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‘Unhackable’ Cryptography

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:22:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

As computers get faster, and more powerful. And hackers are getting smarter and more sophisticated, it's getting harder to protect sensitive information transmitted over the internet.

But researchers have just improved the most sophisticated way of encrypting information. Quantum cryptography - but now without optical fibers.

The idea was developed by Cambridge University engineers in the UK and by Toshiba’s European research laboratory. It takes everything a step closer to what is now being dubbed ‘unhackable’ and can soon be introduced into credit card transactions.

What is Quantum Cryptography?

Quantum cryptography was developed from the laws of quantum theory to create what could be uncrackable codes that can even show if it has been played around with. The reason it's uncrackable is because in the laws of quantum physics, if you try to observe a photon particle, it reacts differently as to how it would react if you were not observing it. It is rather hard to explain so I'll leave that part to an expert. Alex Filippenko explains it with the double helix experiment in the below documentary.

Quantum cryptography uses single photons, the smallest particles of light, in different orientations to produce a continuous binary code, or "key," for encrypting information. The rules of quantum mechanics ensure that anyone intercepting the key is detected, providing highly secure key exchange.

A similar technique to this is already being used by governments and the military but one of the issues caused by it is that the quantum keys to encode and decode the information have to be sent on single photons (particles of light) across an optical fibre separate from the line carrying the data itself. This made it extremely complicated and expensive - especially for long distances. But this has now changed.

Andrew Shields from Toshiba Research in Cambridge stated: "The requirement of separate fibres has greatly restricted the applications of quantum cryptography in the past, as unused fibres are not always available for sending the single photons, and even when they are, can be prohibitively expensive,".

"Now we have shown that the single photon and data signals can be sent using different wavelengths on the same fibre."

The Toshiba system, outlined in research published in the journal Physical Review X, still requires an advanced detector that picks up the encryption key in a time window of just 100 millionths of a micro-second, at the expected arrival time of the single photons.

The detector is able to filter out 'noise' in the fibre which is caused by data itself therefore avoiding the cost of dedicated optical fibre lines.

Previously, quantum cryptography did work on shared optical fibres but only through short distances, with low capacity rates, or with data moving only in one direction.

The researchers state that their system can move data back and forth over 50 km with the encryption.

Learn about Cryptography

Opportunities in IT security are popping up everywhere so why not take it? Get the right security certification and earn on average £50,000. Here are two certs which are highly respected, guarantee career advancement and teaches you about cryptography. Read about the top IT security certifications, what you'll learn and how much you can earn here.

About the Author:
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry.

Why you need to get certified

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:32:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

So you’re already working in a company, and you’re already in a good position… Why bother getting certified and spend all of that time out the office? Especially if you already have a college degree and have been working for a number of years for that one employer?

In a recent survey by ManageElite, it was found that the top 11 pain points when it comes to training (in order of painfulness) are:

1. Lack of time to conduct training

2. Scheduling employees for training

3. Training doesn't stick

4. Cost/budget

5. Trainees don't listen or pay attention

6. Getting manager buy-in

7. Upper management buy-in and support

8. Finding training that fits our situation

9. Keeping training material current

10. Quality of training materials

11. No time to research, prepare materials

But before you come to any conclusions about getting certified, here are a few points you should consider:

Market yourself by getting certified!

You may think you don’t need to be marketable because you’re not planning on taking a new job anytime soon. But that should make you want to prove even more that you’re at the top of your game. You must show your value to the business. Certifications help prove that that your skills are still relevant and they are a particularly unbiased indicator of your skills.

Certifications show your value!

Having the latest certifications shows that your skills are up to date and could get you in line for a promotion or for the next role. It also shows your employer that you’re a valuable member of the team and that you’re willing to learn new things. You’ll be able to make a stronger argument for the next version of a technology you want to introduce into your company.

Stay up-to-date!

Going back to an earlier point; you might have your BA, BS, MBA, etc… but just how long ago was that? Certifications are proof that you’re keeping your skills and knowledge current and up to date. You’re passing the industry’s measurement of knowledge based on their skill assessments. Nothing will make you stand out to management like taking on additional education and getting business relevant certifications, especially when they’re not required and you’re setting a new bar for the organisation.

Get hired!

In CompTIA’s Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification report in 2011, they found that 86% of hiring managers indicate IT certifications are a high priority during the candidate evaluation process. The report also found that eight in ten HR executives verify certifications among job candidates. In the 2012 Microsoft Certification Program Satisfaction Study, it was found that 91% of hiring managers consider certification as part of their hiring criteria.

MCSE SharePoint 2013 exam tips

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:03:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

SharePoint 2013 is part of the new version of Office making it easier to stay connected, access files, and maintain messaging security. The MCSE SharePoint certification proves that you have expertise in helping your company organise, sync, collaborate, and share information.

Here are the top five tips to passing your MCSE SharePoint 2013 exams from Joel Jefferey - our SharePoint instructor.

Top five tips for your SharePoint 2013 exam

1. Pace yourself

You have a limited amount of time and a lot of questions to answer. Give yourself a time limit per question - and stick to it.

2. Look out for clues in later questions

Sometimes you can find two or three questions spread over the course of an exam that, when read together, can only have one logical combination of correct answers.

3. Eliminate the stupid choices

Although all question choices in the exam must be viable areas of SharePoint 2013's object model or platform, there are usually still one or two obviously incorrect choices which helps narrow down the correct answer.

4. Look out for trick questions

Sometimes Microsoft puts in choices that are more applicable to a previous version of a product or technology, but which would not work on the new platform.

5. Leave no question unanswered

There is no "negative" marking in Microsoft exams. You only accumulate points for correct answers; no additional marks are deducted for incorrect choices.

The single tweet that crashed the stock market

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:06:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

On the morning of the 23rd of April, the Associated Press agency, a powerful media outlet in the US with over 2 million followers on twitter, tweeted a disturbing message to the world: “Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured”.

Within minutes, the message got retweeted thousands of times, the New York stock exchange was in high alert and traders anticipated the impact of the news on the economy. Dow Jones Industrial Average, which collects the top US listed companies’ share prices, fell by 100 points and the stock market was in chaos.

Not too much time passed before the White House confirmed to the press that nothing had happened, and the market recovered. It then quickly became clear that AP’s twitter account had been hacked. A group calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility for the hack. They are said to support the Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, and have targeted several media outlets such as the BBC and the Guardian.

After some research by IT security professionals, they found that an “impressively disguised phishing email” sent to an AP journalist allowed the hackers to extract data and the password for the AP’s official Twitter.

