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Showing posts from November, 2020

Popular Linux Distros on AWS

You can run a wide variety of operating systems on AWS. However, some have more support and documentation than others. Additionally, there are a small handful of flavors of Linux that can generally cover a wide-variety of use cases. Let’s look at those popular versions that should be fairly easy to get started with. CentOS CentOS is effectively Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) without Red Hat support. If you’re looking for a low-cost way to get familiar with Red Hat, this makes CentOS a good choice. Additionally, if you’re not looking for commercial support from RedHat, CentOS may be a viable option for production use too. Debian Debian is a popular operating system; it has served as the launchpad for many other flavors of Linux. For example, Ubuntu, Kali, and Linux Mint are based on Debian. This operating system has a reputation for stability and user control. Debian also values the concept of free (as in freedom) software. The result is a stable, customizable operating system, but not

Mitigation Steps of an Incident Response Plan

Power Off: Make sure you segment and depower the machine in question. Don’t forget to unplug the ethernet cord. It’s important to note that some information security professionals would argue that powering off the machine is the opposite of what you should do. The truth is that it really depends on who is responding to the threat. A trained infosec professional should not power off the machine, as they have an actual grounding in threat intelligence and may be able to identify the potential incident via the short-term memory on the machine. But your front-line workers shouldn’t have to shoulder that burden of criticality. The best bet is to get them to take action to mitigate the spread and prevent further damage. Don’t Delete: This is the hardest rule to follow because it goes against your instinct. If you delete the file that you believe is malicious, you will delete the trail that allows a forensic investigator to determine the root cause of the incident. This could have massive ram

recent years targeting enterprises

While ransomware originally targeted individuals, in recent years targeting enterprises in areas like financial services or health care emerged as a more lucrative hustle. Such businesses store sensitive data, like personal or financial information, that they absolutely need to do business. Because of that, companies are more likely to pay up – and pay big – to get their records back. Much more so than a home user with a drive full of family photos who happened to click on the wrong link. Unfortunately, during the pandemic we’re seeing the worst of both worlds. With an unprecedented number of people suddenly computing from home, stressed, and vulnerable to exploitation, the private end user is once again a target – and a convenient gateway to an employer. Amid the ongoing economic chaos and uncertainty, businesses that might normally spend time with cybersecurity consultants figuring out how to decrypt, contain or circumvent malware are already overwhelmed. The last thing any business

Cloud Migration Mistakes

Although moving to the Cloud sounds like the most urgent need of the hour in today’s dynamic and agile computing world, migrating existing services and applications to the Cloud is not child’s play. Before you proceed to cloud deployment, you must first analyze the need, the appropriate cloud migration technique, and then strategize the entire migration process to avoid any glitches which could affect your business adversely. The most common mistakes businesses make while migrating to the Cloud include: Having No Strategy: Migrating to the Cloud is a complex process and requires detailed analysis and effective strategy for successful deployment. Before any business proceeds to cloud migrations, all avenues to re-hosting, refactoring, or re-engineering must be explored to formulate the most effective strategy for flawless cloud deployment. Choosing the Cloud: Choosing the Cloud is one of the most common challenges. While enormous cloud platforms promise alluring services at reasonable c

CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner

If you’re interested in assessing and managing risk, securing networks, preventing cyber attacks, and even getting inside the mind of a hacker to make sure that a company’s data is safe as possible, CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) could be right for you. CASP is often compared to CISSP, but that’s like comparing apples to oranges. If you’re looking for a career in IT management, CISSP might be the better choice. If not, CASP can level up your career at a fraction of the cost. That’s right, cyber security specialists are so in demand that the number of open positions has outstripped the number of qualified applicants by as much as 2 to 1 in some industries. So what’s holding applicants back? About one-third of information security jobs require a cyber security certification compared to 23 percent of all IT jobs. In the U.S. alone, some 50,000 vacant jobs require the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification. But the number of certificate hol

