Polygraph in IT companies. 5 stories of IT specialists about lie detector checks

How much do computer engineers make

In most countries of the world, polygraph examinations of employees are not prohibited by law ( except for Germany, Austria, Australia). In this way, managers want to identify "unreliable" employees or candidates. Judging by the  discussion at the forum , Ukrainian IT specialists have a sharply negative attitude to this practice.

We decided to find those who were not against the polygraph test and agreed to pass it. Several IT specialists on condition of anonymity told us about how this happened, what they asked about, and how much the polygraph influenced their attitude toward the company.

Illustration by Alina Samolyuk

How to check on a polygraph. Special sensors are fixed on the human body, which record changes in its condition. For example, pneumographs are attached to the chest. They are responsible for recording changes in respiration. A tonometer is needed to record changes in pressure, and sensors that attach to the arms and legs are responsible for recording muscle contraction. In addition, the polygraph examiner fixes galvanometers on his fingers. If a person becomes nervous, the body will sweat and the sensors will detect a change in the electrical resistance of the skin.

Refusing a polygraph was tantamount to dismissal

I was a Senior Developer at that company. Mandatory polygraph examination was introduced a few months after the opening of the new office as mandatory. All employees and candidates of that time had to pass it.

When we were told about the lie detector test, I was loyal to it. However, many colleagues were extremely negative - it is clear why. First, the atmosphere itself is tense. Secondly, it is intrusion into personal life. At that time, probably 30% of employees perceived it negatively, 30% - without much enthusiasm, and another 30% - pofigistichno. The rest were not against such an inspection.

For example, I was interested in such an experience. Refusal of a polygraph was tantamount to dismissal. I had no fundamental reasons for refusing, so I agreed.

Everyone was told in general terms about the process. The inspection took place directly in the meeting room. There was a nice polygraph specialist sitting there, who also told me about the nuances of the process and connected me to the equipment.

I was absolutely calm. The questions they asked were directly or indirectly related to the sale of leads, the disclosure of corporate secrets and everything that could lead to it. They were formulated in such a way that it was possible to give a confident and unambiguous answer. For example, the company was interested in the question: "Have you ever disclosed the NDA?". It was rebuilt as follows: "Have you ever disclosed the NDA, which led to financial or other losses of the company?".

I no longer remember exactly how long the inspection lasted. I think about an hour and a half. In general, if it influenced my attitude to the company, it is minimal. In fact, I always expect something similar from Israeli customers.

I have not seen another polygraph test in any company. But if I come across this, this factor will not be decisive when I make a decision about the offer.

I am convinced that the polygraph gives many false results - both positive and negative. And checking it is not worth complicating the recruitment process so much, unequivocally.

The adequacy of the certification to his professional project

A computer certification will certainly enhance your profile more, but targeted training will increase your chances of acquiring advanced skills that will allow you to boost your career!

For young people who are in training or looking for a job, it will be a question of choosing a certification directly related to their field of study, which will complement the theoretical contributions of your training with a purely practical component. Above all, you will need to clearly define your professional project and directly target the certifications that will allow you to achieve your goals.

For example, if the student aims to become a web and / or mobile developer, an Oracle certification can be very rewarding given that it covers the main programming languages, which represent the very heart of development, unlike other certifications in automation or industrial IT, for example, which deviate from the targeted field computer engineer careers.

Examples of highly valued certifications

As indicated above, it is the reputation of the organization that issues the certification that determines the value of the certification. Certifications issued by organizations like Microsoft which issues MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) or Amazon which has a division specializing in Cloud Computing services called AWS (Amazon Web Services) are highly valued and appreciated around the world. professional.

In addition, several companies operating in the field and producing technological or IT solutions such as Cisco and Oracle also offer certifying training courses relating to the handling of their own solutions, which are widely used in the IT field and whose mastery shows almost essential !

Choose an engineering school that incorporates certifications into its curriculum

Some engineering schools offer the opportunity to take relevant IT certifications alongside their education, thereby enabling students to enrich their knowledge and further consolidate their skills.

Opting for a computer engineering school that incorporates professional certifications into its curriculum will not only save you a lot of time and effort, but will also give you a head start over similar profiles in the IT market. employment, since you will be better equipped at the end of your training to face the world of business. A very attractive point for employers!

Ultimately, mastering IT tools and specific software is the challenge for each IT engineer, on his way to building a solid and valued profile in the company. IT certifications are therefore the ideal way to achieve this goal.

Still, what to choose to be a software engineer?

Based on the range of subjects and courses at this university, it follows that "Computing" is the best choice if you want to become a software engineer.

For simplicity, let's say you are hoping to get one of the highest paying jobs (~ $ 100,000 per year) as a software engineer in North America. These jobs are usually found in large software companies (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc.). Or high-growth midsize companies (Dropbox, Lyft, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.).

Typically, they look for an opportunity to write good code and create interesting projects in a candidate programmer, as well as knowledge of basic computer science, data structures and algorithms.

The best way to activate this skill set is to quickly learn the basics and spend your time solving problems and writing code.

Based on the software engineering curriculum and the employment of software engineers, this will be more difficult to do in the Software Engineering course.

Another advantage of Computing Engineering is that it provides more electives. This is great because depending on what is in demand in the labor market, you can adjust your training. For example, if mobile app development is in demand, you can start learning about it computers question.

A few notes

Different universities have different requirements for these specialties. This article should be a good starting point, but you should still take a look at the program requirements at the university you are interested in.

Some universities do not even have such a direction as "Software Engineering". For example, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver might give you a degree in computer engineering and computer engineering, but not software engineering. But they have a software concentration in their computer science program as well as in computer engineering.

Conclusion

If the university you are interested in does not have a major in software engineering, you can opt for computer science if you want to become a software engineer. Computing is more hardware oriented than computer science or software, so it is less tied to the work of the typical software developer. Translated into Russian by the Programmer's Library.

The basic requirements for both areas are also similar and consider algorithms, data structures and operating systems.

Let's look at the key differences:

Software engineering has more requirements in electrical engineering and software development, such as software testing, software design, and specifications.

Computing enables teaching with a wider range of high-level computer science courses. You can choose from a variety of topics such as security, software engineering fundamentals, computer vision, machine learning, and database management.

Telecom and networks engineer

Computer engineering vs software engineering

The telecom and network engineer must manage the day-to-day life of the network through which information in the form of voice and data passes. It thus meets the demand of certain units: manufacturing, trade and distribution.

The profession of telecom and network engineer first requires technical skills. He also knows how to work in a team. This quality is particularly required of him when he trains his colleagues in the new network architecture .

Communication networks, the sinews of war

Information must circulate at all costs ... and quickly. It is the telecommunications engineers who have the heavy responsibility of linking the various sites together.  Responsive, curious and passionate about IT, they design, develop and experiment with new technologies to make telecommunications systems ever more efficient.

Optical fiber, video consoles, mobile phones ... All these innovations that the population benefits from every day would not have seen the light of day without these high-level professionals. These scientists also have a managerial role. They most often supervise the technical teams responsible for the design of telecommunications equipment such as telephones, faxes, switchboards and even networks.

An essential profession for companies

The telecommunications engineers working increasingly for advice to companies and the Digital Service companies (NSE) which themselves put their skills to the companies. Today, companies need very efficient communication systems and above all, always operational.

In the event of a major failure, the engineer must travel to perform tests. Designer of this same system, he is best able to solve the problem in record time.

Finally, in the labs, they work with other researchers, an essential collaboration for the proper functioning of research and the creation process.

Shortage of senior engineers in the Dutch oil and gas industry

The Department for Oil and Gas Technology of the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) has conducted research into the supply and demand of engineers in the Dutch oil and gas industry. Among other things, this highlights the shortage of both senior engineers and female engineers. There are also concerns about the potential loss of innovation development among students due to increasingly school-based university education. At the start-up level, supply and demand appear to balance each other well. The findings of the investigation were presented on Wednesday 9 September to Merit Clocquet, Technology Pact program leader at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

KIVI has mapped out the expected demand for engineers in the coming years and what specific knowledge and competences companies in the oil and gas industry expect from newly graduated engineers. The survey shows that there is a shortage of senior engineers with professional and sector-specific knowledge and that companies want to actively increase the percentage of female engineers.

Other points for attention are the demand for teachers in higher education with a background in the sector and the image of the sector. The increasingly school-based system in university education has the risk that it can lead to less innovation development and creativity among students. Novice engineers are strongly advised to work on their professional basis first. Positive points were the balanced balance of supply and demand from engineers. People were also positive about the salary level computers related jobs. 

Note for editors:

About the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI)

KIVI has been the professional association of engineers in the Netherlands since 1847. KIVI is committed to supporting engineers in their professional practice and propagates the importance of engineers and technology for society. To this end, KIVI cooperates with higher education and the technological industry and in a European context with other professional organizations for engineers.

