The IT Security Attaché

TITSSN has always been a network of, for and about the community and we have always tried to find ways of working within it to make it the most valuable and successful experience ever for our members. In working with our communities in and outside of IT, we have found similar issues that reflected upon the need for creating a more resourceful and aggregated system that would put people, processes and things together, making it a more seamless integration for all. Our education and awareness training and development initiatives built on these findings so that we would address the issues on a more personal level as a team. The extensive experience and qualifications of the network members in their areas of business provides invaluable impact on what we see, hear, say and how we react to them.

It is for this reason that we are enacting a new initiative to aggregate all these issues, programs and initiatives under one umbrella that I believe will fix these problems, ENGAGED. ENGAGED, ENabling Greater Awareness, Growth and Educational Development, is an initiative that will take our education, awareness, training and development initiatives to a whole new level. Through ENGAGED we’re working with businesses, schools, libraries, churches and other institutions to deliver the needed resources for addressing the IT Security Threats Landscape of today for tomorrow.

As a network of technical professionals, consultants, specialists, VARs and business executives, the ENGAGED initiative will add the much needed collaboration between the organization members. One such enhancement will be a bi-weekly Live Meetings via Microsoft’s Live Meeting service to help with the adoption, training and development of its members on new and existing products and solutions in the security space. This will add the needed value of increased training on specialized products and services provided by the network. Our integration of working with the vendors directly will allow the additional benefit of having their high level technical people in the session to help with the understanding of the products and any problems and support we may need. TITSSN believes that it is through the proper training, understanding and knowledge of these products that we will be successful in supporting, deploying and managing them, and so we’re adding more value through the use of live meetings.

On Monday April 20^th, TITSSN will enhance the ENGAGED initiative by starting an IT Security Training and Development course for the youths in our local schools through their local office in Arverne NY. This course will be geared towards working with the youths of today who are growing up to be our professionals of tomorrow to give them a better look and feel of the space and what to expect from it. We are working with the local schools in the community to select a number of students who will participate in this course and get the needed exposure to today’s IT Security Threats Landscape ~ITSTL~ and how they can be valuable resources in making it better for tomorrow. This training course will not be the end all, be all for them as we plan on helping them throughout their professional development as mentors in the space. The initiative does not want them learning and forgetting and so future involvement on different levels will follow after the course is completed. Certifications will be awarded to each student that completes the course and passes a final hands-on test.

The training and development course will introduce them to the world of IT Security and all the factors that are in and around it. They will have hands-on access to the latest and greatest security hardware and software products ranging from Biometrics, IDS/IPS, UTM “Unified Threat Management” devices, anti-virus, anti-malware, firewalls and general IT products that are available today across the various operating system environments. This is an extension of our Secure Minds Initiative where we are trying to get the integration of IT Security into the school’s curriculum to enhance the preparedness of this needed area of specialty for the future. We need the realization of IT Security as a people problem to be one that resonates across all borders and cultures. We are on the brink of a global network catastrophe if this realization is not understood.

Through ENGAGED, we have negotiated special vendor pricing and offers to help get the needed security products and solutions out to the general public. As this have been a major issue for many, we are always working on ways in which to bring the networks power to use in negotiating special programs, offerings and incentives from the vendors for our initiatives. A part of our Secure Minds Initiative is to provide security products and solutions to the schools and this will help to make that more readily available through special programs we are hosting there. We are reaching out to our local government resources to funds this initiative through grants and other financial resources in an effort to minimize the costs and offer the products freely when and where we can.

To the business community, ENGAGED provides the needed sales, support and training and development to better prepare you, your company and employees to deal with the issues of the IT Security Threats Landscape. Leveraging our network and resources will be beneficial for you as we provide in-house training and development workshops to further build on this. As your local technology/security professionals, you can reach out to the network to find a resource in your area that can and will work with you. We have customized solutions that will work for you and your company no matter the size or location, if we’re needed, we’ll make it there.

With so many resources now being forced online even from the government levels, using the internet and its resource is now a mandatory issues as local offices and resources are being cut as this new online presence becomes more useful. That being said, the use of the internet and its resources has increased significantly over the past year as social networking and other social media have played a key role in this new age of collaboration and networking. The future belongs to networkers and if you’re not a part of the new trend one tends to feel left out when asked if they are on a popular network like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The present economic crisis adds a dire need for this engagement as more people are using the internet resources for job hunting and finding new homes to live. This is just the start of a change that will never go back to what it used to be, the internet is here to stay and is more than what it used to be 2 years ago.

TITSSN activates the ENGAGED initiative on April 1^st 2009 with a series of kick off events for the month. On April 9^th at TITSSN’s monthly meeting at the Microsoft Briefing Center in NYC, president/chairman/security attaché Mr. Brett A. Scudder will officially present the initiative to the organization and outlining a few additional aspects of it and how it will be executed. He will also cover the members ENGAGED aspects as well. Registration is open and available here http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=137146.

On Monday April 13^th from 3-5pm, TITSSN will host a local reception at our office at 331 Beach 70^th St, Arverne, NY, 11692 to highlight some of the technologies that will be a part of the initiative. This is a RSVP/registration event. Interested persons are asked to register here http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=137140.

The first ENGAGED members Live Meeting session will be on Wednesday April 22^nd from 7-9pm and the info will be sent to active members.

As food and refreshments will be provided at our local meetings and events and we need to ensure that we have enough to cover our guests so registration for these events is a must.

Thank you very much and have a great day.

