SSLShopper recently published a list of questions to ask yourself to determine if you are a security professional. Here are a few indicators that were put together:

You know you’re a computer security professional when:

• You not only lock your laptop with a physical cable leash, but you change the combination of the lock when it’s not in use so that it can’t be “compromised”. (NOT GUILTY)
  
• Although you have no ill intent, you spend no small amount of your downtime in airports thinking of ways to circumvent TSA security — and you’ve come up with several can’t-miss terrorist ideas that even Jack Bauer couldn’t stop. (EXTREMELY GUILTY)
• You lock your screensaver with twice as much insistence when security friends are around than when strangers are, because you’re not nearly as worried about a stranger’s intentions. (GUILTY)
• You’re immediately discontent with all newly announced security solutions, even before you know anything beyond the name. (NOT GUILTY)
• Having extralong passwords that you must type over and over again to get correct is not a bother. (GUILTY)
• You have a database program to store all your passwords, but even it doesn’t contain a single, decoded password. (GUILTY)
• When you read industry-mandated security guidelines, you chuckle at all the newbie mistakes. (GUILTY)
  
• You secretly hope you don’t miss a big virus outbreak while you are out on vacation. (GUILTY)
  
• Any security book you read is covered in pen from the technical corrections you’ve made. (NOT GUILTY)
  
• Your Internet browser home page is a computer security news bundling Web site. (NOT GUILTY)
  
• You’ve so fine-tuned your personal computer’s host-based firewall that you are sure it is causing problems with legitimate programs, but you really don’t care. (VERY GUILTY, bugs my wife, then have to go tone-down the firewall settings)
• You fantasize about a job where you could bust into the house of unsuspecting malicious hackers and take them away to jail. (HAVE ALREADY DONE THIS…ok, maybe just in a dream, but I did work with the FBI to stop hackers and child pornographers)
• You’ve got a new car with a built-in GPS and computer, but you are constantly worried about how easy it would be to hack. (NOT GUILTY)
  
• You suspect that every banner and Flash ad on every Web site is hosting malicious JavaScript. (GUILTY, btw, it’s TRUE, they do, as do pop-ups, and all of the forwarded chain emails)
• You loath government interference with the Internet because you know they will only mess it up more and not fix the problem (see CAN-SPAM Act). (GUILTY)
• When you hear that we’ve arrested some big spammer, you have the same nonreaction as when you hear we’ve arrested Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 person … again. (GUILTY)
  
• You resist every new application install because of the new attack vector opportunities it will bring. ( GUILTY)
  
• You know that mobile small-form-factor computers have almost no security. (GUILTY)
  
• Your cell phone is password-protected. (GUILTY)
  
• You resent having to give out your Social Security number to any person or company, especially because you have never given it when dealing with the Social Security administration. (GUILTY)
  
• You already own or covet one of those special screen covers that prevent people on either side of you of from reading your screen. (GUILTY)
  
• You can’t prevent yourself from laughing out loud when someone announces they think that computer viruses, buffer overflows, or whatever will be solved in five years. (GUILTY)
  
• You hate upgrading your computer because it means spending days trying to copy and convert all your cool hacker and anti-hacker tools to the new system. (GUILTY)
  
• You have solid friends on computer security discussion lists, whom you know would be there for you in a life-crisis pinch but that you’ve never met in person or talked to on the phone. (GUILTY)
  
• Although you never try to shoulder surf other people’s passwords, you can always tell by sound alone when they haven’t typed one that is eight characters or more, and you chuckle inside. (GUILTY)
  
• When someone hands you their USB key to copy something, you always decline, and instead offer your known, clean USB key. You would also prefer one-time, disposable, Tupperware-like memory drives if they existed. (NOT GUILTY)
  
• You always slow down when reading security guidance looking for the words “should,” “must,” “never,” and “always” — and you understand their importance. (GUILTY)
  
• By the time you read a CERT security bulletin, you’ve known about the issue for several days. (GUILTY)
  
