In an interesting and (at the same time, but for different reasons) rather scary turn of events, a company's computer data has apparently been locked up, by means of encryption, by an evil-doer and held ransom.

For - get this one - $200.

Tell me that is not the perfect Austin Powers moment. I can hear Dr. Evil now, from his Evil Hacker Base:

Twooooooo Hunnnnnnndred Dolllllllarrrzzzzz! Muuuhahahahahahhhh!!!

Unfortunately, it's worrisome in that through some lack of security protection or another, some bad guy was able to get malicious code into a company that located business files and packaged them up in a nice, neat encrypted (and therefore completely unaccessible without the key) form. They didn't even (necessarily) take the files off the network - they just locked them up and left them there. Maybe. Who knows.

Link to the story: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/24/1321200&from=rss

Security researchers at the San Diego-based Websense uncovered the unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would not identify fell victim to the infection, which encrypted files that included documents, photographs and spreadsheets.

A ransom note left behind included an e-mail address, and the attacker using the address later demanded $200 for the digital keys to unlock the files.

"This is equivalent to someone coming into your home, putting your valuables in a safe and not telling you the combination," said Oliver Friedrichs, a security manager for Symantec Corporation.

The FBI said the scheme, which appears isolated, was unlike other Internet extortion crimes.

Leading security and anti-virus firms this week were updating protective software for companies and consumers to guard against this type of attack, which experts dubbed "ransom-ware."

Shane has started a weblog covering how to customize a SharePoint web site to create a site that provides some form of content management, etc. The first few posts are up, and it looks like it will be a detailed, step-by-step tutorial for people who want to learn something about SharePoint customization.

From his weblog: 

"This entry will likely span into a 4-5 part tutorial on creating a SharePoint site that looks like a 'real' website.

"I'll try and take things step-by-step in creating a "real website" and then converting it into a SharePoint site. I will keep it as simple as possible so that it's relatively easy to follow.

"For anyone that just wants to follow along and get their feet wet I will include everything I've used for the site creation, HTML/Graphics/CSS etc.

"This will be a fairly long post(s) but hopefully if there are a few people out there experiencing the SharePoint (Learning Pains) this should help you.

"I'm going to be fairly in-depth about the entire process of the site creation, covering everything from; brainstorming, what make's sense/what doesn't, sketching, creating the graphics, creating the site, styling the site and finally converting everything to a fully content-managed and dynamically driven SharePoint Site."

Sounds great to me - I've implemented a large number of SharePoint sites, and have done some amount of customization, but I am interested in reading Shane's guide and learning some more. He's also posted a list of what to expect from the tutorial:

Overview:

Step-by-Step guide on creating a SharePoint website that looks like a "real website".

Things to Cover:

• Why SharePoint? - Benefits of creating a site based on SharePoint
• Brainstorming - What's the purpose of the site
• Planning - Creating a site that works for both the end-user, and the owner
• Sketches - Laying the groundwork
• Graphical UI - Bring your sketches to life
• Initial Site Creation - Setting the stage w/ SharePoint in mind
• Creating a WSS "SharePoint Site" - The "basic" SharePoint site
• Setting up the dynamic elements - Lists, Libraries and all that fun stuff!
• SharePoint Conversion - Turning your site into a SharePoint Site
• Programming (without a) a Programmer! - Let's bring in those dynamic elements and create some nifty data-views
• Styling the site (CSS) - Styling the data-views and other elements to be visually appealing
• Styling the admin pages using "themes" - Step-by-Step on theme setup and customization
• Backing up your work - Using FrontPage 2003 to backup your work
• The Final Result! - See, that wasn't so hard now was it!

Fellow IT-management type Alex Scoble posed a wireless question in the comments from a random post yesterday (one that pictured my trusty Blackberry 7290), which led to a short series of comments of back-and-forth on wireless voice/data coverage. After thinking about it some more, I realized that I'm asked this type of question often, so I figure I'll harvest some of the comments content and create a new post here. After all, it's all about the conversation, and besides now I'll have a link to email to people, heh...

The in-building wireless coverage problem can be the scourge of many an IT manager. In-building dead-spot complaints have been known to pressure many IT pros to dump otherwise good carriers to go with another one that may offer good service at their micro-location, but which doesn't meet the business' other, broader needs. Not to mention the fact that the cost of simply changing carriers can be quite expensive.

