Idlemind - nickcoster.com

It has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. I have run the half marathon and although I just missed out on my target time I was really happy with my 1:03:19 time fo rthe 21k run.
I didn’t get into the NYC marathon. Maybe next year.
I have changed jobs, leaving the bank and moving to eBay. This kicked with a trip to the US to get to know the US team and find out about upcoming projects. My first day in the Sydney office is tommorow.
That’s all for the moment.

It is time to get this site going about more than just my ‘idle’ mumblings and out of date running updates. There is a topic of conversation that my career has revolved around like a satellite around a planet. It is the story of online identities and their use and misuse.

For me this has appeared in projects where two ISP businesses have brought their customers under one organisation and these customers do not have unique username to identify them selves to the new ISP. What! Two ‘Fred’s!! Will the real Fred please step forward? Hmm, if only it was that simple. In the late ‘90 when ISP’s and online portals were coming together this happened time and again, and it was always messy.

At around the same time the ‘kiddies’ got their hands on software that would allow them to steal passwords from customers in the school holidays. So now usernames and passwords are under siege. A single stolen password could be reused by the baddies over and over again without recourse.

Then spam came along and polluted the one personal identifier that the whole internet had agreed from the outset would be unique. Bugga. Stopping spam and protecting mailboxes became another major project. Without a way of identifying who the hell sent the spam in the first place, or even being sure who sent what looks like the good email, then all manner of arcane solutions had to be employed.

By now the ‘kiddies’ have grown up and are selling their password stealing skills to the spammers who are selling their spam networks to real criminals, who don’t want you email. They want your bank account. Enter the rise and rise of ‘phishing’.

So now I am looking at ways of improving on the humble static password. When was the last time you changed yours? Are you sure nobody else knows it?

All of these things tie right back to ‘identity’ (as the industry insists on calling it). Who am I? Who are you? And how do we prove it to each other in such a way that it doesn’t get in the way of what we were trying to do in the first place.

I want to talk about this here because there is a lot in this idle mind that I need to get out. I know this stuff and I hear some of the biggest names in many different industries grappling with the same problems and, in my opinion, in quite misdirected ways. This surge of blog energy was inspired by an interview with Kim Cameron on Microsoft’s Channel 9. I get frustrated because i believe that they are trying to solve the wrong problem, and as a result won’t get the outcome they are seeking.

I wanted to talk a bit about spyware. This is not a new topic in itself. Spyware has been around for some years now. Really ever since web browsers allowed the use of cookies that allowed someone else to watch where you have been surfing I there has been a threat to our online privacy.

But although privacy is important that is not the real threat. There is a real danger that spyware has already found its way onto your computer. Over the last three years there has been a very dangerous convergence between organized crime and the writers and creators of these online nasties. More »

Relates to article from Silicon.com

While I was working on anti spam projects this was a question that came up all the time. The challenge of spam is that the definition of it is a kind of continuum, with email that you want and value at one end and crappy porno, and scam related junk mail at the other end. In between though there is a grey are that generates a lot of passion from people. More »

It is now nearly Christmas, and a longtime since I “shared” with the world. The most noticeable trend here is that while I am happy there is no (or at least less) need to tell my tales of woe to the world. I was reminded of my lack of worldly communication at a recent Xmas party. This is why I have dedicated this post to Bretto. (note if you don’t understand the relevance of the tittle link don’t worry, it’s an “in” joke.)

Since leaving my old job in June I have felt a weight lift from my shoulders. The work I am doing now has been exciting and full of new experiences. The best thing though is the sense that the business respects what I bring to the organization and wants to keep me around. I never had that sense at my old job.

Fast forward?.
I started this post on the 20th of December but I have only just made the time to try and get back into the swing of things here. It is now New Year 2005. The holiday break was good to have but as always I almost feel that I need to really get away now.

To any one who is still checking this ole thing from time to time – thanks. I?ll be working harder to keep up with it this year.