple of things, like how to make the video automatically play…there is still so much to learn!  Although I will probably re-do this again when I am ready to take the plunge into the job market for real, I must say I met all of my original, personal criteria:

·         Creating a professional environment to market my resume and myself.

·         Learning some really cool things that will add benefit to future production needs in my work life.

I nervously await feedback….

The link to my presentation web site is here:

https://sites.google.com/site/kimberlyberryacct/home/my-personal-introduction

Excel Project

This was more of a refresher phase.  Being an accountant, Excel is my beast of burden.  I use it daily for some very advanced applications.   While there are some limitations on using pivot tables, this was a great exercise if for nothing else than a reminder of how easy the pivot tables are.    

One thing that is really great about pivot tables is the drill-down feature.  From within a pivot table, you can double-click on the data and a new worksheet is created that includes only the details of the data contained in the pivot table.  For example, a screen shot of the Average Increase pivot table is shown here:

 

By double-clicking in cell B6, a new worksheet is created that includes only females aged 30-39:

This can be very useful in parsing data into different elements, where the detail is only necessary for certain data parameters.  Another very useful function within Excel which is automatically applied to the pivot table features are called filters.  Filters are the drop-down buttons shown at the top of the columns within the pivot table as well as the secondary detail worksheet demonstrated above.  The following screen shot demonstrates the filter by age, but filtering is available for each column, and you can build on the filtering. 

For example, you can filter the data to include only 30 year olds by selecting only “30”, and then further filter by some other column in the data set, such as Target Achieved.  This presents the potential for targeting particular subjects for particular services. 

Excel is a very powerful application that every business person should have the skill to use.  I hope you have found this useful.