One of the questions I get from clients is how I stay on top of so much stuff all the time. If you read this blog, you know we track emerging threats, identify new vulnerabilities, develop software, oversee our HoneyPoint deployments and run the whole security services company. That can be a lot of detail to manage, but it is doable with a system of methodologies, careful attention to detail and some good tools.

Today, I wanted to talk about a couple of the most useful tools that I use every day. They are very powerful and common, but they combine to be one of the most useful tools in my security management arsenal. Are you ready for the secret?

The big secret weapons are my cell phone (a Treo 650) and Jott.com!

That’s right. My cell phone is a smart phone that is integrated into my management process. I can use it to send and receive email, keep my schedule and to even write blog entries like this one on the go. Often I use it to do quite a bit of writing, from emails to articles. It is a very powerful tool indeed. But, when you combine it with Jott.com – it makes a world of difference.

For those of you not familiar with Jott.com yet, it is a free service that lets you register a cell phone and obtain a number that you can call. When you call the service, you can “Jott” to yourself, or others if you share your address book with the service. (Hint: Read the Privacy Policy carefully before you share your addresses!)  Jotting to yourself or someone else converts your voice message or content to text and then emails both a digital recording of your message AND the associated text to the email you assign to yourself or the member of your shared address book! What makes this so powerful is that the ease of communication and style make it a very useful and rapid way to communicate.

Jotts can be long, short or pretty much anything in between. You can dictate a quick blog post, an email or just an idea to be pursued later. At MSI, we use these tools to quickly write content for WatchDog, the blog and email communications with clients. I use it to rapidly outline agendas for meetings or to establish on the fly scope of work documents that the technical or sales team can use to do business. Overall, used together, these tools really help me communicate and manage ideas, multiple forms of media and my team in a more rapid and easy fashion. Used carefully, (again, read the privacy policy), the tools can be leveraged for some amazing things. Don’t be afraid to give them a try, or to think outside the box for how to apply them to your own tasks.