A financial trader stated that after reading the tweet, he had the same feeling when hearing about the 11th September attacks, and he knew it will affect market a lot. He added: “When I realized it was a fake tweet I was outraged and ashamed that the market was able to be manipulated so easily.”

On top of seeing first-hand the affect an attack like this can have on the financial market, it’s scary to know how easy it is for hackers to steal information from a central pillar on the global economy’s information. All of the employees have since been briefed about cyber security and phishing attacks.

The attack brings up the question; is your government and media outlets prepared and ready for similar attacks? We recently mentioned that the UK government announced plans to allocate £650 million to cyber security as part of its four-year National Cyber Security Programme. But is it enough? Read morehere.

Last minute tips for passing your ISACA CISA or CISM exam

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:55:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

With only a couple of days to go for your exam, it’s time to cram in as much information as you can. Here are a few tips to help you along the way:

By now you’ve probably already read the ISACA’s CISA or CISM review manual which provides you with the content, structure and other topics of the exam. Make sure you highlight the key areas and go over any sections you're not sure you understand. It's better to not leave things to chance.
In case you haven’t got the CISA Practice Questions Database v13 resource, ISACA also offers free CISA and CISM Self-Assessment tests which will help identify gaps in your knowledge that are in need of further study. Here are the links - CISM Self-Assessment and CISA Self-Assessment Exam.
Take notes and become familiar with the concepts. As cliche as it is, it's a must.
Once you're confident, and can explain most if not all the basic concepts of CISA or CISM, then read review questions, answers and explanations.
When you study the review questions don’t think like a student, think like you're an IT auditor, and that you have to manage in the best way and make the best decisions. Take your professional code-of-conduct into consideration without violating the assigned authority of an auditor in an IT environment.
Many students find that the hardest part is visualizing the concepts, which you’ll need to do in the exam. So try to prepare some of your own before hand.
As you’re probably aware of, you can’t take the CISA or CISM review manuals into the exam, so try to skim through the key areas 30 min before the exam.

One thing to note is that the markers don’t want to know if you are the strongest in IT related system, they just want to be sure you’re competent enough and can make the best decisions, evaluate and review IT security and audit related issues.

Obviously if you are waiting till now to study you’re procrastinator like me. But stop reading these guides and get to studying! Good luck!

Here are some general exam tips to ensure your success:

Take frequent, short breaks while revising. It will help you stay alert, and can also prevent burnout. Take at least a 10 minute break for every 50 minutes of work.
Read aloud. Verbal memorization is often a better way to learn in a hurry than reading off a page.
Here’s an odd one for you, the smell of cinnamon (i.e. cinnamon gum). Studies show that it can help you concentrate, so pack some gum your test.
Drink plenty of water as it helps you to think and most importantly it hydrates you.
Remember that caffeine is a diuretic and makes you anxious which can be a bad thing during an exam. If you have been downing coffee in order to cram for your test, you need to re-hydrate yourself.
Before the test, do some exercise. It gets your blood flowing and relaxes you. It also increases your alertness.

Oh yeah, and one last thing... RELAX! I'm sure your name will be on this certification (or your slightly different CISM certification) in no time.

Good luck.

Global spending for IT Security to reach £25 billion next year

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:20:00 +0000

By Julian Arias Beltran

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the global spending for IT security is to reach £25billion by next year.

It has come to no surprise with the enormous rise of cyber attacks seen around the world. with unending waves of attacks that seem to get more and more difficult to deal with. Even MI5 is battling "astonishing" levels of cyber-attacks in the UK industry and Symantec has stated in their 2011 report that they recorded thousands of hacking events every second.

Israel is a global leader in this sector and is home to around 200 companies, most of which are important players in the industry. The Israel Institute has stated that the annual export of IT Security is estimated to be worth around £1billion and is predicted to grow 10 – 15%.

Richard Anton, chairman of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has stated that "The UK is missing a trick by not investing in more Israeli IT security - their technology is world-beating. The US has embraced it and the UK uses it well in the commercial sector but not so much in the government sector", he added that "We certainly have a need for it. Cyberwarfare is real. It's not just stuff in stories."

In a report from the Cabinet Office, British businesses have suffered about £21 billion a year from cyber crime.

In 2010, the government announced plans to allocate £650 million to cyber security as part of its four-year National Cyber Security Programme.

The never ending IT security threats continue to grow, and is having an enormous influence on the demand for security professional. IT security has become the fastest growing sector in the IT industry.

Opportunities in IT security is growing and growing so why not jump on the bandwagon? Get the right security certification and earn on average £50,000. Here are three certs which are highly respected and will guarantee advancement.

Top three security certs

1. CISSP - (ISC)2

CISSP professionals are always in demand and many businesses now require it. It’s one of the key certs employers look for to fill management-level information security positions. Having a CISSP shows that you have a strong knowledge of security concepts and methodologies. This cert is very well known in the IT security community and according to itjobswatch.co.uk, the average salary for a CISSP professional is £50,000.

2. Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) - EC-Council

The CEH certification from the EC-Council is widely recognised as an entry into the hacking world. As an ethical hacker aka (white hat hacker), you’d attempt to penetrate the networks or computers of the organisation you work for. Ethical hackers do this in order to help find and fix the vulnerabilities that would otherwise be exploited by "black hat" criminal hackers.

Demand for CEH professionals continues to grow with the alarming increase in cyber attacks. Organisations are looking for new ways to protect themselves and tighten their security. The CEH course and certification covers all that is needed to identify system vulnerabilities and countermeasures. According to itjobswatch.co.uk, the average salary for a CEH professional is £40,000.

3. Security+ - CompTIA

Security+ is offered by the world renowned CompTIA. Having this certification shows that you have a strong understanding of security concepts, cryptography, access control, and the tools and procedures to respond to security issues. You’ll also learn about disaster recovery methods, risk management, and compliance and operational security. From the skills gained in this course, you’ll be able to prevent cyber attacks, and effectively deal with security events. The Security+ cert is widely known in the industry and just like CISSP it is often a requirement for the security team - including the U.S Department of Defense’s IT department. According to itjobswatch.co.uk, the average salary for a Security+ professional is £47,000.

Note, it's worth checking the links to itjobswatch.co.uk for each of the certs, as average salaries can vary over time. Read the following article to see more of the top IT security certifications: http://www.crisp360.com/news/top-5-it-security-certifications

About the Author:
Julian writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Julian is the companies Digital Marketer.

What is the Gartner Hype Cycle? Latest "Hype" forecasts

noreply@blogger.com (Firebrand Training) — Fri, 31 May 2013 12:06:00 +0000

By Julian Arias Beltran

Who and What is Gartner?