TITSSN ~The IT Security Suite Network~

We are Security – your Security – our Security – IT Security. Our Security is Safe and Secure.

Good day to you,

I was asked by Ms. Zandra Myers, project coordinator of the Ready Rockaway organization, if I could join in helping to build out this new organization/initiative here in my hometown of Far Rockaway. As a community leader I was very enthused by this opportunity as I also work with Ms. Myers on the Far Rockaway Community Coalition Executive’s Team and have found her to be quite an intriguing lady with a serious desire to give something of value back to her community here. I saw this to be a very good synergy for the two organizations as they are both focused on the community and being involved in different ways. Bringing the two together for the greater good of the community is the ultimate goal. So, I accepted the offer and have started working on building out the technology aspects of the organization as you will see below.

This is how I envisioned our technology professionals working within their communities to help build on initiatives like these and get something valuable and useful going there. Our yearly community outreach programs approached this from a technology point of view with the hope that organizations within the community would find value in having a specialist working within their midst to help them get over some of the issues they may have in building out their project plans and initiatives. This is just another way that TITSSN integrates into the process of community involvement and bringing the added values. I hope that we will continue to see more of these kinds of initiatives for our global network and i’d like to hear of them and where they are being done.

Far Rockaway is a beach front community surrounded by the sea and across from the JFK airport. It is a beautiful place to sit back and watch the sunset or just gaze at the massive existence of the airport across the water day or night. A disaster can occur from any angle here and so this is a much needed initiative to save lives. I believe in being proactive than reactive and so here we go in the undertaking of this disaster/emergency preparedness initiative. Since this is what I do on a day to day basis, it pretty much marries into my scheme of things but adding the more physical side outside of IT to these issues. As a person who has developed and assisted in disaster recovery and planning for general businesses and organizations, I can use that knowledge to help build this community initiative to a higher level.

Here’s a little about the organization and my role.

The Ready Rockaway Disaster/Emergency Preparedness organization was formed to focus on the planning and development of an emergency response system for the Rockaway’s NY in the event of a disaster (natural or unnatural). The organization will create the needed training and development and disaster planning needed in the Far Rockaway community in an effort to scale out the needed sense of awareness to the possibility of a disaster and its effects.

As with any such initiative, the support and input of the community is critical to its success and so we call on our community to join us as we build on this.

We have made an extra effort to follow the growing communication trends of technology today and so we have a good presence on the social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and others to come.

My role is to use my technology background and expertise to create a converged network aggregating the needed education, awareness, alerting, monitoring and management of the technology and web infrastructure needed to make this effective. I will create the infrastructure to host this virtually and technologically while also training the team and community members on the technology behind the operations and how they will help to make this effort more user friendly and successful. I will be a liaison for the organization to address the strategic partnering and affiliations with outside technology organizations and companies in order for us to have the needed resources available to us.

Our web infrastructure is up and the info’s are:

Our website is http://readyrockaway.org.
Our Blogs http://readyrockaway.org/blogs
Our Forum http://readyrockaway.org/forum
Follow us on Twitter here http://twitter.com/ReadyRockaway
On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58417332634
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1853669/
MySpace http://groups.myspace.com/readyrockaway

And more to come.

Thank you and have a great day,

~Brett A. Scudder~
The IT Security Attaché

Good day to you,

I am bursting with excitement as my trip to New Orleans this weekend will be one of great excitement and good will (did I mention how excited I was, oh yea). At the invite of the Everything Channel, I will be attending their XChange Solution Provider conference from March 8-11. They are some of the most awesome people I have worked with and known in my time and I must say that if you ever get a chance to be where they are hosting an event, get in it. It will be awesome.

Ever since hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans i’ve wanted to go down and help in the recovery and rebuilding process. I had such strong feeling about the devastation and impact on the people that i’ve tried to find ways in which I could assist from the network. As TITSSN is a services/solutions provider, offering our services and support as a contribution towards their recovery and rebuilding was a keen issue for me as technology is our future and we are the future of technology. I wanted this to happen sooner than later but things aren’t always timely when needed but at least it will happen thanks to the Everything Channel.

Well, it’s never too late to help as there is much to be done there and so on Saturday March 7th as a part of the Everything Channel’s community involvement and partnership with the city of New Orleans, a few of the event participants will be assisting the Habitat for Humanity group for the day by doing a home build (pics will follow).

We will be taking the hands, hearts and the tools needed to help rebuild infrastructure and bring back the luster to this great area of our country. This will be the fulfillment of a great achievement for me as a community/technology leader who places strong emphasis and values in community involvement, development and growth.

So on behalf of TITSSN and the Far Rockaway Community Coalition, i’d like to extend my highest gratitude and thanks to Ms. CT Thomas, Ms. Sonja Williams and Ms. Tracy Fischer of the Everything Channel for this extraordinary opportunity to give something back to the people of New Orleans, thank you.

XChange Solution Provider conference – http://www.everythingchannelevents.com/xsp09
More info on The Everything Channel here www.everythingchannel.com
Their events here www.everythingchannelevents.com
More info on the Habitat for Humanity here http://www.habitat-nola.org/
Donations for the Habitat for Humanity’s New Orleans here http://www.habitat-nola.org/donate/index.php (please try to donate something no matter how small).

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I must now brace myself for a hectic few days of work, meetings, presentations and good networking.

Ahoy there New Orleans, i’m on my way.

~Brett A. Scudder~
President/Chairman/Security Attaché at TITSSN | http://titssn.net
President/CISO of the Far Rockaway Community Coalition | http://farrockcc.net