Learn About CompTIA Rewards

There are many types of reward programs out there. Buy 10 pizzas and get your 11th for free comes to mind. Or, redeem credit card points for airline tickets, cash back or gift cards. But those programs all require you to purchase something first. CompTIA Rewards just asks you to spread the word. Jain said she made the decision to sign up for a bunch of reasons. “This seemed like a great way to be enterprising with a trusted source to earn passive income,” she said. “The real-time revenue and statistics tracker is very helpful, and there’s an amazing selection of gift cards and a quick payout.” The easy one-step sign-up is key as well. All you have to do is enroll with a valid email address and start sharing your unique referral link on social media or via email. Then, for every qualified purchase (which is defined as $49 or more in a single transaction) via your referral link, you will earn a gift card(s) for your efforts. More info: a+ certification salary

Prepare for the CompTIA A+ certification

CompTIA A+ certification validates basic yet necessary IT skills. That’s why it is crucial for organizations to provide training to their IT professionals for this certification—they can outpace their competitors. To get CompTIA A+ certification, your IT professionals need to pass two exams. Both of these exams are focused on different aspects of an IT job role: CompTIA A+ 220-1001 It covers the knowledge of the latest PC hardware, networking, troubleshooting, and emerging technologies. It also emphasizes system memory and storage devices, focusing on computer gaming systems and knowledge of 3D printing. CompTIA A+ 220-1002 This certification tests skills to update operating systems, such as Windows 7, 8 and 10. It also covers the knowledge needed to update limitations for older systems and it features topics such as security to test the applicant’s knowledge on cyber attacks. From January 19, 2019, two new topics have been introduced in the 220-1002 exam. The first topic is operationa

Growing Interest in Smart Strategy

Members of the council also addressed the growing interest in smart strategy, with a specific focus on research indicating popular areas of interest. For example, when asked about which tech trends city officials are most interested in hearing about further, 25% of respondents indicated their interest in learning about the ways in which IoT and AI can open new possibilities in ambient computing. Additionally, city and county stakeholders were asked what components of smart strategy they’ve considered if their IT department has a role in that strategy. The two most popular responses included a roadmap that communicates that IT for a smart city and county (78%) and an accountable IT leader who will champion the operational and strategic implementation of smart initiatives. Finally, attendees identified priorities for CompTIA’s Smart Cities Advisory Council going forward, especially in conjunction with CompTIA’s other advisory councils. From building awareness and solidifying industry bes

The SY0-601 exam format

The CompTIA Security + certification offers foundational knowledge that indicates that certification holders have the hands-on experience and baseline skills needed to perform cybersecurity tasks and prevent security threats. Therefore, the CompTIA Security + certification is in high demand and the cybersecurity market is constantly growing. According to an article on CBT Nuggets, “The market is expected to grow by 170 billion by 2022…” (Zomaya, 2019). The SY0-601 exam format will follow the same format as the SY0-501. Specific details as can be seen below: Number of Questions: 90 Type of Questions: Multiple choice and performance based Duration of Test: 90 minutes Passing Score: 750 Test Delivery: Pearson Vue Exam Price: $349 SY0-601 Exam Format It is recommended that IT professionals seeking to take the exam have at least 2 years of previous IT experience as well as the Network + Certification. Upon passing the exam, the certification is valid for three years. The certification is al

How to Provision and Deploy SSL

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is a service that enables you to establish your website’s identity and secure network communications. This is because ACM allows you to provision, manage, and deploy Transport Layer Security (TLS)/ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for public and private data on the cloud. With ACM, you eliminate the hassle of having to purchase/upload and renew SSL/TLS certificates manually. The manager quickly and efficiently requests a certificate, deploy it on AWS resources, and handles the renewal of certificates. While it reduces the time and effort required to acquire SSL/TLS certificates for your cloud-based application/website, using ACM and its public integrated services are free. Your only expenses arise from the AWS resources you use when running the application. Services that are integrated with ACM include Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon CloudFront, and API Gateways. With the ACM Private Certificate Authority, you can provision private certificates for internal compl

Where Do Chatbots Come in DevOps

Now, anyone would obviously wonder about the role of chatbots in all of this! How would bringing chatbots in DevOps solve the issues encountered by enterprises for collaboration? The best answer to this question is directly evident in the term ‘ChatOps.’ A term from GitHub, ChatOps, refers to the integration of tools in a conversation. Users interact with various continuous integration and continuous delivery tools with different functionalities, including defect management, continuous deployment, source code management, continuous integration, and others. ChatOps helps in bridging all these tools together and implies the coordination between collaboration tools and DevOps tools. If the problem lies in collaboration, then it is reasonable to focus on it for troubleshooting DevOps issues! Chatbots arrive as the rescue in this case as they serve as bridges between collaboration tools and DevOps tools. Chatbots in DevOps take requests from users as chat commands through collaboration tool

