What would Frank do?

Awhile back Mike Maclean and I were whiling away the journey from Hamiltron to Auckland when he mentioned that he was at an IT security conference once where some guy called Frank Abagnale presented. Mike said that at the end of his speech about fraud he casually mentioned that a movie was being made about him starting some guy called Louis Decapde-something.

I had a brush with identity theft years ago which ended up with half a dozen plain clothes police officers searching my London flat - so while I enjoy Catch Me If You Can as a good yarn I take the subject of security pretty seriously! As Mike and I compared notes on the misuse of US Social Security numbers in the US, and the curious number of Hamiltons in the World I filed a reminder to do a bit more research on the real Frank Abagnale one day.

A few weeks ago the YouTube bots figured that I'd like to watch a Google Talk staring the real Frank. I was hooked! While most YouTube videos are less than four minutes long, this one held my attention for an hour. His delivery is impeccable, the story is touching and entertaining. He answers questions from the audience with grace and insight. He is a smart man with solid family values who just happens to have done some very interesting stuff.

Now whenever I happen upon a challenge that has me flummoxed I ask myself - "What would Frank do?"