Sybreon Ones Nought

I just read an article in TheStar that touches on information security and our government. Okay, regular readers will know that I just have to say something when our government decides to dabble in technology. I shall quote two portions of the article.

He said the Cabinet decided on Feb 24 that these agencies must obtain the Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification within three years to ensure that they were ready to face cyber threats and attacks.

What this means, once it passed through my BS filter is: Our Cabinet has mandated that certain agencies must now spend some money to enrich certain parties in order to hire security consultants, conduct security training, hold security certifications and what nots. This might be a good opportunity for certain applied research institutes that shall remain nameless, to get a slice of the pie and provide secure infrastructure to these agencies.

Any certified information security professionals should start picking up the phone and making calls to their friends, and friends of friends, to secure contracts to provide security training. Unfortunately, it seems that all the pie is going towards one security agency – Cybersecurity Malaysia – who are our local agents for various international security certifications and training.

CyberSecurity Malaysia chief operating officer Zahri Yunos said the most worrying threat was distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.

This almost made me fall off my chair in Secret Recipe. I know for a fact that this is not the most worrying security threat faced by our government, or any other large organisation for that matter. A DDoS attack is the most basic of all potential threats and the solutions to handle the problem are already widely known – all it takes is more money as the solution is an arms race between attacker and defender.

The most worrying threat to all security systems is internal – human beings. All major technology companies take great pains in locking information down. Anyone who has worked in a major technology company will have stories about glued USB ports, removed CD-writers, restricted network access and more. Some organisations even fire employees that bring in mobile phones and cameras.

So, I think that it is scary for the COO of Cybersecurity Malaysia to talk that way. Granted, he’s not the CTO but maybe he should have picked up a little about security from his colleagues before mouthing off.

I am sure that everyone has heard about the case of Vui Kong by now. Above is the campaign video and story that drove me to tears while enjoying a piece of cake in Secret Recipe. I certainly hope nobody noticed me wiping my eyes!

This story has forced me to question my own opinions on the matter. It brings together two strongly held opinions into conflict – that illegal drugs are evil; that state sanctioned murder is evil. While plenty can be said about the various enlightened solutions to both evils that would never have resulted in a mandatory death sentence to Vui Kong, the immediate nature of the case makes these things moot. I had to make a decision fast on what I feel is the right thing to do in this case.

While I can sympathise with his background and story, I am reminded by the fact that there are many other people with similar stories who did not resort to being a drug mule like he did – case in point: none of his other siblings. I also question the fact that he was a repeat offender and that if the situation was turned around, he would be enjoying the riches that such high risk work gets. I also wonder at the number of other lives that he may have helped ruin in the process of his work. However, I also think that state sanctioned murder is not the right way to handle the situation.

Do I think that someone like Vui Kong deserves a second chance at life? Yes. Do I think that he will make the best of his second chance? The probabilities are stacked against him, unfortunately. He is far more likely to fall back to his old ways after a period of relative quiet. It is not his fault actually – that evil people will find their way to him is unfortunate.

Since I am of two minds about the situation, I can only direct my impotent anger at the real criminals behind this problem – the drug lords and the politicians.

If drugs were legalised, the drug lords would no longer have a business and the government would gain additional taxes. If the government got its act together to lift people out of hardcore poverty and to educate the most vulnerable groups, this scenario may have been happily averted. If the legal system had got it’s act together, they may have been able to side-step this public relations disaster.

However, neither is the case here. This is a case of an unfortunate individual, caught in a tragic situation of his own making, without the adequate resources at his disposal to handle the situation.

(A case can be made against his original public defender!)

Since Vui Kong has turned Buddhist, the only thing I can do is to hope that he finds solace in the teachings and to learn from the mistakes of this life and not to repeat them in the next. I hope that he can find peace through meditation during his final days and that he leaves this world in peace and equanimity. I can only imagine how difficult it is to be in his situation but I cannot help but think that he has no way out of this.

I know that it may sound heartless and harsh, but in this case, it is a lose-lose situation.

