Welcome to "Chasing the Wind," a continuing series that chronicles the education of folks on each side of the 'digital curtain.' This is a fictional account, yet just about everything that happens in it is something I've seen take place at one time or another during my sysadmin/computer security career. While the primary purpose of this series is to identify and elucidate various aspects of computer security--after all, that's what Security Focus is all about--it's also intended to be an entertaining piece of literary techno-humor, because that's what I'm all about.

You might think that "Chasing the Wind" is a rather unusual title for a series about computer security. You might even observe that it's not very technical. You'd be right on both counts. If you further believe, however, that it isn't descriptive of any aspect of the computer security field, I'd have to take exception to that opinion. Anyone who has diligently tried to wade through all of the announcements, alerts, warnings, bulletins, patches, patches to patches, speculations, exaggerations, understatements, misinformation, and general ballyhoo generated by the computer security community on a daily basis knows why I call this little melodrama "Chasing the Wind." Truly secure and simultaneously useful systems are as elusive as any given molecule of oxygen on a breezy day.

If computer security is an illusion, as some have suggested, let us all strive to be David Copperfield.