Daily Tech Digest - July 14, 2017

9 cutting-edge programming languages worth learning now

The world is filled with thousands of clever languages that aren’t C#, Java, or JavaScript. Some are treasured by only a few, but many have flourishing communities connected by a common love for the language’s facility in solving certain problems. There may not be tens of millions of programmers who know the syntax, but sometimes there is value in doing things a little different, as experimenting with any new language can pay significant dividends on future projects. The following nine languages should be on every programmer’s radar. They may not be the best for every job—many are aimed at specialized tasks. But they all offer upsides that are worth investigating and investing in. There may be a day when one of these languages proves to be exactly what your project — or boss — needs.


So, you want a master's degree in cybersecurity?

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh)—In 16 or 20 months, the Master of Science in Information Security enhances a technical education in computer systems and security with research/development opportunities and the option to take additional courses in areas complementary to security. Graduates may pursue doctoral degrees or positions as security experts equipped to manage the growing complexities associated with securing data, networks and systems. This graduate degree program meets the criteria for the NSF-funded CyberCorps Scholarship for Service Program (SFS). U.S. citizens who are accepted may be eligible for a full scholarship and stipend from the federal government.


Disruptive Technologies and Industry 4.0

Humankind requires an open mind to bring about Industry 4.0. The technology required by the IoT requires a healthy dose of supply and demand to survive and succeed. Good salaries and plentiful employment provide consumers with money to spend on things they want. Rewarding and encouraging the development of technology and creativity brings about the advancement. The good news is that this action is already in place around the world. Manulife’s Lab of Forward Thinking (LOFT), located in the thriving areas of Singapore, Toronto, and Boston, builds competitive advantages within the financial services industry. Employees are encouraged to use technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to determine new solutions for building wealth and prioritizing customer needs.


Singapore unveils first look at new cybersecurity laws

CSA Chief Executive David Koh noted that the country's current legislation, the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, focused primarily on cybercrime. A more multi-faceted bill was necessary to oversee a cybersecurity landscape that continued to evolve, Koh said. Amongst the proposed bill's key components was a regulatory framework targeted at CII owners, which formalised the duties of such providers in securing systems under their responsibility, including before a cybersecurity had occurred. The bill would detail CII owners' responsibilities, which would include providing information on the technical architecture of the CII, carrying out regular risk assessments of the CII, complying with codes of practice, reporting of cybersecurity incidents "within the prescribed period" after the event.


Why Resilience Is Necessary As A Leader

Perhaps we think of resiliency from a personal perspective. When we think of resiliency, the image comes to mind of a person who just completed an ultra-marathon with two prosthetic legs. We do not think of a leader who went through a grueling year and came out a better leader. While personal resiliency is important, it is a critical component of effective leadership. The true grit of a leader is not how they perform during the good times but rather how they display emotional strength, courage and professionalism during the most trying times. It is impossible to demonstrate resilience unless you have gone through difficult times. For example, a leader who leads a team during a time of leadership transition, through a period of high turnover, through an organizational restructuring or through a season where surveys revealed poor performance.


8 keys to DynamoDB success

While DynamoDB generally works quite well, it’s inevitable that we all run into issues. A few months ago at Segment, my colleagues wrote a detailed blog post about our own DynamoDB issues. Mainly, we were hitting our rate limits due to problems with our partitioning setup – a single partition was limiting throughput for an entire table. Solving the problem took a superhuman effort, but it was worth it ... In DynamoDB, read throughput is five times cheaper than write throughput. If your workload involves a lot of writes, see if you can read the data first to avoid updating in-place. Reading first will help avoid throttling and cut your bill in a write-heavy environment where keys may be written multiple times.


Transforming the PMO into an SVMO to Drive Software Value

The PMO for software development is typically focused on planning, implementing, monitoring, and controlling projects. It often serves as the “bad guy” informing management about missed deadlines and keeping the staff on task, ensuring they are following the standard processes as they were defined. ... So, I am certainly not saying that they should be eliminated but I am saying that it’s necessary to focus on more than what has historically been done. I believe the PMO needs to be transformed into more of a strategic partner within the organization, focusing on optimizing process to maximize value flow and measure value rather than just standardizing process to improve efficiency and measure compliance and, consequently, being repositioned as a Software Value Management Office (SVMO).


Who Is A Target For Ransomware Attacks?

“There are a wide variety of ransomware types, but one thing is certain,” says Morey Haber, vice president of technology for BeyondTrust, which offers a privileged access management platform. “No vertical, government, or organization is immune to its effects. Unfortunately, some are more susceptible to successful attacks, based on the type of technologies they deploy, their age, cost for replacement, identity governance and privilege maturity, and overall cyber security hygiene implementations regulated by government or third-party compliance initiatives.” ... it’s never been more important to protect your organization. Here’s a look at who the usual ransomware targets are today and are likely to be in the near future, why they’re targets, and best practices for protecting your data.


Verizon Breach: 6 Million Customer Accounts Exposed

The data exposure was discovered by Chris Vickery, a researcher with the cyber risk team at security vendor UpGuard. The data was contained in an unsecured Amazon Web Services Simple Storage Service (S3) "bucket," or storage instance, Dan O'Sullivan, a cyber resilience analyst at UpGuard, writes in a blog post. Israel-based NICE Systems, one of Verizon's partners, controlled the repository. Verizon says in its statement that NICE was supporting "a residential and small business wireline self-service call center portal and required certain data for the project." UpGuard notified Verizon on June 13 about the data exposure, but the bucket wasn't locked down until June 22. UpGuard characterized that length of time as "troubling." Officials at NICE couldn't immediately be reached for comment.


Companies must hire a CISO to address cyber threats at the executive level

The office of a CISO is a structure you put in place to help your organisation deliver a continually relevant response to cyber risk. You want your CISO to have an impact, you want to see processes challenged and informed consensus with business units achieved, you want to see tweaks to staff behaviours, as well as to the technical environment. You want your customers to have trust in your organisation. You want your suppliers to be vigilant against the potential impact on you if they don't hold up their end. Cyber risk management is not static and there absolutely is no finish line. As your organisation continues its search for pragmatism in approaching cyber risk, you'll want your CISO to be supported in their role, both with their own team as well as senior executive sponsorship because their success is your organisation's digital wealth protection.



Quote for the day:


"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader." -- General George S. Patton, Jr.


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