• You always investigate SSL certificate errors when they come up in your browser. (ALWAYS GUILTY, but they are never my errors, I do, however, laugh at the certificate errors)
• Finally, you know you’re a computer security person when you have so frequently spoken passionately to complete strangers about computer security and the frustration it entails that you know what it’s like to be covered in sweat — and the listening party to have a look on their face that says they didn’t know what they were in for. (unfortunately GUILTY)

Final score:

95% Computer Security Professional

At my company we have a different view of employees and their relationship with our company. Most companies see themselves as the primary entity that needs to benefit and employees as cogs that can be interchanged in its processes. After a recent rounds of interviews, one of the VPs of the company and I met with the CEO to follow up on the results of the interviews. The CEO discussed the use of the term “job” when describing working at our company. The CEO went explained that we don’t offer jobs, we offer careers to people. We want all of our employees to see their position in the company as not a job, but as a career.

Is there a difference between a job and a career?

The two terms get used interchangeably when speaking of work, but when you stop and delve into the meaning, there is a great difference between the two. Furthermore, the organizations who can effectively distinguish between the two hold a great key to unlocking employee engagement in the workplace.

I would like to focus on a couple of definitions:

JOB: “the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money; a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty; an object worked on;”

CAREER: “the particular occupation for which you are trained; course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life); the general progression of your working or professional life;”

Do you see a difference between the two? Jobs are short-sided, pre-determined activities, dead-ends (career-wise). Jobs don’t lead an individual to any certain end goal, they simple accomplish a task. Is this how your company treats its employees? Employees are not just machines that perform a certain piece of task when necessary. Employees are a companies biggest asset. Developing employees is the key for companies to sustain increased effectiveness and productivity.

Careers allow for employee development in the long-term. Every company should have career paths for its employees. Some employees may have their own career paths which for certain moments of time intersect with a company’s career path, when this happens, the employee will seek a position with the company. Once that intersection has passed, that employee will, most likely, choose to leave the company and seek another position elsewhere that will allow that individual to continue along their career path. At times, the employee may even choose to alter their career path to math the companies career path and will stay with the company very long term. Other employees may not have a specific career path outlines for themselves and will simply adopt the company’s career path as their own.

Why is it so important for companies to develop career paths? Imagine an employee with no specified career path gets hired by the company. How long will the company keep this individual if he is a good, productive worker? Generally, there won’t be any reason to fire the employee, but companies often find themselves not knowing what to do with an employee that has been with the company long-term in one specific position. Career paths ensure that all employees with the company are developing their skills, talents, and utilizing all available resources so that they can maximize their productivity and effectiveness at their positions. This then allows the employee to be much more valuable and useful in other positions in the future.

For those employees who come with their own career paths, a company career path is equally effective as it allows the company to keep that employee focused in the position he was hired and ensures that while the employee with the company, he is focused on enhancing those talents and skills that will make him most effective in that the current position.

Overall, don’t settle for the short-sided employment goal. Seeing positions as just mere jobs to be filled is short-sided. It’s like the student preocupied with counting down the days before the end of the school year, sure some work is being done, but what is the overall attention and effort? Teaching employees the value of careers and career paths will not only improve the individual worker, but it will also change the image of the company and increase its effectiveness in getting the most from the talent and skills that each employee brings each day to work.

Has anyone out there used self-publishing companies to publish a book? Not just a photo book or something for the family, but a fiction or non-fiction official publication with intent to get into larger distribution centers?

I’ve been reading a bit about self-publishing online and have become really interested in it. I’ve had an idea for a book now for some time and have subjected some people to a brief introduction on the topic. For those who have heard it, they’ll know that I am very adamant about my views and I feel that this would be a great discussion topic in personal, business, and educational settings. The topic is in regards to higher education in America, but I won’t delve into more here.

Self publishing has come a long way. Prices have too. I’ve been researching using Lulu for self publishing and was extremely surprised at how inexpensive it is to publish a book. Especially a paperback copy.

I hope to be ready to publish the book by the end of the year. Hopefully it is something that I will be able to accomplish. Having a lot on my plate keeps the amount of available time for writing minimal, but we’ll see what happens.