Is outsmarting hackers a job for you?
(Associated Press)
Having a hard time finding a job? Maybe a career outsmarting hackers is for you?
There is such a dire shortage of computer security experts, estimates range from the “20,000s 40,000s,” that both corporations and government agencies are fretting over the ability to keep networks safe from hackers in the years ahead, according to a Reuters report.
Just last week, LinkedIn, the global online network for professionals, confirmed that 6.4 million member passwords were stolen, and a Russian hacker is suspected of being behind the breach. EHarmony, the online dating service, and Last.fm, a music site, also warned they may have been the target of hackers.
At a Reuters Media and Technology Summit in New York this week, experts issued a red alert for more college and government programs to train security professionals.
“We don’t have enough security professionals and that’s a big issue,” Symantec Corp Chief Executive Enrique Salem told the group, according to the Reuters report. “What I would tell you is it’s going to be a bigger issue from a national security perspective than people realize.”
Hacking expert Jeff Moss, a chief security officer for ICAAN who holds hacking conferences in Las Vegas each summer, said government agencies are trying to lure security experts from private firms out of desperation.
“None of the projections look positive,” Moss of the number of security experts needed. “The numbers I’ve seen look like shortages in the 20,000s to 40,000s for years to come.”
This week Northrop Grumman Corp., a defense contractor, launched an undergraduate honors program in cyber security at the University of Maryland. The National Security Agency is also setting up programs at select universities, according to Reuters. Agencies are also attending hacking conference to lure recruits.
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11 comments Add your comment
Frank Furter
June 13th, 2012
4:46 pm
Change those passwords often!
http://www.facebook.com/notquitedevils
Fred ™
June 13th, 2012
4:49 pm
If Synmantec spent even 1/10th of the cash on actual security and security research as they did on marketing and paying off computer manufacturers to put their crappy products on their computers, there wouldn’t be a problem.
Wondering
June 13th, 2012
4:57 pm
A serious question. What government employee would go to a security conference held in Las Vegas? The only reaction the public has to such conferences is to demand the employee be fired. Can you spell boondoggle? I’ve been in the industry for 34 years, and I never ask a government employee to put their job at risk by asking them to go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas.
My other issue is training people to work in security without training them on how computers work. Security workers need to understand a multitude of technologies and I keep running into professionals that don’t understand the basics of protocols or software. Don’t dilute the pool just to make it larger. Its getting to be like calling a person with an associates degree in electronics an engineer.
Logisticalstyles
June 13th, 2012
5:06 pm
Even more motivation to get started on that Sec+ cert.
heywondering
June 13th, 2012
5:21 pm
you make two more years sound like a person has a PhD. They have to start somewhere and the last time I looked, an associates degree comes first.
Carlos
June 13th, 2012
6:13 pm
To be a security expert you got to know what you are securing. Alot of these “experts” deal with theory and are not hands on.
How is having more computer security experts going to stop hackers from breaking into linkin. Sounds like a cop out to crappy security software.
Bernie
June 13th, 2012
6:46 pm
Unfortunately, we are far too many years too late to recover from this one…That horse left the Barn back in 2002. This is another colossal failure of the The Bush Administration, that was too obsessed with Iraq and other issues to see this very important earth changing event happening right under their noses and acting with indifference. 2002 was the time to do this, all we can HOPE to do now, is find workable defensive actions to try to slow it down. Computer experts around the world were sounding the alarm in 2002, but no one in Government or the private sector was seriously listening or believed them. We are 10 years out from that time and in the computer development world, the passing of years is like the passing of decades. to put where we are in perspective, is like comparing the Pac Man game to the current XBox game and we are PAC MAN for sure. Even the most successful computer security companies are struggling on a daily basis just to keep up and identify the most mundane intrusions. One of President O’Bama’s first decision as President was addressing this issue and its concern and putting the necessary resources in place to combat this issue. Yet, this another one of his Major
successes as a competent decisive leader and President to better protect the American People remains unsung or discussed openly.
4xtra
June 13th, 2012
7:10 pm
There are some very good points on here but let me tell you something.
For one Microsoft has just recently began to approach security issues more seriously after putting security on the back burner in back of other issues such as “Customer experience ratings” and
“GUI glitz, shining lights and entertainment”. For years Microsoft appeared to acknowledge security issues as a luxury item rather than a total necessary component.
And that is why as a consumer you must enhance security on your computers on your own.
These “updates” are a joke. They wait until the horse runs out THEN they update.
Simple tasks such as:
Updating your host file: Adding web addresses and IP addresses to your host file shuts out specific websites at the gate, my host file is 187 pages, that include extremely inappropriate porn sites, spam houses, and many others.
Disabling the MS customer experience activity in the task manager .
This is a CPU hog and a total waste of resources…SHUT THIS OFF
Use a ad network blocker such as Ghostery, Ad blocker and others.
Also opt out at
http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
Use the space bar in your password…. Trust me this works.
In a dictionary based password descrambler the spacebar in a password stretches this task out to absolute infinity. I had a computer taken from the police and they gave the computer to the FBI on a forgery case and the called me DIRECTLY asking for my password because they could not figure it out.
There are many many more but if you sit back and hope that an Microsoft “Update” will save the day
you are kidding yourselves.
CISSP asst
June 13th, 2012
7:29 pm
Bernie is a fool and blaming Bush is no help and a lie. Its outsourcing that has led to the failures of knowlegable computer experts. Obama is the biggest security threat to the US, worst than a virus or hacker.
Sparta_Bubba
June 13th, 2012
7:38 pm
Folks I’m just a po’ old dirt farmer in Sparta, GA but here is the problem and here is the solution. Tell me have you ever heard of a hacker being convicted and sent to prison? Start catching a few of these hackers and put ‘em in a federal pen, not one with a golf course and you’ll see a difference.
Bernie
June 13th, 2012
8:53 pm
CIISP, check it our for yourself….the truth is there all to see. All one has to do is read.
your claims are not supported by the facts and you know it!