Gartner is the world's leading IT research and advisory company. They guide thousands of organisations in the right direction with insights into the technological world. One of the famous tools invented by Gartner is the Hype Cycle.

What is the Hype Cycle?

The Hype Cycle was introduced in 1995, and is used to show the interest or "hype" and resulting disappointment which usually happen after the introduction of a new technology.

The purpose of the Hype cycles is to show how and when technologies move beyond the "hype", which is used by companies to see whether certain technologies are worth investing in and if it’s ready for adoption within the business.

One example of this can be seen with cloud and Big Data. Although many companies have started to embrace the cloud, many companies, particularly small to medium sized business were holding back because of concerns. Security, privacy and legality were the main concerns for organisations moving to cloud (and still is a concern for several businesses). But now that the "Hype" is on the up slope of the Hype Cycle, these concerns are fading away while more and more businesses jump on the cloud bandwagon.

So, what is the Gartner Hype Cycle? To sum up, it is a graphic representation of the maturity, adoption and social application of specific technologies. There are five phases in the cycle represented in this graph:

The Five phases

1. Technology Trigger: the first phase is the breakthrough or product launch which causes significant press and interest.

2. Peak of Inflated Expectations: the next phase is the publicity which generates ‘hype’ or further interest.

3. Trough of Disillusionment: This phase is when the technology fails to meet expectations and can quickly become unfashionable. Because of this, the press would usually abandon the topic.

4. Slope of Enlightenment: In this section, you start to see that some businesses continue to use the technology and discover further benefits and practical applications.

5. Plateau of Productivity: Once the technology reaches this final phase, the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. It becomes more stable and continues to adapt with more generations.

Need more insight into the Hype Cycle? Here's a video created by Gartner:

Latest Gartner Hype Cycle forecasts

The latest forecasts of the Hype Cycle show that there will be a the quick adaptation for SaaS (Software as a Service). Gartner predicts that more than 50% of companies will use SaaS applications by 2015. It is also predicted that cloud email is will be used by 10% of organisations, which was a surprising drop since previous hype cycle forecasts, which were close to 20%.

The factors driving the SaaS adoption is the overcoming of IT and budget limitations and the increase in ‘big data’. Big data will have a strong impact within organisations in 2-5 years.

Markets of cloud management business processes are expected to increase annually by 25%. There has been an increase in the interest of cloud solutions for MDM (Master Data Management). The solutions involve the following leading suppliers: Cognizant, Data Scout, IBM, Informatica, Oracle and Orchestra Network.

One of the most notable forecasts is that by 2014, personal cloud is expected to replace the PC as the main data management for a user’s digital life. And an impressive 75% of enterprises surveyed by Gartner are planning to move to cloud computing by 2014.

When is your company planning to move to the cloud? and does your company use the Hype Cycle to decide whether to incorporate a new technology? And if so, which technology was it? Comment below.

10 useful tools for admins which are free

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Thu, 30 May 2013 16:06:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

There are several pricey tools out there, but why waste money when these free and easy to use tools do the same job?

Here is a list of 10 of the most popular free tools most admins use in their day to day roles.

1. Winrar

Winrar is widely for anyone who knows about compressed files. It handles several compressed types and formats. It is one of those programs you know to install as soon as you get your new computer. Winrar states on its web-site that there are "Over 500 million users worldwide make WinRAR the world's most popular compression tool today".

2. DAEMON Tools Lite

This piece of software will really impress you. It has advanced features that can deal with virtually all image formats available in the market. It is reliable and easily creates virtual drives on your computer, giving you the possibility to have endless virtual CDs and DVDs for instant access. ISO is widely used on the internet now, and although many go for MagicISO, Daemon tools does the job seamlessly without any problems. Just mount your image and you’re done.

3. KeePass Password Safe

With the security issues of today, it is important to keep a long list of different passwords for each of the accounts in order to isolate potential hacking incidents. But with so many accounts, it can be a pain to remember more than five at a time. This is where KeePass comes in. It will securely hold all your passwords in one place, taking that headache away from managing all of them. It has military grade encryption, ensuring they remain safe.

4. Xirrus Wi-FI Inspector

Xirrus saves time and work by checksing your WiFi network and by checking for rogue devices. It also troubleshoots connections, identifies calming connections and spots rogue networks or hotspots

5. Notepad++

Notepad++ is a handy source code editor which supports several languages. You can use it to create your html emails, scripts, compare files, etc... It’s a simple tool that does exactly what you need.

6. WinDirStat

This helpful program tells you what is taking up the space on your hard drive. When your C drive is beginning to get too full and its performance starts to fall, this is the program you need. It quickly shows you what areas are taking up the most space making it easy to clean and remove unnecessarily bulky files on your computer.

7. ComboFix

This is tool you use when all else fails. Those moments where the standard antivirus/malware software can’t help or fix the problem, ComboFix is there to help. It finds and removes almost all rootkits and Trojans. Note that just like with all anti-viruses, before using it, you must make sure the others are completely disabled.

8. Disk2vhd

This tool allows you to quickly and easily create virtual hard disks. It also works with Hyper-V and Virtual PC. The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online.

9. FileZilla

FileZilla is an FTP client, and is one of the best ones out there. It can easily move files to the network and is also cross platform. It Manages FTPS and FSTP protocols.

10. CCleaner

Most of us know CCleaner very well; it does the important task of getting rid of temporary files and Windows Registry problems. It does it much faster than most other tools, which if you have used any before, you would know the headache it causes watching that slow process bar move to the right. This is the tool to use when you feel your computer is not performing like it should and you know it’s not because of a virus. So get rid of your cookies and trackers and keep your computer smooth and secure.

Which free tool do you use the most?

Comment if you think we missed one, we would love to know more…

Teenage hackers attack 300 PCs in Alaska

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Thu, 30 May 2013 08:59:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

A group of 12-13 year-olds have hacked a computer system at a middle school in Alaska.

Source: Filmzrus Blog - Hackers just got younger...

The 18 kids phished the systems’ administrator privileges by tricking their teacher into entering his admin name and passwords, to accept a fake software update. They used the details to take control of their 300 classmates’ PCs within moments.

The principal of the school Mr Casey Robinson, said control of the computers has been regained. But: "How we do business is definitely going to have to change when it comes to updating programs and resources that we have on the machines," said Robinson. He added there would be a security review at the school.

If eighteen, 12-13 year-old children can take control of 300 computers; imagine what a more experienced hacker can do. But it’s not too late for these kids. They can use their interest in IT for good – maybe the school’s found the next Mark Zuckerberg?