CompTIA Security+ Certification Exam

A right preparation path takes you towards success in the exam. So, to ensure your success in the CompTIA Security+ exam, here we bring a comprehensive guide that will help you in your CompTIA Security+ certification preparation. Let’s dive in to achieve success in the exam. Security is undoubtedly a top concern for the majority of enterprises running IT operations. It is practically impossible for an organization to stay away from the digital platform in the existing markets. So, enterprises have to embrace the threats and challenges associated with digital transformation. Therefore, the demand for competent and experienced cybersecurity professionals never slows down. As a matter of fact, the introduction of new technologies is developing career opportunities for cybersecurity professionals in different roles. Therefore, many IT professionals aspiring for careers in cybersecurity look for trustworthy certifications that can prove their skills and knowledge. As a result, it is evident

Basic Exam Details: CompTIA Security+

The CompTIA Security+ is a vendor-neutral credential that administers with several key notions in IT security, including networks, data and host security, threats and vulnerabilities. With these credentials, you can illustrate that you can counter to security incidents, identify and mitigate risks before security problems transpire. In addition, the CompTIA Security+ certification is intended at an IT security professional who has: A minimum of two years’ practice in IT administration with a focus on security Day-to-day technical knowledge security experience Broad understanding of security concerns and implementation The CompTIA Securtiy+ SY0-501 is a 90-minute exam. This exam consists of no more than 90 questions. And, you need to score 750 or more on the scale of 100-900 to qualify the same. Subsequently, the exam is available in only 4 languages, i.e. English, Japanese, Portuguese and Simplified Chinese. So, make sure to proficient in at least one of the above languages. However, i

What to Know About CompTIA Certification

You have earned a CompTIA Certification. Congratulations! Like most other modern-day certifications you are now required to renew your certification every few years to keep it relevant. This article will help you easily understand your CompTIA re-certification options. The information in this blog is summarized and consolidated from the official CompTIA site. 5 Things to Know About Renewal Before we get into your various options, let's take a look at some key things to understand about CompTIA renewals. Renew in 3 years. You have three years to renew your certification from the date you earned it. If you need to find your expiration date, you can do so on the CompTIA website. Only 1 cert renewal needed. Renewing a CompTIA certification will automatically renew all the lower-level CompTIA certifications, so you should plan on only renewing your highest-level certification. The renewal date for all lesser certifications will now align to the renewal date for the highest certificati

Bring to the CompTIA Security+

We’ve all heard the old adage that practice makes perfect. To some extent, it’s true. The more you practice anything, the better you’ll be at it. But, let’s face it – if you’re reading or studying about security threats, attacks and vulnerabilities, will it really help you when you’re faced with an actual attack? That’s one reason why CompTIA is launching the latest version of the Security+ (SY0-501) certification this month. The new CompTIA Security+ emphasizes hands-on skills, as well as risk management. And it continues to cover the foundational skills for all IT jobs that require cybersecurity skills, including systems administrator, network administrator, security administrator and junior IT auditor/penetration tester. CompTIA Security+ is the foundational security certification on the CompTIA Cybersecurity Career Pathway. SKILL #1: HANDS-ON NETWORK SECURITY While nearly three-quarters of organizations report experiencing at least one security incident, about 6 in 10 had one or mo

Work in a Multi-Vendor Environment

User adoption can be a challenge in any environment. In a multi-vendor environment, departments can access more relevant tools rather than trying to hobble along with a partially functioning solution. User Education: With a multi-vendor environment, you will likely need more training, whereas with a single-vendor environment, your users will be accustomed to the interfaces, platforms and equipment. Larger accounts – companies that purchase multiple solutions from a single vendor – are often rewarded with training on how to use the solutions. In a multi-vendor environment, you may be viewed as a smaller account and thus not offered custom or live training options. As more companies move from single-vendor environments to multi-vendor environments, it’s becoming essential that IT professionals become knowledgeable in a wider selection of tools. Advanced tech stacks are going to require the ability to maintain multiple tools and support an evolving and scalable environment. CompTIA IT cer

