Information Security Training is of vital importance

The science of Information Technology (IT) has developed rapidly in the last decade. More and more businesses have switched to the use of electronic record-keeping and management methods. The development of the internet also helped to broaden the avenues of IT, as an increasing amount of users were attracted to the internet. E-commerce is a new method which is possible due to the development of the internet. E-commerce simply refers to any and all goods and services which are purchased through the internet.

Even though e-commerce has brought a large amount of benefits to the user, it also poses a series of disadvantages. Hackers can gain access to sensitive information when these online transactions are made. In addition to the losses sustained by the user, the company will also be at a loss because it has lost the trust of the user. This is something any company cannot afford to lose. Also due to the implementation of several laws (such as the Data Protection Act in UK), protecting the user’s information is made a mandatory obligation to the company. Therefore there is a high demand for professionals in information security. This in turn has caused many institutes and universities to offer courses on Information security training.

These IT security training courses may be online courses or courses based in the university or institute itself (brick and motor courses). Some of these courses are offered by the government itself while others are offered through private institutions. In a IT security training course, the candidate is usually educated on a wide variety of aspects pertaining to Information security, such as antivirus avoidance, software exploitation, bug detection and exploitation, auditing, web application auditing, manual shellcode encoding and spam prevention. Another important aspect of IT security training is digital forensic science. This refers primarily to the identification of a crime pertaining to IT. By analyzing all weaknesses and bugs of the network which led to the breach of security, the company can re-implement a better security system which has addressed those bugs and weaknesses of the previous system. In addition, the company may also be able to trace back the crime to the offender and then prosecute him/her duly.

IT security training may also be provided by a company to its IT professionals. This is usually done in order to familiarize their employees with the latest security concepts of IT and then use these concepts to prevent any unauthorized access into their networks. Although the company may incur an initial disadvantage in providing such security training (with respect to finance), the company will find it very profitable over time because their information is made more secure. In addition, if they are performing e-commerce, as aforementioned, they will be able to maintain their customers’ trust.

As the techniques and methods used by hackers change rapidly, the science of information security should also change, in order to counter new attacks. Older methods of information security will become obsolete over time and the network will become vulnerable to attack. Therefore Information security training is not limited to a single course, but is a continuous process.