April 17, 2014

A simple cure for the cybersecurity skills shortage
People constantly bemoan the dearth of skilled cybersecurity personnel, especially after a high-profile breach. And we hear a lot of proposals for fixing the problem: more certifications, more training, more research. All of these solutions amount to lobbying; they come from certification bodies, training companies and university researchers. I don't deny that those proposed solutions are useful for improving some aspect of cybersecurity knowledge, skills and abilities. But taken all together, they won't give you a skilled practitioner. They won't even give you a competent practitioner. The best of these suggestions might be certification, but not all certifications are created equal.


IT Leader or IT Manager? How to Be the Best of Both
"Once you've made your user interfaces as good as they can possibly be and eked out every last bit of operational efficiency from your processes, what do you have left? You have your people. You have your ability to inspire your employees to be engaged, productive and motivated," says Rajat Paharia, founder and chief product officer of Bunchball, a company that specializes in gamification. "Smart companies are figuring out that by tapping into this employee motivation, they have a sustainable, repeatable and efficient way to drive business results," Paharia says.


Enterprise Wearables Will Avoid BYOD Pitfalls
Wearables aren't just a consumer trend; they have the potential to change the way companies conduct business. Perpetually connected wearables will allow workers, partners, and customers to experience more immediacy, simplicity, and context in their work. Field workers and surgeons can do their jobs better while using hands-free smart glasses. Police departments know immediately if the gun lock on any individual firearm in the entire police force has been released via remote sensors. Across a long tail of wearable devices, new enterprise scenarios are emerging.


How a cyber cop patrols the underworld of e-commerce
When I initially joined Payza, I received in-depth training on how the company functions, and started in customer service. The Merchant Risk department is cross-trained in CS, Fraud, and Risk, which are vital to understanding how someone might try and take advantage of our system. However, as industries and trends are always evolving it’s important to keep up to date. Having good analytical skills, and a general curious nature is key to mitigating. That said, while it has prepared me for the reality of the job, I am still sometimes surprised at what you can find online. Some other skill sets that prove vital for this role are a good understanding of web technologies and a strong investigative drive.


The insatiable desire to control
Make no mistake. It will destroy you and your organization even while it parasitizes your values and harms the spirits of those who once willingly followed you, but who now trudge along like sheep going to slaughter. “Why aren’t our employees more innovative?” you exclaim, and the question “Why must I carry the burden of being all things to all people?” is keeping you up at night. You’re blind to it when it surfaces, this thing named control. Yet it makes you feel powerful. The desire to control will surface throughout your leadership career. The trick to keeping control at bay is be aware when it surfaces and to let go of it (this is the hard part) when it’s appropriate.


IBM Looks To The Cloud To Fight Disruption
It appears that IBM’s strategy could be working if today’s earnings report is any indication. Although as TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm reported, the company’s overall revenue failed to meet investor’s expectations, there was a bright spot with cloud-related revenue up 50% and “the company indicating that on a run-rate basis, cloud-as-a-service is up to $2.3 billion per year, an increase of more than 100%.” Of course, IBM is hardly alone among big tech companies when it comes to making a push to the cloud. In fact, Microsoft, Dell, Red Hat, HP, Cisco, Google and others have all made big cloud announcements recently and it’s hardly a coincidence. The technology world is tilting and this requires these companies, including IBM, to adjust.


Why You Need A Chief Information Security Officer
CISO’s retain accountability and responsibility for the success of their information security program and provide the focus and strategic presence necessary for the program to achieve its objectives. By coordinating all information security activities under the guidance and leadership of a CISO, healthcare organizations can significantly improve their security posture while reducing the risk of issues not being effectively addressed. The role of the CISO is strategic and tactical while acting as a conduit between the clinical, business and IT operations. Accomplishing the mission of an information security program requires a CISO with strong leadership skills, executive presence, security knowledge and effective placement within the organization.


Building Individual and Organizational resilience
In leadership terms, we define resilience as the ability to adapt in the face of multiple changes while continuing to persevere toward strategic goals. In the current environment where change is the norm and time to bounce back between stressors is minimal at best, we, as leaders, need to think about how we manage our personal resilience and also how we support our organization in adapting to the changes it is facing. We break resilience into four primary categories: Maintain physical well-being; Manage thinking; Fulfill life purpose using emotional intelligence; and Harness the power of human connection


Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems: 4 Facts
Edson described Intelligent System as a cross-platform companion to Microsoft's recently-announced Windows for IoT platform, a statement that seems to reaffirm that Azure has become more important than Windows to Microsoft's future. The same engineering team works on both products, she said, but "we're a cross-platform company. This is a cloud-first strategy: Connect to any device, anywhere, get data off that device." With Windows for IoT, "we want developers to know Windows will play in that space," Edson said. "But at the same time, we also realize you are going to have devices on Linux or whatever, and we need to work with that."


Google algorithm busts CAPTCHA with 99.8 percent accuracy
The algorithm developed by Google researchers is being used by its Street View team to improve Google Maps, by helping to recognising characters in natural or blurry images — for example, the house numbers captured by the Street View cars in the course of gathering imagery for the mapping service. According to the company, the algorithm can now accurately recognise 90 percent of street numbers, meaning Google Maps users looking for a particular building are likely to get a more specific result. But, given the nature of that challenge, it turns out that the algorithm is also well-suited to solving CAPTCHA puzzles designed to fox spammers using bots for services like Gmail.



Quote for the day:

"Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out." -- Frank A. Clark

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