If you have an in-building wireless overage problem, don't automatically assume changing carriers is the best or only way to solve it. Instead, exercise your two key options: Call your carrier and tell them you need them to provide you with a solution, and/or think about finding one yourself.

One of our teams recently finished a three-month review of many of the mobile providers available here. First of all, it's important to know that each carrier emphasizes a slightly different market. While T-Mobile's pricing was attractive, honestly their coverage was lacking outside the metro areas, which was a problem for our specific needs. Their people are great, and where it works it works well, but the remote coverage was our concern. Nextel was similar to T-Mobile in that regard. Verizon and Cingular have the broader coverage fairly well nailed down compared to their competition (especially when it comes to worldwide coverage, which we care about), but they, too have frustrating coverage gaps and spots. We looked at the other carriers, as well. In short, they all have their good and not-so-good points, and each caters to a somewhat different set of business needs. Most importantly, it's important to note that no carrier is perfect, especially in-building. You will always have one employee (probably a justifiably important one) that can't make calls unless they (literally) walk down to the corner from their home and press their phone to the stop sign pole. That's just the nature of wireless service in the US right now, and hey - it's a big country.

Also keep in mind that the phones you buy can make a difference. quad- and tri-band phones allow you to roam off network when the carrier's network is not available, and typically help to allow good worldwide coverage. Make sure you research those kinds of needs closely. Also realize that if your carrier's network is available, it won't matter how many other bands and providers are available if the phone is "locked" or set to use only the preferred networks - so while you are evaluating, ask questions about this and play with the phone's software switches for network preferences.

So anyhow, from experience I always recommend choosing a carrier based on what they can do for you in the macro sense: Do they provide the level of coverage needed in the areas where you move and travel to do business? Is the price right? Get test devices for a couple weeks and do a real-world evaluation with real people - you'll find that coverage maps and sales people don't tell you everything you need to know. After you've weighed the options and chosen a carrier, you're often best off to look to specialized technology to provide good coverage in places like offices buildings and exec homes. And you might be surprised how low the costs can be.

For example, check out http://www.spotwave.com/ - I have had one of their SpotCell devices, which are quite good, for a couple years now, and I know they've made refinements and improvements since then. The SpotCell package uses a directional collector antenna to gather the signal, and a donor antenna to provide wireless coverage to the location where it's installed. It's pretty cool an can solve some serious dead-spot problems. I originally got one through AT&T Wireless (now Cingular) to solve a residential problem and was able to move it to another location for a while to solve a problem there. I actually need to call them and ask about an update for it for my area, and I can tell you from past experience that they are quite willing to provide excellent customer service when you contact them. If you're looking to outfit a smaller office or someone's home (under 5,000 sq. ft.), it may be worth the small-ish investment, since these devices start out at about $1000. Larger office buildings might need more than one coverage device, and the SpotWave people can quickly help figure that out. I also have another brand of wireless extension kit similar to the SpotWave technology (I'll have to climb up and look at it to see what brand it is), but it's not nearly as friendly or intuitive to set up. The SpotCell is so simple to make work, even a five year old could do it (well, except for the antenna mounting part I guess).

I am also told on fairly good authority that there are some IP-based in-building devices coming to the market that act as a mini/micro indoor-coverage site - you can just plug them into your Internet connection and they'll "talk" back to the wireless carrier via VPN or similar method. I know T-Mobile is working on them now and will probably announce something before too long. But the carriers are staying pretty tight-lipped about announcing availability right now for some reason, probably because they know they have to do it right the first time and support needs to be solid, which means fuzzy launch dates until it happens. That will be an interesting space to watch.

Hahahah, okay as long as we're at it, this is a pretty funny flash short film, from the Organic Trade Association:

(Note - I saw the real movie tonight and it was pretty okay I thought... Rory's review is pretty close to what I thought, although I guess my expectations weren't quite as high as his, and I enjoyed it despite the weaknesses.)

Challenge Darth Vader to 20-questions in "The Sith Sense" and watch him read your mind:

The force is strong with this one. Of course, he's got some help...

Burger King's at it again - well done.

(thanks Chris)

Obscure trivia time... Let's see if anyone knows what this means (see image):

I don't expect anyone (except for maybe two people) to know what it means when it's stuck on the phone (it's an inside kinda thing), but surely someone (besides those two) must know what the figure means when it's used for it's real purpose...