Content Was The Biggest Cybersecurity Oversight Of 2021

At the outset of 2022, there is more reason to worry about cybersecurity threats than usual. Not only are threat actors evolving, but the post-pandemic economy has ushered in new trends that are changing the cyber landscape for the worse. 

7 Pressing Cybersecurity Questions Boards Need to Ask

Summary. Boards have a unique role in helping their organizations manage cybersecurity threats. They do not have day to day management responsibility, but they do have oversight and fiduciary responsibility. Don’t leave any questions about critical vulnerabilities for tomorrow. Asking the smart questions at your next board meeting might just prevent a breach from becoming a total disaster.

In this article we offer 7 questions to ask to make sure your board understands how cybersecurity is being managed by your organization. Simply asking these questions will also raise awareness of the importance of cybersecurity, and the need to prioritize action.

10 Cyber Attacks in 2021 Cost $600M With 40,000 Businesses Put at Risk

In just 10 cyber incidents last year, over $600 million in cash was stolen or taken as ransom, tens of millions of citizen records stolen, 40,000 businesses’ IT operations put at risk, one billion airline passenger details compromised and at least one bank was effectively shut down for over a week, according to Tokio Marine HCC International’s (TMHCCI) second annual Cyber Incidents Report.

HOW TO BECOME A CYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONAL WITHOUT A DEGREE?

 If you want to be a cybersecurity professional without a degree, follow these steps!

Cybersecurity is flourishing in the global tech market, credits go to the advancements of technologies and the increase in cybercriminals across the world. Some of the countries have become highly popular for having dangerous groups of cybercriminals seeking weak links to attempt cyberattacks. Thus, this concern has increased the demand for experienced cybersecurity professionals in all types of companies across multiple industries. It is a myth that one should have a degree in cybersecurity from any reputed educational institution. One can also be a cybersecurity professional without a degree. It is necessary to have sufficient knowledge and experience to pursue a successful cybersecurity career in 2022. Thus, let’s get to know how to become a cybersecurity professional without a degree in 2022.

Steps to become a cybersecurity professional without a degree

Enrol for a valid certificate

Nowadays, companies need experienced and knowledgeable cybersecurity professionals to help in combatting potential cyberattacks in the nearby future. It is not compulsory to show a degree in cybersecurity to get recruited in the field of cybersecurity. Thus, it is important to enrol in a reputed educational platform to gain a valid certificate, an alternative to a degree. There are multiple certification courses that will show enthusiasm and knowledge about real-life problems in companies.

Grab opportunities to show necessary skills

One needs to add valuable and important projects to add the necessary value to the resume. Thus, a cybersecurity professional needs to grab opportunities to show necessary skills. These opportunities include volunteering in projects, freelance projects, complete participation in multiple contests and competitions, and creating own cybersecurity projects with the knowledge of programming languages.

Attend boot camps

To be a successful cybersecurity professional without a degree, one does not need a degree in cybersecurity. A cybersecurity professional can attend several boot camps for cybersecurity. It is known as an organized approach to kickstart a cybersecurity career. These are intensive programs that offer practical and hands-on skills to combat the smart approaches of cybercriminals.

Join cybersecurity communities/groups

To boost a cybersecurity career, a cybersecurity professional needs to join multiple cybersecurity communities and groups to gain sufficient information about the current affairs of cybersecurity. It helps in networking and adding experienced cybersecurity professionals to stay updated efficiently. There are multiple communities on different social media platforms that welcome aspiring cybersecurity professionals, working cybersecurity professionals, as well as cybersecurity professionals without a degree.

Enhance the essential skills

There is not a need to have a degree in cybersecurity in 2022 to be a professional in the cybersecurity domain. One needs to have high interests to enhance the essential skills to be a cybersecurity professional without a degree. The necessary skills include technical, analytical, communication, problem-solving, and presentation with a strong understanding of installing firewalls, anti-virus software, network security tools, security alerts, data backup, as well as security documentation and training materials.

That being said, there are multiple benefits of being a cybersecurity professional without a degree. The benefits include highly-marketable technical cybersecurity skills, no need for a financial expense to brush up skills, and many more. Thus, do not feel demotivated if you do not have a college formal degree in cybersecurity to pursue your dream career in this hot domain.

