Eliana Willis

IT training company Global Knowledge has released a ranking of the 15 top-paying certifications in 2021 based on the responses of 3,700 US-based respondents, finding that some Google, AWS and Microsoft certifications often led to six-figure salaries.Number one on the list was the Google Certified Professional Data Engineer, which the survey found can bring in $171,749. Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect was next on the list with a salary of $169,029 followed closely by Associate AWS Certified Solutions Architects, who bring in $159,033.

CRISC, CISSP, CISM, PMP, CISA, MCSE, CompTIA Security+, CCA-V and other certifications all made their way onto the list, with salaries ranging from $151,000 to $110,000. Certifications for Azure, Cisco, Nutanix and VMware were also featured on the list. The company surveyed US IT workers from November to February this year and only included certifications that got at least 68 responses. The researchers behind the study noted that many of the top-paying certifications relate to cloud computing and cybersecurity. ITIL Foundation is the most widely held certification, the survey found. More than 65% of IT leaders said the annual economic value of having an employee with the additional skills and contributions made by being certified over a non-certified employee is over $10,000 while another 22% said the annual value is $25,000 and above.”Technology is only as powerful as the capabilities of the people trained to use it,” said Michael Yoo, general manager of technology & developer skills at Skillsoft, which owns Global Knowledge. “With this in mind, certifications are an excellent way of infusing vital skills into an organization, while boosting employee productivity and investing in ongoing professional development.”

More than 75% of IT leaders said they struggle to find employees who match the skills they’re looking for, particularly now that hacks and technology-related outages have become more commonplace and damaging, Yoo explained. Yoo added the certifications on the list are all accredited by industry-leaders, including AWS, Cisco, Google Cloud, ISACA and Microsoft. 

Yoo told ZDNet that project management and virtualization are perennial entries in this list, which he said is not surprising given how mission critical those skills are. “With Virtualization, it is the technical backbone of any modern technical infrastructure that hopes to run efficiently at scale, and it’s essential whether you are working on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid of both,” Yoo said. “The no. 1 reason mentioned by IT professionals who changed jobs and why organizations who support continuous learning/upskilling will have an easier time attracting and retaining talent while deriving more value from its employees. If IT professionals don’t see a future with your company, they’ll leave.” This was backed up by the findings of the survey, where 52% of respondents had two to four positions they were unable to fill in the last 12 months. Yoo noted that the pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption and made it clear that enhanced digital security measures have become fundamental to business operations. “Cybersecurity risks paired with the high rate of skills gaps and growing talent wars, you can understand why organizations are willing to pay higher salaries to skilled IT professionals who can protect them,” Yoo said. “In regards to cloud computing, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 23.1% in 2021 to total $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020, according to Gartner, Inc.. The crisis was a catalyst for establishing the value and flexibility of cloud computing. However, with cloud adoption, IT now faces a the challenge of finding skilled talent.”IT departments, Yoo explained, are now investing more in hiring externally or upskilling employees with the necessary certifications.  More

(Image: Surfshark)The acronym VPN stands for virtual private network. Those three words tell a lot about how a VPN works. Let’s start with network. VPNs provide network connections, meaning they move data to and from your device. Private means they make that movement private, helping prevent hackers from seeing what you’re sending. And virtual means that you’re doing it all in software. You’re not running a new set of wires. Instead, you’re creating a software-based network connection that then moves data over the physical connection (whether that’s wireless or wired). What a VPN actually does is take data that you’re sending out over the Internet and encrypt it before it leaves your machine. That encrypted data is sent to the VPN provider’s servers, where it’s decrypted, and then sent on to, say, Google or Netflix. Surfshark, which is the service we’re talking about now, has more than 3,200 servers across the world. On the flip side, a VPN takes data from a server on the internet, then encrypts it on one of Surfshark’s servers, and sends that encrypted data to your computer, which decrypts it when it arrives. Must read:This is what provides protection against, in particular, Wi-Fi snoops at airports, hotels, and schools. By virtue of your data leaving the VPN provider’s server (which, for Surfshark, can be in your choice of 65 countries), your actual location can be hidden, and the final server sees as your location what’s actually the location of your provider’s server. That’s how VPNs obfuscate your location. Although it’s sometimes illegal, many people use this capability to change their apparent region to watch blacked-out sports or region-locked TV. Far more important is that activists and those concerned about stalkers use it to hide their location for their personal security.