The Global Impact Awards by Google - Cast your vote now

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Wed, 29 May 2013 10:58:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

The Global Impact Challenge supports British non-profits using tech to tackle the world's toughest problems. There are currently 10 finalists which you can vote for.

Cast your vote by May 31 for the £500,000 fan favourite Global Impact Award. On June 3, a panel of judges will unveil the public vote, and select three additional non-profits as winners of the Global Impact Challenge.

It was found that although there were over 80,000 new tech job openings in the past two years in London alone, last year, only 3,420 students took Computing A-level in the whole of England. Out of those, 255 were girls.

One of the finalists in the The Global Impact Awards aims to tackle this enormous skills gap by focusing on the roots of the problem.

The CDI Apps for Good project

The CDI Apps for Good project is helping kids engage in the hands-on creation of apps. This in-school learning is supported by an online platform where students interact directly with designers, developers and entrepreneurs who volunteer their time and expertise.

The project focuses on low income and underrepresented communities. Over three years, Apps for Good will reach more than 175,000 students. Their main goal is to change the future of tech education and develop a new generation of tech entrepreneurs in the UK and around the world.

Watch there video below and help support the project by voting for them in The Global Impact Challenge by Google.

Age UK

Another interesting finalist for The Global Impact Challenge is Age UK. Their project is to inspire older people to reminisce using technology, and in doing so; deliver digital training which will help them enjoy a happier and healthier later life.

Their video below states that 1 million older people in the UK have not seen friends or family in over a month. And that technology can help reduce loneliness by providing access to invaluable online resources, as well as the ability to keep in touch with family and friends.

If you want to help with this project and help millions of older people connect then vote for them here: https://globalimpactchallenge.withgoogle.com/

Data Management in the virtual World

noreply@blogger.com (Edward Jones) — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:34:00 +0000

By James Mulvey

The popularity of public cloud offerings have blossomed, and with Microsoft expanding Windows Azure globally it looks as though cloud computing is here to stay. However, there are certain drawbacks and obstacles to overcome if corporate users wish to implement cloud-based file sharing for good. A public cloud offering is great for the masses but is still not secure enough to convince CTOs at large corporations to make the switch. Data management in the Virtual world therefore becomes, a heated debate.

Cloud Management

From chain retail locations to multinational corporations, the very mention of the word cloud challenges tradition. This is because the cloud pools multiple machines together to share resources and space on a network. But wherever there's shared space, there's a risk of security breach. Speed and reliability are also a concern for larger organizations. In the cloud, users create their own virtual server from a pooled resource; a cluster of servers strung together and partitioned off accordingly. Cloud management is potentially problematic because its reliance is dependent on a robust physical environment.

The more data users push through the shared network, the higher the risk of network latency. Furthermore, the corporate cloud must be resilient enough to prevent network latencies from bogging down the switchgear and routers. Of course, all this info is passed through the virtual environment to servers located inside a data center facility. Even cloud providers need such a facility to house, manage and maintain this cluster of cloud servers in an effort to prevent downtime and boost security on all levels; the physical and the virtual level. So the issue of security and performance in the cloud, be it a public or private offering, is still omnipresent. So where does this leave us?

The Cloud Vs. Tradition

Think of it this way; every online transaction eventually makes its way to a physical server. The question is, do you really want your money or precious data handled through a massive public cloud offering, without any robust level of security? Experts argue that the risk isn't much more than what we're used when we log into our Gmail accounts. So we don't care about the risk. Ultimately, the benefits of things like Windows Azure (or Gmail for that matter) far outweigh the risk of any data breach. However, CTOs at large corporations still see the cloud as an imminent threat to daily operations because of these risks. Until this fine technology comes around to improving switchgear, firewalls and virtual security, it's best to stick to tradition.

About the author: James Mulvey, a content writer and blog director at Colocation America, wrote this post.

Why we have to take cyber-attacks more seriously

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:18:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

The US defence secretary has said that cyber-terrorist attacks can be as devastating as a physical attack.

Leon Panetta said US intelligence showed "foreign actors" were targeting control systems for utilities, industry and transport to subvert computer control systems and wreak havoc. So the country is preparing to take pre-emptive action if a serious cyber-attack becomes imminent.

"An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country" stated Mr Panetta in a speech to business leaders on the Aircraft USS intrepid. “Such a destructive cyber-terrorist attack could paralyse the nation and create a profound new sense of vulnerability," he continued.

Mr Panetta explained that smaller scale cyber-attacks are now common. In the last few weeks, many firms have suffered such attacks. He also discussed Shamoon attacks - where oil companies in Qatar and Saudi Arabia have had their computer data replaced with random code.

To know more about such attacks and to trace them, the US defence department developed tools, and a cyber-strike force to attack the source.

"Potential aggressors should be aware that the United States has the capacity to locate them and hold them accountable for actions that harm America or its interests, if we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action to defend the nation, when directed by the president." Panetta concluded.

We all must be prepared for a cyber-attack, and to understand how much damage it can do. Companies are spending more money every day, to develop protection and to secure their database.

Cyber-attacks are the weapons of tomorrow.

Want to learn more about IT security?

Opportunities in IT security are appearing everywhere so why not take it? You could earn on average £50,000 according to ITJobsWatch.co.uk with the fasting growing sector in the IT industry. Find out more on our top four IT Security certs blog post.

Government launching new cyber security squad

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:29:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

The Coalition has announced plans to create two new cyber security teams, which will look to strengthen the nation’s virtual defences.

Two new teams will be created to bolster the nation’s virtual defence, said the Coalition.

In a statement written recently to Parliament, the new squad will be created for the ministry of Defence (MoD). The minister for the cabinet office, Francis Maude stated that "attacks on government departments continue to increase”. The UK’s Cyber Security Strategy got a powerful boost thanks to the £650 million investment in the nation’s digital infrastructure last year.

By DGH source: Technology Moral Dilemma blog
July 1, 211

A cyber security squad

Maude, promises to “Improve national co-ordination of cyber incidents and act as a focus point for international sharing of technical information on cyber security” . In addition to this, a Cyber incident Response scheme was launched by GCHQ’s information assurance arm CESG and Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) earlier this year, which will be equipped to help the new force.

Maude stated that the cyber reserve will “draw on the wider talent and skills of the nation in the cyber field”, and will not use the armed forces unless needed. “The exact composition is currently in development and a detailed announcement will follow in 2013”.

