I just finished (again) a portion of Jeff Thull's Mastering the Complex Sale (see www.primeresource.com to order a copy). I see direct applicability to the intell community sales process, which - as readers of this blog know, typically the ultimate in complex selling.

Most people distrust the security of all websites equally. But in reality, Web devotees can take simple precautions to ensure their safety while researching, shopping, downloading or playing browser games such as Texas Hold’em.

While anecdotes abound about job opportunities lost over something posted online, new research reveals that the risk is greater than previously known. One survey revealed that 70 percent of recruiters have eliminated a candidate based on online text, photos or videos.

Give two cents—get big prizes. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), in partnership with ChallengePost, launched Challenge.gov on September 7 at the Gov 2.0 Summit 2010 in Washington, D.C. The free online challenge platform invites the general public to propose solutions to government challenges, including the U.S. Army’s push for new training and simulation tools utilizing artificial intelligence.

A good hacker knows that a good hack involves three things: 1. Vulnerability 2. Exploitation 3. Maintenance of access Talking to that secretary gave us a lot of information -- the antivirus vendor and version of Internet Explorer being the most important among other things. This tells us what the system is vulnerable to -- in this case IE6 vulnerabilities. Knowing the antivirus lets us know what vulnerabilities will be detected or stopped unless they are re-written or modified. With very little work we can probably find a way to circumvent any signatures based antivirus for a payload and a working exploit on a system with a profile similar to that described by the secretary. Now we have both a vulnerability and a method with which we will exploit it. Finally, the secretary informed us that patches to systems are done on Tuesdays -- so we can have up to a week after successful exploitation to develop a system to maintain access either through reverse shells or an autonomous setup, which should be easy to do once we are in and get the lay of the network. It's very easy to find and package exploits with the wide availability of large databases of viruses and exploits...

The Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) is working to keep U.S. citizens safe from dirty bombs by conducting exercises on the other side of the world. Members representing the initiative recently wrapped up a three-scenario tabletop exercise in Mongolia to help the country prevent terrorists from obtaining its nuclear or radiological material.

The last few months have produced much turbulence for American intelligence. What's new? In our symposia, on the website, and in Joe Mazzafro's blog, among other opportunities, we'll address at least some of that. For now, however, I want to draw attention to two very important intelligence community programs: the IC Centers of Academic Excellence (IC CAE) and the National Defense Intelligence College (NDIC).

Whether your firm is a services provider or a product company, you must clearly differentiate your offering or personnel. Perhaps this is true in any market during any economic cycle, but since our focus is on the IC, here are some of my thoughts on how to accomplish this mission towards the intell agencies.

Advances in cyberspace and missile technology are extending China’s military reach.

The U.S. Army received a prototype that will eventually integrate current and future air and missile defense capabilities into one overall command and control (C2) system.