SOPA is Dead
As a result of massive opposition, SOPA has been pulled in the House.
Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith (R-Texas) said. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”
In addition Senator Harry Reid has cancelled a scheduled vote on its counterpart.
“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a statement Friday morning.
It’s a step in the right direction when it comes to an overreaching attempt to control a free Internet.
Related articles
- SOPA and PIPA Defeated? Smith Postpones Bill (techgopher.wordpress.com)
- Senator Reid postpones vote on PROTECT IP Act, Romney and Gingrich come out against SOPA (digiphile.wordpress.com)
New Virus Raids Bank Account
Beware! There is a new trojan horse virus that not only raids your bank account, it reportedly covers it’s tracks as well.
The best way to protect yourself from an online financial scam is to diligently check your bank accounts. At least, until now.
Israeli-based Security firm Trusteer has found an elaborate new computer virus that not only helps fraudsters steal money from bank accounts — it also covers its tracks.
Think of a crime plot involving a spy who plans to break into a high-security building and begins by swapping out security camera video so guards don’t notice anything is amiss. Known as a surveillance camera hack, the technique has been used in dozens of movies.
A new version of the widely prevalent SpyEye Trojan horse works much the same way, only it swaps out banking Web pages rather than video, preventing account holders from noticing that their money is gone.
Here’s how it works:
The Trojan horse employs a powerful two-step process to commit the electronic crime. First, the virus lies in wait until a customer with an infected computer visits an online banking site, steals their login credentials and tricks the victim into divulging additional personal information such as debit card information. Then, after the stolen card number is used for a fraudulent purchase, the virus intercepts any further visits to the victim’s banking site and scrubs transaction records clean of any fraud. That prevents — or at least delays — consumers from discovering fraud and reporting it to the bank, buying the fraudster critical extra time to complete the crime.
Head to the source for additional details, including why this is a very scary tactic being employed.
Related articles
- New Banking Malware Spends Your Money, Hides the Evidence [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
- SpyEye malware borrows Zeus trick to mask fraud (infoworld.com)
What constitutes a “qualified” IT candidate?
Interesting what General Dynamics looks for in determining if a candidate is “qualified”.
General Dynamics Information Technology (IT) Staffing Lead Robert Cellich, based in Tampa, Fla., seeks qualified individuals to fill on average 300 positions a year to support General Dynamics IT’s military services sector. But what constitutes a candidate as “qualified”? The right combination of hard and soft skills, credentials and attitude.
Roughly nine out of 10 jobs that Cellich fills require security clearances, a determination by the United States government that a person or company is eligible for access to classified information. “Cleared individuals aren’t hard to find,” he says. “What’s difficult to find is a cleared individual who has the right qualifications for the position.”
“I’m looking for individuals who have polished hard and soft skills,” he says.
For ‘hard skills,’ Cellich looks for demonstrated, hands-on proficiency in the technical areas the job he is seeking to fill. When considering a candidate for a higher level role, he scrutinizes the positions listed in the candidate’s resume—the type of position, the type of company, and length of tenure—to see if the person has relevant, quality experience.
“I’m not going to hire somebody for a senior role who has only a year or two of experience because they’re just not ready for that type of role yet,” Cellich says. When filling a system administrator position, for example, Cellich will prefer candidates who have performed that role. “Whereas the person who has been in a help desk role for 10 years—whose resume shows no discernable system administration experience, lacks steps taken to grow into system administration, fails to demonstrate an effort to get their MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certification)—is still at the help desk level and is unlikely to be prepared for system administration.”
Training and certifications can be huge, especially if a candidate lacks experience.
IT-related training, certifications and degrees can help candidates with less experience. For Cellich, an IT certification gives the candidate credibility by demonstrating that the individual has the capacity and the motivation to learn the trade. “Our customers often want individuals with certifications, because it shows that the person has the capability of doing a specific type of work.”
Cellich has one caveat: “Don’t just go and take the training and not get the certification. It’s almost a negative, because my first question will always be ‘Why didn’t you get the certification?’”
Entry level candidates with an IT certification can still have difficulty obtaining full-time IT work experience in a tough economy, and Cellich recommends that IT job hunters volunteer or obtain a part-time position working with IT as an alternative. “Anything you can put down on resume shows that you have used some of the things you have learned will put you a step ahead of the person who hasn’t done that.”
It’s highly likely that the way General Dynamics defines “qualified” is the way many companies do. So be sure to stay-up-to-date on skills and knowledge. At the same time utilize various avenues to gain experience if you don’t have it.
Head over to the source for some tips on that resume.
Related articles
- A Test And MCSA Certifications “The Simplest Way To Gear Up To Be Licensed? (pctechmojo.com)
- Role of certifications in IT industry (thoughtlessthoughtsofdilliwalas.wordpress.com)
- Best Paying IT Security Jobs In 2012 (informationweek.com)
New Facebook scam
Beware of the links you click for Facebook.
