Certification - December 2008 - (Page 44) JOB ROlEs Entry-level security Technician: laying the Groundwork dEANNA hARTlEY A well-choreographed play undoubtedly has some dedicated behind-the-scenes personnel contributing greatly to the success of the project. In the world of IT security, entry-level security technicians fit that profile. Entry-level security technicians are required to do a lot of grunt work such as coding, but they also get opportunities to do some hands-on work — usually under the supervision of a senior colleague. People in this job role at Laurus Technologies, an IT solutions company, delve into a great deal of research from a pre-sales standpoint, said Brian Wolfe, president and partner for security and compliance solutions at Laurus. level security technician comes in. He or she will insert the DLP system into the network — typically working with the network administrator — and will be responsible for working with senior counterparts to compile all the information into a report. “[They translate] a lot of what looks like meaningless data into something you can relate back to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) compliance violations — the regulatory types of violations that these conversations correspond to,” Wolfe said. The demand for IT security professionals is growing, and those hoping to make it in the field will need good technical skills and a solid business background. Entry-level security technicians at Laurus also work on identity management. IdM refers to the maintenance of online usernames and passwords — IDs — and typically comes into play when new employees are hired or on-boarded. Responsibilities include solving problems related to password management, password synchronization and user self-service. Entry-level security technicians get involved in these projects by doing a lot of the workflow coding. All IdM products used by the company have workflow engines, and there are various kinds of forms that need to be customized to match the customer’s business process. Entry-level security technicians work on the forms and the programming behind the forms. “Entry-level technicians are not designing this stuff; they’re not the ones gathering the requirements from the customer. But typically they’d be sitting in on the discovery session,” Wolfe said. Sometimes they are assigned parts of the documentation to work on, but typically they undertake the bulk of the coding. While it’s typically the more senior professionals who meet with clients and sales teams to identify the requirements and business drivers for projects, research and prototyping are entrusted to entry-level security technicians. Once a sale is finalized, these professionals have the opportunity to do hands-on work under the direction of their senior colleagues, including preparing an environment for the installation of software and undertaking the installation and customization. Broad-Based Functions At Laurus, entry-level security technicians work on one of two assignments: data-loss prevention (DLP) and identity management (IdM). DLP systems monitor all the Internet traffic entering and leaving the network and identify the dialogues, conversations and applications running. These systems help identify any vital or confidential information the organization doesn’t want to leak. For example, health care organizations want to keep patient health records private, or commercial companies want to ensure Social Security numbers remain unseen. The service Laurus provides its customers is known as an exposure assessment, and this is where the entry- CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE December 2008 http://www.laurustech.com/
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