PS: If he has to hang, let’s try to at least bring him home and do him that little kindness. Dying in a foreign land away from his family just seems a little unnecessary.

Love the song sung by my favourite Glee characters – Kurt and Rachel.

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I’m through with playing by the rules
Of someone else’s game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap

It’s time to try
Defying gravity
I think I’ll try
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I’m defying gravity
And you won’t bring me down

Only in Malaysia is religion defined as what is written on paper, instead of what an individual believes or professes. We have come to a point where we no longer care about what an individual wants or needs, but choose instead to affix a stamp on every single person. How else can a piece of paper and a court decision decide the religion of a person of age who has declared their faith in another religion.

“Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or in general a set of beliefs explaining the existence of and giving meaning to the universe, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”

Seems like belief is no longer an important ingredient to being a Muslim in Malaysia. One is a Muslim if it says so on a piece of paper, be it an IC or some other legal document. Well, I personally have come across many ‘paper’ Muslims in my life – those who consume more pork than I do, drink more than I do and worse.

Our religious authorities need to realise that there is no meaning to forcing someone to be a Muslim if he/she no longer has faith in the religion. Coercion is just going to drive the person even further away from the core tenets of the religion. A more effective method would be to teach, guide and help someone else find religion instead of forcing it down their throats when they do not want to swallow.

My advice to all Malaysians, please triple check the religion of your future spouse – lest one get caught in the quagmire of breeding bastards by law.

I just finished the book today and have to say that Obama is better at giving speeches than he is at writing. However, that does not diminish the effect that the book had on me. It drove me to tears towards the end because it mirrored many of my own hopes, feelings and thoughts. Even now, writing this entry is a little heady.

Obama has changed somewhat, over the course of his Presidential election – for obvious reasons. However, the gist of his message has not wavered, since his student days and early life. He comes across as someone who has a great sense of social justice and the ability to differentiate right from wrong without policing anyone’s morality or values.

That is not something easy to accomplish.

There is no way that we can ever steer ourselves out of our current down-spiraling trajectory unless we all possess the audacity of hope. While I don’t think that an Obama will be able to solve all of America’s problems, that is not his role. His is to gently nudge his people across the precipice so that future generations have a strong platform and clear vision to solve their own problems.

What we need in Malaysia is just someone like that – a leader who can convince enough people to trust in ourselves, trust the future, and not place our trust in him. For the moment, I am still awaiting such a leader to appear. Obama went from convention gate-crasher to President in 8 years. Maybe such a person does exist in our own future and is currently still gate-crashing political rallies.

Smile. Hope is a potent drug.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I’m not talking about blind optimism here — the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I’m talking about something more substantial.

It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

I was invited to be a judge for the zone competition today. I really like doing these things. I won’t reveal the results of the competition as it is still on-going. However, of all the teams that I judged, I was extremely impressed by a certain individual. He stood barely to my shoulders, was about 12/13 and seemed to be very capable in delivering a cogent presentation of a technically elegant use of the Lego Mindstorm kit.

When we threw questions at him, he would answer it intelligently and with analytical thought. It was just unfortunate to me that he was still too young to be employed. If he was older, I would have given him my card and hired him on the spot. This pre-teen who was still a budak hingus could code better and solve problems harder than some of the people I work with.

I even tried to apply my skills and break his design and programme. I have to say that I can usually break the stuff written by my apprentice in under 15 seconds. I can even break stuff written by public listed companies in a matter of minutes. I couldn’t break this young man’s programme though. Then he showed us his little programme and I was suitably impressed at its simplicity and elegance.

Anyone who knows me will know that it is ‘difficult’ to impress me, especially technically. This boy is good, really good – might even be better than me.

I truly feel that this Lego robotics competition needs to be supported at all levels. If and when my company grows to a decent size, I will fully invest into supporting this competition. I cannot think of a better way to encourage engineering and problem solving in our kids than through the spirit of an engineering competition accessible to all.

Unfortunately, of all the teams I judged today, only one had girls in it. I would like to see more young girls take to the field – otherwise we run the risk of turning into a mono-culture.

It’s US-centric but there are lots of lessons to be learned for us too: