The Internet of (Insecure) Things

I know what you did, and where you are

IoT - the Internet of Things! 

Everything is connected to the internet! Refrigerators talking to toasters! Washing machines talking to garage door openers!

And were these Things tested well? (Probably not) Can they be hacked? (Almost certainly)

This one in particular caught my eye - GPS watches. @copyrightjoestrazzere

How GPS Watches Can Put Kids In Harm's Way

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gps-watches-for-kids-are-easily-hacked/

Personally, I don't understand the appeal of the devices in the first place. I get that some folks are helicopter parents, but I don't understand the need to know exactly where your children are every second of the day.

Putting that aside, you must assume that if you can track a device, others can as well. And a device advertised for tracking children is simply a disaster waiting to happen, in my opinion. 

Be careful here, folks. I'm not suggesting you should walk around with a tinfoil hat. The Internet of Things has a ton of potential. But every day we hear about more and more devices with stupid default passwords, or that are trivial to hack. Think it through - if your device were hacked, what could the worst outcome be? Sometimes it's a lot worse than having the freezer tell the clock radio about that cheesecake you ate whole last night.

Stay safe out there.

---

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm an experienced Quality Assurance professional. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

Patriots Training Camp 2017

Patriots Training Camp 2017

This morning, I took in the New England Patriots Training Camp. It was a hot and humid morning, but fortunately I was able to find a bit of shade.

I hadn't been since 2011. Some things have changed, but a lot of it is the same. A few observations:

• Tom Brady is still there, and he still looks great. (On Thursday, he'll be 40! I'm getting old.)
• Lots more activities for kids and adults. 
• Tons of workers there, working security and the activities, and selling water, soda, Gatorade, and frozen lemonade. One worker that I remember from way back is a guy who sells sodas and uses players' names as part of his pitch ("It will stop your thirst like Butler stops touchdowns!"). Funny stuff.
• The defense looked really good today, particularly the DBs. Lots of good coverage and some interceptions.
• The offense didn't look as good. Lots of mistakes.
• Julian Edelman and Stephon Gilmore got in a bit of a fight about 3/4 of the way through the practice. They were both tossed. Belichick yelled something like "Just get out!"
• Rookie Deatrich Wise knocked down a pass at the line - he looked pretty good
• Brandin Cooks looked pretty fast
• Neither Jimmy Garoppolo nor Jacoby Brissett looked great today.
• At one point, Belichick threw a blue blocking pad at Brady while he was scrambling around. Brady completed the pass anyway. I'm pretty sure that sort of thing won't actually happen during a real game.

A fun time all around.

Go Pats!

---

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm an experienced Quality Assurance professional. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

Other Places You Can Find Me

I also participate and answer questions at: 

The Workplace StackExchange

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/

and

Software Quality Assurance & Testing StackExchange

https://sqa.stackexchange.com/

---

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm an experienced Quality Assurance professional. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

A Free Online Test Conference

I've signed up to attend this free online test conference.

Some terrific speakers including Joel Montvelisky, Alan Page, Matt Heusser and others. You've seen some of them in my People in Testing and What People Are Writing tabs.

Some great topics like Keeping QA Relevant, Mobile Test Labs, Crowd Testing and Automation.

And of course it's free!

How about you?

http://www.onlinetestconf.com/

---

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm an experienced Quality Assurance professional. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - The Schiaparelli Mars Lander

Schiaparelli Lander

Bugs have consequences! 

The wrong bugs can crash your Mars lander, cost you a lot of money and cost you a lot of confidence in your planned Mars missions, as the European Space Agency found out.

Back in October 2016, the ESA attempted to land the Schiaparelli lander on the surface of Mars. But software bugs caused the craft to crash and to produce a rather impressive crater.

Here lies Schiaparelli

Recently, an independent investigation has concluded that insufficient parachute modeling, inadequate handling of alerts, and an “insufficient approach to Failure Detection, Isolation and Recovery and design robustness" were to blame for the failure. #copyrightjoestrazzere

Essentially, the software thought the spacecraft was closer to the ground than it actually was, and released the parachute and shell early. When the control system shut down, the craft was still 3.7 km in the air - oops! This resulted in a 34 second free-fall, subsequent crash at a speed of 540 km/h, and the destruction of Schiaparelli.

