The Run

                                                                       THE RUN!!!

Speeding across the desert at 350kts and 70ft over the desert. The pilot and his 4 ship element were answering a call for assistance. The pilot and flight of 4 ships Thunderbolt III's were on the way back to the barn. The Thunderbolt III was a direct descendant of the P47 Thunderbolt fighter of WWII at least in its mission specifications. it received an update that changed the ground attack aircraft, to a machine capable of suborbital flight with the advanced weapon, sensor, and engine advances that made this version of the venerable aircraft state of the art, and the Mach 3 speed made it a formidable weapon.  When the emergency call was acknowledged and received it immediately took precedence.   A Spec Ops element was in the process of withdrawal when they were attacked by a hidden enemy directly to their rear, while they prepared for dust-off.  As one of the rescue elements approached they diverted to the west, as the four plane element made its run.  Having a successful mission before the call for assistance there remained plenty of weapons available for this rescue mission.  The adversary was visibly approaching from the east in strange looking tracked vehicles and some exo-suited personnel in the lead holding large cannon-like weapons firing on the run. 

                Cleared hot on target, the choice was to hit the personnel in the suits 1^st. They were dark metallic robotic shapes standing approximately 10ft. Tall.  What was known was that they were standard human size operators.  3 of them approached followed by 3 tracked vehicles.  The spec -ops troops lazed the large running machines so that the missiles could find their way.   Three missiles released discharged smoke which made them highly visible to the attackers. Armored attackers threw up smoke chaff and other electronic noise to evade the attack.  Too for them bad the missiles were command guided and struck with a blinding flash 3 times, one for each target. One robot was stopped cold by the hit. It paused, began releasing streams of smoke then exploded.  This happened 3 times with creating 3 smoldering wrecks in the sand.

Switching to bombs the flight released the 4 remaining 1000 pound bombs in the midst of the 3 pursuing tracks. As the smoke cleared one heavily damaged track moving in the direction from which they came.  It was not moving very fast. It was indeed out of the fight.  The rescue elements returned to pick up the team and were heading south in the direction of the base.  The Carrier in the distance waited for the returning ships the flight circled until the troop carriers landed and unloaded their passengers then were moved off the flight deck making space for the returning flight.  The landing was pretty much uneventful except for one thing. The carrier was hovering about 2000 ft above the land mass that they were fighting over. After stowing the gear, securing the planes large, powerful doors closed and the landing deck was sealed. After unloading from the transport, the troops left the crew area, were strapped into acceleration chairs for transport to another destination.  The lights dimmed to amber, and the sensation of motion began the trip took about another 30 mins rising to a point approximately 200,000 feet above that planet that these men and women were departing from. They were being pulled into another ship in low orbit.  After securing the carrier within the gigantic transport, they were heading out. Going back home it was over, for now, their rotation was over.  It was 39 months to home at light speed to Proxima Centauri guess it was a good thing they were going 6 times that fast. Home in about 6.5 months.  Messages home were sent on an unmanned ship traveling at 15 times light speed which would be only 2.6 months travel time.  These messages included the after-action report in an encrypted portion of the ship's memory with personal messages taking up all available message space. 

The crew never thought that within 5 years of 1^st contact they would be involved in an operation to secure this part of the galaxy.  What they secretly thought was how much would the pay would be for being gone 24 months travel and mission time.  This would blow the mind of someone born in the 2020s   

Password Security for Seniors I mean (Everyone)

Password Security for Seniors I mean (Everyone)

I am sure all of us at one time or another have agonized over the various passwords and codes that one has to remember on a daily basis.   I know I do. 1st of all I am a system administrator for a military hospital, which will remain nameless.  I have numerous passwords that I have to have on hand for the multiple systems that I administer. I have a password system that is compatible with all military security protocols that are extremely easy to form and to store securely.   I the military uses a two x4 password policy.  Two uppercase, two lowercase, two numbers and. 2 special characters.   This password policy can seem daunting, but it is not as difficult as it looks.  I don't mean passwords in the traditional sense.  What I mean are passphrases.  Something simple to remember but complicated to decipher and duplicate.  That combined with an encrypted location (also password protected) to store them if one has upward of 7 to 10 passwords to remember.  More on that later. Passphrases the key is something easy to remember on a personal basis. Let us try one [!TH@Magn@Charta1215]  and the complexity that is perfect for the security protocols I see every day.

The password listed above either within or including the brackets refers to a historical event and not a word (Yes Captain Obvious I can see that)   The Magna Carta was a document that was signed in 1215 AD.    Notice what it is not.  It is not your daughter’s birthday or her name spelled backward. It is not an event that cannot be directly associated with any individual or is searchable in a database with anyone as a subject of that search. The beauty of this is that it is unique to the writer and the possibilities are endless.  It not tied to real life. The events can be fictional such as (for Star Trek fans) [!TH@K0b@ya$h1M@ru], or Something similar, and less complex like G1l1ppioli1915.

Having many passphrases on hand can be daunting, but there are very secure locations on one's desktop where they can be stored.  In windows, an encrypted password protected folder can be created on the desktop to save the password list if cannot be remembered.  In the Microsoft Office suite, there is an application that makes securing an encrypted file easier. In the OneNote app, there is a provision for a secured file that can contain the list of passwords. Be sure a backup of the data is available in case the record is forgotten, as it is difficult or impossible to recover if that event. Not remembering one's password and the subsequent complications can be tricky, but any security is better than no security at all. Remember numerous applications require passwords and the numbers of applications that require complex passwords are expanding rapidly.   As stated previously I work on a military network we have Common Access Cards that allow us entry into the secured system. 

So many of my colleagues have password lists under their desks that contain the passwords they use on a daily basis. This policy of keeping hard copy lists is a bad security posture and one that can lead to a disaster if not contained.  I spread this message to my colleagues and customers, and some of them have taken that advice to heart.