Introduction to Blogging for the IT Professional - Worthwhile IT Security Resources

As I write, I am engaged in a Microsoft TechNet webcast "Introduction to Blogging for the IT Professional" (September 21st, 2005). One of the first polls presented to the audience concerned how often the listener does blog entries - unfortunately, my answer was that my blog is feeling somewhat neglected. So, here's to a new start with a new direction! Yes, I am an IT professional and yes, I do write when the mood strikes. Maybe it's time to combine those aspects of who I am and what I do.

In my professional life and since I last added a blog entry, IT security issues have assumed an ever growing profile. My paperback, hardcover and e-book library on IT security is now the largest single category for information technology. The webcasts devoted to security keep piling up, and the complexity of the subject keeps expanding. But every so often as I wade through the material, I come across someone who not only has something to say, but knows how to communicate that “something” in such as way to retain my interest. Believe me, that experience is rare in technical writing and presentations.

One of my new favorite authors in the field is Ed Skoudis, the author of Malware: Fighting Malicious Code. It was only last Friday that I learned of the book from another Microsoft webcast “Defense in Depth Against Malicious Software (Part 1 of 3): Malicious Software Defense and Recovery” by Kai Axford. Kai is himself a very enthusiastic webcast presenter, not exactly what you might expect from a Microsoft employee. That same day, not only did he respond to my email to him about his plans for a graduate degree in information assurance, but he pointed me to the ISBN for Skoudis’s book. I ordered the book, it arrived yesterday, and already I am glued to the book, taking it with me everywhere I go…yes, just as you expected!

So, this is the new direction; namely, writing about IT Security issues and resources, but making recommendations to like-minded individuals for only best-of-breed writers and communicators.

Stay tuned!