IT by Leaps and Bounds

Security is one of the most important components of software development. The InfoSec Institute offers a wide range of software security-specific classes and guidance on everything from industry-standard certifications like the CISSP, or the Certified Information Systems Security Professional, to highly technical Windows Kernel reverse-engineering courses. To date, the Institute has trained more than 15,000 individuals.

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Your Internet security relies on a few volunteers

The Heartbleed bug shows how the Internet's infrastructure remains underfunded by the corporations and governments that rely on free, open-source software.

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REPOST: U.S. SEC Releases Cyber Security Examination Blueprint

Plans were made by the U.S. securities regulators to detect and prevent cyber security attacks. Read more in this FoxBusiness.com article.

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It didn't take long for all the barking about the death of Windows XP to gain some teeth.

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REPOST: Major Security Bug Found in Web Encryption Tool

What is Heartbleed bug and how can we protect ourselves from this massive security flaw? Find out in this FoxBusiness.com article. A security flaw found in a popular Internet encryption tool has sent companies and government agencies scrambling to plug the leak. The bug in OpenSSL, a widely used encryption method, was discovered earlier this week by researchers at Google (GOOG) and cyber-security firm Codenomicon. According to a website created by Codenomicon, Neel Mehta of Google Security first reported it to the OpenSSL team. In a notice on Tuesday, Amazon.com (AMZN) informed its Amazon Web Services customers that it applied fixes to resolve the OpenSSL vulnerability. Some of Amazon’s AWS services were unaffected. Researchers believe Heartbleed, a nickname given to the OpenSSL flaw, already allowed cyber thieves to grab Yahoo (YHOO) usernames and passwords. The search giant said it addressed the problem for most of its properties, including Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail, Flickr and Tumblr, by Tuesday afternoon. “As soon as we became aware of the issue, we began working to fix it,” a Yahoo spokesperson said. “Our team has successfully made the appropriate corrections across the main Yahoo properties…and we are working to implement the fix across the rest of our sites right now. We’re focused on providing the most secure experience possible for our users worldwide and are continuously working to protect our users’ data.” Based on a web tool from security firm Qualys, other major websites like eBay (EBAY), Google and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Outlook email service are not vulnerable to the Heartbleed attack. The Canada Revenue Agency temporarily shut down its online services on Wednesday due to security concerns, just three weeks before an April 30 deadline for citizens to file taxes. The security flaw was found in some versions of OpenSSL, a type of open-source software many websites use to encrypt communication over the Internet. Heartbleed could compromise usernames, passwords and credit card numbers that are stored on a server’s memory. Using the loophole, cyber criminals are able to request chunks of data. While they can’t specify what information they want, such as one person’s username and password, hackers can gather enough data to piece it together. Alex McGeorge, head of threat intelligence at security firm Immunity Inc., said e-commerce transactions and other online activities remain secure as they happen, although hackers could recover enough information to decrypt data as it’s sent to and from a server. Web users must wait for corrections to be made on the server side. In the meantime, McGeorge advises that users avoid shopping and banking online until they are sure the patch was applied. Once the website completes that task, customers should change their usernames and passwords. “Big companies will be proactive about this. It’s the smaller ones” that may be slow to respond, he said. OpenSSL has made the security patch available, but system administrators may still be waiting for some Linux distributions to include the fix. A security advisory from OpenSSL directed users to upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g, while version 1.0.2 will be fixed in a pending beta update. “I think we’ll see some good progress,” McGeorge said, noting the amount of attention Heartbleed is getting this week. The Department of Homeland Security issued an alert to warn businesses about the bug, saying it “could allow a remote attacker to expose sensitive data, possibly including user authentication credentials and secret keys.” DHS also suggested that system administrators consider implementing Perfect Forward Secrecy, which would protect web communications from future breaches. Learn what  InfoSec Institute can do for you by visiting this Facebook page today.

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5-Year-Old Boy Discovers Microsoft Xbox One Security Flaw

A five-year-old boy from San Diego, Calif. discovered a huge flaw in Microsoft's Xbox One password security.

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InfoSec Institute

InfoSec Institute is the best source for high quality information security training. 

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If we had to pinpoint one tech career with truly great prospects over the next couple of years, it'd be cyber security. Demand for cyber security

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REPOST: How To Help Employees Feel Less Overwhelmed By New Technology

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REPOST: Women In Technology: A Brightening Outlook?

