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Systems Administrators, or SysAdmins for short, are most often frontline IT staff who are problem-solvers, (metaphorical) fire extinguish-ers, and, simply, doers.

For every IT professional, there comes a point when the realization hits: technical skill will only get you so far. You may have your foot in the door (or the IT cave), but in order to advance your career and set yourself apart, you need to bolster a critical soft skill: learning effective communication skills for IT professionals

System Administrators, or SysAdmins, are the “installation specialists,” “configuration specialists” and “fixers” in IT. If you’ve ever seen Pulp Fiction, SysAdmins are like Winston Wolfe — their job is to solve problems.

Cybersecurity is the arena of technology, methodology, and practice that focuses on protecting electronic information and the systems supporting it against compromise and attack.

Despite an organization's best efforts to prevent downtime and avoid compromises, failures will still happen from time to time. “I am convinced that there are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be,” said Robert Mueller, former FBI Director, in a statement. “Even that is merging into one category: those that have been hacked and will be again.” So, what is your organization doing about it? How do you plan for failures and security breaches?

This paper reviews many key issues and focuses attention on 10 responses that we all need to adopt in our approach to security.

Many employees are not as well-versed in their company’s security policy as they should be. This may result in workers performing tasks that might seem innocent or benign on the surface, but which actually put the organization at risk of a security breach. Understanding what you are doing (as an employee) or what your users are doing (as a boss or manager), can help you work toward a viable resolution to these situations. In most cases, user behavior changes as well as implementation of new technological solutions can curb exposure to risk and increase security policy compliance.

The Internet is not a safe place. We see that more than ever with the security breaches of businesses and individuals in the news on a daily basis. As Internet citizens, we need to take our protection into our own hands, as obviously most online services are not doing their best to protect us.

The use of public networks is risky. Whether wireless or wired, any public access Internet connection is putting you and your data at risk. It may be convenient to use a hotel, restaurant, or coffee shop Internet link, but the likelihood of attack or compromise is greater than accessing a private network.

You have earned a CompTIA certification. The next step is to ensure that your certification remains current and valid. Some certifications are good for life, while others require renewal. Let’s look at what certifications require renewal, the options that you have for maintaining your certifications, and steps to get it done.