Enron - The Fall of the 7th Largest Corporation in America

December 2, 2001 Enron filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Nothing new here correct, until it became the largest bankruptcy of its kind and known as the largest computer forensic case to date. Watching the video "The Smartest Guys in the Room" was a real eye opener. It is available via Netflix and youtube.com. I watched it via youtube. Only bad part was that there are 10 segments all lasting between 10 to 12 minutes in length. Amazing how some people can think so deviously while others cannot even begin to think at that level.

So, what actually happened? In my opinion, a group of money hungry individuals working together to find more professionals who have little to no ethics to join the corporation to scam billions of dollars from unknowing investors, and the state of California got away with one of the biggest injustices I have seen in my lifetime. It was amazing to watch the whole story unfold and yet to hear about the millions of dollars these men were paid (salary, bonuses and stock options) to defraud so many people.  Arthur Andersen being involved was another shocker. Mark to Market accounting has been around since the early 1990s and Skilling took it to a new level at Enron. No one was allowed to look at their books and discover the huge discrepancies could have stopped the downward spiral of Enron before more than 4000 people lost their jobs and everyone lost their 401K investments and retirement funds. It is difficult to imagine how someone can perform the immoral acts that Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Fastow, Causey and others could and sleep at night. Let alone, sell off their stocks and get millions of dollars and never once think about how they were ruining other people’s lives. I really never gave Enron much thought until it became the Midterm Question for my Computer Forensics class.

I never really put two and two together when California was having those rolling blackouts. Enron was manipulating the markets and the power grid by shutting down electrical power plants to drive up the cost of electricity for the state of California. I never really realized how involved Arthur Andersen was involved until I watched the movie “Smartest Guys in the Room”. Traders involving themselves in insider trading and yet Lay and Skilling stated many times, they knew nothing of what was going on in their corporation. Impossible, it is just a shame; the courts could not recoup more money and assets from the quality and give back to innocent investors. How much influence did Enron have in the fallout of the .com situations way back when?

Forensics - not just dead bodies

Well, we are half way through the semester and the classes are interesting and gearing up to be more intense during the last half. In the Database Modeling class, I have been told that I am getting the materials and my data flow diagrams are shaping up. Next came the Enterprise Data Model followed by the Entity Relationship Diagram. Man this stuff is confusing when you are not a database person. The funny thing about it, is I can program, I can understand relationships between data, I just can't draw the pictures to match "the story". Professor Nocolai always says "Tell me the Story". My favorite part is "The End".

As for Managing for Quality in Production, this Thursday, the class has to present materials on Strategic Planning. We have been separated into five groups of five with I think one exception - one group of six. We have to present on Who is involved with a Strategic Plan. I am going to talk about St. Jude's Children's Hospital since they are a not for profit hospital. This out to be good.

Finally, what we all have been waiting for, the title of my blog today - forensics. I have played around with Encase for the last seven weeks, trying to understand how the software works but with a limited version of the software. I have no idea half the time if what I am doing with open source or free software is netting me the same results as the Encase does since we have to use their sample files. So this week we had due a lab where we had to clone a disk drive and get a hash value. I tried to use WinHex, but that seemed to net me two different hash values, not sure if what I did was correct or not, so I switched to ProDiscover. Only to find out that I had filled my disk drive with images from all the other software that did not work correctly. Spent a lot of time cleaning up and now my system mechanic software is Bitching about all the fragmented files and disk cleanup it needs to do. So, forensics is not only about dead people, I am learning a lot about dead and live imaging and enjoying the hell out of it. I hope there is a part two to this class. I want to learn more.

time sure flies these days

It seems like just yesterday, I was starting a new semester without an advisor but it has been five weeks already. Classes are in full swing and I am already starting to feel the crunch as midterms (if there are going to be some) are only a short three weeks away. I wanted to stay ahead of the reading this semester, but that has not worked out so far. I can easily get swept away if I am not careful. Life as a grad student is not easy - not that I expected it to be but man, it is hard work keeping up with every professors requirements. I don't think I will be taking three classes next semester. This is just too much work and not enough time to devote to each class. I feel like I am cheating myself out of valuable knowledge by not having adequate time to study and absorb the materials. I am not sorry I took three classes this semester; I just now know that I am not going to do it again next semester. I am challenging myself in many areas this semester and that is good, but taxing on the nerves and confidence. I will survive - as I am not a quitter. I just need to regroup and go at it from another direction.

OMG - Computer Forensics

This class is going to be great. Professor Liles drove home many of the requirements that appeared in the text chapters but somehow lost because they were just words on the page. Hearing him repeat the requirements and then back them up with real life experiences and examples made them sink into this thick skull of mine. Some days I wonder if I will truly get this information. I sit in class and my mind wanders to "how much more effective would this class be if I was like most of the other students in the class" They are underclassmen who are in their senior year of school - about to get their Bachelors degree.

These students have the luxury of just having some classes that I have not had ever but have learned most on my own through the life of a working LAN Administrator yet, I question my abilities. I know that I know this stuff, I just feel like I might have known more if I was in there shoes. Having being in their shoes over 15 years ago - I could not wait to get out of the classroom and into the work force. I was not thinking about a Masters degree. Then again, had I wanted a Master's degree immediately after my Bachelors - I would have had to obtain it from Purdue Lafayette and it still would not have included the classes I am currently taking.

Technology has changed so much and continues to change. I now have to figure out three topics in which I have to produce a research paper on by the end of the semester. One topic has to be in the Command Central arena for my Database Modeling class, One on Computer Forensic topic, and I believe the other has to be something to do with Quality Control and Productivity in Industry. I am not sure on the last one. Guess it is a good time to re-read my syllabus - Yes?

Don't work harder, work smarter.

The goal of this semester is to work smarter so that I don't have to work harder. I have so much I want to accomplish this semester that I don't have time to waste working harder when all I have to do is work smarter. Organizing my study time against classroom time will enable me to begin to work smarter. Optimizing my study time will allow me the luxury to work around others schedules as some classroom work will require collaboration with fellow students. I have to believe in this method in order for it to be successful.. Demanding excellence from myself is what I do. I hate to fail and rarely do. However, when I do, I try to identify all the obstacles that I threw up that prevented me from succeeding. My failure is never any one's fault but my own and it is not an option.

Semester starts on Monday. I feel a little overwhelmed as I am scheduled for three classes that are extremely different. One in computer forensics, a database management class and the other has to do with quality control - i think. During this semester I will be blogging mostly on the progress I am making in these classes and updating my skill sets. It it going to be an intense semester but I am up for it.
Professor Liles, I hope you are up for this semester as well. Teaching and therapy will be a challenge for you as well. Best of luck to both of us.

Hello World

Well, I have taken the first step in blogging. I created this site after much contemplation, not knowing where to begin, how to pick a name for my blog, and yet which layout to use. Over the course of the next several months, I will be attempting to refine my blogging and the design so please bare with me while I undergo this process and in discovering topics.