Well, I’ve resisted this for a while, but I think it’s high time to add “python” to the list of languages in which I have proficiency. I did some basic work with python a while back, but was turned off by the need to “indent” properly for loops and conditionals. As a side rant, this seems preposterous to me, as if the language author wanted to do something different from the standard curly braces {} of most other languages. Anyway, rant over.

I started going through some “Linked In Learning” courses on python, and will probably try to basic projects. I don’t currently have any client work using python, but want to have a decent competency built up when it comes. I also have taken an interest in data science, and python seems to be a favorite language for that crowd. Learning a new (programming) language is a bit daunting and frustrating, but I’ve found that to be a necessary struggle to get to some level of proficiency. So, I start the learning!

I’ve been spending more and more time researching (via online courses and tutorials) the exploding field of “data science”. This is been a long time coming – as data collection and storage has exploded over the years, it only follows that there’s a need for people to analyze it. Of course, the goal is for specific actions / recommendations that improve some aspect of the business.

While I haven’t done much “concrete” in this area, I could see a possible transition in my career focus to that. I’ve got a lot of technical experience in scripting and processing data, however my statistical understanding is lacking. Luckily, there is no shortage of sample data and courses out there to start learning!

The big news of the week was a social engineering hack of Twitter. The hackers were able to send out fake tweets from famous accounts in order to scam hapless victims.

While it’s not clear yet exactly what happened, from the little we know the hackers conned Twitter employees into giving access to some internal tools. These tools allowed the hackers to post tweets directly from any account they wanted. Most likely they posed as co-workers at Twitter.

This type of security breach underscores a sometimes overlooked problem in securing your data and networks. We’re used to changing our passwords, Multi-factor authentication, security questions, etc. However, everyone should be aware of direct personal contact from someone asking for sensitive information. We’re used to screening these “phishing” attempts out of our email, phone, and text messages, but would you (or your employees) be able to catch a seemingly benign request from a “co-worker”?

In an era where workers are increasingly virtual and do not meet most of their co-workers, it’s easy to see how someone could craft a careful attack to gain unauthorized access or sensitive information. Remind your employees to be careful about company data, even when requested from someone that seems legit.

This was a relatively slow week, being a holiday week and having finished a sizable cutover described in last week’s post.

That said, I am reminded how much I love using Amazon Workspaces. For those who don’t know, this is a virtual desktop, sort of like “Remote Desktop” for those who’ve used that. In my case, the client for which I use Workspace has it set up so that the workspace is inside their network. This means I don’t have to connect via VPN anymore, use proxies, etc. I just login using the app, and have my desktop there, with all running applications from the last time I used it. It’s very nice, and accessible from multiple devices, even a web browser.

Usually when moving an application to a new platform, upgraded software, etc. I prefer to slowly implement the new solution – allowing for bug fixes and other issues to be addressed. Then, when the new platform is stable, finish moving things over to it. That’s a nice option to have, but it’s not always possible.

This week the monitoring team I work with moved to a new version of Microfocus’s Ops Bridge. This involved porting many custom applications, and lots of prep work. However, the final “cutover” had to be what I call “big bang” – no soft launch, or partial move, but everything at once. The name “big bang” comes from what can happen if things don’t go well when doing one of these.

So far, things seem to have gone well. I say “so far”, because once we took care of the realtime problems that came up, things have been quiet. I assume more problems will be discovered over the next few days, but hopefully nothing major. It feels good to have this one behind us, though!