What is a linear meter?

A linear meter is a somewhat redundant term for measuring length in the International System of Units (SI). A linear meter is different from a square meter, which is a unit of area, or a cubic meter, which is a unit of volume. Typically, the word "linear" is omitted because the meter is meant to be a unit of length and not an area or volume. However, in some cases this is written as a “linear meter” to avoid confusion when multiple units are used in a particular job or task what type of engineer should i be.

The metric system, which is the basis of the modern SI system, gets its name from the counter, which is one of the seven basic units of the SI system. A meter is defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum during a span of 1 / 299.792.458 of a second. This definition has been around since its first official designation by the French Academy of Sciences in 1791, when it was described as one tenth of a millionth the distance from the North Pole to the equator.

This initial meter definition was later found to have a margin of error of 0.2 mm (0.008 in) due to the inability to account for the distortion of the Earth's spherical shape due to centrifugal forces associated with rotation, which cause the Earth to be slightly convex at the equator and slightly flattened. at the poles. Later, a new prototype for a flow meter, using the previous definition as a base, was made from an alloy of platinum and iridium and held under controlled conditions.

In 1960, the definition was changed again to further improve the accuracy of the linear meter. The wavelength of a particular type of radiation from the decaying isotopes of the element krypton was used to determine the meter. The current definition, based on the transit time of light in a vacuum, was adopted in 1983. All of these definitions have changed little in the day-to-day use of a linear meter by most ordinary citizens. These definitions have always been useful to scientists and those who require the utmost accuracy of measurements.

The meter is one of the most recognizable units of measurement today, even for countries like the United States that are slowly adopting the metric system. That's the equivalent of just over 3.28 feet, or 1.09 yards. A thousand meters is a kilometer, a standard device used for long distances in many parts of the world.

In some cases, the term linear meter is used when discussing the amount of material, such as lumber. In these cases, it is sometimes confused with square or cubic meters, units of area and volume. To avoid confusion, a linear meter should always be viewed simply as a length measurement. For example, when discussing lumber, a linear meter means a piece that is one meter long, regardless of other board dimensions.

Neural networks

After I went through neural networks at the university, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. We finally got our hands on the old and long-postponed lecture of the small ShAD.

Interesting: computer science vs computer engineering

In 2015, the moment passed when the computer began to determine the image better than a person (it is quite difficult for a person to distinguish an ordinary Husky from a Siberian Husky).

Classical neural networks are when each neuron is connected with all neurons of the previous layer, and everything is relatively simple there (we taught the recognition of pixel symbols in our labs). But, if you use them for image processing, there will not be enough resources, so they use Convolutional Neural Networks. This is a type of neural network that uses only limited weight matrices (small size), which are "moved" over the entire processed layer.

For example, you can train a neural network to detect eyes in a photograph and then quickly identify them in a photograph (the second slide describing the scientific work of Gatys LA on stylizing images seemed quite amusing to me. Lecture in 2015, let me remind you).

To solve problems related to text (translations, generation of texts), Recurrent Neural Networks are used - these are networks in which there is a feedback. When consistency matters. Here you can already write bots for, for example, technical support. Or my old idea of ​​a fix is ​​to translate any text into the style of Dostoevsky. When computers start writing programs for themselves, these are also recurrent neural networks.

But the magic begins when we start combining the two together. Convolutional + recurrent networks give us, for example, the ability to translate video to text (I've always wondered how this is done). There is a famous video where one developer walks around Amsterdam, and he describes everything he saw. [funny that this video was made with post-processing, I mean not in real time. Since the iPhone 7 Plus is already kind of more powerful than my eyir, we can already assume that applications for people with visual impairments will appear soon. I pointed my phone, and you were told in real time what was happening on the street].

First recursive, then convolutional. And you can do the generation of images by text (for example, help the build editor to select images for the text).

Using convolutional networks + reinforcement learning, we can train the network to solve any game (for example, the same teaching mechanics can be used for almost all Atari games). [note: checkers, for example, were decided almost by brute force - a computer can bring any game to a draw, chess is already a little more difficult).

PS At WWDC 2016 Apple presented two pieces: Basic Neural Network Subroutines (BNNS) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). 

It is described here in more or less human language. In other words, you can already be completely dumb, you just take it and use it. For example, in order to detect a face in a photo, you can use a specially dedicated thing for this.

Installing antivirus: the best free solutions

Paid software is better, but many users want to install an antivirus for free . There are many opportunities for this, and some of the options are comparable in efficiency to expensive antivirus programs. But you shouldn't install more than one antivirus, at least under the Windows operating system. Installing two or more leads to instability, slowdown of the Internet connection, or even direct conflict of applications that perceive each other as malicious computer engineer education requirements.

The following is an overview of the most effective computer defenders.

Avast

In addition to the classic antivirus, the kit includes an antispyware, web protection and an email scanner. Avast is integrated into the browser and is responsible for the security of search. A special section of the program analyzes the behavior of applications working with confidential information. You can create an emergency boot disk, search for errors in the registry, lost files and fragments on the disk. Avast has a simple, understandable interface, where the Russian language has recently appeared, and a sufficient level of intelligence to combat modern threats. But registration is required to obtain a license for a year. Otherwise, you will be allowed to use the program for free only for a month.

Panda

After the disappearance of the Chinese 360 ​​Total Security caught using the paid BitDefender engine, it was replaced by Panda Free Antivirus. It shows about 100% results when detecting viruses under Windows 7, 8 and 10. The only drawback is some slowdown of the computer. The program is best used on a fast processor. An important advantage of Panda is its excellent Russian-language interface. You can  install an antivirus in Russian for free and use it comfortably. Built-in automatic protection for external flash drives and hard drives.

AVG

AVG Antivirus Free is inferior to the leaders in functionality, but it is enough for the average user. The advantages of the program include an improved module for protecting confidential data, and a slight impact on computer performance.

Trial versions of paid software

The famous Kaspersky, NOD32 and BitDefender regularly offer free trial versions for which you don't have to pay. If you install a free trial antivirus , it will most likely perform as well as the stable paid option. Potential problems include a time limit or a minor risk of a computer freezing due to unfinished product debugging.

E-education: new technologies at the service of teaching

The effective use of modern information technologies in the educational process is a guarantee of the competitiveness of the national education system, the leadership of the relevant department noted.

According to the Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus Igor Karpenko, the international specialized forum ITE can become an event that makes a significant contribution not only to the digital transformation of the industry, but also to the future of Belarusian education in general. The active introduction of information technologies in the educational process allows to synchronize the accelerating processes of globalization - including in the educational sphere - with an increase in digital and online literacy of workers in the education system. Such a correlation of development conditions and potential opportunities will allow for the formation of mutually beneficial partnerships between representatives of the education system and the real sector of the economy for the creation of joint innovative projects.

- Today, it is especially important to support ideas that allow modernizing school education without significant efforts and financial costs, noted the brand director of the educational electronic platform Know. buy ”Alexander Teplyakov.   - Of course, such specialized sites become excellent catalysts for ideas and innovative transformations. Holding an exhibition-forum this year makes it possible to make a huge step forward in the informatization of the industry, as well as in achieving the goals set by the State Program for the Development of the Digital Economy and Information Society for 2016-2020.

The implementation of the program is scheduled for the shortest possible time - and only active interaction of the Ministry of Education with all participants in the digital transformation process will make it possible to achieve qualitative changes and practical results, experts believe. The development of the e-education system is one of the priorities of the State Program for the Development of the Digital Economy. This is not surprising: the information interaction of teachers, students and parents involves the active introduction of modern ICT technologies, such as the complex project "Electronic School" aimed at integrating high technologies into the educational process where do computer engineers work.

Digital transformation has affected all spheres of life in our society, including the education and retraining system. E-learning technologies based on the widespread use of information and communication technologies in education are becoming more and more popular - both throughout the world and in the Republic of Belarus. The widespread use of electronic teaching aids is one of the key tasks identified by the Program of Social and Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus until 2020. The problems of introducing information technologies in education were discussed by specialists at a round table held within the framework of the IKE forum .

In our country, IT companies are actively developing, which offer specially developed software and products for distance learning. The sector of corporate education is growing rapidly, which makes it possible to solve the problem of advanced training and retraining of personnel without interrupting the main activity. The introduction of innovative technologies based on the use of ICT into the education system makes it possible to individualize the educational process and adapt it to the characteristics of each student, to improve the level of qualifications and training, taking into account the current demands of the labor market. The introduction of innovative technologies of distance and lifelong learning into the educational process is a necessary condition for improving the quality and accessibility of education in the Republic of Belarus and ensuring the competitiveness of the domestic education system at the world level. The experts noted that distance learning is an innovative and most acceptable form of education in terms of adaptability today. Digital transformation has affected all spheres of life in our society, including the education and retraining system.

