| Vol VIII, Issue 2: February 2010 |
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-- SPONSORED BY --
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Letter from the Editor |
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Cloud Computing: Rainy Days and Mondays?
Cloud computing is the next iteration of Web 2.0 to challenge the skills of IT security; it literally has become the next Holy Grail in computing. As social media continues to storm the gates both in the press and in daily life, and as companies struggle with ways to accommodate it while at the same time protect their data, the next wave of security threats lies, literally, in the cloud.
Firms like Kapersky and Trend Micro are closely monitoring the cloud, and for obvious reasons. Rik Ferguson, senior security adviser at security firm Trend Micro, was quoted in a recent article that cyber-criminals' early adoption signifies the cloud as a viable business channel. "They see the power, the scalability, the availability and, for them, the anonymity that is possible through cloud services and they are using it to its fullest extent."
It makes sense then that legitimate organizations will continue to embrace cloud computing to gain an edge in our hyper-competitive world. The current state of the economy may even be forcing the enterprises hand in the matter as businesses fight to remain viable in the face of shrinking revenue and profits. But could the cloud actually be exacerbating the situation?
Cyber attacks are already bleeding U.S. companies of revenue and business information says the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit research institute that according to its web site "provides assessments of the strategic and economic consequences of possible cyber-attacks and cyber-assisted physical attacks."
For anyone in IT, that means continuing to develop security skills and knowledge becomes even more imperative. SaaS and other cloud offerings are destined to get viciously more competitive in the next few years. More vendors mean more potential for fraud. As organizations continue to outsource services to take advantage of cost savings, criminals will continue to find ways to exploit them. Providing security gets exponentially more difficult when your information is being bounced around the internet, shuffled to mega-datacenters etc., and that presents a smorgasbord of tempting opportunity to cyber criminals.
All this leads me to ask, how much effort are you putting into upgrading your security skills? Drop me a line and let me know
Ben Ice, Editor
The Cert Times
Send all comments to: CTEditor@ExamForce.com
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This Month's Puzzle |
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Problem:
You are standing by a river with a 5-gallon jug and a 3-gallon jug, but you need exactly 4 gallons of water. Using only the 2 jugs you have, how can you measure out 4 gallons?
Answer: Fill both jugs half way. Half of the five gallon jug equals 2.5 gallons. Half of the three gallon jug equals 1.5 gallons. Empty water from the three gallon jug into the five gallon one. It should now contain exactly four gallons.
An interesting thing happened as I was looking for last month's quiz. I found this and immediately knew the answer. But when I clicked for the answer I was amazed to see a much more complicated explanation. I was transported back to 7th grade algebra, when Sister Margaret kept telling me that it didn't matter that I had the right answer; instead I needed to understand the formula.
I didn't get it then and I don't get it now, but this one was so simple very few got it right...and that's because they Googled it instead of using simple logic.
Out of 195 responses only 14 people got it right. There were a couple who were close, but recommended you fill both jugs then empty them to half...another step wasted in my opinion.
This month's winners are Dale Brewer, Tony Ryan, Richard Dinning, Philip Ruffolo and Jeff Bell. I've sent each of you an email with instructions on claiming your prize. Great job.
So... now that we have simplified things in life, lets move on to this month's puzzle, shall we?
During a recent plane and train sighting contest, five eager entrants were lined up ready to be tested on their sighting ability. They had each sighted a number of planes (26, 86, 123, 174, 250) and a number of trains (5, 42, 45, 98, 105). From the clues below, can you determine what color jacket each was wearing, their position, their age (21, 23, 31, 36, 40) and the number of trains and planes sighted?
- Simon sighted 44 less trains than planes.
- Keith was 36 years old.
- The person on the far right was 8 years younger than Simon, and sighted 174 planes.
- James was wearing a beige jacket and sighted 37 trains fewer than Simon.
- The person who was wearing a green jacket, was 19 years younger than the person to his left.
- Steven sighted 105 trains and 250 planes.
- The person in the centre was 31 years old, was wearing a blue jacket and sighted 42 trains.
- Alan, who was on the far left, sighted 26 planes, and sighted 72 trains more than planes.
- The person who was wearing a red jacket, was 4 years older than Keith and was not next to the person wearing a blue jacket.
- The person who was next to the 31 year old but not next to the person who sighted 26 planes, was wearing a orange jacket, and sighted 45 trains.
Drop me a line at cteditor@examforce.com with the the word "puzzle" in the subject line. I will select five winners, each of whom will receive a free ExamForce exam preparation title.
Send all entries to: CTEditor@ExamForce.com
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A.J. Axline's B1N@RY N@T10N |
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Stop the Padness
Vector and I currently aren't speaking to each other, since I recently exercised the right of extreme censure against him for making one too many jokes about the newest, soon-to-be-released hardware product from Apple. I knew immediately after reading the news stories announcing the iPad that the vast majority of cyber children were going to have a giggle-fest picking pieces of that low-hanging fruit and throwing them at each other via email and blogs like so much simian cyberstool.
So, I magnanimously gave Vector a full 48-hour window in which to gleefully and freely make as many feminine hygiene technology jokes as he desired. And he did, oh, he did, he really did take advantage of the opportunity to carpet-bomb my ganglia with a series of low-brow, poor taste remarks, comments, anecdotes, and disturbingly-professional illustrations. He went to town, and I humored him for two straight days with the good natured patience of an animal lover dealing with a brain-damaged sheepdog.
It was on the morning of the third day, when Vector casually remarked over what had been to that point a congenial game of Battleship, "I wonder how the iPad will deal with heavy dataflow days," that I beat him about the head and neck with a broken Jones Soda Vanilla Cola bottle, and threw him down the stairs into the cellar.
Read The Full Column
Send all comments to: CTEditor@ExamForce.com
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