In a document from the Cabinet Office, it states that “The Services will engage additional experts to support their work in defending against the growth in cyber threats. These will be supporting roles to the Joint Cyber Units across the full spectrum of cyber and information assurance capability. A series of events are being held with industry on how the scheme will work”.

Industry watchers have welcomed the two initiatives. Raj Samani, UK CTO for security firm McAfee, said the squad would help fill the public sector skills gap when it came to cyber issues. “From the cyber perspective, of course ideally we would all want a full time ready and able cyber team capable of addressing the issues facing the UK,” Samani told TechWeekEurope.

He added, “However with the cyber security skills shortage facing all sectors, such an approach is absolutely necessary until we are able to have this full time capability. This of course places greater dependency on the need for cyber security training and getting the skills of reservists at the right consistent level. What this, and the new national CERT really emphasizes, however, is the need for a strong public-private partnership. Not only in terms of providing resources, but also the intelligence in terms of a real-time and global perspective necessary in understanding the threats facing the UK.”

A permanent information sharing environment is going to be set up called CISP (no not CISSP for you security professionals out there). CISP stands for the Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership . Maude said that his one is now in place since January. He stated that “attacks on government departments continue to increase”, so the

Industry experts and the government worked together on CISP, which will be open to critical national infrastructure sectors. Others will be able to have it later on in the year. Furthermore, the joint ‘Cyber Growth Partnership’, a representative body for the UK technology industry, was announced. This will consist of a “high level group which will identify how to support the growth of the UK cyber security industry, with an emphasis on increasing exports. In line with Government targets, at least 25% of GCHQ’s procurement budget is to be spent through SMEs to gain access to the vibrant innovation of these firms.” Said the government to confirm they will be increasing the proportion of cyber security contracts going to SMEs.

Taking the opportunity

As the number of IT security threats continue to grow, the demand for the those to defend against it has become ever more important. IT security has become the fastest growing sector in the IT industry.

Opportunities in IT security are popping up everywhere so why not take it? Get the right security certification and earn on average £50,000. You can view our top four IT Security certs here.

Get your CISSP

CISSP is offered by the highly respected (ISC)2 vendor. CISSP professionals are always in demand and many businesses now require it. It’s one of the key certs employers and the government looks for to fill management-level information security positions. Having a CISSP demonstrates that you have a strong understanding of security concepts as well as the specific methodologies involved. It is very well known in the IT security community and has also become a requirement in many companies in order to join their IT security team. According to itjobswatch.co.uk, the average salary for a CISSP professional is £50,000.

How to defend yourself and your company from a DDoS attack

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:44:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

DDoS mitigation

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks. They have become increasingly popular and have gone up in scale, intensity and frequency.

There are a wide range of reasons for DDoS attacks, including political (hacktivism), criminal, or just simply for their own amusement; which makes anyone with an online presence a potential target.

If you find that your site or organization is under attack, it’s important that you report such attacks quickly to parties that are best positioned to help you mitigate, weather, and restore normal service.

Here are some steps you can take to take out the sting

Simulate your own DDoS attacks

Create a simulated DDoS attack on your network. This will help you or your management see the best options to mitigate when under a real attack. Here’s a simple video of how to perform your own DDoS attack.

Manage communications

If you do get a DDoS attack, make sure you are prepared to have a single point of contact streamless information sharing. This contact can keep more of the organisation up to date with short updates so everyone understands the situation. By already completing the simulation process mentioned above, everyone in the team will know their specific roles in the mitigation process and how they can continue ‘business as usual’.

Make a plan, and keep planning again

Make a call tree, keep it updated and in the same place so it is easily referenced. Call trees are an important part of every disaster recovery plan. They are a telecommunications chain for notifying specific individuals of an event. It is very helpful if you need to reach certain employees after hours to notify them of a situation. This is in order to make sure the mitigation process is contained and in order. It helps turn an attack into an incident as everyone will know their role after the simulation and the plan created from it. You should also have teleconference bridges (where engineers can coordinate response efforts), a troubleshoot bridge for application owners to report issues, and a security and forensics bridge. This will help with the confusion and add speed again.

In April 2013, Prolexic (a DDoS mitigation service provider) mitigated a sustained DDoS attack peaking at 160 GBPS and 120 million packets per second - which is a very heavy attack. In the video below they explain and show you how they did it.

Source: Prolexic

Defend your business with a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) professional

You too can learn how to perform DDoS attacks and help companies like PayPal defend themselves against it. Become a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and earn on average £42,750 in the UK (ITjobswatch.co.uk). The CEH certification from the EC-Council is widely recognised as the entry into the hacking world. As an ethical hacker, you’d attempt to penetrate the networks or computers of your organisation or any organisation that hires you. "White hat" ethical hackers are widely sought after to help find and fix the vulnerabilities that would otherwise be exploited by "black hat" criminal hackers.

What to do when your projects keep failing

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:02:00 +0000

By Stefano Capaldo

Failing, over-running and budget-crashing projects are causing businesses billions in lost revenue.

Businesses up and down the land are wasting tens of billions of hard-earned resources in projects that run late, cost more than they should or fail altogether.

A British Computer Society study in to project failure by Dr John McManus and Dr Trevor Wood-Harper looked in detail at 214 big IT projects over a period of seven years and found nearly a quarter of all projects (23.8 per cent) were cancelled before they even got off the ground.

A more recent IDC report shows that things aren’t getting any better “Improving IT Project Outcomes by Systematically Managing and Hedging Risk,” by Dana Wiklund and Joseph C. Pucciarelli, revealed that 25 per cent of IT projects fail outright. Meanwhile, 20 to 25 per cent don’t provide ROI and up to 50 per cent require material rework.

The knee jerk reaction is to blame the problem on the programmers and the coders. However when you dig down into the figures however you find that it’s not the IT that’s at fault or the people creating and testing the code, it’s actually project management where the problem lies. The statistics show that 54 per cent of IT project failures can be attributed to project management, whereas only 3 per cent are attributed to technical challenges.

The obvious solution therefore is to do something about the project management, but what? The answer according to an in-depth study “The Benefits of Training and Certification” by analysts IDC is to invest in training.

The IDC research shows (see graph above) an undeniably tight correlation between training, team skill, and project success and the research found that the three most important variables for predicting project success were;

The overall skill level of project teams
The percentage of project budget spent on training
The number of hours of training per team member

Increasing or reducing any of the three variables would directly have an impact on the project success. Projects allocating 7% of the budget to training were significantly more successful than projects where only 4% of the budget went to training In fact, managers of IT project teams that meet most or all of their objectives provided each team member with 40% more training than managers of teams that achieve little or only some success.