A new and extremely viral clickjacking scam has been spotted targeting curious Facebook users.
It hooks them with links to titillating, disgusting or “amazing” videos that their friends apparently “liked”, but once they click on the link, they are redirected to a splash page where they are asked to jump through some hoops in order to watch the video:
Unfortunately, their clicks are hijacked to “like” the video without their knowledge and to post the same bait message on their own Walls, while they are redirected to a page seemingly containing that and other interesting videos.
The scam is perpetuated using JavaScript.
The scammers effect the clickjacking and redirection by using a number of JavaScripts, and land the user on one of around 300 similar pages that contain the video and a bucketful of link ads.
As scams go, this one seems pretty effective given the diversity of interest-piquing video baits. The scammers earn their money from the owners of the aforementioned sites, who earn a small amount of money for each click on an ad that captures the victims’ fancy.
“The JavaScript code is obfuscated and packed, this makes the entire debugging more difficult, but during the research I have identified several domains connected to this scam,” says Kaspersky Lab Expert David Jacoby. “It also seems that they use redirectors to prevent URL/Domain blacklisting, and there are also several different scams on each server.”
Related articles
- Scammers Turn to Affiliate Marketing Scams After Facebook Cracks Down on Clickjacking and XSS (insidefacebook.com)
- Facebook Timeline scams prey on wishful thinking (infoworld.com)
- Facebook scammers are taking advantage of anti-Timeline sentiment (digitaltrends.com)
Top Cyberthreats for 2012
Some excellent and likely accurate predictions of top cyberthreats for 2012, courtesy of Avast!.
Image via Wikipedia
1. Mobile security
While computer networks remain the traditional targets for cyberattacks, the growing usage of mobile devices for seeking information and everyday financial transactions is driving an increase in cybercrime. Financial applications like digital wallets and pocket ATMs are targets, as are QR codes, those square, barcode-like images that you scan with your phone’s camera. Hackers can redirect you towards a website that contains viruses or other malicious content with the intent to steal sensitive data, like credit card or bank account information, track your location, or even send SMS messages to premium rate numbers.
Mobile applications can be risky business too. Earlier this year, Google removed 60 applications carrying malicious software from its Android Market. Some of the malware revealed private information to a third party, replicated to other devices, destroyed user data or even impersonated the device owner.
2. Social media
The free sharing of personal information via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc., will continue to contribute to personal cyberthreats and those targeted to companies. You can expect to see more viral threats which can infect everyone on a user’s friends list. A profile or comment on a social media platform gives smooth-talking scammers something personal to work with in their social engineering schemes designed to steal or delete users’ personal information. A wayward comment from an unthinking employee can reveal corporate information not meant to be exposed which can lead to data theft and security breaches.
3. Malware attacks
Zero-day malware (malicious software) and well-planned attacks will continue to increase from a rise in 2011. Experts predict that attackers will target devices on networks like printers and routers as well as more traditional targets. Small business owners and home users especially need to protect their environments against malware and the tactics of organized cybergangs that are increasingly used today.
Head over to the source to see some additional cyberthreats that are predicted.
Related articles
- Brace Yourself: 2012′s Top Cyberthreats (news.dice.com)
- Future-Proof Your Network Against Advancing Cyberthreats: A Sourcefire Seminar Series (sourcefire.com)
New Network+ Exam Strengthens Objectives
It’s that time again where CompTIA updates its’ Network+ exam.
CompTIA released its updated CompTIA Network+ exam (English only, initially) on Dec. 1. The revised Network+ objectives address virtual networking and give increased attention to network security and coverage of the seven-layer OSI (Open System Interconnection) model. Click here to download a breakdown of exactly what is covered on the new exam.
Here’s what ComTIA’s research showed:
CompTIA research on US Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) found that network efficiency and robustness were among the top items SMBs plan to address immediately, paving the way for other strategies such as cloud computing or unified communications.
Forty-eight percent of server technicians surveyed by CompTIA say that deeper networking knowledge is required when supporting servers in a cloud environment.
Among server technicians and managers of server technicians, 28% say that virtualization is a current focus, but 60% say that it is becoming a larger focus.
Related articles
- CompTIA on the Value of Certifications (news.dice.com)
- Free CompTIA Security+ & CCNA Training (securopia.wordpress.com)
Tips to a successful IT job interview
So you’ve applied for that IT job and you’ve made it to the interview stage. Here are some tips from Venture Loop CEO Jeremy McCarthy on how to make it a successful interview.
