FIVE SIGNS THAT YOU ARE HEADED FOR A BACKUP DISASTER
go.techtarget.com/r/3343855/2184514
John Merryman, SearchDataBackup Contributor

In spite of the latest wave of backup technology advances, data backup is still the outsider in terms of enterprise IT. But when the backup environment suffers a catastrophic outage, everyone (especially the CIO) wants to know who fell asleep at the switch. In the interest of preserving of your data — and potentially your job — this tip offers five signs that your backup environment is going to get everyone’s attention in the near future.

Of the five, only the first (throwing hardware at the problem) doesn’t apply to me. We’re fully vulnerable to the metrics and linchpin scenario, and maybe half vulnerable to the other two (incomplete vaulting and the philosophy of backup.)

I need to work these social engineering questions for CITES’ new password management tools into my normal, getting to know you, flirting questions. (Sorry, Beth, they didn’t ask “What’s your name? What’s your major? What are you drinking?”)

What is your favorite Olympic event?
What was the name of your favorite childhood pet?
What is your grandmother’s maiden name?
Who was your favorite childhood celebrity?
What was your favorite TV show when you were in high school?
What is your favorite zoo animal?
What was your favorite subject in high school?
What was your favorite movie in high school?
Of the cars that you’ve owned, which one is your favorite?
What was the name of your best friend in high school?
What was the name of your first date?
What was the name of your favorite grade school teacher?
What was your first car?
What was the name of your first best friend?
What was your most memorable holiday present in grade school?
What was the name of your childhood physician?
What was your favorite organized extracurricular activity while in school?
What was your parent or legal guardian’s occupation while you were in grade school?
What was your favorite book when you were in high school?
In grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
What is your favorite musical instrument?
What was your favorite band when you were in high school?

This list might be a little out of date. I think I snarfed this about a year ago and stored it unpublished in Wordpress until today. When I went to update the list, I was told “The Set and Manage Security Questions application is experiencing technical difficulties.”

Even so, can’t you picture me, a few sheets to the wind, stumbling up to you at Murphy’s or the Office and slurring, “Sthoooo, what was your parent or legal guardian’s occupation while you were in *hic* grade school?”

All these questions remind me of R&GAD:
R: What’s your name?
G: When I’m at home?
R: Is it different when you’re at home?

Getting new passwords is like switching keyboard layouts… it really slows you down until you type it like 100 times. But at least there’s no more post-bluestem nag page.

Also, there’s new page for NetID password management. I didn’t set any reset questions, because I feel the questions they ask are too socially engineerable. (See the next post.) But check out the page itself… I don’t like how there’s no top or bottom margin. It’s like the page just starts and stops whenever. Given the extra bars hanging down on the bottom, I thought the page had failed to load or something. Weird.