Opportunities for women in the technology industry is on the rise. Read more in this Forbes.com article. There are both significant obstacles and emerging opportunities for women who want to work in the technology industry, whether in a regular post or rising to become chief information officer. This is the verdict of several high-profile figures within the technology industry, speaking as International Women’s Day is celebrated today. They warn that there is simply not enough representation of women within the industry, but add that there are some clear signs of improvement. “There are still two major issues: the number of women working in the industry, and the opportunities for them to advance their career and their pay,” Bernadette Andrietti, a vice president at technology firm Intel INTC -0.31%, tells Forbes. Industry body CompTIA warns that only 24 per cent of US IT professionals are female, a figure “on a downward trend”, according to Terry Erdle, executive vice president of skills at the organisation. This alarmingly low figure is in spite of the “huge numbers of opportunities”, he says, in areas such as cyber security, business continuity, data analysis, technology refresh, network and server management, web design and customer relationship management. Over 500,000 IT job openings were available in the US in the last quarter of 2013, according to Burning Glass Technologies Labor Insights. As well as “an element of sexism” holding back women from these jobs, Erdle says, a real problem has been a misperception around the excitement of working in IT and just how essential it is to organisations running at their best. Maximizing The Opportunity It is in the interests of companies and governments to help women advance in the technology industry, Andrietti says: “Women offer a fresh perspective on product design, ways of working, risk-taking and many other aspects of business.” “The teams with the best results are those comprising professionals with different attitudes, methods and backgrounds; those who draw multiple approaches into one unified solution,” adds Pamela Maynard, president for Europe, Africa and Latin America at IT consultancy Avanade. “There is also a connection between diverse leadership and financial success, as those diverse workforces see their fiscal success increase – there is tangible value to diversifying the enterprise and it is ultimately customers who win.” Maynard says any obstacles can in part be tackled by “recognising women’s strengths, insights and skills to ensure that they are taking active steps in their careers early on, so the pipeline remains rich with female candidates”. Avanade itself has transformed its recruitment process to ensure female candidates are interviewed for all senior roles, with at least one woman on the panel. It has done the same for promotion reviews. Beginning With Education Andrietti says she remains “positive” for the future of women in IT, as several factors are working in women’s favour from early in their lives. She adds there is “definitely a concerted effort being made by governments, education bodies, businesses and non governmental organizations” to support an increase in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers and for women to take leadership in board positions across industries. The work needs to be done at an early age, she says, adding that as girls grow older, they should have the opportunity to listen to technology businesses talk at their schools, and to work as interns at those companies. In developing economies, including Africa, “businesses and governments are working together collaboratively to nurture technology talent”, Andrietti says. Intel launched its Explore and Learn program in this region, enabling people to access free or low cost locally relevant educational resources online. It should also be noted that in India, Intel’s president is a woman – originally from Calcutta, Kumud Srinivasan is one of India’s most high profile female technology executives. The opportunities in an IT career are immense, and need to be properly showcased, the experts argue. Proper STEM education, Maynard says, offers broad career options, both within traditional IT roles and also in other disciplines with a technology impact, “including marketing, legal, sales, project management and more”. “We have to do a better job of articulating what a career in IT really entails,” says Erdle at CompTIA. “You can combine your interest in technology with another passion – entertainment, fashion, sports, education, government, retail and many other industries. IT truly is one of those fields in which people can change the way we live, work, learn and play.”

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Meet the seven people who hold the keys to worldwide internet security

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: seven keys, held by individuals from all over the world, that together control security at the core of the web. The reality, discovers James Ball, is rather closer to The Office than The Matrix

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With the public’s demand for bigger and better consumer technology and the growing importance of securing these systems, IT roles have been multiplying in the job market. The following is a list of...

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Increase in corporate IT positions seen

Tech geeks have been making it big. From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, they have made their fortunes on technology. But it isn’t just the business owners of founders of the biggest technology companies who are raking in the money. IT professionals have been getting paid handsomely as well. And with the rise of the social media, information security, smartphones, and other mobile gadgets, vacancies for IT practitioners are increasing.

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Recently, a Robert Half Technology survey was conducted on 100 New York businesses. Results showed that 86 percent of CIOs are in the process of hiring IT professionals during the first half of the year. This is three percentage points higher compared to the national expectations for hiring in 2014. Most observers view technology to lead the rebound from the job market slump.

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But unlike in past years when the path to being an IT professional was all of a computer course from a tech school, getting hired today is fraught with more difficult barriers. Companies require certifications and years of experience to place IT people among their manpower. Professionals need to invest in a number of trainings and tests in order to get job placements.

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So while the job market for IT roles is on the rise, the talent pool is shallow. The upside to this, though, is that when applicants eventually land the job, they can expect salaries ranging from $70,000 to $140,000. Infosec Institute provides review courses for IT certifications. Subscribe to this Twitter account to get IT industry updates.

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Certify Your Skill Sets for Greater Advancement Opportunities

Many people have a distinct knack for one or more areas in the computer world. They may find coding easy or they may revel in designing and building new systems to better manage complex issues and problems. Most of these people are able to visualize solutions through their growing experience in their specific field of interest.

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For such individuals (and there are plenty of them!), having such skills may not be sufficient to gain them a career in an area in which they natural thrive. These days, a knack is nice but it does not generally deliver a regular and handsome paycheck. What is needed these days is proper certification, which provides proof and assurance to the many employers seeking skilled workers.

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Meet InfoSec Institute, an instructional institute that does more than merely disseminate informational materials that most people could learn by reading through standard instruction manuals. InfoSec Institute prides itself on securing and offering quality instructors who are experts in particular fields in technical industries. Any person with a passing interest and modest degree of knowledge will quickly discover the value and importance of working with an expert who can actually demonstrate their knowledge and provide you with hands-on opportunities to gain the expertise you need to be more than just another self-proclaimed guru who actually only knows bits and pieces and have never been given the chance to bring it all together and separate themselves from the crowd of other enthusiasts in their field of interest.

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For more than 15 years, InfoSec Institute has been in the business of qualifying and certifying professionals in almost all of the areas of the computer world. If you are one of those who wants to look forward to challenging work that takes advantage of your innate skills and rewards you commensurately for your contribution and experience, do not hesitate to pursue the right certification to get you where you belong and will be happy! Know more about InfoSec Institute by visiting its website.