May 2007

Another government security foul-up, BlueFur Anti-phishing solution, Interpol security checklist, cracking a protected BIOS, and finding "hidden" data.

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I recently came across The Black Page at Black Hat. It has some interesting coverage on things not usually seen elsewhere. I particularly found the claims (as of yet unsubstantiated) about offshore development elevating the porosity of computing systems.

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Sorry for the long lapse in posting, but I started a new job a few weeks ago, and I’m still adjusting to the schedule. I also don’t know what their blogging policy is, so I’m going to keep things vague for now about the company. What I will tell you for now is that it’s a much larger company than I have ever worked for, by a factor of about 30. This is obviously a bit of an adjustment, but I’m starting to get a handle on the way things work for such a large company.

Why did I change jobs? Don’t get me wrong, I loved my old job. I was the main security guru in the place, and I had my hands in every IT-related project that came through. I enjoyed working there, and the majority of my coworkers were great people. It came down to some advantages that the new position offered that the old one simply didn’t:

1. I was “recruited.” – Never discount the power of ego. I hadn’t posted an updated resume in over 6 months, but this company came looking for me anyway. It felt good to be sought after, instead of doing the seeking.

2. Location – I had an awful commute at my old job. On an average day, it would take between 1-1.5 hours to travel in each direction. Forget about days when it was raining or snowing.

3. Compensation – Not that I was that underpaid or anything, but the new company made an offer right off the bat that was a considerable increase in my salary.

4. Larger company – With a larger company comes a larger and more complex and diverse infrastructure. While I may have worked on firewalls from vendors such as Cisco and Juniper, I have never had the opportunity to work on a Check Point.

5. Larger team – As I mentioned, I was the main security guy at my last place. Not that I have a problem with that, but I’ve only been in the security field for a few years, and I know I still have a lot to learn. This place puts me in a team with a number of highly experienced security professionals. I may be a little out of my depth at times, but I can learn a lot from the people I’m working with.

That last reason is probably the biggest reason for making the jump. I do my best to keep expanding my security knowledge by reading and testing out new tools, but there is something to be said for working with people who have been doing for a lot longer, and who are more than willing to answer any question I can throw at them.

We’ll see how it goes. My first couple of projects involve firewall management centralization and network compliance management. I’ll post again soon with some details on the products I’m looking at.

Tags: employment, new+job

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The core of the content of this forum comes from an academic work made in 2006. Recently the author of this work has received the 2007 Student of the Year Business Continuity Industry Award, hosted by CIR (Continuity Insurance & Risk, the UK's leading bi-monthly risk management and insurance journal).

This award would not have been received without the valuable answers provided in the questionnaire by 82 information security and business professionals worldwide. Part of the academic work was the analysis of these answers.

Thanks to all of you!

See some coverage in the news:
- Business Continuity Central Site
- Business Continuity Forum

See also:
- the Business Continuity Awards Site
- the Student of the Year Award Call for Nominations

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Somewhere pretty far along in your career, you should be thinking strategically. New projects, system improvements, proactive, all the buzzwords.

But then that host croaks.

There goes the day. meta-author: Richard meta-tag: broken meta-date: 200705151456

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MOICE Office 2003 security plug-in, source routing infests IPv6, the continuing risk of removable storage, preparing for electronic evidence acquisition, preventing data leakage through swap and hibernation files.

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