Daria Parkhomenko, senior lecturer at the Department of Engineering Psychology and Ergonomics, BSUIR, explained the need to create an integrated educational platform based on modern information technologies. Such a solution, according to the expert, will help not only optimize the work of educational institutions, but also make a kind of breakthrough in terms of introducing paperless document management.

- The transition to a single platform for all educational institutions would fully lay the prerequisites for the digital transformation of society, - said the specialist. - It is necessary to use the learning experience that is available in the world, as applied to our realities, the functionality of the learning management system is the registration of students, and administration of groups, and the management of the curriculum and certification system, as well as the management of skills and competencies of students, reporting and analytics, delivery of educational material to students.

A representative of BSUIR shared her experience of introducing distance learning technology into the educational process:

- Previously, we had an experience that I consider very successful: students from the regions studied remotely for two years, and then, based on the results of electronic exams, we chose the best ones, and they completed their studies in person. And now we are constantly developing this kind of approach. Our distance learning system operates at all levels of the educational process: support in full-time learning, the provision of materials in electronic form, intermediate and final computer tests, as well as elective courses and advanced training courses in distance form. All this is supported by a large number of electronic simulators and electronic teaching aids. We widely use the webiring system and constantly use webinars, webinars-mix, and not even as part of distance education, but as part of the educational environment.

Microsoft specialists spoke about the proposed complex solutions for the education system:

- We must help all participants in the educational process to achieve what they want and do it most effectively. Microsoft has signed an agreement with Belarus, and this will be a fruitful cooperation, taking into account the key priorities of both parties. We are constantly evolving: for example, 80% of the world's largest corporations use Microsoft Cloud - these are the very cloud technologies, and Skype today can translate spoken language in real time into 8 languages.

According to Danila Yegorov, director of the International School of Azerbaijan (Baku), lifelong education is a panacea for unemployment . Improving the efficiency of education and training management using information technologies allows developed countries to make a significant technological breakthrough: the introduction of advanced developments in educational processes allows them to train competent specialists from school, the expert believes. Belarus should also overcome the existing technological gap. 

Information security of the organization: psychological and moral aspects

Information is about shaping and informing that which was previously unknown. Information is the basic component of knowledge. In turn, knowledge is accumulated and transmitted in the form of this or that intellectual product. In other words, knowledge, in contrast to information processes, is a self-growing, increasing resources.

The leading role of the information process at all its stages belongs to carriers of information and knowledge as a subjective subject of information accumulation. on how interests, personality traits and basic psychological attitudes will be taken into account in information processes, not only efficiency, but also the effectiveness of the application of systemic technological processes depends. Taking into account the increasing role of information in the systems of resource support of business processes, the role of information security of any enterprise becomes as clear as possible. The main areas of business information security are: what types of engineers are there

Protection of information about the state and movement of tangible assets, often understood as economic security;

Protection of information about the state of intangible assets and their carriers (personnel), defined as information security itself;

Protection of means of storage, processing and transmission of information.

It uses economic and psychological methods to ensure business security and technical and technological methods to protect information networks.

Conditions for the formation of a system of economic security of a company: A clear definition of the concept of a system of economic security. Ensuring economic security means carrying out constant activities to identify, prevent, localize and neutralize threats and minimize damage from the implementation of threats of various nature. Taking into account the opinions and positions of the owner, shareholders, top management. The opinions of these categories of persons do not always coincide.

Compliance with the principles and algorithm for the formation of a system of economic security of the company. At the heart of the judgment: any action that disrupts the normal functioning of the organization is understood as a threat to the economic security of the firm. How are information security measures implemented in practice, taking into account specific situations? Here are some examples. It is noted that the reason for information leakage most often occurs as a result of the negligence of the top officials of the organization. For example, in private companies, more than 75% of responsible employees, receiving visitors, do not consider it necessary to remove confidential documents from the table or turn off the computer. This leads to the loss of up to 30% of operational information. According to the survey, 75% of CEOs of large enterprises are well aware of the increased potential for information leakage when using modern duplicating tools such as a photocopier. Nevertheless, the copying of material in 53.6% of cases occurs in self-service mode, in 32.7% - by the operator at the verbal request of the employee, and only in 13.5% of cases the operator makes copies against receipt or by written order. According to a study conducted by Italian psychologists, only 25% of the company's employees are really reliable people, the same number are waiting for an opportunity to divulge secrets, and 50% will act depending on the circumstances. In 5% of cases, the operator makes copies against receipt or written order. According to a study conducted by Italian psychologists, only 25% of the company's employees are really reliable people, the same number are waiting for an opportunity to divulge secrets, and 50% will act depending on the circumstances. In 5% of cases, the operator makes copies against receipt or written order. According to a study conducted by Italian psychologists, only 25% of the company's employees are really reliable people, the same number are waiting for an opportunity to divulge secrets, and 50% will act depending on the circumstances.

In the United States, computer crimes are committed, as a rule, by employees who are allowed to work with information systems. Clerks, administrators and managers are more likely to blame for them than professional programmers. A number of cases have been recorded when programmers planted a logical bomb in the information system in the event of force majeure circumstances significant to them. When these circumstances occur, the bomb erases the entire array of information and self-destructs. It is almost impossible to prove guilt in court. According to the researchers, the most effective measures to create an atmosphere of information security are measures related to improving information culture at an enterprise. It is necessary to form a clear target for increasing reliability and responsibility in matters of information protection. So, many American firms operate a two-tier information security system. The first level is the provision of information security by the special services, the second is the cultivation of an atmosphere of vigilance and responsibility with the help of so-called coordinators appointed from mid-level officials.

It is advisable to divide the technological process into a number of independent stages so that employees know only a part of the secrets, and only the management or a narrow circle of people possessed the whole knowledge. It is necessary to constantly monitor the relationship between people who own information, take into account their moral and psychological state. The reasons for concern are: manifestations of emotional imbalance, discontent, cunning, disappointment of employees whose ideas are rejected. It is proposed to create a system of intra-company communication that does not allow for the complete autonomy of individual employees. In general, psychological support of commercial secrets in the process of selection, training, promotion and dismissal of personnel is more efficient and cheaper than in the case of conventional information classification.

Dissemination of information only through controlled channels; appointment of persons responsible for control of documentation;

mandatory destruction of unused copies of documents and records;

clear definition of trade secrets for personnel;

compilation, regular assessment and updating of the list of information that is a trade secret;

inclusion of a clause on non-disclosure of commercial secrets in the employment contract , internal regulations and job descriptions;

inclusion of provisions on non-disclosure of secrets in agreements and contracts with partners.

We will especially focus on measures to ensure information security when an employee is fired. The intentions of an employee to quit is indirectly evidenced by visiting the relevant sites on the Internet, sending out a resume. From that moment on, all correspondence from the work address and some operations on the PC should be taken under secret control. All files should be backed up as soon as possible in the absence of this user. Viewing vacancies could be carried out at the request of acquaintances looking for work, there is no need to immediately take explicit security measures. If an employee announced his dismissal, you can take the following measures: inform all employees about the upcoming dismissal and prohibit transferring to him any or any specific information related to work; make a backup copy of the user's files; organize the transfer of cases; gradually, as cases are transferred, reduce the rights of access to information; if necessary, arrange for support of the dismissal by an information security specialist.

If an employee is convicted of industrial espionage, it is necessary to: immediately deprive him of all access rights to IT; immediately adjust access rights to shared information resources (databases, printers, faxes), block entrances to external networks or change the rules for accessing them; all employees are required to change their personal passwords, and the following information is brought to their attention: Employee N is not working.

