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Be Careful What You Wish for…Now You’re CISO

Hat tip to our pals at TripWire, who do a good job of leveraging the security community to generate interesting and entertaining content. They have a guy named David Spark who roams around the floor at trade shows like RSA and captures video. A recent video asked, What would you do if you became CISO? Responses ranged from “fall off the wagon and drink heavily” to “ask for more budget” to “give myself a big-ass raise.” I definitely like that last one. But an ongoing theme involved updating your resume. That’s pretty funny. Who said security folks are pessimists? Of course the first thought that entered my mind was to grab the hemlock. But after that faded I’d go buy some guy’s book on being a Pragmatic CSO (hint, hint). I guess my advice is to forget almost everything you knew about technology. The position you’re now in is about persuasion and influence. It’s not about configuring firewalls or squeezing another $2-3 per device out of your endpoint protection vendor. There are some entertaining responses in the video, so check it out and get a few laughs. Then get back to work. Things don’t protect themselves, do they? Share:

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Announcing the CCSK UK Train the Trainer Class in April

Clearly the world is not enough. So I’ll be getting my 007 on in the UK in early April to deliver our Cloud Security Training. We have recently updated the curriculum to the Cloud Security Alliance Guidance V3.0, and I have to say it kicks butt. Many of the hands-on exercises have been overhauled, and if you are looking to get familiar with cloud security you will want to check out this class. I am personally training because part of this class will be a third day to train the next group of CCSK curriculum instructors. As authors of the training curriculum, we are the only folks who can train and certify instructors, so a couple times a year we deliver the courses ourselves, live and in person. The CSA is making a fairly serious investment in the CCSK, as evidenced by their recent announcement naming HP as a Master Training Partner. So if you do training, or would like cloud security to be a larger part of your business, getting certified as a CCSK trainer would be a good thing. If you want to become certified to teach, you need to attend one of these courses. And even if you aren’t interested in teaching, it’s also a good opportunity to get trained by the folks who built the course. You can get details and sign up for the training in Reading, UK, April 8-10. Here is the description of each of the 3 days of training: There is a lot of hype and uncertainty around cloud security, but this class will slice through the hyperbole and provide students with the practical knowledge they need to understand the real cloud security issues and solutions. The Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) – Basic class provides a comprehensive one day review of cloud security fundamentals and prepares them to take the Cloud Security Alliance CCSK certification exam. Starting with a detailed description of cloud computing, the course covers all major domains in the latest Guidance document from the Cloud Security Alliance, and the recommendations from the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The Basic class is geared towards security professionals, but is also useful for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of cloud security. (We recommend attendees have at least a basic understanding of security fundamentals, such as firewalls, secure development, encryption, and identity management). The CCSK-Plus class builds upon the CCSK Basic class with expanded material and extensive hands-on activities with a second day of training. The Plus class (on the second day) enhances the classroom instruction with real world cloud security labs! Students will learn to apply their knowledge as they perform a series of exercises, as they complete a scenario bringing a fictional organization securely into the cloud. This second day of training includes additional lecture, although students will spend most of their time assessing, building, and securing a cloud infrastructure during the exercises. Activities include creating and securing private clouds and public cloud instances, as well as encryption, applications, identity management, and much more. The CCSK Instructor workshop adds a third day to train prospective trainers. More detail about how to teach the course will be presented, as well as a detailed look into the hands-on labs, and an opportunity for all trainers to present a portion of the course. Click here for more information on the CCSK Training Partner Program (PDF). We look forward to seeing you there. Share:

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