OK, so with that introduction into how VPNs, and specifically Surfshark works, let’s look at how to set up and install Surfshark. We’re going to do this on a Windows machine, but the practice is very similar for Macs, Linux, and mobile devices.

Servers: 3200 Countries: 65Simultaneous connections: unlimitedKill switch: yesLogging: noBest Price: $59.76 for 24 months ($2.49 per month)Trial: 30-day refund guaranteeSupported platforms: iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, Linux, FireTV

Installing Surfshark Let’s get started. Point your browser to Surfshark’s website and click the Get Surfshark button. Next, go ahead and choose a plan. If you’re planning on using Surfshark for more than five or six months, you might as well go ahead and sign up for the two-year plan, since it’ll be about the same price as going month-to-month. Remember, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. We strongly recommend you test everything you think you might want Surfshark to do in that time, to decide if this is really for you. Surfshark does have an upsell, for antivirus and account monitoring. It’s up to you whether you want to sign up for it. We’re only covering the VPN-related features in this tutorial. Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, go back to the Surfshark.com home page and log in. Once you do, you’ll be on the main account page. We’re installing Surfshark for Windows, so we’ll click the Windows download button. Once it downloads, hit Open File. Let Windows know you did that on purpose. Starting Surfshark And there we go. Next, log into the program using the same credentials you used to sign up for your account. You’ll get a nice welcome message to start. Before you see the main interface, you’ll be given a number of configuration options. The main decision you should make now is whether you want your Internet connection to run through Surfshark as soon as you boot up or not. If you always want the connection over a VPN, turn this on now. Using Surfshark And with that, you’re ready to use Surfshark. Here’s the main screen. Unless you’re trying to spoof your location or surf as if you’re in another country, your best results will be found by clicking on Fastest Server. That will start the connection. My fastest connection was in Bend, Oregon. Since I live in Oregon, that makes sense. There’s a pie shop in Bend that makes the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, Bend is a few hours from here by car, so I’ve only had that sandwich once. But a boy can dream, can’t he? So, that’s it for the basic operation of Surfshark. To end a connection, just click the Disconnect button as shown above. Next, let’s look at a few settings. Must read: Checking Surfshark’s settings You can access the Settings menu in the lower-left corner. The other icons on the left dashboard panel are for the antimalware and identity scan upgrades Surfshark offers. For now, let’s tap the gear icon. Here you can get to your account and plan information. Let’s scroll down because that’s where the good settings live. As you can see, you can change the language used, and turn on dark mode. But what we’re focusing on is the Connectivity and Advanced menus. It’s the Connectivity Settings pane where you should pay the most attention. As you can see, you can decide to launch Surfshark on login and, once again, here’s the button that lets you decide whether to auto-connect when you log in. Further down, though, is the most important option, the Killswitch option. This is critical because if you’re connected and counting on VPN security and that VPN connection drops, you don’t want your computer to send data in the clear. Make sure to turn on Killswitch when you need to stay secure. It’s critical. Next, let’s look at the Advanced pane. The NoBorders option normally comes on when necessary. It basically spoofs international connections when you’re surfing. Here’s more detail on that feature, should you need it. At the very bottom of the Advanced pane, you’ll see speed test. We’re going to look at that next. Speed test lets you run connection tests for various regions. Here, I went ahead and clicked Run Test and the feature is gathering data on servers in Europe. So, there you go. That’s how to use Surfshark. Let us know what you think in the comments below. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.

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Ransomware is one of the biggest cybersecurity threats to businesses today, and cyber criminals can potentially make millions of dollars in Bitcoin for a single successful attack. This lure of quickly making large sums of money is attracting interest from across the cyber-criminal spectrum, from sophisticated gangs specialising in ransomware attacks, to affiliate schemes where wannabe ransomware kingpins can lease out ransomware as a service in exchange for a cut of the profits. 

