The author's ten year period, tenure of service (ToS) as practitioner in the field of information technology.
I had an early start working in this field when I was in high school. Then a contractor for structured cabling approached me to join his team composed of young people like me. It was an exciting experience. I was getting some money at the same time learning how computers inter-operate thru such medium, the UTP cable. Certainly, that was my first industry experience.
I never thought it is going to be my profession. What I wanted was to become an active military officer, a dream even when I was a child. Most of my ancestors and relatives were the biggest influence here where they have been in the military service which starts during the WWII up to this time.
What I have first experienced is something that I never put in any of my texts e.g. resume. But I recollected it and seem to trails down what I am right now in this field and now a practitioner that focuses in security and computer network.
Throughout my ten years of service, prior to my graduation in college, I joined an organization that deals with personal computers as its primary business, in short an IT company. I worked there to repair and troubleshoot computer hardware, software and printers then assigned as a support to a bank and had been able to be part of the project about the millennium bug which objective is to deploy fixes for computing applications.
Then I moved to another IT company, a solutions provider for small business as a systems administrator leading all technical projects that includes setting up and configuration of computer servers and desktops, installation of systems security baseline and administration of local area network and connection to the Internet. We were able to service several offices with different line of businesses.
My entry to the academe where I spent a couple of years, as again working in IT, was another turning point of my career where I get to maximize my competencies in information security and networking. I have been assigned to setup branches' wide area network and Internet connectivity and carried out perimeter security as well utilizing the free or open source solution. I get to lead the development of security courseware for undergraduate students, taught those subjects for a few years and was consulted about security and network for IT operations. This coincide to my another assignment or should I say job as a faculty member where I also teach enterprise networking and Unix subjects, object oriented and basic programming using several languages. Knowing the technical skills is a good thing for me where I would be able to impart some practical experiences to the students while getting them deeper on the theoretical part of the subject.
To further enhance my technical skills, learn how to deal with people which some believes an important factor in carrying out any job, I decided to work during my free time as a freelance consultant for security and networks for government and private entities including military, Internet service provider, healthcare organizations and multi-national product vendors. Helped them develop programs and implement projects within budget, learning organizational requirements and processes, and provided technical support in pre- and post-sales activities and among others.
Other industry that I get to work for is in a business process outsourcing where I held a senior manager position leading the IT and systems security block. Here I did not only expound my technical skills, I also get to have a first taste how to directly interact with the top executives as well as formulate organizational information security and technology policies, managed people and directed them of their own assignments in support of the computing infrastructure, desktops, network including voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which was directly interfaced to a provider located overseas.
My ToS could not be completed without the following which they have been very essential to me in accomplishing my work. The textbooks, system tools and utilities including operating systems, applications, security, networking, hardware, and basic programming languages that I used are the following:
TEXTBOOKS
Linux Device Drivers 2E ISBN: 0-256-12458-2
Beginning Javascript ISBN: 1-861004-06-0
Ada 2005 ISBN: 0-32-134078-7, Thanks to Adacore and Addison Wesley
PHP and MySQL Web Development ISBN: 0-672-32525-X
Introduction to Algorithms 2E ISBN: 0-262-53196-8, Thanks to MIT Press
The Hacker Diaries ISBN: 0-07-222552-1
Secure Architectures with OpenBSD ISBN: 03-21193-66-0
Guide to Disaster Recovery ISBN: 10: 0-619-13122-5
C Unleashed ISBN: 0-672-31896-2
Hacking Exposed 4E ISBN: 0-07-222742-7
Writing Secure Code ISBN: 0-17356-1588-8
Troubleshooting TCP/IP 3E ISBN: 0-7645-7012-9
Operating Systems Concepts 5E ISBN: 978-0-201-59113-2
Enterprise Networking, Strategies and Transport Protocols ISBN: 0-13-305186-2
The C Programming Language ISBN: 981-4119-66-0
SONET 2E ISBN: 0-07-212570-5
Directory Enabled Networks ISBN: 0-07-134951-0
Data Structures and Program Design in C ISBN: 0-13-288366-X
IBM Dictionary of Computing ISBN: 0-07-113383-6
The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence ISBN: 0-86576-089-6
The Art of Computer Programming ISBN: 0-201-03802-1
OPERATING SYSTEMS
OpenBSD, Windows (3.11, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 Servers, Vista), RedHat, SuSe, Fedora, OSX
APPLICATIONS
MS Office, Open Office, Lotus Notes, MySQL, MS SQL, MS Project, IBM Rational Rose
SECURITY (if not free, most are evaluation or limited to minimum number of users only)
Snort, Nessus, Ethereal, Wireshark, ZoneAlarm, Black Ice, OpManager, NetFlow, Spyware Doctor, AV’s: Symantec, McAfee, Avast, AntiVir, OpenBSDpf, OpenBSD IPSec, IPTables, IPCop, Honeypot, Kismet, NetStumbler, MRTG, SquidGuard, MS ISA, Lucent Brick, Internet Security Scanner, GFI LanGuard, SPI WebInspect, Windows ICF, Windows SteadyState, RSA SecureID, Bootable CD’s (Remote Exploit, Helix)
NETWORKING
Cisco, Cisco Network Assistant, Packet Tracer, Cisco SMBSA, Enterasys, EdgeCore, 3Com, Wireless (ZyXel, Linksys, D-Link), DNS (Windows, Bind, DJB), Mail (Postfix, Sendmail, Qmail, MS Exchange), Directory (Windows ADS, OpenBSD/SuSE LDAP), FTP, SMB: Unix/Windows, Apache, IIS, MS Virtual PC, VMWare GSX only, Proxy (WinProxy, Squid), Routing (static, RIP, OSPF), Connection (VoIP, E1/T1, TDM, ISDN), Visio, Netpad, TMA
HARDWARE
IBM p/e/xSeries, HP Proliant, Acer Altos, Dell Poweredge, SuperMicro SuperServer and Chassis
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
C/C++, Java, PHP, HTML, XML, ADA
There are, of course, aside from the IT itself, I also have some experiences, if I say lengthier than my professional experience written here it can be possible, dealing with the people, kinds of organization and the environment or shall I say workplace that I get to grapple with but I have just decided not to include in any of my postings anymore. At some point they have been useful and I have always considered them as another learning experience in life.
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