For any attempts to contact him immediately inform the security service for some time, the control of the IP is carried out in an enhanced mode. If an employee is not dismissed due to incrimination in industrial espionage, then the above measures should not be overly persistent, so as not to have a negative impact on the psychological state of a person. It is necessary to convince the employee that this is the general order and that he is personally not suspected of anything. If employees see that the dismissal of each PC user is inextricably linked with moral damage, then the general socio-psychological climate will suffer: the organization will be associated with a prison or a sect. In addition, it is inappropriate to spoil relations with all leaving employees: someone can return, and someone can help. If an employee is fired, If convicted of industrial espionage, the escort procedure remains at the discretion of the security service. The task of the personnel management service: what is happening should not harm the social and psychological climate in the team, but, if possible, on the contrary, consolidate the rest of the employees. Measures to ensure information security from the standpoint of the human factor can be viewed as a shield against information theft as a specific resource of significant value. Theft and fraud, as a psychological problem, have their own ideology: "everyone in Russia steals." With some variations, this judgment has been around for centuries. What exactly is the severe heredity of the Russian mentality manifested in? what is happening should not harm the social and psychological climate in the team, but, if possible, on the contrary, consolidate the rest of the employees. Measures to ensure information security from the standpoint of the human factor can be viewed as a shield against information theft as a specific resource of significant value. Theft and fraud, as a psychological problem, have their own ideology: "everyone in Russia steals." With some variations, this judgment has been around for centuries. What exactly is the severe heredity of the Russian mentality manifested in? what is happening should not harm the social and psychological climate in the team, but, if possible, on the contrary, consolidate the rest of the employees. Measures to ensure information security from the standpoint of the human factor can be viewed as a shield against information theft as a specific resource of significant value. Theft and fraud, as a psychological problem, have their own ideology: "everyone in Russia steals." With some variations, this judgment has been around for centuries. What exactly is the severe heredity of the Russian mentality manifested in? Measures to ensure information security from the standpoint of the human factor can be viewed as a shield against information theft as a specific resource of significant value. Theft and fraud, as a psychological problem, have their own ideology: "everyone in Russia steals." With some variations, this judgment has been around for centuries. What exactly is the severe heredity of the Russian mentality manifested in? Measures to ensure information security from the standpoint of the human factor can be viewed as a shield against information theft as a specific resource of significant value. Theft and fraud, as a psychological problem, have their own ideology: "everyone in Russia steals." With some variations, this judgment has been around for centuries. What exactly is the severe heredity of the Russian mentality manifested in?

that is, a choice that minimizes costs and maximizes net benefits. Economic behavior is based on people's value orientations. Economic behavior is influenced by various factors:

technical level of production,

organization, rationing,

pay and working conditions,

job satisfaction,

moral and psychological climate in the team,

the educational and cultural level of the employee,

the nature of social and political activity in society and the working group.

There are four strategies of economic behavior: minimum labor - minimum income, minimum labor - maximum income, maximum labor - guaranteed income, maximum labor - maximum income. Human behavior within the framework of one strategy is governed exclusively by his motives. The transition from one strategy to another is regulated by a system of incentives. An exception is the maximum labor - maximum income strategy, where human behavior is determined by incentives. The strategy of minimum labor - minimum income, arising as a forced reaction of a person to a situation, forms the employee's feelings of internal dismissal, depression, contributes to the formation of terminator, that is, destructive behavior.

Recommendations for the prevention of theft in the organization.

Create a strong corporate culture of the organization (relationships, social priorities, morality in the organization). If a critical mass of workers is formed, then newcomers fall into the system of self-reproducing social consciousness. Create an effective control system that meets the following requirements: regularity and regularity, personal responsibility of employees. The condition is to view control as helping people resist the temptation to steal. As a preventive measure, periodically induce in workers the syndromes of feelings of guilt, feelings of gratitude, playing the role of a strict boss or a rescuer boss. Be choosy about industrial relationships. The assertion "they will not steal their own" is rather controversial. General incentive rules can also be formulated to ensure the safe behavior of personnel:

accessibility, tangibility;

minimum gap between results and pay on time;

a combination of incentives and penalties;

a combination of material, social and psychological incentives.

I chose Minsk because they pay more": IT specialists - on the pros and cons of moving to Belarus

IT specialists in Minsk have high salaries

“I came from Rostov-on-Don,” explains Alexey Kremsa, a developer at the outsourcing company CactusSoft. - I lived in Rostov for several years, but I didn't like the city. I realized that I had reached the salary ceiling and wanted to leave. I chose Minsk because they pay more here.

Kirill Asyamolov from Novosibirsk has a similar story: he thought of moving to Moscow or St. Petersburg with his family, and ended up in Minsk.

- In Belarus, they offered a higher payment. The difference was enough for my choice to fall on Minsk. I have a friend working here, also from Novosibirsk: three years ago I moved with my wife and four children.

According to dev.by, Minsk IT specialists earn about $ 1,700. This is more than in large cities of Russia - and comparable to the salaries of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Minsk programmers Objective C or Swift and C ++ get more than $ 2000 per month; specialists with more than seven years of experience can count on $ 3,000, despite the fact that the average salary in Minsk in January this year was less than $ 600.

Salaries are pegged to the dollar rate

The Belarusian ruble did not boast of stability for a long time. Therefore, IT companies have developed a tradition of tying salaries to the dollar exchange rate. Now, if the ruble falls, local IT specialists only benefit. This approach is less common in Russia.

- In Rostov, I worked in an outsourcing company. I had a salary fixed in rubles, - Alexey recalls. - In 2014, when the ruble fell, the work of developers at one point became twice as cheap. There was no question of compensation, although the customer was still paying the company in dollars.

There is a place to work in Minsk

“It is quite easy to get a job in Minsk,” says Alexander Slabinsky, who moved to Belarus in 2014. - I would search on LinkedIn, dev.by, jobs.tut.by. So far, the situation is when employees are needed badly.

There is a good IT market in Belarus, - Alexey shares his observations. - Lots of outsourcing projects. Recently, strong product companies have also been opening: Juno, Apalon, Gismart. Yes, if you are a good specialist, you can find an excellent job in any city, but if you take the "average temperature in a hospital", conditionally middle, then it is easier to find a job in Minsk.

Business incubator of the Hi-Tech Park. Photo: park.by

The IT sector in Belarus is developing rapidly. Since the Hi-Tech Park (a special economic zone for IT) appeared here in 2005, the export of IT services and products has  grown  30 times. In 2017, 69% of HTP residents developed custom software for clients from the USA and Europe.

Recently, many companies, inspired by the success of MSQRD and AIMatter, are moving to product development, with more than 80 of them focusing on AI projects. At the beginning of the year, vc.ru published  twenty  promising Belarusian startups.

 Decree No. 8 "On the Development of the Digital Economy" will come into force on March 28  : experts  believe that it will make a breakthrough in the industry. Among the important provisions - he extended the existing benefits for HTP residents; allowed mining and cryptocurrencies; and, finally, saved foreigners from the need to obtain a permit and visa to work in HTP resident companies

CactusSoft Office

It's cheap to live in Minsk

Minsk is one of the ten cheapest cities in the world in terms of cost of living. In the latest Mercer ranking, he took 200th place out of 209 possible (Moscow, for example, was in 14th place). At the same time, the average Minsker lives on a salary that is almost three times lower than that of the average IT specialist.

- The cost of living in Minsk is about the same as in Rostov, - Alexey estimates. “For example, groceries are cheaper, but mobile communications, internet and entertainment are more expensive.

- Sausages, cheeses are cheaper here than in Novosibirsk, - Kirill calculates.

- As for the apartment, in Rostov I rented a one-room apartment for 18 thousand rubles, and in Minsk - for $ 350. I now get to the metro three or four minutes on foot, and by metro to the center - fifteen minutes. For comparison, my friend in Moscow is renting a "odnushka" for a little more than 40 thousand rubles. Spartan conditions, I would do a renovation.

For Alexander, the issue of renting an apartment is no longer relevant: last year he married a woman from Minsk, moved to her.

“In Russia, many people go to Moscow to earn money, but I don’t know how relevant this is for the IT sector,” says Alexey. - It is more profitable for a resident of Tomsk or Saratov to move to Minsk: the salary can be the same as in Moscow or St. Petersburg, and the prices are lower. It turns out to postpone more.

It's easier to feel local in Belarus, if you don't say "Belarus"

- The Russian-speaking population is a plus, - Alexander believes. - There is no shock from the move, as if he changed not the country, but the city.

You only need to get used to new money. In July 2016, a denomination was carried out in Belarus: they “cut off” four zeros from the price tags. The largest bill used to be 200 thousand Belarusian rubles, now it is 500 rubles.

“I ended up in Minsk when two types of money were in use in parallel: old ones with tens of thousands and new ones,” Aleksey recalls. - In new ones, it is convenient to count: you divide by two - you get the amount in dollars.

As elsewhere, you can feel like you are here as long as it does not turn to the local cultural context.

- My wife once walked down the street with a child, grandfather approached her, - Kirill describes. - He began to tell: "Well, the young people went, they don't know who Masherov is!" And with hope: "Well, you know for sure?" She kept silent and pretended to understand who she was talking about.

- Once colleagues discussed the singer Solodukha - I did not know who he was. I had no idea! - Alexey laughs. “And if you don’t know him, then you’re definitely not local computer engineering course.

“Before moving, I have never been to Belarus. I knew that the capital was Minsk, the president was Lukashenko. That, perhaps, is all ", - Alexey Kremsa admits

And, of course, many react painfully to the word “Belarus”:

“I’m already used to saying Belarus, and I want to correct others,” Kirill admits. - In Minsk they write like that everywhere: for example, on posters - “I love Belarus”.