Looking to hire skilled software developers? Contact TP&P Technology - Leading Software Development Company in Vietnam Today

Article Source: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/how-to-become-a-cybersecurity-professional-without-a-degree/

Build a stronger cybersecurity team through diversity and training

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyber threats. In the latest post of our Voice of the Community blog series, Microsoft Security Product Marketing Manager Natalia Godyla talks with Heath Adams, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at TCM Security about being a mentor, hiring new security talent, certifications, upskilling, the future of cybersecurity training, and lots more.

Natalia: What do you recommend to security leaders concerned with the talent shortfall?

Heath: There needs to be more openness and getting away from gatekeeping. In this industry, there’s a lot of, “I went through this path, so you need to go through this path.” Or “I did these certifications, so you need to do these certifications.” Everybody wants this perfect candidate—somebody who has 10 years of experience—even when they don’t necessarily need it. We need to be able to take somebody that’s more junior, who we can help train. Or take someone with a clean slate.

As a manager, be open to more than just what’s on the Human Resources job description. And be open to new people with different backgrounds. People are coming from all walks of life and age groups. So, if you put those biases aside and just consider the person that’s in front of you, that will help with the job shortage and help close the talent gap.

Natalia: And how has the pandemic and the shift to hybrid work changed cybersecurity skilling?

Heath: I think it’s been a positive. In our field, the ability to work remotely was always there. But the pandemic shifted things, so more companies are starting to realize that fact. I’ve worked jobs as a penetration tester where I had to relocate, even though I was working out of my home 95 percent of the time. Now, more companies are opening their eyes to talent that isn’t local. You no longer have to look in big markets; you can look at somebody on the other side of the country who’s studying cybersecurity, and they can be an asset to your team.

I was doing a lot of Twitch streaming during the shutdown, and I noticed our streams were way bigger than before. We had more people watching, more people interested. There’s a lot of people who took advantage of the shutdown to say, “Hey, this is my time to get focused. I want a new career.” There are high-paying jobs and there’s remote work. And as I mentioned, you don’t need a specific background or degree to get into this field. People can come from all walks of life. I think the pandemic helped shine a light on that.

Natalia: You’re well known as The Cyber Mentor™. How has mentoring impacted your career?

Heath: It keeps me on top of my game. I have to be able to give people direction and I don’t want to give out bad information, so, I’m making sure that I stay on top of what the industry changes are, where the jobs are heading, and how to interview properly—all of which seem to change from year to year. It helps me stay in touch with the next generation that’s coming into the security field as well.

Natalia: Do you have your own mentors that help you progress in your career?

Heath: I came up with what I call “community mentorship.” I have a Discord community, and we use that to encourage other people to give back. You want to be able to help people when they need it or get help when you need it while learning from each other. When it’s time for networking or needing a job, that goes a long way. For me, it’s more about being where there are groups of like-minded people. I’ve got a lot of friends that own penetration test companies, and we’ll get together, have lunch, talk strategies. What are you doing? What am I doing? That’s the kind of mentorship that we have with each other; just making sure we’re keeping each other in check, thinking about new things.

Natalia: What are the biggest struggles for early career mentees who are trying to grow their skills? And how can leaders address those challenges?

Heath: For a person looking to get a role, there are a few things to remember. One is to make sure you’re crawling before you walk, walking before you run. I’ll use hacking as an example. A lot of people get excited about hacking and think it sounds awesome. “You can get paid money to hack something? I want to do that!” And they try to jump right into it without building foundational skill sets, learning the parts of a computer, or learning how to do computer networking or basic troubleshooting. What I tell people is to break and fix computers. Understand basic hardware, basic computer networking, what IP addresses are, what a subnet is. Understand some coding, like Python. You don’t need a computer science background but having those foundational skills will go a long way.

If you don’t put a foundation under a house, it’s going to collapse. So, you need to think about your career in the same way. You must make sure you’re building a foundation. People don’t realize the amount of effort that goes into getting into the field. Do your due diligence beforehand.

There’s also a lot of imposter syndrome in cybersecurity. I tell people not to concern themselves with others, especially on social media. They say comparison is the thief of joy, and I truly believe that. You have to make sure you’re running your own race. Even if you run the same mile as somebody else, and they finish it in 5 minutes, and you finish it in 10; you still finish the same mile. What matters is that you got there. As long as you’re trying to be better than you were yesterday, you’re going to make it a lot farther than you think.

