This morning, I read a recently published Oracle white paper, “Oracle Infrastructure and Platform Cloud Services Security”: 

This white paper focuses on shared and service-specific security capabilities of the following services: Oracle Compute Cloud Service, Oracle Storage Cloud Service, Oracle Network Cloud Service, Oracle Java Cloud Service, and Oracle Database Cloud Service – Enterprise Edition.

Oracle Cloud Services have been engineered from the ground up with security in mind. 

Security is a top priority for Oracle Cloud solutions. Oracle’s vision is to create the most secure and trusted public cloud infrastructure and platform services for enterprises and government organizations. Oracle’s mission is to build secure public cloud infrastructure and platform services where there is greater trust – where Oracle customers have effective and manageable security to run their workloads with more confidence, and build scalable and trusted secure cloud solutions.

Development of Oracle cloud services follows a rigorous methodology for incorporating security into all aspects of cloud services:

The Oracle Cloud Services development process follows the Oracle Software Security Assurance (OSSA) program. The OSSA is Oracle’s methodology for incorporating security into the design, building, testing, and maintenance of its services. From initial architecture considerations to service post-release, all aspects of cloud services development consider security.

However, despite this solId foundation of security in the Oracle Public Cloud, it was interesting to read about the “shared responsibility model” for information security:

Oracle Cloud infrastructure and platform services operate under a shared responsibility model, where Oracle is responsible for the security of the underlying cloud infrastructure, and you are responsible for securing your workloads as well as platform services such as Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server. The following figure shows the shared security responsibilities.

The following diagram provides a good illustration of the shared security model:

This illustrates how customers can’t just “throw things into the cloud,” and hope all will be well. There are significant responsibilities associated with deploying enterprise workloads in the cloud, even when the cloud services provide a highly secure foundation.

Fifty-five years ago today, a long time before I knew anything about Cinco de Mayo, Alan Shepherd became the first American in space, riding the Freedom 7 Mercury space capsule atop the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle for a fifteen minute sub-orbital flight. 

From Wikipedia:

Shepard’s mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry. His spacecraft reached an altitude of 101.2 nautical miles (187.5 kilometers) and traveled a downrange distance of 263.1 nautical miles (487.3 kilometers). 

During the flight, Shepard observed the Earth and tested the capsule’s attitude control system, turning the capsule around to face its blunt heat shield forward for atmospheric re-entry. He also tested the retrorockets which would return later missions from orbit, though the capsule did not have enough energy to remain in orbit. After re-entry, the capsule landed by parachute on the Atlantic ocean off the Bahamas. Shepard and the capsule were picked up by helicopter and brought to an aircraft carrier.

The mission was a technical success, though American pride in the accomplishment was dampened by the fact that just 3 weeks before, the Soviet Union had launched the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, who completed one orbit on Vostok 1.

Although I was just eight years old, I remember this event distinctly.  I wanted to be an astronaut, just like Alan Shepard! In accord with the Cold War mentality of that time, we desperately wanted the US astronauts to beat the Russians, but it took several more years before the United States could achieve space race superiority.

Yesterday, I enjoyed watching a Kuppinger Cole webcast entitled, “Digital Transformation: Why Security and Privacy Matter,” presented by Martin Kuppinger, Principal Analyst, Kuppinger Cole, and Jackson Shaw, Identity Management Expert, Dell Security:

Digital technology has changed our society in an appreciable way. Just as our personal lives are being transformed digitally, the same happens in corporations and with our traditional technology solutions. The digital transformation affects everything from customer experience andoperational processes to business models and IT focus. Even software development is being digitally transformed. This leads to new security and privacy challenges: In IoT and digital transformation, organizations have to deal with more identities and relations than ever before. 

I was impressed by Martin Kuppinger’s discussion about what Digital Transformation really is.  I think some people take a very narrow, IT-centric view of Digital Transformation, but Martin took a much broader view, stating that Digital Transformation impacts every part of an organization.

The eight fundamentals of Digital transformation include:

1. The Digital Transformation affects every organization
2. The Digital Transformation is here to stay
3. Digital Transformation is more than just IoT
4. Digital Transformation mandates Organizational Change
5. Everything & Everyone becomes connected
6. Security & Safety: not a dichotomy 
7. Security is a risk – and an opportunity
8. Identity is the glue – who or what may get access to what?

