An educated workforce provides the business world with intelligent prospective employees who want to leave companies better than they were when they arrived. Thankfully, technology has made it even easier to achieve a quality education with concepts such as online learning and live streaming taking the frontlines. How are today’s students utilizing modern technology in the classroom?
The 18 Highest Paying IT Industry Certifications in 2016 – Canadian Edition Introduction: Canadian IT Industry Facts Before we get to the IT certifications and salary ranges, we want to highlight the growing demand for more professionals in this this industry. There is a real pressing shortage of IT professionals in Canada, and the world (we reported on the world-wide shortage of IT professionals here earlier this year). Salaries in this industry are very generous, and rising faster than almost every other industry. According to Robert Half Technology, IT salaries in Canada are rising at an average of 5.1% annually. Accordingly, job qualifications are also increasing, creating more demand for certification programs and higher skilled professionals. If there was ever any doubt about the importance of the IT Industry in Canada today, the facts show just how important it really is. There were about 811,000 information communication and technology professionals employed in Canada at the end of 2015, according to the IT Labour Market Outlook 2015-2019 produced by the Information Communication Technology Council (ICTC). While these numbers ~seem~ high, it also calculates that Canada will require an additional 182,000 qualified IT professionals by 2019—to fill positions for information systems analysts...
How to Find Out if an Account Has Been Hacked The recent disclosure that Mark Zuckerberg’s own Facebook account password was hacked this week should set alarm bells off for anyone who’s ever created an online account. You have to wonder, if the Facebook founder’s email and password accounts aren’t safe, then what is? In case you haven’t heard, last weekend Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts were briefly hacked by a group calling itself OurMine. They demonstrated by announcing his lame password on his Facebook timeline. No, Facebook wasn’t hacked. Zuckerberg’s email and passwords were part of a LinkedIn database that was actually hacked back in 2012, (along with up to 167 million others), and just posted online in May this year. Since then, hackers have been having a heyday with them. So if Zuckerberg’s LinkedIn account was hacked, why did it affect his Facebook and Pinterest account? It’s because he used the same lame password for all of those accounts. And he never changed it after LinkedIn announced they were hacked....Since 2012. Apparently Zuckerberg is guilty of password laziness - using the same lame passwords on multiple accounts. He’s not alone. Along with millions of others who are getting...
Microsoft Finally Bans Easy-Stupid Passwords If you see the above Reset your password line when logging into your Microsoft account--and it tells you to “Choose a password that’s harder for people to guess”--it’s because Microsoft won’t let you use your dumbass password any more. Earlier this week Microsoft turned on a new feature that dynamically updates a list of bad passwords, and will block users from trying to use them. From now on, you can forget about all those stupid passwords so many people stubbornly stick to, like 123456, password, 12345678, qwerty, 12345, 123456789, football, 1234567, dragon, and baseball. These are the top 10 most common passwords used by people, as gleaned in part by 117 million LinkedIn accounts that were originally hacked in 2012 and leaked last week, and by the password attempts hackers use on various Microsoft accounts. Alex Weinert from Microsoft's Identity Protection Team says that Microsoft has been collecting all the password guesses used by hackers from the 10 million daily hacking attempts they see."We analyse the passwords that are being used most commonly. Bad guys use this data to inform their attacks," he explains."What *we* do with the data is prevent you from having a password...
Phishing in the Office Pool Some staggering facts on phishing, your employees, and corporate risk The term “PHISHING” covers a broad area. It’s arguably the most sinister form of cyber-attack, and it’s certainly the most common. And if you didn’t already know, it’s also considered as a major attack vector for entry into corporate and other network systems. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) defines phishing as a form of social engineering to solicit personal or corporate information by posing as a legitimate organization or known individual. In other words, they’re looking for suckers to fall for some kind of scam. While most phishing attempts target “people” in general, whether at work or at home, it’s their compromised passwords, computers and cell phones that become a risk to the organizations they work for, as well as others. Phishing is deviously sneaky. The most common Phishing attempts are made through email, phone calls, texts, postal mail, social media, document attachments, websites and other means. The bait is usually designed to trick people into responding to an action. The easiest to spot and avoid types promise us miraculous results, call out to us for hot times on lonely nights, appeal to our vanity,...
New Ransomware Alert Issued US & Canada issue joint ransomware alert, discourage paying ransomware to cyber attackers The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre and the US Department of Homeland Security issued a joint ransomware cyber alert this week in response to the recent surge in attacks. Both government agencies strongly recommend that organizations and individuals NOT PAY the ransom demanded by cyber attackers. The new emerging variants are targeting healthcare in particular, and other organizations with attack strategies that are extremely ruthless and difficult to respond to. The warning was prompted by recent attacks at Hollywood Presbyterian in Los Angeles, Methodist Hospital in Kentucky, and MedStar, the biggest Washington, D.C.-area healthcare provider, among many others. In a profound understatement, the alert advised that “ransomware's consequences to an individual or institution could include a loss of sensitive data, a disruption of business operations and expenses to restore a system into working order”. In case you’ve never heard the term before, Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid, usually with Bitcoins, an untraceable online currency. Suggested Cyber Safety Tips In the meantime, please read following tips to...
The Real Reasons Why Managed IT Services Are Growing So Fast What You Really Want to Know The managed IT services industry is expected to growing at an astounding rate of 12.5% annually through to 2019 to a value of $193 billion worldwide. Which is pretty significant when in 2012, the industry was predicted to reach about $45 billion by 2016. Managed services are described as skilled outsourcing functions that transfer some, or all in-house functionalities to be managed by a third-party managed service provider. The outsourced services are typically provided for a single monthly payment on a subscription basis. JDL Technologies published a survey in January 2016 survey of IT executives that provides some insights into the use of managed services and managed service providers. The most astounding facts for me were the following about cost savings: The average cost benefits reported by surveyed companies who switch to managed services range from: Average Annual Savings = 30%-40%, and Average IT Efficiency Increase = 50%-60% The same was found for companies adding managed services to existing in-house IT capabilities, according to “Managed Services Market” by Managed Data Center. You would think that the cost savings would be the main reason companies decide to sign...
SQL Server on Linux Announced by Microsoft First of all, yes. It’s true. This week Microsoft announced that it is in the process of porting SQL Server over to Linux, and it will be available sometime mid-2017. For many in the IT and software communities, this is akin to GM building engines for Ford Pickup trucks. While Linux has always been a popular open source operating system for those wanting free software and no licensing limitations, Microsoft has in the past considered Linux as a cancer progressively eating into its market share, and only popular with rebels and anti-establishment types. The reality is that Linux became mainstream long ago. Today, a small majority of web servers are running on Linux, and Android (a Linux flavour) rules the smartphone, tablet and game console markets. Fortune magazine is calling this “blockbuster stuff”, and no wonder. ZDNet’s columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes that “Microsoft’s fortunes are no longer based on Windows”. Instead, Microsoft's new cash cows are Azure and server applications. In particular, "Microsoft Azure is growing rapidly and is reported in the same group as traditional server products (SQL Server is up, Windows Server is down). Collectively, that pair is at the top of the list."...