Finally, cybersecurity is a field that’s constantly changing. For somebody who is complacent—who wants to get a degree, get a job, and then is set—cybersecurity is not the right fit. Cybersecurity is for somebody who’s interested in constantly learning because there are always new vulnerabilities. There was just the Log4J vulnerability that caused everyone concern. I had a meeting today with a client, and if I’m not prepared, I’m letting them down. I’m letting their security down as well. I spent the weekend studying because I had to. That’s the business we’re in.

You must stay on top of this from an employer side as well—being able to train people and keep them up to date. TCM Security has a base foundation where we want our employees to be, and then we encourage them to gain knowledge where they’re most interested. I’ve been sent to a training that I had no interest in whatsoever and wanted to pull my hair out. As a manager, I ask, “What do you want to learn?” When I send an employee to a cybersecurity training that they’re interested in, they’re going to retain that information a lot better. They can then bring that information back to us, and we can use that in real-world scenarios.

Natalia: How can security leaders recruit security professionals to their teams better? What should they look out for? For example, how important are certifications?

Heath: For an entry-level role, certifications are important. Their importance diminishes once you get into the field. But I’m an advocate for them; they help prove some knowledge—so does having a blog, attending a conference, building a home lab, speaking at a conference, speaking at a local community group—anything that says, “I’m passionate about security.”

I have seen some entry-level roles where the interviewers have you code something, or have you fix broken code, just to make sure you logically understand what’s going on. You don’t have to be a developer or be able to code, but you must be able to understand what’s in front of you. Having some coding challenges during the hiring process can be beneficial—but it should be open book. For a security professional, using search is 90 percent of our job, honestly. If you’re limiting somebody from searching online, you’re setting false expectations.

I go back and re-watch videos and re-read blogs all the time, because there are so many different commands, and there’s no way of memorizing all of them. But you need to understand the concepts. If you understand the tool they might need to run or the concept of it, then you can search that, find the tool, and run it. That’s more important.

Natalia: We’ve all read the statistics about burnout in the security industry. What do you recommend for leaders who want to better retain their talent?

Heath: You must be pro-mental health. Make sure there’s ample paid time off (PTO) and encourage employees to use it. Also, make sure that your employees can take time off beyond PTO. If they’re sick, they shouldn’t feel like they’re letting people down. That’s why we have flexible schedules; we run on a 32-hour workweek. We try to give people as much time back and have a work-life balance. We also pay for training, so people can go and focus on topics they’re interested in. We make sure that we’re investing in our employees. It’s so much more expensive to rehire and retrain. I’d rather invest in an employee and keep their mental health at a high level, and make sure I’m giving them all the tools and training they need to perform successfully.

Natalia: What trends have you seen in cybersecurity skilling? What do you think is coming next in terms of how security professionals are trained up, recruited, and retained?

Heath: There are more people interested in the field, and that’s great. We’re starting to see a lot more training providers and training options. Back when I started, a lot of it was just reading blog posts, and there were maybe one or two training providers. Now, there are 10 or 15.

Misinformation can be out there, or outdated information. If you search online for certification companies—or even look at an online post from a year ago—that information could be outdated. So again, this comes back to due diligence and making sure that you’re doing your research, not just relying on one source. If I was going to look for certifications to get into this field, I’d look at 20 or 30 different resources, get a consensus of what polls the highest, then do my own research on those organizations. It’s great job skills practice to research and make sure you understand where you need to go.

Need Help With Your Software Development Projects? Contact TP&P Technology - Leading Software Development Company in Vietnam Today

Article Source: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/01/20/build-a-stronger-cybersecurity-team-through-diversity-and-training/

6 things in cybersecurity we didn’t know last year

The past 12 months in cybersecurity have been a rough ride. In cybersecurity, everything is broken — it’s just a matter of finding it — and this year felt like everything broke at once, especially toward the end of the year. But for better or worse, we end the year knowing more than we did before.

Here we look back at the year that’s been, and what we learned along the way.

1. Ransomware costs businesses because of downtime, not ransom payments

The scourge of file-encrypting malware continues. Ransomware this year alone forced entire towns offline, blocked paychecks and caused fuel shortages, as entire company networks were held for ransom in exchange for millions of dollars in cryptocurrency payments. The U.S. Treasury estimates that ransomware operators are likely to make more from ransom payments in 2021 than they did during the past decade. But research shows that the businesses face the most losses through lost productivity and the often-arduous task of cleaning up after a ransomware attack — including incident response and legal support.

