Reaction Paper Information Security Essay

Right now we are living in a world where information is very abundant and mostly open to everyone because of the internet. Security and privacy are big issues nowadays and someone has to do some actions regarding these issues. People dealing with the security and privacy of information belong to the field of Information Security, and we are lucky to meet someone knowledgeable about this field of work. Last February 27 at BA Multimedia Room of Saint Therese Building, we held a seminar about Information Technology and our speaker was Mr. Ferdinand Samaniego and together with him is a Computer Engineering graduate of Adamson University, Mr. Tet Aguila. Mr. Samaniego is the Lead Penetration Tester of Bitshield. His task is to find possible threats on applications and provide remedy to these threats. The seminar was delayed for about an hour because Mr. Samaniego and Mr. Aguila were caught in traffic. Most of us lost their enthusiasm about the seminar because of the delay. But when Mr. Samaniego and Mr. Aguila arrived and started the seminar, everyone became very excited and the eagerness to learn came back to us because Mr. Samaniego told that he will tackle issues about hacking. I think it is normal for us Computer Engineering students to get excited whenever the topic is hacking. We had already attended several seminars and whenever the topic is hacking it usually get all our attention throughout the seminar. So as expected, the seminar was very lively and interactive. Students raised their questions and Mr. Samaniego and Mr. Aguila willingly addressed these questions. At the beginning of the seminar, Mr. Samaniego asked us which operating system we are using in our computers. All of us answered Microsoft Windows  Operating System. He laughed and then challenged us that if we are using Linux Operation System just raised our hand and he will give some freebies to us. But no one raised his/her hand. He again laughed and told us that we must try and explore Linux Operating System because it is more flexible and more secure than Windows Operating System. Mr. Samaniego advised us that when we arrived at our home that day, we try to install Linux OS in our computers or download a Virtual Machine and run Linux OS in that VM. After he discussed Linux OS and Virtual Machines, Mr. Samaniego asked us how many programming languages we learned here in Adamson University. We answered 5 programming languages namely, C++, Assembly, C#, Java and C. He advised us to study more programming languages because it is our key to enter the industry world if we want to venture on Programming or Information Security. Mr. Samaniego told us that if we want to enter the field of InfoSec we must equipped ourselves with scripting languages like Ruby and Python because it is the most common language use to analyze threats on applications. He said that based on what programming languages we knew it will be very easy for us to study other programming languages because most of the programming languages are based from C Language. The last part of the seminar was the most interactive part of the seminar, when we are allowed to raise any question we had in our minds. As expected most of the questions were about hacking and some were about Linux Operating System. Mr. Samaniego and Mr. Aguila answered all of our questions and even shared some of their experiences in the industry. Mr. Samaniego shared to us that he once worked with Globe Telecoms as an Information Security officer. There was a time when hackers found a hole in their network and used it to have a free internet connection as long as they have one peso load. It took them weeks to found out that issue and a couple of days to provide a solution regarding the issue. Mr. Samaniego was the one who provided the solution. He told us that the problem was very simple and the hackers were too clever to use it to have an internet connection. The hackers route the DNS of a website to a different IP address, and that IP address gives them internet connection. The solution Mr. Samaniegp provided was also simple, but it was a secret he joked us. He also gave us a list of websites where we  can study Information Security, websites like easycouncil.com, gsn3.org, ic2.org, securityfocus.com, cisecurity.org and other more websites where we can start studying InfoSec. At the end of the day, I was very thankful for this seminar about Information Security. This seminar opened a new career path for me and taught me new things. Mr. Samaniego and Mr. Aguila were truly knowledgeable people from the field of InfoSec and I was lucky to meet them and listened to all their advices and lessons. I realized that Information Technology offers a broad career path and we must not stop learning because IT world is continuously developing and we must cope to these developments. A seminar like this is necessary for us to learn new things and get inspired by IT professionals.