It’s also attracted low-level cyber criminals, who see an opportunity to grab a slice of the ransomware pie – even if they have little idea what they’re doing. SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report)Cybersecurity researchers at Abnormal Security have detailed an amateur ransomware campaign using social engineering in an attempt to fool employees into installing DemonWare ransomware on their organisation’s network, in return for a slice of the payout.DemonWare ransomware – also known as Black Kingdom and DEMON – is one of the least sophisticated forms of ransomware around, but that hasn’t stopped cyber criminals trying to use it. In this instance, the attacker uses LinkedIn and other publicly available information to identify targets and reaches out to them by email, asking if they want to install DemonWare ransomware on the network in exchange for a million dollars – a 40% cut of a $2.5 million ransom.  

The attacker leaves an email address and a Telegram username for interested parties to contact – which researchers did, using a fictitious persona, in order to find out more about the campaign and those behind it. It quickly became apparent that the ransomware attacker wasn’t the most sophisticated cyber criminal in the world, and they quickly lowered the proposed cost of the ransom down to $120,000. For the attacker, however, that would still be a lot of money. “Like most financially motivated cyber criminals, this actor is simply trying to make any amount of money from this scam. Although he quickly pivoted to a much lower ransom amount over the course of our conversation, $100,000 or $1 million would both be a life-changing amount for him,” Crane Hassold, director of threat intelligence at Abnormal Security, told ZDNet. The attacker claimed that the person responsible for installing ransomware on the network wouldn’t be caught, claiming that DemonWare would encrypt everything, including CCTV files. Researchers note that this approach suggests the attacker is “not very familiar with digital forensics or incident response investigations”. But analysis of the files sent by the attacker confirmed that they’re really attempting to distribute a working version of DemonWare ransomware. The attacker claims that they’ve coded the ransomware themselves, but this is a lie – DemonWare is freely available to download from GitHub, its actual author having placed it there “to demonstrate how easy ransomware are [sic] easy to make and how it work [sic].” The attacker’s self-coding claims are likely just another part of the attempt to persuade people to go through with the scheme. According to the attacker, they’ve successfully encouraged people to help them to deploy ransomware, although their claims are unlikely to be trustworthy. But who is this wannabe ransomware attacker? By using the email and Telegram contact details they provided in their initial message, researchers were able to trace them to a trading website for Naira, the currency of Nigeria, as well as a Russian social media platform. When presented with this information in messages, the attacker confirmed they are Nigerian – which might explain the initial attempts at social engineering. SEE: Cybersecurity: Let’s get tactical (ZDNet special feature) Cyber criminals working out of Nigeria tend to focus their efforts around phishing and business email compromise (BEC) attacks, but in this case, they’ve taken what they know and attempted to apply it to ransomware. “Knowing the actor behind this campaign is Nigerian really adds a lot of context to the tactics he’s using. For years, cyber criminals in Nigeria have used basic social engineering techniques to commit a wide variety of scams, so it makes sense that this actor is trying to use the same tactics to deploy ransomware,” said Hassold “It seems this actor is trying to jump on the ransomware bandwagon due to the attention recent attacks have gotten in the media; however, he’s adapted historical ransomware delivery methods to fit within the attack framework he’s likely used to,” he added. While this attacker might not be very successful, other more experienced ransomware operations benefit from finding insiders to help them gain access to networks. For example, LockBit ransomware – which has surged in popularity in recent months – regularly advertises for insiders to help carry out campaigns. To help prevent the network from being compromised with ransomware – be it via an outside intrusion or an insider threat – information security teams should limit permissions of users unless it’s necessary for them to have admin privileges. This can prevent cyberattacks from exploiting regular user accounts as a means of gaining access to key parts of the network. Regularly applying security patches, enforcing the use of multi-factor authentication and storing offline backups can also help prevent disruptive ransomware attacks. MORE ON CYBERSECURITY More

