Legg Mason Presentations

Gretchen – LOVE the SUIT!
Freaked me out with stories about how easy it is to track someone down, mostly with information available online and with a touch of privy that comes with being a lawyer. Yikes!

I’ve been on the “open” band wagon for a long time, and even I am starting to feel a bit heeby-jeeby about the conglomerate effect of all of these little bits of info.

Luckily, I haven’t had to use these skills at work or personally – my stalker days are behind me.

Rob – Freaked me out with the “special” flash drive. Also with pointing out that there are websites (legal?) where anyone can sign up (for $) to crack Microsoft passwords. Not sure how this is legal. However, I think of a locksmith in the physical world, whose tools are a few little metal rods and the know-how to use them like knitting needles to pop a lock open. I guess it’s the same.

If someone were to point out all of the easily exploitable areas in my home (locked and unlocked), I would say that I already know the risks and am willing to accept them. Maybe this is harder to fathom on the computer because I am less aware of what is exploitable (unlike an open lock on a door).

I have already discussed the security breaches that may occur when unknown drives are used in a computer. We already knew that this was a bad idea, but we didn’t understand why, so Rob’s speech was helpful in driving this point home.

If the point of these presentations was to scare us a little, it worked!

On the other hand,
Rob and Gretchen – It was neat to hear the career paths that both of these presenters took. Something our prof and presenters have in common is that they didn’t know they would be Web 2.0 professionals until they wound up there. Hearing these stories makes the prospect of working in that space seem more attainable.

Something I really enjoyed, because it was a casual presentation among friends, was hearing more of the “people” aspect of these jobs. It made these positions less mystifying to hear the interactions that take place within and among the various departments.
Everyone I have met from Legg Mason is impressive – smart, passionate about their work, and team oriented.