The numbers required don’t need to be that significant; when preparing for a project, teams receiving 40 hours of training per member met their significant project objectives three times as often as teams that received 30 hours of training or less.

Finally the report also looked at the type of training that the teams received and found that there was also a close correlation between project success and certification.

The research found that every relevant certification increases a teams performance with an "average" team performance achieved only when more than 40% of the team (see graph above) is certified, with 100% success rates achieved when over 60% of the team achieved certification.

The report should be a wakeup call to anyone embarking on a large IT project – or for that matter any large project. If you want success then get your staff trained to expert level and make sure they have the certificates to prove it, if you don’t then be prepared for the same old failures, over runs and costs spiralling through the roof.

About the Author:
Stefano is the co-founder and head of strategy education at Firebrand Training. He has 20 years experience in IT operations and services support, and worked in financial markets supporting IT infrastructures.

IT Security – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:51:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

The Good – Wages increase for professionals in-demand

There has been an increase in the demand for skills related to security architecture and web application security according to Acumin’s latest salary index. The IT security recruitment consultancy reported that the average salary increase for similar roles in the past six months from £78,000 to £90,000 per annum, which is up from £75,000 to £90,000 in 2012. From the report, Acumin say that the reason for the salary rise is the increase in corporate web apps and a better understanding of the security risks involved.

The Bad – North Korea blames web outage on US

North Korea has stated that the US was performing cyber attacks on their servers which was preventing access to certain sites, according to reports. Some of the sites affected included the Korean Central news agency and the official Sinmun newspaper which are state-run media organisations. Foreigners and tourists in the capital Pyongyang reported that they had no internet access for several days. South Korea denied involvement and the US has no comments. Others are suggesting hacker groups around the world are responsible, but no evidence has been found as to if it was an attack or if anyone was involved at all.

And the Ugly: Organisations strengthen their cyber insurance

Cyber insurance prices have increased dramatically. According to insurance broker Marsh, there was a 33% rise in 2012 from the year before. They found that the sectors most keen to insure themselves against the financial consequences of a data breach or cyber attack are the service and education sectors. The demand went up by 76% for the service sector and 72% for the educational sectors.

Business as usual is an opportunity - eating monster

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:36:00 +0000

By Stefano Capaldo

If you had to make the choice between innovation and business as usual, I’m willing to bet that 99.99% of you would plump for innovation. So why is it that businesses spend so much time fire-fighting and so little time being innovative? For most businesses the answer is ‘because we have to.’ Systems will always need updating and fixing and things will always go wrong and you need to fix them, servers fall over, disks crash and users – bless them – get a little confused and accidentally delete things they shouldn’t or forget their password.

Unfortunately most businesses can’t afford the luxury of having dedicated people on standby should a server fall over or an application crash or a price needs changing on the website. The consequence of this is your IT department and the development teams get called off the new revenue generating projects to deal with the crashes and the problems. In a nutshell, business as usual is a great big opportunity-eating monster.

By and large IT departments were not created to fix old applications, mend failing hardware or to answer the dumb-ass support questions of the rest of the business. They’re there to serve the business, creating IT solutions, making the business more efficient and to bringing in new revenue. Alas over the years this role has been forgotten and instead the IT departments now spend their time waiting on business as usual and attending to her every need, and she’s a demanding customer.

So what can a business do to improve the situation? The answer is to give the business as usual problem to someone else better suited to deal with it and to make sure that when you build the applications they’re built and managed properly, and that the people fixing the problems are capable of fixing the problems.

A report by analysts IDC showed that experts ie trained IT professionals with certification spent far less time on business as usual, and were able to spend more time on being innovative. According to the survey, experts in archiving and retrieval teams spent 28% less time fixing problems, data backup and recovery experts spent 21% less time fixing problems and security experts had 20% more time to spend helping end users.

It’s a no-brainer. If you are being swamped by business as usual then get an expert to handle the jobs, either in-house or in the cloud, or send your IT and business teams on some training courses and set your IT team free to become revenue generators and not a business overhead.

Thank Firebrand it's Friday - Fifth Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Edward Jones) — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

By Edward Jones

Welcome to the fifth edition of TFiF (Thank Firebrand it's Friday). This week we look at cyber-warfare, the death of an internet giant and App creation for the web coding challenged. Let's get to it.

The death of an internet giant

Last week saw the quiet passing of an internet legend. After 16 years of dedicated service, Hotmail was finally put out to pasture by Microsoft to be replaced by the metro styled Outlook.

Source: Ryan Majeau

Final transition from Hotmail to Outlook saw the migration of more than 300 million live Email accounts, which equates to more than 150 petabytes of data (1 petabyte = 1000 terabytes). No doubt a majority of that data fell into 2 categories, social media notifications or Spam.

"Sir I have won lottery, need bank account to transfer my many millions, will give you 5%".....seems legit, here's my bank details and 4 digit pin code.

The real risk of cyber attacks

In recent years we have seen the rise of cyber crime and the increasing insurmountable danger in a world seemingly dominated by computers. Only last week Hackers compromised Twitter accounts from the Associated Press, causing Stock Markets to tank for following a false tweet claiming an attack on the White House.

Former Department of Homeland Security, Paul Rosenweig warns us that future attacks could result in far more severe consequences. Below are a few disturbing scenarios from his recent publication:

Industrial Control Systems could be hacked disrupting dams, oil refineries and the national grid. Think of the riots following the New York blackout, or when that dam collapsed and Superman had to race to save the town from the onrushing flood (ok the second happened in a movie, but you see my point).

Source: www.complex.com

Satellite based navigation systems could be manipulated affecting GPS data, planes provided with incorrect locational data, or you end up in a field instead of Tesco car park!
For those that have seen Fight Club a similar scenario could play out where London, Tokyo and New York Stock exchange data could be wiped out. Did anyone say sextuple dip recession?

A free Windows 8 App creator...

Enough of the doom and gloom, ever wanted to tap into the App market but lack the programming skills?

In steps the Zipapp web site, this free resource allows you to create your own app without ever having to write or learn a single line of code. The web based platform allows you to create a variety of static pages within the application, using feeds from Twitter/YouTube/Facebook and any compatible RSS feed.

So if you want to create a Windows 8 version of your Wordpress / Google blog and have an active Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels, in quick time, Zippapp can help you achieve this.

Check out this 8 minute video, it really is simple.

So there we have it, another week of Thank Firebrand it's Friday in the bag. Join us next week for more news, reviews and hopefully whacky goings on.

