How to impress your boss

A recent article in the Washington Post features a picture of U.S. National Security Agency director Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander giving President Bush a tour of the super-secret agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Alexander and Bush are photo-opped in front of a giant computer screen in an apparent update of the Bush background generator ploy that White House press flaks use whenever they can. Trouble is, the super-secret security screen that Alexander is revealing to Bush is available to you and I and even the dreaded Axis of Evil.

Compare for yourself. Here's a blow-up of the NSA security screen and here's a live link to the same screen, also known as the Talisker Computer Network Defense Operational Picture.

The Talsiker page is a product of Computer Network Defence Ltd. located in the UK (whose site also features some neat/geek-friendly security cartoons) using data from DShield.org and SANS, home of the Internet Storm Center.

Now, if you want to impress your boss, set the Talisker screen as your home page and tell him or her you're on the watch for those pesky cyber-terrorists. And to get your boss to buy you coffee, show him or her the level of threat your IP address poses on the net. Hey, if it's good enough for the leader of the free world ...