There is little entertainment in Minsk and no IKEA

Together with Alexander in 2014, many acquaintances from Ukraine turned out to be in Minsk. Many have either returned or moved on to Europe. The main reason is boring.

- But I don’t understand how it can be boring in the city? - Alexander is surprised. - Every day I follow the work-home route. If I have free time, I try to go in for sports: last September I ran at the Minsk half marathon.

- I would like a variety of concerts, - Alexey admits. - Often famous artists come to Moscow and St. Petersburg, but not to Minsk. This was the case with The Pretty Reckless and many others. But there are cafes and bars, as well as parks and a bike path, so you can entertain yourself.

- In the summer I was on the local bar street - Zybitskaya, quite fun. There is no such street in Novosibirsk, - Kirill recalls. - But in general, my wife and I don't go to bars. There are no relatives in Minsk, there is no one to sit with the child.

You should be prepared for the fact that there are not so many world brands in Minsk - both in terms of clothing and in terms of catering. The first Zara store opened last year, Starbucks still does not.

- IKEA is very lacking, - Kirill complains.

Minsk is clean and good public transport

The cleanliness of the streets is what impresses all visitors.

- Even from the first business trip to Minsk, I remembered that here there is more order in communal things, - Alexander recalls. - And public transport works well. I myself do not drive, so this is important to me.

- Drivers do not smoke in the cabin. And in Rostov, this happened more than once, - adds Alexey. - All public transport there is private. Once I was driving a minibus, and the driver was carrying a cigarette. I was sitting not far away, I said: "Can you please not smoke?" - "Hey, change if you don't like it." In Minsk, it is generally less likely to run into open rudeness. People are calmer and more restrained. I could be wrong, but this is my personal experience.

It's expensive to travel from Minsk

Low-cost airlines do not fly from Minsk, and the national air carrier Belavia has high prices. Minskers are accustomed to travel by train to Vilnius (2 hours 30 minutes - for $ 20) or Warsaw, Kiev or Moscow - and get on a plane there.

Railway station square in Minsk

- But there is an opportunity to quickly get to Europe by bus or car, - adds Kirill. - It was not cheaper for me to fly somewhere by plane from Novosibirsk, and I could only go to Gorny Altai by road. But now, only in March, I visited Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

IT people have one more opportunity to travel - for work. The Belarusian CactusSoft, where Aleksey works, was recently bought by the Belgian company Litussoft, so the developer had two business trips to Belgium. Curiously, relocation is not attractive to Europe.

- Work in IT there is not super profitable. In Belgium, according to locals, lawyers and doctors receive the most. And if you don't want to feel like a stranger, you have to learn another language. But I'm trite too lazy. It's one thing to get an offer from a cool company in Silicon Valley, and it's another to change a typical office in Russia for a Polish or Czech one. You can, but I don't understand why this is necessary.

What else

- There are disadvantages everywhere: in every city, in every country. But if you don’t find fault, I don’t see big problems in Minsk, ”Aleksey believes. - I heard a complaint from Belarusians: "Our roads are bad." Yes, you have great roads! And what is called traffic jams in Moscow would be "we are going slowly."

Center of Minsk

The weather in Minsk is an ambiguous moment: rainy summer, prolonged winter.

- It's better in Novosibirsk -15 ° C with snow and sun than slush and -1 ° C here, - Kirill sighs.

It is difficult with public medicine, but there are no problems with private medicine. Good service in a cafe is the exception rather than the rule. But in the shops there are delicious products, and local markets delight with farm products. For a healthy lifestyle - ideal.

TOP 10 most downloaded Windows programs in 2019

Computer engineering vs computer science salary

We bring to your attention a list of the most downloaded programs for Windows in 2019. All presented applications are the most popular among Russian users.

WinRAR

An incredibly popular archiver and unzip that is loved by millions of users around the world. The program is recommended for installation after each reinstallation of the Windows operating system and helps to significantly save space by archiving files. To download you can use  https://winrar-pro.ru  with a quick installation.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2019

The famous package for professional photo editing in an updated edition, which has collected not just millions of fans around the world, but tens of millions of satisfied users. The program is exclusively paid.

BlueStacks

When you need to emulate the Android operating system on Windows, this utility comes in handy, which is perfect for playing games and testing other applications.

Microsoft Office 2016

The list of the most downloaded programs for Windows also includes the popular office suite of the previous edition. Almost no computer in Russia can do without it.

CrystalDiskMark

This small but very useful program will help you test the performance and speed of any drive. The speed of reading / writing is clearly shown, whether it be HDD, SSD or flash drive.

ABBYY FineReader

The most popular PDF reader and has remained so throughout its existence. It is better not to find files of this type for normal viewing.

WinSetupFromUSB

To install Windows directly from a USB flash drive, you need this program, which will create a boot package from the OS image. Just plug the drive into USB and start the installation.

ACDSee Pro

Oddly enough, but in the list of the most popular programs in 2019, there was a rather advanced utility for viewing photos. This is not surprising, because the rich level of software allows not only viewing all popular formats, but also cataloging your own library of images.

Adobe Premiere Pro

Another popular package from Adobe, but for working with video. Create your own video clips, edit any video arrays, and be creative.

From 5G to the cloud: what technology trends will be relevant in the near future

AI: a new kind of service

On the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming one of the major technological advances. However, most AI applications are still destined to be a service provider: like any advanced technology, it is still too expensive for companies to build their own systems on. Already existing platforms from Microsoft, Google and Amazon have too general settings, so in 2020 numerous providers are expected to hone applications for narrower profiles of specific organizations, which means that AI can no longer be ignored by any sane company.

At the same time, more and more users and companies are asking questions about digital ethics of decision-making using AI, as well as ensuring the confidentiality of personal data and corporate information. As a result, laws are being introduced around the world to establish basic rules for organizations, such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The most important points in them are openness and transparency, requiring the development of concepts such as AI-based management with explanatory power. According to Gartner, 30% of government orders and contracts of large companies for the purchase of AI products and services by 2025 will require explanatory ability and analysis of the ethics of AI decisions.

In 2020, companies will have to focus on following new technological and ethical trends that will have a huge impact on the further transformation of digital infrastructure computer science vs engineering

5G: competition for speed

5G wireless networks are not new in themselves: in 2019, residents of large cities could already use them. However, a real coup is expected in 2020: speed will skyrocket and tariffs will drop to the ground. 5G networks will support 1,000x bandwidth increases, connections for at least 100 billion devices, and a personalized 10Gbps user experience with extremely low latency and response times, Huawei said. The rollout of these networks, according to Huawei's forecast, will continue until 2030. But despite the bright future of 5G networks, China has already begun developing sixth generation networks. Completion of development is scheduled for 2030. Regardless of how long a given generation of networks is given, the increased throughput will allow machines to

Drones: driving without obstacles

The idea of ​​drones on the roads can hardly surprise anyone, but what has so far been massively used only in science fiction films seems to be starting to come into our reality. More recently, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, completed trials of autonomous taxis in California, where in the first month the robocars carried more than 6,200 people. Tesla CEO Elon Musk promises to complete the creation of the wonder car this year. In his opinion, a million or two drones will appear on the roads in a year and a half. Systems will become more automated and not directly related to driving, such as safety and entertainment functions, which will depend on data collection and analysis. Obviously, the legislation will have to be rewritten before the robocars become available for use.

Personalized and predictive medicine: one-two, get up!

The ability to collect data from wearable devices will transform the healthcare landscape. Devices like smartwatches are increasingly making it possible to predict and treat human health problems even before any symptoms appear. Thanks to breakthroughs in genomics and AI, data has become possible to understand how much better or worse an individual's body is adapted to resist specific diseases, as well as how effective certain recommendations will be for him. 2020 will see the introduction of more personalized and effective treatments.

Computer vision: why does a person need a "third eye"?

In computer terminology, "vision" refers to systems capable of identifying objects, places, objects or people in images by correlating the data collected by the camera with a database from the cloud. It is this technology that is used by the image search function in Google and Yandex search engines, it was with its help that Apple's FaceID provided control over access to smartphones. In 2020, computer vision will penetrate everywhere: production lines will use cameras to monitor faulty products and track equipment failures, and security cameras themselves will be able to warn about anything unusual, without requiring 24/7 monitoring. Along with the growing popularity of the technology, the number of disputes over restrictions on its use due to potential privacy breaches will increase this year.

Augmented Reality: Behind PokemonGo

Augmented Reality (XR) encompasses several technologies related to virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Virtual reality (VR) means entering a world entirely created by a computer, augmented reality (AR) superimposes digital objects on the real world through screens or displays of smartphones (like Snapchat filters), mixed reality (MR) is an extension of AR, when where users can interact with digital objects placed in the real world (for example, play a holographic piano placed in a room using an AR headset).