Regardless of how you view this prospective opportunity, always do your best in the interview for you never know where it may lead you. Some of his other suggested tips:
1) Research: With everything literally at our fingertips today, it’s close to blasphemy to enter an interview without having searched and studied as much about the history, fact and figures of the company with whom you are interviewing as possible. Savy online searching can turn up valuable information to prove to an employer they’d be hiring an expert in their industry.
2) Review your triumphs and faults: You can almost guarantee that typical questions such as your vision for five years down the road, strengths, weaknesses, tough work situations and best type of person to work for will be asked, so why not write down your answers ahead of time to review rather than spin your wheels while sitting in ‘hot seat.’
3) Behavioral question awareness: More firms rely on behavioral interviewing techniques to see how candidates answer when asked for specific examples of past professional situations. McCarthy presents some typical queries to prepare for ahead of time:
- How you handled not meeting a deadline
- How you dealt with conflict with a co-worker or boss
- What you did when someone else’s actions caused failure
- When did you show initiative
- What did you do when a customer was upset with you
- What did you do when a co-worker blamed you unfairly for something
For the rest of Mr. McCarthy’s tips check out the source.
Related articles
- Strange interview questions tech companies ask revealed (zdnet.com)
- Job Search Tip: How to Eliminate Anxiety before an Interview! | Ashley Ellis (skillsinfo.wordpress.com)
Winter Wake-up app
This could be handy in snow areas like Wisconsin.
A new alarm clock application for the iPhone and Android wakes you earlier if it snowed last night. Called simply, “Winter Wake-Up,” the app lets you configure its settings to wake you up earlier than your scheduled alarm depending on weather conditions, with separate settings for both “Frost” and “Snow.”
…
There’s also an optional setting – a checkbox – which you can select that says “don’t bother to wake me if the weather’s too bad. I’ll work on Saturday.” (Or, as is more likely in today’s world, you’ll work from home that same day…just maybe a little later).
Is it something you would use?
Related articles
- Winter Wake-Up Automatically Wakes Your Up Earlier if it Snows [Alarm Clocks] (lifehacker.com)
- Mobile app wakes users earlier on days with wintry weather (springwise.com)
Social Networking the most important technology of 2011
That would be social networking in general, not one aspect that is the most important technology of the past year.
From the “Arab Spring” to BYOD, social networking was clearly the most important “technology” of 2011. I’m not talking specifically about any one platform. Sure, Twitter is important if you want to keep tabs on the latest movements of people important in your life. Facebook is perfect for lurking around and leering at people’s (more or less) personal lives. LinkedIn has become the de facto standard for business-based networking. We’ve all heard the stories about Wikileaks, Anonymous, and how technology seems to play a role in building up and breaking down political figures of the day.
I’m talking about all of the related technologies that make social networking possible. Social networking as we currently know it wouldn’t exist without virtualization, HTML5, and all of those “as a service” offerings such as Amazon’s EC2. And don’t forget all of those mobile devices, including the shiny, new and ever-so compelling Android or iPad you just got for Christmas. All of these cloud-based technologies are behind social networking.
So, while I could have just written about one technology or device is the technology of 2011, that wouldn’t reflect the current zeitgeist. Right now, social networking is the technology of the year. It’s not any one implementation of virtualization (sorry VMWare). It’s not any one SaaS or PaaS implementation.
So how does that affect one’s career path in IT? As with any aspect you should have focus.
For your career, focus on the individual pieces that make social networking possible. Are you interested in becoming a virtualization guru? Then learn about how virtualization makes social networking possible. Interested in what Cisco is developing to make voice, video and data more efficient? Then focus on how these things are implemented in the cloud and in regards to social networking.
Related articles
- The Myriad Future of Social Networks (bigthink.com)
- Social Networking Is The Most Popular Online Activity (socialnetworkingwatch.com)
- 10 Biggest Moments in Tech 2011 (biztechmagazine.com)
How To Add a Google+ Tab/Stream to Facebook Page
So you’re interested in adding your public stream on Google+ to your Facebook Page. The question is how to go about doing it.
You have to add an application into your Facebook page which will create an another tab for showing your Google+ stream into that page. You can also select your Google+ stream inside your page as landing tab by editing the feature of your Facebook page. By adding Google+ Tab into your Facebook page you could gain some more audience for your Google+ Profile or Google+ Page.
Go to the source for step by step instructions. This process also works for Google+ Pages.
*** Since Google+ has been launched Pages so you can also use your Google+ Page ID Number instead of your Google+ Profile ID Number if you want to show your Google+ Page stream to your Facebook page.
Is this beneficial or do you think utilizing an RSS feed to post directly to the wall of the page would be better? Keep in mind that the Google+ Tab can be made your default landing page by following these instructions.
Related articles
- Google debuts ‘big improvements’ to Google+ (digitaltrends.com)
- 10 Ways to Promote your Facebook Fan Page (susanjanemarketing.com)