Some 56% of Asia-Pacific businesses admit to sidestepping digital processes to accommodate remote or flexible work arrangements. This despite 48% expressing increased concern about their company’s ability to manage security threats. The latter figure was higher than their counterparts in the Americas, 41% of whom were similarly more concerned than before about their organisation’s ability to mitigate cyber threats, revealed EY’s 2021 Global Information Security Survey. Conducted in March and May this year, the study polled 1,010 respondents worldwide, with 20% from Asia-Pacific, 36% in the Americas, and the remaining 43% from Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa (EMEIA). Just 20% in Asia-Pacific said the cybersecurity teams were part of the planning stage of any digital transformation initiative, the study found. Respondents further noted that while business managers recognised cybersecurity team’s strengths in traditional areas, such as controlling risk, they did not always regard it as a strategic partner. 

In fact, 71% of cybersecurity leaders described their relationships with business owners as neutral or negative. Some 44% said their engagements with marketing and HR departments were poor. Despite the emergence of sophisticated cyber attacks, the EY report noted that 57% of organisations in the region were uncertain if their cybersecurity defences were sufficiently robust to combat new hacking tactics. Some 73% cited an increase of disruptive attacks such as ransomware over the past year, up significantly from 47% in the 2020 report. Another 47% warned that their company’s cybersecurity budget was inadequate to mitigate challenges that had surfaced in the last 12 months. In fact, 41% were anticipating a major breach that they might be able to avoid if they had better investment in cybersecurity, compared to 29% in the Americas.

The report revealed that Asia-Pacific respondents allocated 0.05% of their annual revenue to cybersecurity, which was similar to the global average of 0.04%. EY’s Asia-Pacific cyber leader Richard Watson said: “Businesses are planning a new wave of technology investments to thrive in the post-COVID-19 era. If cybersecurity is left out of investment discussions, the threat will continue to grow in the years to come. They should consider sharing the cost of cybersecurity across the business to support transformation.”EY’s Asean cybersecurity lead Steve Lam added that businesses were realising “stop-gap technology solutions” rolled out in the early days of lockdowns were inadequate to securely support the new normal around work. With some parts of Southeast Asia still in lockdown, Lam said such challenges for CISOs (chief information security officers) in the region were further compounded by the shortage and high turnover rates for cybersecurity skills local markets. If these executives were able to plug the talent gaps, he noted that CISOs could tap their company’s ongoing business and technology transformation in response to the pandemic and drive improvements in the organisation’s cybersecurity posture.  Watson said: “CISOs must make difficult decisions, realigning cybersecurity requirements to better meet changing business needs after the COVID-19 pandemic. Mapping cybersecurity strategy and their organisation’s risk profile against business and IT goals will ensure alignment and cement strategic relationships between CISOs, CEOs, and the rest of the C-suite.””At a time of greater distrust and with the cyber function being under more scrutiny than ever, CISOs have an opportunity to better demonstrate the strategic importance of their role and raise their profiles within the business, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic,” he added. Remote arrangements accelerate education security risksIn a separate note published Thursday, Check Point Software Technologies revealed that cyber attacks against the Southeast Asian education and research sector climbed 28% in July 2021 to an average of 1,739 attacks a week, compared to the first half of 2021. Globally, this increase clocked in at 29% for the sector, with India the top-most targeted country, followed by Italy, Israel, Australia, and Turkey. India’s education and research sector saw an average of 5,196 weekly attacks per organisation, up 22% from the first half of the year.  Sector-wise, South Asia also was the most targeted region, followed by East Asia and Australia/New Zealand, according to Check Point.The security vendor’s Asean and Korea regional director Teong Eng Guan noted: “The education sector in Southeast Asia was attacked significantly more compared to other industries in the month of July. Schools, universities, and research centers make for attractive targets to cybercriminals because they are often under resourced from a security perspective. “The short-notice, on-and-off shift to remote learning exacerbates the security risk,” Teong said. “With so many students logging on from their home networks using their personal devices, the current school season presents a range of new security threats that many aren’t prepared to address. Organisations in the education sector should be proactive in their protection strategies. It’s important to constantly change and strengthen your passwords and use technologies that prevent cyberattacks, such as ransomware.”RELATED COVERAGE More