The problem is that throughout the lifetime of these technologies, their use has been largely limited to the entertainment industry. In 2020, a paradigm shift is expected: companies will have access to a huge number of exciting opportunities offered by both of the current forms of XR: training, modeling, new ways of interacting with customers.

Blockchain: making ends meet

This technological trend is still not quite clear for companies that are not into digital technologies. However, in 2020 the situation may change. Blockchain will reduce costs, shorten transaction times and improve cash flow, thereby ensuring trust, transparency and exchange of experience between business companies. Thanks to the blockchain, partners unfamiliar with each other will be able to interact in a digital environment without risks to the business, allowing the participants in the chain to trace assets to the moment they arise. By tracing a supplier of raw materials, it is possible to find out the cause of a foodborne illness without contacting regulatory authorities. Smart city and IoT systems, claims processing automation, and internal and joint accounting will be the most effective areas for this technology to be implemented.

In the next three years, 60% of CIOs plan to implement blockchain in some form, and by 2023 the blockchain will be scalable, predicts Gartner. If investments by companies such as Walmart and Mastercard show real results soon, blockchain will penetrate smaller organizations as well.

Edge Computing: Beyond Reality

Transferring computations to the interface between the virtual and physical world will play a huge role in increasing the efficiency and responsiveness of computations. Centralized infrastructures turned out to be strategically disadvantageous: examples of failures of Yandex, Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram indicate the great vulnerability of such systems. When the computing power is evenly distributed, the IT architecture is amazingly flexible, the level of security increases, and the cost of computing at the edge decreases. Gartner estimates that by 2022, 75% of all data generated will be created and processed outside of a centralized data center or cloud. So, at the end of 2019, Hitachi Vantara introduced Lumada Data Services, a set of software services that provide cost-effective management of structured and unstructured data assets in data centers. cloud and edge structures. With the new suite of software and proven Lumada Edge Intelligence hardware peripherals, organizations can manage data and analytics at the edge of the network for IoT-connected devices as well as remote and disconnected sites and branches. Gartner predicts that at least some POS services will be provided by most cloud service platforms by 2024.

Multimodal interaction and democratization of IT

One of the main trends in the coming years will be multimodal interaction with clients, which will be able to replace literate IT users with a platform that covers virtual and augmented reality technologies, mobile devices, web channels and conversational interfaces. According to Gartner, at least a third of companies will implement this platform by the end of this year. Design and visualization of products, service and technical support, training and modeling are promising for its implementation.

This trend supports the idea of ​​democratizing technology, the meaning of which is to simplify the work with technological systems. So, developers will be able to generate data models using development tools equipped with artificial intelligence for code generation and test automation, without going into the technological nuances known to the professional data analyst. First of all, the trend of democratization is aimed at freeing up time and effort spent on training personnel. People will still be needed to solve more complex problems and develop the technologies themselves, but this work will be much less: Gartner forecasts assure that by 2024 low-code application development will provide more than 65% of the total volume of applied development.

How to ensure information security when transferring employees to remote work

The transfer of employees to remote work under COVID-19 quarantine is a serious challenge for the company's security service. The entire protection policy of the organization requires a serious transformation aimed at changing the technical means and methodologies for monitoring and protecting remote workplaces of employees. An important component is working with clients and partners in order to maintain their level of trust in the company.

Prevent risks

Working remotely, employees have the ability to inadvertently provide access to valuable company information.

In order to prevent these risks: computerquestions

A working group of security specialists is being formed to ensure that the terms of reference for the content of confidential information are checked with the authority to make the necessary corrections before the head of the department receives them for distribution among the employees of his department.

Additions to contracts or separate agreements on non-disclosure of confidential information (NDA) are concluded, which clearly spell out all the risks and penalties from employees applicable in case of violation of the contract.

Special technical means are used to monitor the working equipment in order to track the actions of employees (copying information to external media, transferring information to interested parties, non-compliance with safety rules and other cases). Programs for "photography" of the working day can also be useful here.

At home, employees are often careless and become a source of information leakage. Therefore, it is important to instruct them on safety when working remotely. Upon completion of the briefing, the employee must sign a document stating that he has passed the briefing. It is necessary to inform the staff about violations of the instructions that are revealed in the process of monitoring the workplace, and take action against violators.

Issue legislatively

One of the important issues when transferring employees to remote work is the legal registration of personnel responsibility.

Unfortunately, the standard employment contract is made up of very generalized wording (regarding the nondisclosure of confidential information) and is not suitable for situations of mass transfer of employees to remote work. Therefore, it is necessary to conclude a separate NDA with the staff.

Before entering into an NDA, an outreach should be undertaken on the subject of teleworking security and its role in this NDA. When drawing up the contract, all the risks that the company may face when disclosing confidential information by an employee are prescribed. It also describes the penalties for non-compliance with the terms of the contract. The consequences for non-compliance with the conditions should be clearly stated in the contract. 

Using VPNs

If an organization does not use a corporate VPN network, then when transferring employees to remote work, this measure is absolutely necessary, since it immediately delineates responsibility and distributes risks. Using a VPN, a company can choose the resources to which an employee has access and can constantly monitor staff activity.

Maintain customer confidence 

It is equally important to convey information to clients that by sending employees to work remotely, you are able to ensure the confidentiality of the information they share with the organization. Thanks to the implementation of such measures:

informing employees about safety rules;

NDA registration;

filtering jobs through a dedicated security team;

work in VPN;

monitoring through programs for tracking remote workplaces (check-ins in Slack about the arrival and departure from work and other measures).

It is worth noting that clients in most cases have their own security service, and those tasks that you get to work go through their information control system. Therefore, the question of how to find a balance between adequacy and safety in the conditions of transferring employees to remote work is completely up to the companies.

Even if you are faced with a claim that your company is responsible for leaking customer information, there is no need to panic. Conduct an internal investigation, collect the necessary documentation. Such cases in courts drag on for more than one year. In 90% of cases, legal entities are not suing, but a company and an employee. 

Select measures

There is a real opportunity to prevent the risks associated with leakage or disclosure of confidential information when transferring employees to remote work. It is important to understand here that in this situation, a revision of the security policy towards tightening is not an extreme, but a necessary measure.

At the same time, a balance should be found between the interests of employees, the company and the customers in order to maintain the performance and demand for the product at the proper level.

You can:

explore the possibilities of transferring employees to remote work;

choose from the above methods those that are suitable for your business;

test them for a certain time on a small group of staff;

analyze the result;

integrate into your business.

ESET Secure Authentication overview: how to keep sensitive data safe

Nowadays, every web service that cares about user security offers multi-factor authentication (MFA), also known as two-factor authentication (2FA). It requires two independent pieces of information to verify a user's identity. This authentication is much more secure than a regular password. You can find two-factor authentication in online banking, accounting software, and even Google services. Today in our review we will get acquainted with the ESET Secure Authentication two-factor authentication system, which can be easily integrated into the corporate network of an organization.

ESET Secure Authentication is a two-factor authentication tool that provides access to sensitive or confidential company information.

Why is this relevant for companies?

In many companies, employees are often the “weak link”. They often use the same passwords for all corporate systems. And sometimes they just share them with their colleagues or relatives. Because of this, information leaks can occur. Two-factor authentication allows you to close this vulnerability in the system. Another threat in the company is bots, Trojans and phishing. They can intercept passwords from company systems and pass them on to attackers. That being said, if an additional factor of authentication is used, it will be much more difficult to access your files.

In addition, in the context of remote work (now more and more companies use it), ESET Secure Authentication is becoming very relevant.

System requirements:

Server : Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 / 2012/2012 R2 / 2012 Essentials / 2012 R2 Essentials / 2016/2016 Essentials / 2019/2019 Essentials and Windows Small Business Server 2008/2011

Client : Windows 7/8 / 8.1 / 10 (including Fall Creators or Redstone 3 update)

Mobile OS: iOS 9 and above, Android 4.1 and above, Windows Phone 8.1 and above

Supported web applications:

Microsoft Exchange 2007 (Outlook Web Access - Exchange Client Access Server), 2010 (Outlook Web App - Exchange Mailbox Server Role, Exchange Control Panel), 2013 (Outlook Web App - Exchange Mailbox Server Role, Exchange Admin Center), 2016 (Outlook Web App - Exchange Mailbox Server Role, Exchange admin center)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016

Microsoft SharePoint 2010, 2013, 2016

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, 2013

Microsoft Remote Desktop Web Access

Microsoft Terminal Services Web Access

Microsoft Remote Web Access

Software version during testing

License

By the number of users (from 5 devices)

Term - from 1 to 3 years

Why ESET Secure Authentication?