About the Author:
Edward is a member of the Marketing team overseeing the Content Strategy for Firebrand. Working in the Industry for 2 years, Edward has experience with Microsoft Technologies including SharePoint 2007 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Edward writes for a variety of Blogs and Publications on all things Technology.

What is ISO 27001 and information security?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:20:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

What is your data worth?

Information is one of the most valuable assets in any organisation. Data loss costs companies millions, not to mention the damaged reputation. The Audit Commission has recently stated that 50% of all detected frauds are found by accident. Poor supervision of staff and lack of proper authorisation procedures are a major cause of security incidents.

Any information collected, stored, managed and transferred is an asset. It adds value to the business and must be protected. It can be your customers’ personal details or confidential financial data and can be printed or written on paper, electronically stored, etc…

What is information security?

Because of the increasing dependence of information systems, shared networks and distributed services like cloud computing, organisations are increasingly more vulnerable to security threats.

The Chartered Management Institute did a recent survey where 72% of businesses admitted that they were worried about the financial impact of cybercrime. Over 35% said they have had experienced with such attacks in 2010.

One of the major causes of security incidents is due to poor supervision of staff and a lack of proper authorisation procedures.

There are several ways companies try to prevent breaches. Some set heavy restrictions on all information, making ordinary tasks difficult. While others are laidback and permit access to all, making the company much more likely to suffer from security breaches cyber-crime and fraud.

For a business to run efficiently with low risk, they need the right balance between the two: this is where ISO 27001 comes in, the international standards for information security management.

Why your company needs ISO 27001

The purpose of information security management and auditing is to ensure business continuity and reduce business damage by preventing and minimising the impact of security incidents.

Strong information security is only possible when the security objectives are set out specifically for an organisation so they can be identified and addressed.

The framework, also known as the information security management system (ISMS) - that ISO 27001 identifies, requires that senior management:

Examine security risks, taking account of the threats, vulnerabilities and impacts;
Implement a logical and effective information security controls
Create a reliable management process to ensure that the information security controls continue to keep the organisation secure

The PwC Information Security Breaches survey in 2010 found that “Two fifths of large organizations have been asked by customers to comply to ISO/IEC 27001” which continues to state that is is “increasingly becoming the lingua franca of information security”. Following the frameworks identified in ISO 27001 ensures your company that you are following the globally-agreed good practice with regard to the protection of information.

In another report by BSI, it was found that 87% of organisations implementing ISO 27001 confirming that the standard had ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ outcomes, including an increased ability to respond to tenders.

Secure your data and information

We have two accelerated ISO 27001 courses - Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer. You'll learn how to plan and execute audits on your Information Security Management Systems.

These three-day courses are twice as fast as traditional training, and we're accredited by the PECB (Professional Evaluation and Certification Board).

Or get the latest ISO 22301 certifications - Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer.

Microsoft Training Camp #3 - How to play ping pong?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:02:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

Microsoft recently released three insane commercials for its Asian markets. They were removed from their official YouTube page but thanks to the power of the internet have been brought back.

They're quite difficult to describe. But let's give it a try...

Windows 8 Training Camp: Piano

On this video you see two people playing the piano and ping pong at the same time. The video is meant to describe "work and play".

Windows 8 Training Camp: Watermelon

The second video involves three guys slicing up watermelons with their fingers to show the "power of touch".

Windows 8 Training Camp: Makeup

The third and possibly favourite of the three, is three women competing to see who can put on their make up in just 10 seconds without any mistakes. Symbolising the beauty and speed of Windows 8.

Thank Firebrand it's Friday - Fourth Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Edward Jones) — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:13:00 +0000

By Edward Jones

Welcome to the fourth edition of TFiF (Thank Firebrand it's Friday). This week we talk Firebrand Babies, no tech related ridiculousness, this week is all about the Firebrand Family. Although, as tomorrow is Star Wars day I may just chuck in an awesome video at the end, "May the 4th be with you", as I won't be able to say it to you tomorrow.

So let's get to it....

Firebrand Babies!

Friday 26th April was a momentous day for Firebrand, we were joined by 2 new miniature recruits. Please join me in congratulating Gary Fildes our Apprenticeship Instructor on the birth of his daughter Clementine and Tom McElroy our Apprenticeship Recruitment Manager on the birth of his daughter Skye Joy McElroy. We are delighted to have two new additions to the Firebrand Family.

To ensure the organisation and professionalism of the Apprenticeship department remained intact, it was agreed that both babies would arrive on the same day, outside contracted working hours of course.

The new Recruits

In the blue corner we have baby Clementine, weighing in at 6lb 12oz. Whilst over in the red corner we have baby Skye weighing in at 7lb 9oz.

Clementine Fildes

Skye Joy McElroy

A series of remarkable events....

Both births are remarkable in their own right, however it wasn't until Monday when Gary shared with us the series of events leading up to and after the birth of baby Clementine that we realised quite how special Gary's efforts were.

His exploits in juggling the birth of his first born child, whilst ensuring he was back in work on time to train the Apprentices optimises the dedication of our instructors to both their students and their families!

Here is Gary's run down of a frankly remarkable and somewhat amusing series of events.

“26th April 2013 - the run down

02:00 the action started happening at Wyboston Lakes

04:30 Massive contraction in Room 331.. When I politely told my wife to keep it down as there’s a guy next door who has a SQL Exam in the morning.

04:45 Run around the centre..writing instructions for the apprentices on the board

05:10 arrive at Hospital

06:12 Baby Clementine arrives with 6lb 12oz.

I’m back sorting out the apprentices now and will grab Mother and Child from hospital for fish and chip day at Wyboston.

Thanks for all the help, prezzies in the office and congrats. Marketing guys..I wore the T-shirt all the way through.”

Now that my friends is dedication! Here's the proof that they made it back for Fish & Chip day, I hope Gary changed his shirt...

Mr and Mrs Fildes with Baby Clementine

I'm also doubly delighted as a member of the Marketing department that not only do we have new additions to the Firebrand family, but also that in all likelihoods the first thing Clementine saw when she entered this World was the Firebrand Logo! (this is a joke, I'm not that crazy...)

May the 4th be with you...

Absolutely nothing to do with babies or technology, but seeing as it's Star Wars day tomorrow I thought I would share with you this awesome 60 second video summarising the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope. Which is quite fitting as we have two new hopes in the Firebrand Family (tenuous link?).

Happy Friday, hope you enjoyed this weeks instalment of TFiF. We're back next week with an amazing, undiscovered and FREE Windows 8 App creator. We'll also be taking a look at IBM wasting an inordinate amount of time and money on creating a miniature video at the molecular level, although I must admit it does look cool.

