After a week in which we learn the FBI will hold whistle blower Snowden responsible for leaking NSA surveillance efforts – activities previously denied – it comes as no surprise that opinion is divided over Snowden’s revelations.

The news story plays right into our upcoming ‘State Sponsored Hacking’ event in July. It seems the Cloud Security Alliance of South Florida may need to lead a discussion on protecting the privacy of our digital assets against enemies foreign and domestic.

It’s one thing when an individual tries to hack into your company but it’s quite another when foreign governments sponsor cyber-crimes and other malicious attacks. You might think that you are defenseless against such an onslaught; but all is not lost…

Join us and a panel of distinguished security experts, Tuesday July 23, 5pm at NSU’s Knight Auditorium for an in-depth look at what these threats mean and how you can apply best practices to stay one step ahead of the criminal spies.

Participating User Groups

CSA – Cloud Security Alliance, South Florida Chapter
ISSA – South Florida Information Systems Security Association
ISACA – Information Systems Audit and Control Association, South Florida Chapter
SFDA – South Florida Digital Alliance
SIM – Society of Information Management, South Florida Chapter
IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
InfraGard – South Florida Chapter

Thursday, June 13 TEDxDelrayBeach will be hosting a simulcast event covering TEDGlobal which takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The theme is ‘Think Again’. We are in the midst of a global remix. Disciplines merge and cross-pollinate. Technology intrudes into biology and society. Power and authority are redistributed

Download the Sponsorship Package

It’s one thing when an individual tries to hack into your data center but it’s quite another when foreign governments sponsor cyber-crimes and other malicious attacks. You might think that you are defenseless against such an onslaught; but all is not lost..

Join us and a panel of distinguished security experts, Tuesday July 23, 5pm at NSU’s Knight Auditorium for an in-depth look at what these threats mean and how you can apply best practices to stay one step ahead of the criminals. Click here to register

Agenda:

3pm to 5pm – CIO/CSO only Security Roundtable: If you meet the qualification and haven’t received an invitation, please contact Alex Funkhouser

5pm to 6pm – State sponsored hacking: enhanced defenses against the latest threats with NSU’s John Christly.

6pm to 7pm – Getting Ahead of Advanced Threats with RSA’s Mike Huckaby.

Adam Culp will be kicking off a new PHP Apprentice/Mentor Program as part of SoFloPHP. Adam often get inquiries requesting that he become a mentor for someone, or asking if he knows of others who are willing to mentor. This has led Adam to brainstorm about it for some time. So now he has formulated a starting point. Please feel free to comment on the SoFloPHP message board and lets see how this goes. If it takes off Adam will build something more formal

Download Flyer

Vista Technologies is now certified by Microsoft to offer Microsoft Experience Center (MEC) sessions.  “We see this as a tremendous opportunity to help our customers understand the Microsoft Technology stack and how to leverage their existing investments to solve their critical business problems” said Nizar Lavji CEO Vista.

In a Microsoft Experience Center (MEC) session, members of a company’s IT department and business groups can come together to see how the latest Microsoft solutions can drive greater productivity and innovation in an organization.

MEC sessions can be offered at the customers premisses or at our training center.

*** To book a MEC session for your IT department or to learn about upcoming open sessions, please call or email Nizar for more info. Tel 305.777.3830 ***

Why should you attend a MEC session?

1.)    True to Life: A MEC session is not a generic demo. It is a true-to-life user experience that takes you through common work-related scenarios. These include working remotely, leveraging social networking to locate expertise and share information, and connecting in real time with coworkers and customers.

2.)    Promotes communication: Participating in a MEC session is a great way for IT departments and business groups to better understand the IT solutions they’re using, which can lead to process improvements and an improved workplace environment.

 3.)    Interactive and fun: Participating in a MEC session is the best way to learn about business productivity tools and technologies without sales pressure. Sessions are led by a trained facilitator and are designed to be interactive, experiential, and fun.

Have you ever written a macro? In the very near future, coding, like spreadsheets will likely be an important part of almost any tech oriented occupation.

Don’t believe me? Let’s go back to the early 80′s… In the days before personal computers and productivity software, company data was ‘owned’ by the IT dept; when mangers wanted reports, they would have to put in requests to the IT guru’s. Shortly after the introduction of desktop PC’s, DOS and Novel’s Netware, managers were empowered with the tools and technology to manage data. This new capability soon gave rise to the now ubiquitous training academy and certification industry. Let’s face it, computers are an integral part of the working lives of most Americans and in the not too distant future so will coding.

Here are just a few kid/teen friendly events taking place in your neighborhood.

Microsoft will be offering Summer Code Camps for 8 – 15 year olds at the Dadeland Mall Store from June 10 – August 16. Please contact Brittany Valdes at Britm@microsoft.com

Attend GSCIS’s Open House on June 8 and find out how one of our degrees can create unlimited career opportunities for you!

No matter what you do, it’s going to be helpful to learn to code. So we should probably start teaching it in school. Not every coder job involves working in a blue chip tech company or Silicon Valley startup. As British technologist, Conrad Wolfram said in a TED talk on teaching math with computers: “In the real world math isn’t necessarily done by mathematicians. It’s done by geologists, engineers, biologists, all sorts of different people.” More..

We are so excited about the opportunity that lies ahead for our community to establish itself as one of the leading technology corridors in the Americas and soon to be the World. Your participation and contribution to this initiative is vital to our success. As we discussed at the kickoff session at Miami Dade College, we have identified key areas of opportunity. Please note your interest in these areas by completing the survey link below as we will begin forming committees and teams to rally behind these key initiatives in the next few weeks. Survey Link..

Please mark your calendars for the next OCOG ICT Taskforce meeting on Thursday, June 27th at 4pm at The Beacon Council.