ESET Secure Authentication is a simple system that does not require special training and a lot of time to implement in a large company. It reliably protects all popular systems in the organization. It is not only logging into a computer (supported by Microsoft Windows, Linux or Mac OS X), but also protecting web applications (Microsoft Outlook Web App, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics CRM), cloud services, VPN and VDI systems.

An additional password (second factor) comes to the user in the form of an SMS on the phone, or in a special application on the smartphone (PUSH messages). OTP password can also be delivered to e-mail. There is support for hardware tokens (operating according to OATN, NOTP and TOTP standards) and the FIDO2 standard. Recently there was support for embedded biometrics in Android and iOS apps.

Installation

ESET Secure Authentication was tested in edition and turned out to be really easy to set up, we did not need any special skills. First you need to download the distribution and install.

The installer is in English, but everything is clear in it. You can get the trial key here.

There are 2 types of installation - for those who want to integrate it into Active Directory, and standalone on machines that do not use a domain. We chose type 2 - Standalone. Next, select the necessary components for installation.

The installer itself checks if your system meets the ESET Secure Authentication requirements and shows which libraries may be missing for correct installation.

At a certain stage, a username and password are set to access the ESET Secure Authentication web administrator console.

Electrical engineering vs computer engineering

After successful completion of the installation, you need to go to the web console through any popular browser and enter the login and password that were previously set.

After that, we get to the main console window, where we see information about the license status, the number of active users, the product version and the modules that have been installed. The console interface is also in English. In the Users section, we see the categories of security modules (we only have Windows Login activated) and users for which you can configure two-factor authentication.

Next, select the user account that you want to protect, and enter the phone number, as well as specify other parameters.

Authentication confirmation methods:

SMS-based OTPs - SMS notifications

Mobile Application OTP - one-time password, pin-code generated in the mobile application:

Event-based (HOTP) - when the password has no expiration date, i.e. it will be generated every time it is requested.

Time-based (TOTP) - a new one is generated every time (every 30 seconds).

Mobile Application Push - notification in the mobile application. A specific action is requested and you can choose to accept or reject it. The user can now see where the request is coming from (IP address).

Hard Token - physical keys. The latest versions of ESET Secure Authentication have expanded the list of available authentication methods. This product now supports authenticators (such as dongles) that meet the FIDO2 standards. This improves security as well as user-friendliness - devices register quickly and easily without additional drivers.

We have installed the mobile app and selected the settings to receive Push notifications when logging into Windows. In order to link the mobile application to your user in ESET Secure Authentication, all you need to do is scan the QR code.  

The mobile app is very simple and intuitive. You can set a PIN to enter it. If this is inconvenient, you can use a fingerprint or face recognition system. Everything works quickly and accurately.

At the same time, it is impossible to make a screenshot of the code in the mobile application for security reasons. This is to prevent the user from forwarding it to others.

Next, we rebooted the computer and tried to log in. They entered the password and then an ESA (ESET Secure Authentication) window appeared asking for the code. We opened the app on a smartphone and entered it. Success! Everything is working.

ESET Secure Authentication has a detailed reporting system where you can see when SMS was sent, who logged in and when, and much more.

There are also "fine" settings in which you can configure a list of white IP-addresses from which an additional password will not be requested, your company name in the application and other options.

Simple, understandable, convenient. Setting up ESET Secure Authentication on our Windows 10 computer went smoothly. Push notifications are working, SMS received.

It's worth noting that two-factor authentication will only work on machines with ESET Secure Authentication client installed. Integration with Active Directory allows you to quickly deploy ESA on computers, even in a large company. ESET Secure Authentication 3.0 brings significant performance improvements to large projects. The solution is easy to deploy on any network scale.

API source code packages (for systems connected to Active Directory) and SDKs based on Java, PHP and Microsoft .NET are available for implementation in their own authentication systems and systems for additional confirmation of user actions. This is a big plus for those who want to customize ESA for their company.

Another feature of the ESA system is easy integration into RADIUS systems, including: Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway, Barracuda, F5 FirePass, Cisco ASA, Fortinet FortiGate, Citrix Access Gateway, Juniper, Citrix NetScaler, Palo Alto, Check Point Software, SonicWall, VMware Horizon View and Citrix XenApp.

How to create a development plan for a developer

For any IT specialist there is an opportunity to facilitate and accelerate his professional and career growth. A personal development plan is an effective help in this difficult task. How to compose it and apply it in practice - this material will tell.

Avoid procrastination 

A personal plan for self-development allows you to clarify the goal and see a transparent, measurable and visual way to achieve it. The main objective of the plan is to prevent procrastination of the specialist's development. This behavior involves the postponement of important tasks and tasks leading to the achievement of growth. The reason is the illusion of the goal and the steps leading to its achievement. These factors hinder self-development and eliminate the career plan.

Consider obstacles 

It is difficult to engage in self-development if you do not see a clear goal for your growth. And even if you understand what level you want to achieve, without planning and real actions in this direction, this may remain a pipe dream. And even if you start moving towards your goal, you will encounter many obstacles on your way:

Loss of motivation. Faced with obstacles and not noticing his progress, the developer forgets why he wants to achieve the goal. As a result, he may refuse to make efforts to overcome difficulties and stop developing.

Lack of time. Often a programmer is so busy with work that he does not have enough strength and energy to engage in self-development. Realizing this, the developers abandon their development, reassuring themselves that for growth it is enough to solve the daily tasks set by the management.

The actual milestone is different from the target. Instead of making adjustments to his plan, the specialist continues to move along a previously conceived path that is no longer relevant.

Define a goal

To develop a development plan, you need to clearly understand the goal that you intend to achieve. The more accurately the goal is determined, the less will be its discrepancy with the actual result. For convenience and efficiency, the plan for achieving the goal is broken down into tasks, subtasks, and simple steps. All elements are tied to the time of their implementation. This is the way to achieve the goal is proposed by Maxim Dorofeev in his bestseller "Jedi Techniques".

Following the algorithm, first you need to decide on the goal of your development. To understand in which direction to move, study the available information about specialties and positions in the IT industry: computer engineering major

Range of tasks;

Salary level;

Area of ​​responsibility;

Competence and knowledge.

Specialized resources such as Technology Online Courses can serve as a source of information . Study the forecasts of which IT trends will be promising this year, in 5-10 years. Analyze the collected information based on your desires, dispositions, competencies, knowledge, talents and resources. Choose the goal you want to achieve as you grow.

Choose a mentor  

Once you have decided on the direction of your development goal, enlist the support of a mentor. An experienced specialist will act as a driver of your development, provided that he is periodically interested in success and corrects your development.

To successfully interact with a mentor, it is important to show that you are interested in your development and are ready to make efforts to achieve your goal. In this case, he will be much more willing to help you, devote more time and often give valuable recommendations.

It does not have to be a specialist who is moving in the same direction as you, he may well have an alternative vector of development.

In a situation where you cannot regularly interact with the teacher, take his model of behavior as a model. Gather information about how he achieved his success, find out about his life hacks, sources of development. Analyze the information gathered and apply it to yourself.

If the company has a shortage of specialists, you can refer to chats by directions in Telegram, as well as to specialized forums. Various events in the IT field: conferences, meetups, gather a huge number of experts from various fields and specializations, where you can also meet the future curator.

Use software

You can use any planning tool. The free Grow app is an excellent tool for creating a development plan for an IT specialist .

Using the program, select the level of development that you want to achieve. For example, you are middle and want to move up to senior level. The application will form for you a matrix of skills required to reach the senior level:

literature to read;

skills to be possessed;

what courses to attend.

The next step is to divide the plan into tasks linked by dates. Some companies require a promotion recommendation to advance to senior level. To do this, you need to pass an assessment (the process of assessing the developer's compliance with the requirements of the Global Competency Framework).

Turning to Grow , you can see that to complete the assessment you need:

study courses on new technologies;

improve team skills;

improve communication skills with the customer;

get a recommendation from fellow developers.

Using the Agile design method, we break these tasks into elementary subtasks and tie them to specific dates. At the next stage, we divide them into even smaller elements - time-bound iterations.

This approach makes it possible to realistically assess how much effort and time it will take to achieve the goal. This increases the chances of getting the desired result, as you realize how much time and effort it will take you to grow up to senior level.

Often times have to be set based on external circumstances. For example, earlier in the EPAM assessment it was possible to complete only a certain period of time. Setting a specific date allows you to get away from procrastination. If you do not complete the task on time, then there is a factor that distracts you and should be promptly eliminated. \

Keep motivated

A well-developed development plan allows you to see the progress of your development. This can help maintain your enthusiasm when a temporary setback stops you. She is not able to break, because you see the whole picture and observe your successful progress.

