As published in the July/August 2020 edition of InfoSecurity Professional Magazine By Deborah Johnson How to stay sane and manage stress during a most unusual time, no matter where you live and work. Every day, cybersecurity professionals face pressure, from the daily demands of protecting data and people’s privacy to the worst-case scenarios of a breach’s financial and reputational repercussions. That’s nothing we didn’t already know. But what’s changed in the past six months is the level and severity of those demands since the world’s response to COVID-19 required companies, citizens and cybersecurity professionals to abruptly pivot in almost all ways. Managing added levels of stress takes some internal assessment: What’s causing it? What can I do about it? Do I need

The (ISC)² Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) certification has earned a place in a list of 10 IT certifications with the most increased value over the past year. Researcher Foote Partners collected compensation data from more than 3,300 employers in the U.S. and Canada to compile the list as part of its 2020 IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index report. The index calculates certification value based on the percentage of salary that accounts for a certification. CSSLP holders earn 13% on top of their base salary, according to the research. The index gives holders – or those planning to earn the certification – information based on actual market value about how much a certification is truly worth. Its place

Alert fatigue, password change resistance, and poor cyberhygiene are just a few of the challenges that security specialists face. Human beings do not like being forced into habits, even when it is for their own well-being or that of the organization they work for. It’s a quirk of human nature that we have a hard time contemplating abstract notions of danger, especially when it’s introduced to us by others. Humans are guided in part by instinct and reflex. So if we cannot perceive danger through our physical senses, then we cannot process it accurately. When it comes to cyberhygiene activities, the threat we seek to avert seems invisible or inconsequential... Here’s a look inside the psychology behind it. Read the

The Catch-22 that has affected the cybersecurity profession since its inception remains a serious problem, according to a newly released report. To get a job in cybersecurity, many organizations require hands-on experience, but gaining that experience requires having a previous cybersecurity position in the first place. This conundrum is a challenge cybersecurity talent is fighting to overcome. The report is based on a study of 327 cybersecurity professionals in late 2019 and early 2020 by the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) for the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). The findings underscore the need for more training and certification, and more creative approaches by hiring managers to find talent in unexpected places. “There is a continuous lack of training, career development, and

In a world that is constantly changing, the immediate future of emerging technologies looks exciting and promising. Rapid advances over the next five years may help humanity solve some of the biggest challenges like the climate crisis, our ability to cure illnesses, understanding the universe and our microcosmos, and improving productivity through business automation. Despite the obvious benefits technology brings, it has also created many cybersecurity and privacy challenges. The overall business risk has increased because of the changing and expanding threat landscape. Cyber criminals are also leveraging these technologies to launch their malicious actions, which are more sophisticated than ever and harder to detect. The World Economic Forum, in their annual Global Risks report, have ranked cyber related risks