It became obviously clear that an individual was attempting to force themselves into one of our clients web sites Sunday night.  Luckily, we caught the individual in the process and quickly followed procedures to make sure that they weren’t able to access any information they weren’t welcome to.  Here is the process that we followed to make sure our systems remained secured:

1. Make darn sure you have the access logs showing every step of the process the attacker took.  If you can, make a backup of the backup and place it someplace else.  This is your hard evidence that something fishy took place.  You are going to need to know what IP address the attacker is using.
2. Block the user out of your entire network at your corporate (or personal) firewall immediately.
3. Use ARIN to find out where the attack is coming from (http://www.arin.net). ARIN will provide you with some useful information, such as the Internet Service Provider of the IP address that the attacker is using, and who to contact to report the abuse.
4. Use the contact information you find in ARIN to contact the ISP to alert them of the attack. Depending on who the ISP is of the attacker, you may or may not receive a response back.
5. Gather up all information you have about the attack and send a fairly detailed description of the attack to your local FBI office (http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm).  Remember to include information such as the access logs showing the attack or attempted attack, potential damage caused by the attack, contact information for getting in contact with you, and any additional information you can think of.

If you want more information on what to do, the Department of Justice has information on how to handle all different types of attacks, including hacking attempts.  You can find this information here: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm

Well, okay, “give-up” does not really fit into my vocabulary. I mostly hear myself refered to as “stubborn” but in reality its “determination” that I have lived my life based on. But come midnight tonight I had a moment of were I decided that it is somewhat imposible to start a business on our own (me and my business partner) no matter how much determination I poses towards the business. On top of that, I really am thinking that it really is not the job of entrepreneurs to implement every single aspect of the business all by themselves. A very huge role of the entrepreneurs are to excite other individuals enough about your businesses motivation for starting that they are willing to help you out in the process.

Exactly how much time do you spend on the internet that is productive? How much time is wasted? You might be shocked to find out how much of your life is wasted away visiting pointless and useless sites subconciously. I found a cool little web-app that help you track and manage how much time you are spending on the web.

The site is called RescueTime and can be found at: http://www.rescuetime.com.

I installed their little desktop application and started seeing statistics right away about how much time I was chatting on google talk, how much time on linked in I had spent, as well as all the other sites I went to. P.S… if you are paranoid, I wouldn’t bother going to the site. If you are like me and have nothing to hide and can see the benefit of know how you spend your time online, then check it out!

I am going to be doing my own market research for our proposed document/content management wing of Helm Technology Solutions, LLC.  Traditionally (especially a few years back) I would never actually be able to have access to the expensive market reports.  Now, using even just a few online tools, I can essentially perform my own market research without putting too much effort into the whole deal.  Here are a few sites that you can use to perform your practically free market research.

1.   http://www.wufoo.com: Obviously, you need some site to create a form for you to fill out.  Wufoo practices the “do one thing, but do it really well” business model and is the best way to create a survey online that I have seen yet.  They allow you to create a few limited forms, I went ahead and paid the 9 bucks a month to upgrade my account though.  Totally worth it to make sure this little business is around for a little bit.
2. http://www.linkedin.com: We are currently living in the age of social networking online, so obviously number 2 should just be any social networking site that you actively use most.  I choose linkedin here simply because I have done some preliminary searching for my “target market” and know there are quite a few individuals to pull from on this site.
3. http://www.giveanything.com: If you need a little incentive (I am planning on doing this for my market research) to make sure that people feel its worth their time to fill your survey out, you can reward them with a gift certificate from giveanything.com.  They allow you to email gift certificates for hundereds of stores.

So many people spend their entire life thinking that they know whats right, and that others should change their ways.  I was reading this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal today that was talking about an airline pilot who instead of trying to change the way the company he worked for operated, he just changed the way he operated.  Low-and-behold, the company noticed and now backs his crazy antics…  Read about it here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118826634834410559.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone

I am a major supporter for the One Laptop Per Child project (http://www.laptop.org) is doing. If you haven’t already heard about it, they are developing a very inexpensive laptop that can be used in developing countries to try and improve the learning experience of students that have a difficult life to begin with. But, stumbling upon the following article reminds me that when developing your product, you need to take careful consideration into what the product could potentially be used for.

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL19821905.html

I have to link to this site… It would just be wrong not to. http://www.womma.org/

So my problem right now is that I have a tough time focusing on problems.  In other words, my brain is so tightly focused on finding solutions to problems that well, I never really focus my energy on finding out exactly what the problem is and the extent of the problem is that I am trying to solve.

I just figured out that I have this problem of not knowing my problem while working on my business plan.  As I may have mentioned earlier, I am bulleting the sections that I need to write for the plan before I hunker down and actually begin writing the sections in full detail.  Well, looking back at my bullets, I have about 2 pages worth of bullets under the “Solution” section but only a few simple bullets for the “Problem” section.  This inspired me to take action on figuring out exactly what the problem is that I am solving with my new business.   Here are the methods that I am going to try and utilize:

• Research on trade association and specific web forums, looking for clues that indicate an organization is facing the problem I seek to solve
• Meeting individuals in the industry to discuss the issues they have.
•  Find competitors that are supposedly trying to solve the same problem that we are solving, and figure out their description of the issue (marketing materials, etc..)

If you have any other ways that I might be able to find ways to describing the problem organizations face that I seek to solve, then please leave a comment and I will add them to my grand-old-list…

I am really excited about this, I have found a project that well… seems a lot like my business in 81 days idea that I am planning on helping out with. Only if this project is successful, it will make 81 days feel like a life time in comparison. The project is called startup weekend and the basic concept is to get a huge group of absolutely crazy individuals together to try and have a business running by Monday morning. 1 weekend to start a business, is it possible? I certainly think we can do it, and I hope to find out in October when one will be held here in the grand ole’ District of Columbia. For more information visit: http://dc.startupweekend.com/

In order to claim victory, I hope to have at least formed an agreement with one customer by the 81 day mark. In order to do that, I have set the following milestones for myself to try and adhere by. I really have no basis for this schedule other than my gutt feeling about how long it will take.

DAY 7: All major sections of the business plan, exclude financials will be bulleted with the major key points that I want to get across. Meet with at least 2 people to discuss my idea
DAY 14: First draft of a full business plan excluding financial sections. Meet with an additional 2 individuals about my business concept.
DAY 18: Have 1 individual provide editorial feedback on the way that the business plan is written. Have research financial sections of the business plan farther, so I will be able to better attack those sections.
DAY 28: Fully edited business plan. Continue networking with at least 2 individuals a week to discuss partnerships, opportunities, and potential customers.
DAY 35: Make a decision about how the venture will be financed (Blood and sweat, Angel Investment, or VC)

The rest of the schedule will be dependent on the decision made on day 35. In interest of not getting too far ahead of myself before some important decisions are made, I will spend the next few days (whatever time I have outside of being a devoted worker and loving husband) in business plan world so that I can convince myself and others that this is a venture worth pursuing.

Please comment on my proposed schedule if you have any suggestions. I am definitely looking for opinions throughout this whole process.