Career In Cyber Security

The field of cyber security is growing every year by leaps and bounds as companies and other organizations realize how imperative it is to protect their networks and data. According to the Cybersecurity Ventures’ 2019 Cybersecurity Market Report, worldwide spending on cyber security is expected to exceed one trillion dollars by 2025. As companies struggle to keep up with the rising threat of cyber crime, they’re having one major problem: they can’t find enough qualified candidates. That’s right, cyber security specialists are so in demand that the number of open positions has outstripped the number of qualified applicants by as much as 2 to 1 in some industries. So what’s holding applicants back? About one-third of information security jobs require a cyber security certification compared to 23 percent of all IT jobs. In the U.S. alone, some 50,000 vacant jobs require the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification. But the number of certificate holders is

Career Building Guide in Cybersecurity

CompTIA A+ Certification is for the individuals who are at the doorstep of building an IT career. The course is planned to facilitate acquiring expertise in problem-solving and get hold of core technologies such as security, data management, and cloud computing. Being a vendor-neutral certification CompTIA A+ complements other renowned certifications such as Microsoft’s MCSA and Cisco’s CCNA. CompTIA A+ certification is recognized by all the companies for hiring entry-level support candidates. It opens the door to grab job offers with the best perks by boosting a candidate’s ability to: Recognize, leverage, and connect hardware devices and components. Troubleshoot PC, network issues, and mobile devices including application security support. Get familiar with Mobile OS, Linux, and Mac OS. Gain expertise in installing and supporting Windows OS along with the knowledge of command line and client support. Understand how to install and configure laptops and mobile devices. Get a complete i

A Look at Data Analysis

Data analysts have a diverse set of skill sets. They can essentially be software developers with expertise in Python or R. They can be data visualization or reporting experts proficient with Tableau, Power BI, or Excel. They can also have little or no technical skills whatsoever. Whichever breed of data analyst you’re striving to be, you’ll need the right skills and experience. This week, we looked at the intersection of data analysis certs and degrees — and their impact on data analyst salaries. Importantly, we discussed why you don’t need a degree to enter the burgeoning field of data analysis. How to Become a Data Analyst with No Degree You don’t need a four-year degree to become a data analyst. The demand is so great and the supply of college graduates looking to become data analysts so small that a degree can help, but it’s no longer required. 5 Best Data Analysis Certifications for under $400 Data analysis certifications are no substitute for experience. However, certifications (

AWS Cloud Practitioner: Jobs and Salaries

Most of the salary postings are for certified AWS associate, professional or specialty certifications. However, the AWS certification exams are quite difficult to crack. Taking the AWS Practitioner Certification can still land you a lucrative position as a project manager and pave the way for gaining the experience you would like to tackle the more technical roles. Here’s a glimpse of the starting salaries that lie at the tip of your certification quest. the common salary for AWS certified professionals is $113,932, with the subsequent breakdown by certification type: Developer – Associate: $112,984 Solutions Architect – Associate: $117,773 Solutions Architect – Professional: $136,259 SysOps Administrator – Associate: $125,149 DevOps Engineer – Professional: $125,743 Every IT professional should earn AWS Cloud Practitioner certification to get a foundation for working with the AWS platform. It’s ideal for technical and nontechnical candidates looking to interrupt into cloud computing o

CompTIA Security+ Training is Right for You

There is no shortage of certifications for people who want to pursue a career in cybersecurity; in fact, there are so many that it can be overwhelming for someone trying to figure out where to start. One of the most widely accepted and highly regarded accreditations is the CompTIA Security+ Certification. From financial benefits to career pathways to instant industry recognition, the CompTIA Security+ Certification is the smart choice for anyone who is serious about getting ahead. Here are ten reasons why the CompTIA+ Training is worth serious consideration: 1. Get Paid A professional with CompTIA Security+ certification can expect an average salary range of a network engineer between $42,128 – $95,829. The accreditation, coupled with your experience, will dictate your salary. Within five years, you can expect to earn a salary around $66,887 a year. 2. Your Services Will be in Demand Organizations in both the public and private sectors seek out CompTIA Security+ certified professionals