New Ransomware Attack By Russian Hackers Highlights Cybersecurity Challenges

New Ransomware Attack By Russian Hackers Highlights Cybersecurity Challenges

NBC News reported on Friday that, “A successful ransomware attack on a single company has spread to at least 200 organizations, according to cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs, making it one of the single largest criminal ransomware sprees in history.” The Washington Post later said the attack impacted more than 1,000 companies.

Survey shows many water utilities struggle with cybersecurity

The water industry, like most critical infrastructure sectors, shows a range of cybersecurity preparedness levels, even as threats grow.

The Future of Low-Code is Open

 The Future of Low-Code is Open

The low-code market is seeing meteoric rise across the world, as companies try to keep up with digitization demands and shrinking IT budgets. Even as we witness increasing low-code adoption among professional as well as citizen developers, an intriguing question comes to mind – What lies ahead for low-code, and could it ever become a mainstream approach for modern development teams?

Netflix exec steps into cybersecurity

Netflix exec steps into cybersecurity

Dave Temkin, who built and scaled the Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Netflix, has joined cybersecurity firm Imperva, Inc.

What is Blockchain? We explain the technology of blockchains

What is Blockchain? We explain the technology of blockchains

As a secure, distributed ledger, well-designed Blockchain technology not only eliminates intermediaries, reduces costs, and increases speed and reach, but also offers greater transparency and traceability for many financial processes.

The future of cryptocurrency

The evolution of currency

Some time ago, people traded goods and services, directly, through a system of bartering. Over time, and in order to speed up and standardise transactions, currencies began to form.

More solutions will not solve cybersecurity and data protection challenges, study reveals

More solutions will not solve cybersecurity and data protection challenges, study reveals

Acronis released the findings of its second annual Cyber Protection Week survey, which uncovered a dangerous disconnect between the need for organizations to keep their data protected and the ineffective investments they’ve made trying to reach that goal.

How To Enhance Your Privacy And Security When Using Mac Devices

How To Enhance Your Privacy And Security When Using Mac Devices

macOS has numerous built-in security and privacy tools.

The System Preferences section allows you to set and control various security features available in macOS. Among useful things, you can find options to configure the firewall, enable or disable data encryption, tweak privacy settings, etc.

If Any Of These Apps Are On Your Phone, Delete Them Now

An urgent new warning for Android users today. Eight “dangerous” apps have been found on Google’s Play Store that can steal your banking details and even bypass two-factor authentication. If you have any of these apps on your phone, you need to delete them immediately and check your bank accounts for any suspicious activity.

Six Skills You Need to Succeed in Cybersecurity

Six Skills You Need to Succeed in Cybersecurity

One reason companies can’t find the experienced cybersecurity professionals they need: there just aren’t many tech pros who have mastered not only the necessary technical abilities, but also “soft skills” (such as clear communication)—and those who have, well, they’re already employed (often with hefty salaries and benefits designed to keep them in place for the long term).

10 COVID-19-related lessons for future-ready cybersecurity

10 COVID-19-related lessons for future-ready cybersecurity

In 2020, we experienced wave after wave of COVID-19 surges and watched failure after failure at practicing what we knew were effective preventative measures. Similarly, in December 2020, the Russia-backed SolarWinds malware attack resulted in the compromise of as many as 18,000 systems and countless confidential records.

These are the top cybersecurity challenges of 2021

These are the top cybersecurity challenges of 2021

Corporate leaders are increasingly elevating the importance of cybersecurity to their companies.
But recent high-profile attacks show how much more needs to be done in the year ahead.
Here are the five biggest cybersecurity challenges that must be overcome.

The Dumb Reason Your AI Project Will Fail

The Dumb Reason Your AI Project Will Fail

Here is a common story of how companies trying to adopt AI fail. They work closely with a promising technology vendor. They invest the time, money, and effort necessary to achieve resounding success with their proof of concept and demonstrate how the use of artificial intelligence will improve their business. 

Key cyber security trends to look out for in 2021

Key cyber security trends to look out for in 2021

Greg Day, vice-president and chief security officer, EMEA at Palo Alto Networks, discusses the key cyber security trends that are set to emerge in 2021