High-demand cybersecurity skills in 2017

As I’ve written many times, the cybersecurity skills shortage is the biggest cybersecurity issue we face today. Not only are there too few bodies to fill the cybersecurity jobs, but a recent series of research reports from ESG and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) indicates that many currently employed cybersecurity professionals are overworked, not managing their careers proactively, and not receiving the proper amount of training to stay ahead of increasingly dangerous threats. Yikes!So, the skills deficit is clear, but which types of cybersecurity skills are in the highest demand? In the recently published ESG/ISSA research report, Through the Eyes of Cybersecurity Professionals, 371 cybersecurity professionals were asked to identify areas where the organizations they worked for had the biggest skills gaps. The results are as follows:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

High Demand Cybersecurity Skills in 2017

As I’ve written many times, the cybersecurity skills shortage is the biggest cybersecurity issue we face today.  Not only are there too few bodies to fill the cybersecurity jobs, but a recent series of research reports from ESG and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) indicates that many currently employed cybersecurity professionals are overworked, not managing their careers proactively, and not receiving the proper amount of training to stay ahead of increasingly dangerous threats.  Yikes!So, the skills deficit is clear but which types of cybersecurity skills are in the highest demand?  In the recently published ESG/ISSA research report title, Through the Eyes of Cybersecurity Professionals, 371 cybersecurity professionals were asked to identify areas where the organizations they worked for had the biggest skills gaps.  The results are as follows:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: SpareFare helps travelers resell those pesky non-refundable tickets

Most of my travel is booked well in advance. I’m kind of obsessive about my calendar and with a busy life to manage, I like to know what I’m up to weeks in advance. I’m also very loyal to one particular airline (here’s looking at you Air New Zealand) and am happy to pay a little more for a ticket on a top-shelf carrier that has good terms an conditions.I realize, of course, not everyone is in the same position and there are lots of people who buy cheap flights or holiday packages and then come unstuck when plans change. This is where SpareFare comes in. The company created an online platform that aims to connect people who bought flights or holiday packages they can no longer use with people seeking urgent or discounted travel options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BlackBerry counts on cars to reverse decline in revenue

BlackBerry reported another quarter of losses and declining revenue on Tuesday, but CEO John Chen forecast that the company will break even next quarter, its first since quitting the smartphone business.The company signaled its departure from the smartphone hardware business last week, licensing its brand to TCL, the Chinese manufacturer that built the last two BlackBerry handsets.Chen's break-even forecast had a caveat: It didn't include restructuring charges, stock compensation expenses, fair-value adjustments and a host of other things, so the company will still make a loss, but a smaller one.With smartphones out of its product mix, BlackBerry is looking to a different kind of mobility to drive its future growth: the automotive industry, the major source of revenue for its QNX embedded software platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BlackBerry counts on cars to reverse decline in revenue

BlackBerry reported another quarter of losses and declining revenue on Tuesday, but CEO John Chen forecast that the company will break even next quarter, its first since quitting the smartphone business.The company signaled its departure from the smartphone hardware business last week, licensing its brand to TCL, the Chinese manufacturer that built the last two BlackBerry handsets.Chen's break-even forecast had a caveat: It didn't include restructuring charges, stock compensation expenses, fair-value adjustments and a host of other things, so the company will still make a loss, but a smaller one.With smartphones out of its product mix, BlackBerry is looking to a different kind of mobility to drive its future growth: the automotive industry, the major source of revenue for its QNX embedded software platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This Intel board computer can be a powerful Ubuntu 16.04 Linux PC

If you want a PC with Ubuntu Linux, you can turn to Intel's Joule single-board computer instead of buying an expensive machine.Support for Ubuntu 16.04 desktop OS has been added to the Joule board, according to developer notes for Intel IoT Developer Kit 5.0 released late last week.Intel has two Joule boards: the 570x, which sells for $219 on Mouser, and the 550x, which is priced at $179 on the same retail site. The 550x, which started shipping recently, was priced at $349 until Monday, but was cut in half after a story by the IDG News Service pointed out the unusually high price.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

There’s Still Time! Go Here For Last Minute Deals That Will Ship Fast – Deal Alert

Procrastination has once again turned into desperation. "Maybe I could whittle a pan flute from those broken chair legs in the basement", you're thinking. Snap out of it! Stay calm and remind yourself that with just a few minutes on Amazon right now you can still snag great gifts for anyone left on your list, and have them at your doorstep with plenty of time to gift wrap. Amazon's "last minute deals" page right here features great deals in almost any department, guaranteed by Amazon to arrive by Christmas. You need Amazon Prime to take advantage of free 2-day shipping, so if you don't have a membership, take a minute to sign up for a free 30 day trial and feel the weight lift from your shoulders. But do it soon -- once the 2-day window closes, things will get ugly. Breathe deeply and go get the job done: See Amazon's Last Minute Deals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