Jackson Shaw pointed out that Identity is evolving, from its initial focus on security and lowering operating costs, towards the goal of “Identity Transforming Customer Outcomes.”  Digital Transformation is all about enabling businesses to disrupt the old legacy way of doing things in favor of providing new, innovative products and services that deliver real value.  Certainly, Identity is a vital enabler to make that happen.

Do we really understand space-time?  Two interesting articles have recently crossed my virtual desk.

In the first, History.com reported:

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), considered a founder of modern science.

Best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets, Kepler first observed the visible universe with his naked eye, and later with a telescope similar to the one used by Galileo Galilei.

While Kepler’s estimate of the age of the universe may have been based upon the best scientific understandings of his day, we now consider his view quaint and short-sighted.  We now have such sophisticated equipment for measuring time and distance that a current estimate of the age of the universe has been pegged at 13.77 billion years.

But will that current estimate meet the test of time (pun intended)?

In the second article, “Why Space and Time Might be an Illusion,” George Musser stated:

The ordinary laws of physics, operating within time, are inherently unable to explain the beginning of time. According to those laws, something must precede the big bang to set it into motion. Yet nothing is supposed to precede it. A way out of the paradox is to think of the big bang not as the beginning but as a transition, when space crystallized from a primeval state of spacelessness.

What will ultimately explain this paradox? What will give us a really accurate picture of the age of the universe? Perhaps “string theory, loop quantum theory, causal-set theory,” or perhaps something else?

When you take a step back from the dispute, you notice all agree on one essential lesson: the space-time that we inhabit is a construction. It is not fundamental to nature, but emerges from a deeper level of reality. In some way or other, it consists of primitive building blocks — “atoms” of space — and takes on its familiar properties from how those building blocks are assembled.

Atoms of space? Will the textbooks of a future generation speak of them as casually as we currently discuss carbon or plutonium atoms?  Just what will the future hold for our progressive knowledge of how space and time really work?  

I predict that at some future date, scientists will look back on our day and proclaim, “How quaint, but short-sighted were the theories of physics in 2016!”

Yesterday, I enjoyed attending a webcast entitled, “Computer-Centric Identity Management.” Led by Ivan Nicolai, Lead Analyst at Kuppinger Cole, the presentation was subtitled, “From Identity Management to Identity Relationship Management.  The changing relationship between IAM, CRM and Cybersecurity.”

I found the presentation to be concise, informative, and thought-provoking – particularly the concept that the IAM practitioner must transition from the role of “protector” to “enabler”.

I think the following diagram does a good job of illustrating the relationships people have with organizations, mobile communication devices and other devices in the growing world of IoT. Identity Relationships are critical in enabling the potential of Digital Transformation.

Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is now available to download:

The 2016 dataset is bigger than ever, examining over 100,000 incidents, including 2,260 confirmed data breaches across 82 countries. With data provided by 67 contributors including security service providers, law enforcement and government agencies, this year’s report offers unparalleled insight into the cybersecurity threats you face.

Enjoy!

On this day, way back in 1957, the first patch of Frisbees were produced by Wham-O toy company! Who can imagine life without Frisbees? Have fun!

 

It has been my privilege to experience astounding advances in electronics and computer technology during my lifetime.  I started poring over electronics magazines like Popular Electronics and mail order catalogs from Allied Electronics, Radio Shack, Lafayette Radio Electronics, and Heathkit over 50 years ago.  I was amazed then with the neat things I saw and I am still amazed at new stuff I see in 2016!

I rarely click on the ads that appear on Facebook, but was intrigued today by this little ad. Just think of it!  A digital camera with lens, for ten bucks! And this wasn’t advertised in an obscure parts catalog – it was posted on Facebook!

I don’t know how well this gismo works. There are probably things that are even more impressive. But the convergence of digital electronics, optics, miniaturization and manufacturing techniques to produce something like this for so little money fills me with awe just like some new gismo I read about in my youth. Really cool!

Momentous day when I was three years old!

On this day in 1956, a baby gorilla named Colo enters the world at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Weighing in at approximately 4 pounds, Colo, a western lowland gorilla whose name was a combination of Columbus and Ohio, was the daughter of Millie and Mac, two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa, who were brought to the Columbus Zoo in 1951.

What a way to celebrate Winter Solstice!  According to NASA:

Expedition 46 Flight Engineer Tim Kopra … and Commander Scott Kelly successfully moved the International Space Station’s mobile transporter rail car ahead of Wednesday’s docking of a Russian cargo supply spacecraft.