You will also be able to avoid creating overly optimistic plans that are not able to be completed by the selected date. If you are unable to achieve your goal every day, it makes sense to adjust the plan so that you can monitor progress once a week or even a month.

Feedback from peers is also a great tool to stay motivated. From the outside, mistakes that are made or opportunities that are missed are always better visible.

Unload time for development

It is also important to find the time that you have set aside for your development. To do this, you can contact the manager or find solutions to do it yourself. Situations can be different, but long-term work overloads will not allow you to develop and threaten professional burnout.

Update plan

The plan should be flexible and easily adapt to new data obtained during its implementation. This is due to the fact that the planned intermediate achievements will differ from the actual ones. Based on the results obtained, it is worth revising your plan and adapting your further development.

Complex security solutions

With the development of computer companies, the question of the high-quality organization of the  IT infrastructure becomes inevitable. We are engaged in complex security of computer networks based on two solutions: terminal access and information encryption. This guarantees reliable data protection without limiting the capabilities of popular network technologies at all.

Terminal access

Terminal access is an arrangement that makes it possible to store a large amount of information on the server. At the workplaces of workers, there are no longer ordinary computers, but terminals that provide access to all programs and information on the server, and all calculations are also performed by the server. This makes it possible to achieve significant benefits in the networking process.

If your software is configured on a server, then there is no need to install programs on each computer separately.

What does a computer engineer do

Remote administration is possible. In this case, the administrator has the ability to perform all the necessary work over the Internet.

It takes only 10-20 minutes to organize a workplace. All you need to do is connect the necessary equipment, set up an account on the server and set the path to the required programs.

All data processing and calculations are carried out on the server, the conditions for thin clients are the least.

You get savings on software. Licensed programs that are not always used may be purchased in smaller quantities. On the server, you can see the number of simultaneous connections to the program, which will help you get rid of the need to purchase expensive software for each computer.

You can freely arrange workplaces for workers who are on business trips, are absent from the office for various reasons and for those who work outside the office.

The terminals are much quieter than computers and consume less electricity.

When using computers under normal conditions, the owners retain a lot of important materials, including those that contain trade secrets. When using thin clients, all employees are required to use server technology. This allows you to combine the entire scale of information in one place, which makes it easier to protect.

Data protection

Terminal access only half solves the issue of information protection. There is still a danger of unauthorized access, i.e. stealing the server with all its files. In order to ensure reliable security, you must use a file encryption system.

Limitation of rights. Restriction of rights sets the prohibition of access of other people's users to the personal information that they do not particularly need for work. Since all information is located remotely, it is possible to monitor, i.e. You can determine when, what time and from which computer there was a request for this or that information. In addition, you can prohibit the use of flash cards, CDs and DVDs. Storing all e-mails on the server allows you to track whether personal information is being sent by e-mail.

Encryption . All information is protected by encryption. This is done using reliable open algorithms, crypto resistance, which are proven by scientific methods. Either individual parts of hard drives or the entire drive are encrypted. The whole process takes place with encrypted files. Encoding and decoding takes place "in an instant". With the help of the "red button" you can block access to files at any time. This button is most often found at the company's management. If the files were stolen along with the hard drive, then the offenders simply will not be able to decrypt the data that is recorded on it. Each owner can have their own key that allows access to specific servers.

Backup . Theft of a server can be scary not only by the loss of information, but also by the fact that the process of work in the office will be suspended. Periodic copying of information helps to avoid such problems. The most efficient way is to back up to a server that will be located outside the company premises. Even if all of the equipment is suddenly stolen, it is very easy to resume work in the office by connecting existing thin clients or computers to a remote server.

If you have any problems with computer equipment, please contact us and choose the service " Integrated security solutions ". Specialists of our computer engineering center "Miass Center" with the help of new equipment will carry out " Integrated security solutions " in compliance with all technological standards. Relying on the broad technical base of our company, we significantly reduce the total repair time.

Scrum, BPM CBOK, TOGAF

Scrum is a flexible project management standard that helps businesses acquire project-specific specifics and thus stay afloat and grow. The standard allows an organization to build a Developer Operation and make always controlled changes to the business and its infrastructure. To understand the essence of the standard, the most important Scrum principles are formulated.

People and interactions are more important than processes and tools.

The work is done in small teams.

Performance is assessed at the team level, not the individual.

Self improvement.

Iterations. After each iteration or sprint, a working "product" should appear.

The Scrum standard is chosen when you need a simple, straightforward, logical, transparently manageable tool.

Scrum approaches to project implementation are extremely popular in companies that develop computer applications. Scrum courses are taught in IT training centers and specialized educational organizations.

The Business Process Management Common Body of Knowledge (BPM CBOK) is changing the way businesses view process management and the role of automation in managing processes and workflows within and between enterprises. This evolving standard, coupled with automation, has revolutionized rapid change management. BPM CBOK provides an innovative opportunity to optimize interactions with customers, suppliers and employees. The following BPM CBOK principles are formulated.

Transform, not just improve processes aws jobs.

Give leverage to clients.

Make processes global, standardized and human.

Leverage big data.

Doubling the focus on process competencies.

BPM CBOK uses a unified conceptual base of terms and provides a holistic approach to creating and managing business processes. Benchmarks for the implementation of BPM CBOK were developed and logically justified.

BPM CBOK courses are taught in business schools and education centers that develop project management curricula.

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) allows you to assess the need to build an enterprise infrastructure and control changes in it. The main principle of TOGAF, any activity and changes in the infrastructure should create either new business opportunities or optimize existing activities. The main goal of TOGAF approaches should be the creation of the Value Chain. It is an architecturally holistic tool for building and maintaining infrastructure that is capable of addressing current and future business needs. 

TOGAF is necessary to create a long-term development plan for the company, for example, with the aim of obtaining investments or entering an IPO. It is a powerful tool for building a stable IT infrastructure for enterprises and organizations that will work reliably in the face of major changes. This ensures business continuity. TOGAF approaches help stabilize or increase business capitalization. It has tremendous benefits in the long run.

Free Linux for work and creativity

Operating systems and applications of the Linux family are created by the world community of programmers and are freely distributed. Users can install and use, distribute and modify the software free of charge, and use it for commercial purposes.

For several decades, Linux distributions have been developed, supported and successfully used, targeting different users and different technical capabilities of computer technology. Distributions for beginners and home users, musicians and computer artists, cybersecurity specialists and hackers, system administrators and application developers have been created. There are lightweight distributions for legacy but working computers. There are specialized distributions that provide anonymity on the Internet, high performance, or, for example, optimized for scientific calculations. Enterprise distributions can be distributed commercially or free of charge.

Everyone wants to take advantage of Linux. Major IT companies create and maintain their Linux distributions, this helps them to better understand technology trends. Even Microsoft Windows 10 provides Windows Subsystem for Linux, a software compatibility layer for running Linux applications without virtualization. Note that the operating systems for iOS and Android mobile devices are also based on Linux technologies.

The Linux ecosystem is extremely diverse and therefore very resilient. It is admirable that the most complex software, which was created on a voluntary basis and distributed free of charge, is used all over the world on personal computers and servers, for the functioning of the Internet, in powerful data centers and even in supercomputers cloud architect job description.

The complexities of administration and work in operating systems of the Linux family are easily overcome thanks to the support of the world Linux community, as well as specialized courses of the Networking Technologies Training Center.

At our Learning Center, we love Linux very much, so we teach Linux courses in a comprehensive manner. Author's Linux courses have been developed for users, administrators and network specialists. There are courses on working with application containerization and databases. These are good, methodically verified study programs containing a large amount of theoretical material and, most importantly, practical training.

Take the Linux Professional Institute certification exams to prove your Linux expert knowledge. Several levels of certification are provided. You can prove your knowledge of the basics of the Linux operating system or become a certified professional who can administer the system, design and deploy small and medium-sized networks, and create a secure enterprise-scale IT infrastructure with the ability to virtualize and integrate Linux services. For experienced professionals, there is an opportunity to get certified as a DevOps engineer. Linux Professional Institute certification significantly increases the chances of an IT specialist to get a high-paying job and take part in interesting projects.

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Introduction to Virtualization and Cloud Technologies

ESXi hypervisor installation and basic configuration

Creating a virtual machine

Installing vCenter with vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)

Hierarchy of vCenter infrastructure objects. Rights and roles

VCenter Server Maintenance

Configuring and managing virtual networks

Configuring and managing virtual storage

Virtual machine management

Backing up and restoring virtual machines

Resource allocation management

Increased Availability with vSphere HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance

vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

vSphere Update Manager (VUM)

AutoDeploy

Troubleshooting Overview

The course will be useful for system administrators and engineers who have experience with Windows or Linux operating systems.