There’s Still Time! Go Here For Last Minute Deals That Will Ship Fast – Deal Alert

Procrastination has once again turned into desperation. "Maybe I could whittle a pan flute from those broken chair legs in the basement", you're thinking. Snap out of it! Stay calm and remind yourself that with just a few minutes on Amazon right now you can still snag great gifts for anyone left on your list, and have them at your doorstep with plenty of time to gift wrap. Amazon's "last minute deals" page right here features great deals in almost any department, guaranteed by Amazon to arrive by Christmas. You need Amazon Prime to take advantage of free 2-day shipping, so if you don't have a membership, take a minute to sign up for a free 30 day trial and feel the weight lift from your shoulders. But do it soon -- once the 2-day window closes, things will get ugly. Breathe deeply and go get the job done: See Amazon's Last Minute Deals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Real edge computing will enable new business models

Edge computing today may be most simplistically defined as putting an extra layer of computing in the network between your smartphone and a centralized data center in the cloud for some optimizing purpose.From this original, slightly narrow vision, there is still some ways to go before realizing full stack relocations (e.g., relocation of an entire web server) that will allow true service enablement just one hop away from the end user device. Obvious benefits of realizing this vision include reduced latency and backhaul capacity reduction, but I believe there will be more profound benefits to operators and service providers in terms of new business model enablement, too.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

No porn for you, South Carolina, if newly proposed bill becomes law

If two state representatives get their way and their newly proposed law moves forward, then people in South Carolina will be blocked from accessing online porn after purchasing a new device.There are many missing pieces to fully explain how porn blocking would work under the Human Trafficking Prevent Act, and reading the bill doesn’t make it any clearer. However, the bill sponsors—Reps. Bill Chumley (R-Spartanburg) and Mike Burns (R-Greenville)—wrote that porn is a “public health hazard” and viewing porn online has impacted the “demand for human trafficking and prostitution.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

No porn for you, South Carolina, if newly proposed bill becomes law

If two state representatives get their way and their newly proposed law moves forward, then people in South Carolina will be blocked from accessing online porn after purchasing a new device.There are many missing pieces to fully explain how porn blocking would work under the Human Trafficking Prevent Act, and reading the bill doesn’t make it any clearer. However, the bill sponsors—Reps. Bill Chumley (R-Spartanburg) and Mike Burns (R-Greenville)—wrote that porn is a “public health hazard” and viewing porn online has impacted the “demand for human trafficking and prostitution.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The year ransomware became one of the top threats to enterprises

On Feb. 5, employees at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, started having network access problems that prevented electronic communications. Over the next few days, they learned that the hospital was the victim of a ransomware attack that encrypted files on multiple computers.After several days during which staff had to resort to pen and paper for some record keeping, the hospital decided to pay the $17,000 ransom -- the equivalent of 40 bitcoins that the attackers had requested. It was deemed to be the fastest way to restore the affected files and systems.This was to be the first in a string of ransomware attacks that affected multiple healthcare organizations in the U.S. over the following months, including the Chino Valley Medical Center, the Desert Valley Hospital and Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The year ransomware became one of the top threats to enterprises

On Feb. 5, employees at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, started having network access problems that prevented electronic communications. Over the next few days, they learned that the hospital was the victim of a ransomware attack that encrypted files on multiple computers.After several days during which staff had to resort to pen and paper for some record keeping, the hospital decided to pay the $17,000 ransom -- the equivalent of 40 bitcoins that the attackers had requested. It was deemed to be the fastest way to restore the affected files and systems.This was to be the first in a string of ransomware attacks that affected multiple healthcare organizations in the U.S. over the following months, including the Chino Valley Medical Center, the Desert Valley Hospital and Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Web-scale networking with Cumulus Linux — announcing 3.2

We are pleased to announce that Cumulus Linux 3.2 is now available for installation. The priority of this release was our operators: how can we make web-scale networking with Cumulus Linux easier, faster and more efficient for operators coming from all types of engineering backgrounds.

As more and more organizations are adopting a cloud environment for various uses, web-scale IT principles become an increasingly relevant tool for building efficient, automatable and scalable data centers. This release offers our customers a path to web-scale networking that is simple and user friendly.

Over the next several days, we’ll be posting several blog posts that go into detail about some of our 3.2 features. In the meantime, here is the overview.

Cumulus Linux 3.2 includes:

  • NCLU: Network Command Line Utility (NCLU) provides users one central point where they can manually drive the system. This new feature both enables network engineers from all backgrounds and retains all the benefits of standardizing on Linux to achieve significant operational efficiency. Learn more about NCLU.
  • PIM: Protocol-Independent Multicast enables efficient data distribution over Internet Protocol (IP). With the availability of PIM, you can now build networks utilizing web-scale networking ethos.
  • System Snapshots Continue reading