IntelligentIT: May 2015

Friday, May 29, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/29: GTA Online News, Dynasty Warriors 8, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Review...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

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News

Trailers

Reviews

Interviews

Podcasts & Discussions

Game Play

Game Tech

Behind The Scenes

Tips & Tutorials

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/27: Enix News, Dynasty Warriors 8, Asphalt Nitro Review...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

Monday, May 25, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/25: Minecraft news, Alone in the Dark: Illumination...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

Friday, May 15, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/15/15: WoW News, Bloody Pixel Zombies Trailer, GTA 5 PC Review...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

Kinky Boots on Broadway Hottest Show of the Year! - Save on Tickets!

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/13/15: Final Fantasy XV News, NBA 2K15 Trailer, Mortal Kombat X Review...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

Save up to 25% on Broadway Show Tickets!

Do College Degrees Matter In InfoSec?

picture source: wh-mag.com

I just read a great blog entry written by Jacob Williams over at MalwareJake about what hiring managers look for in information security (infosec) candidates. This is a must read for anyone interested in entering the infosec field whether they are currently enrolled in or researching which schools have the best infosec course(s). Points of interest provided in the blog entry are:

the school you attend does matter
degrees and certifications aren't necessarily needed to get hired in rare circumstances
infosec can't be solely from a college degree program
if you don't have a degree/certification you better be awesome in some area desired by the hiring manager

Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to read MalwareJake: College degrees in infosec and share it with someone you know who's trying to start a career in the infosec field.

Follow me on Twitter InfoSecPr0

Monday, May 11, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/11/15: The Order: 1886 news, Android Games 2015...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

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News

Reviews

Interviews

Podcasts & Discussions

Game Play

Game Tech

Behind The Scenes

Tips & Tutorials

Follow me on Twitter@ITSecPr0

Tech News: Health Care Security Sucks, Open Smart Grid Protocol Easily Cracked...

Follow me on Twitter @ITSecPr0

Monday, May 4, 2015

Gamer's Corner 5/4/15: Sony News, The Wolf Among Us, Final Fantasy XV Review...

Take a journey into one of the largest grossing segments in the world of I.T. and enjoy upcoming video game trailers, walkthroughs, reviews, and much more!

Friday, May 1, 2015

Understanding IT Security Advice: A Response To Gene Marks

I recently read the “When IT Security Advice Goes Overboard” article written by Gene Marks, and I have to say I was a little taken back by what he considers going overboard with IT security. At a time when businesses and consumers are experiencing data theft, identity theft, etc., Mr. Marks sure does seem to take a pretty laid-back approach to IT security that I think can be misleading to other small business owners.

He thinks it’s a bad idea to spy (I doubt any security professional uses that wording) on their employees. Monitoring employees’ activities on a network should not be confused with spying. In fact, a network administrator or security professional could simply setup their system to alert them if an employee attempts to access forbidden areas, instead of watching every place they go. By examining this information they can see if an employee made an honest mistake or if they have a potential internal threat on their hands.

Hackers spend their time attempting to infiltrate a company’s network from outside of the network, while an employee already has access to the company’s network posing a greater threat. A business with lax security policies as suggested by Marks wouldn't be likely to catch an employee attempting to access forbidden areas of the network.

Marks poses the question, “Do we really need to "block" certain Web sites from being visited at the office?” The answer is unequivocally, yes! Employees viewing porn while at work is a growing trend and very big problem, but porn on the job isn't the only problem. Illegal file-sharing sites and torrent sites can also be a problem and should be blocked, not in an effort to make employees do their jobs, but in an effort to protect the network. File-sharing and bit torrent sites are notorious for having malware, viruses, trojans, and root kits all waiting to be downloaded by an unsuspecting person who thought they were downloading the latest Lady GaGa song. Any of those infections on a network could cause a major headache to network administrators and cause money loss to the company, especially if productivity comes to a halt due to the infection.

Security software such as the one misused by Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District is actually beneficial when used properly. Marks may not see the point in using such software, but using anti-theft software such as Ken Westin’s GadgetTrak, laptops and mobile devices are able to be recovered and returned to their rightful owners. Software that remotely eliminates the contents of a hard drive is a good solution as well but it basically gives the thief a free laptop or mobile device; whereas GadgetTrak can potentially help get the item returned to its owner, and also provide a picture of the criminal to the authorities getting bad guys off the street.

I was surprised even further at the comment, “What about sensitive information? Most shouldn't be stored on a computer's hard drive in the first place.” Initially I was thinking maybe Marks is a supporter of thin clients but that obviously isn't the case. At some point in time, sensitive data will be stored on a hard drive, so to say it shouldn't be stored on a computer’s hard drive is impractical. I will agree that encrypting data could be cumbersome especially if dealing with a large amount of data, so a better solution would be to encrypt your entire hard drive. So if your computer is stolen data won’t be able to be retrieved by thieves.

The bottom-line is the IT world and the business world will never see eye to eye on security measures because the focuses are on different things. IT focuses on providing the best security measures to secure a company’s functions and data. Business focuses on how much the security solution is going to cost, and how to keep the cost as low as possible. Individuals like Marks may not really see the true value of advice from security professionals when approaching matters from a business perspective and security professionals may seem like they go overboard with their advice -- but that's until you become a victim of a security breach.

@ITSecPr0