Increase in cloud adoption and multi-cloud use

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:22:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

A survey from Cloud-management provider RightScale, shows an increase in both cloud computing usage and multi-cloud adoption.

Larger companies appear to be adopting cloud computing more so than companies with less than 1,000 employees. 77% of the larger companies had adopted cloud in some way whereas 73% of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees had adopted cloud according to the recent survey of 625 businesses, and IT development staff from RightScale.

The survey also found that 68% had deployments spanning more than just one cloud. The interesting area is in the increase in the provisioning of resources on multiple clouds. Over three quarters of larger companies adopted clouds, 77% of those are deploying across multiple clouds.

At a meeting with reporters and representatives of RightScale customers, the CEO Michael Crandell said he believes the use of multiple clouds has been steadily rising. “I think it was lower (before the first survey),” Crandell said. “That’s my gut instinct.” You save money, and multiply different applications to run on different hardware or to focus on core competencies. Cloud represents a lot of possibilities for companies.

However, security and compliance with regulations still seem to be a problem for a few companies. Crandell said it can come down to legal issues. Businesses might not want to risk putting their own customers at risk of data breaches. Crandell stated “It’s their attorneys who are dealing with that as well as ours.”

IT hiring at four times the rate of retail - Online sales boom

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:37:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

There was a 12% rise last year in hiring for IT and web design compared to a 3% rise in retail hiring according to research by specialist technology recruiter Greythorn. It was also found that growth in online retail sales is well above that of traditional retail.

The number of IT and web design roles has gone up by 32,000 over the past year. The largest growth has been in in the number of web designers, which went up by 19.4% (31,000 to 37,000 roles). The number of IT business architects and system designers has risen 18.8% (85,000 to 101,000).

32,000 IT and web design jobs created over the past year – a 12% rise
Retail jobs rose only 3% over the same period
Online sales growth two and a half times the pace of total retail growth
Falls of up to 2.39% in retail pay, and steady increases in IT

Growth of Online Retail

According to the British Retail Consortium, there was a 10.9% increase in online spending in the year to February 2013. That’s over twice of total retail sales (4.4%).

Official statistics are not good for high street stores. The figures show that January had an 8.7% increase in online retail sales, whereas retail sales saw a 0.6% year on year fall in overall, according to ONS.

This is the reason for large online retailers significantly boosting up their IT teams, such as John Lewis who announced they hired 100 new staff in January 2013.

Research from Greythorn also shows a growth of 89% in IT roles placed in online retail over the past year, compared with the previous twelve months.

Mark Baxter stated “The list of high street insolvencies is becoming a roll-call and there appears to be no end of famous names struggling or going under. It is undoubtedly sad news, but there is a silver lining in the growth of IT roles. As online shopping grows, companies are increasingly investing in improving the customer experience and the back office operations supporting online sales. It is a key stage in transferring to a high tech economy. The number of specialised new roles is growing and that is only good news for IT professionals.”

Larger Salaries

IT job vacancies in the UK are at a record high (see our recent blog post), causing IT salaries to be, now in often cases, higher than those in retail. The average salary of an IT system designer is £37,092 whereas the average salary for a Retail Manager is £21,237.

Mark Baxter continued: “A career in IT is potentially very lucrative and the number and diversity of roles is growing rapidly. Obviously, there are specific technical skills that are needed, but it is a candidate’s market for experienced IT professionals who are either already in online retail or those in other sectors with transferrable skills. For people looking to retrain, web design and online retail offer excellent opportunities that will only increase as people vote with their feet and choose to stay at home rather than shop on the high street.”

Reeds 2013 ‘Salary & Market Insight Reports’ has been released and offers great insight into the IT sector. Andrew Gardner, Director at Reed Technology, explains the most in-demand skills for technology professionals this year in this interview.

You can download the Reed report here.

20th Anniversary of the World Wide Web

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:52:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

Today marks the day the World Wide Web entered the public domain. Just 20 years and look all that it has achieved. April 30^th 1993 was the day CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone.

Yep that’s right, CERN. The same research group that is currently smashing protons together with the LHD (Large Hadron Collider) to uncover the greatest mysteries of the universe also made www technologies available to world with British inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Before the internet, we use to send letters in the mail hoping they would reach their destination within a reasonable amount of time.

The Internet Map (the top 350,000 sites on the internet by similarity and popularity)

This important date marks the beginning to a life of convenience, social networking and access to an endless amount of information. The World Wide Web has changed the world in more ways than we could even imagine. Here are some stats on how much the Internet has made an impact on us:

There are currently 2,405,518,376 internet users in the world and rapidly rising
The number of users in 2012 grew by more than 550% since 2000
Hacktavisim was born and through social media it influenced many world events such as:

The Arab Spring
The overthrow of Tunisia
The overthrow of Egypt
The recent end to the CISSPA act in USA
The 99% movement around the world

There are over 1.2 billion people on social media sites
Every month, there are around 800 million unique visitors to YouTube which is equivalent to 140 views per person on earth
72 hours of footage is uploaded to YouTube every month
There are 40 million photos uploaded to Instagram every day

To find more interesting stats on the internet, check out the ‘How the Internet Has Changed the World’ infographic.

To celebrate this important date for the World Wide Web, the CERN team started up a project to revive the very first website to its original URL, a 1992 copy of the spartan web page — describing what the web was and how it could be. Alongside the website restoration, CERN aims to dig up and preserve all digital assets associated with the inception of the web, with the ultimate goal being to turn info.CERN.ch into a historical archive for future generations.

Time is running out: take your FREE Second Shot exam now

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morgan) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:18:00 +0000

By Sarah Morgan

Passing the exams needed to show your new skills can be tough. But for a limited time, Microsoft is offering you a free second chance to succeed.

Don't miss out!

But time is running out to take advantage of free retakes for failed Microsoft exams. This means you only have one month to book your course and take your exam. Here are some of our Microsoft courses running in May:

MCSA: Windows 7 - Enterprise Desktop Support Technician
MCSE: SharePoint
MCSE: Messaging (Exchange 2013)
MCTS BizTalk Server 2010
MTA Software Development & .NET Fundamentals

In addition pass your exam before 31 May 2013 and you can enter a prize draw for a chance to win a UK Weekend Away, £500 or £100 worth of Amazon vouchers.

Register for your free Second Shot voucher here.

Do you have free Microsoft training vouchers?

You may be entitled to heavily-discounted training via Microsoft Software Assurance Vouchers. If your business has bought Microsoft software, check to see if you have vouchers waiting to be used!

Vouchers can be exchanged against training for all Microsoft technologies. If you're unsure, give us a call.