In spite of the failure in the planned soft landing, the Europoean Space Agency declared the mission "a success". Maybe they were just really excited about the brand new Martian crater they discovered?

Perhaps the European Space Agency should have tested more.

See Also:

http://www.space.com/34821-exomars-lander-crash-measurement-error.html

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/27/15704644/esa-mars-schiaparelli-lander-crashed-software-glitch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiaparelli_EDM_lander

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/mars-lander-crash-complicates-follow-rover-2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/science/space/no-signal-from-mars-lander-but-european-officials-declare-mission-a-success.html

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Schiaparelli_landing_investigation_completed

http://exploration.esa.int/mars/59176-exomars-2016-schiaparelli-anomaly-inquiry

---

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm an experienced Quality Assurance professional. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

Songs about Testing, QA

I was looking for some music related to Testing or QA to use in a presentation.  The pickings are slim, but I found these.


Works on My Box
- Art Leonard
http://artleonard.com
http://artleonard.com/audio/ART_LEONARD-Works_on_My_Box.mp3

Art Leonard is a Seattle-based Christian, radio and novelty songwriter / performer. His software engineering anthem, "Works on My Box", made a big splash at a major software development company and is now played to new employees at orientation.

Feature Creep

- Geordie Keitt

http://tester.geordiekeitt.com
http://tester.geordiekeitt.com/2009/08/cast2009-feature-creep-song-video/

I performed this a month or so ago at CAST2009 in Colorado Springs, where Becky Fiedler recorded it. The intro to this song went, “This song is written from the perspective of a piece of bloatware that used to be sleek and clean.” I did this during a Lightning Talks session, meaning I had to bring it in under 4 minutes. That’s why there’s little time for dramatic pauses…

Black Box

- Geordie Keitt

http://tester.geordiekeitt.com

http://tester.geordiekeitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/black-box.mp3

Cem Kaner and James Bach presented a course on Black Box Software Testing that I took circa 2003. I performed this song, Black Box, to wrap up the training.

Rapid Tester

- Geordie Keitt

http://tester.geordiekeitt.com

http://tester.geordiekeitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rapid_tester.mp3

I this wrote on the occasion of attending my first RST class at James Bach’s Satisfice world headquarters in Front Royal, VA. I’ve edited it slightly since then as my understanding of the material has grown, but the essence remains the same. It borrows pretty much everything from Steve Earle’s beautiful song “Someday”.

Not on The Test

- Tom Chapin and John Forster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dAujuqCo7s

Ok, so this one isn't really about QA or software testing.  It still made me laugh and has a few poignant lessons about metrics and relying solely on a script, rather than on rational thinking:  ".. Don't think about thinking, it's not on the test!"

Bugs
- Ron Brown
http://www.songsforteaching.com/intellitunes/bugs.htm
http://www.songsforteaching.com/intellitunes/clips/bbbbugs.mp3

Another one that isn't really about software.  But it's a cute song, and how can you not like a song that starts off "B-b-b-bugs, bugs, bugs"?

Piece of Crap
- Neil Young
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovum-GjYWKQ
http://web.archive.org/web/20040131135434/http://www.se.fit.edu/people/James/misc.html

While it's not really about software, this song fits well. I was particularly looking for a music video that James Whittaker and some of his students performed a while back. I tried all the searches I could think of, but no luck. Fortunately, my friend Martin sent me the above web archive link.

Know of any others I could add to this list?

---

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com.

Double the Bug Bounty, Double the Fun - Microsoft

It's fun to find Office bugs

Like to hunt bugs? Want to have some fun, and perhaps make some money at the same time?

From March 1, 2017 to May 1, 2017, any eligible vulnerability submitted for Microsoft Office 365 Portal and Microsoft Exchange Online will be eligible for double rewards. 

Hence, any qualified vulnerability found in the domains below will receive up to $30,000 if it’s submitted between March 1 and May 1, 2017.

The specific domains include:

• portal.office.com
• outlook.office365.com
• outlook.office.com
• *.outlook.com
• outlook.com

For more information see: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/dn800983.aspx

---

 This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm an experienced Quality Assurance professional. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.