Today's Technology: Another "Learn It or Be Left Behind" Choice?

[Originally published August 9, 2011 on HID Global's corporate blog.]

Back in the 2000's, security professionals were told, "You better learn about IT networking, or you're going to be left behind." As it turns out, the warning was a good one. In the current market, companies without expertise in TCP/IP, domain controllers, SQL, XML, APIs, middleware and such, risk being bested by others that "get it."

Today, security professionals are facing another "learn it, or be left behind" choice.

No longer can one get away with saying simply, "The reader reads the card and passes the card number to the controller." The technology, regulations, applications and security environment have evolved. We're reaching an inflection point where the most capable and effective security professionals need to be able to speak intelligently about topics such as encryption, PKI, mutual authentication, identity management, credential management, provisioning, digital certificates, certificate authorities, federated trust bridges, NFC and more.

So, many security professionals face a choice:

• To decide not to decide, in other words, to ignore the newer technologies, hoping they will go away (but then to struggle to see through murky waters in a few years);
• To make a conscious decision to remain the same and find and defend a niche. For instance, there were locksmiths in the 80's and 90's that chose not to learn about electronic systems, and some of them today continue to fill a market need; or,
• To choose to embrace the changes and commit to transform the skill set and business offering to address the shifting market needs. My guess is, if you're reading this blog post, you're in this latter group, and that you're already absorbing new knowledge from every conference, white paper and podcast you can find.

Personally, I find it absolutely fascinating to apply advanced technology in a never-ending battle against the bad guys. The pace of change, challenges and opportunities have never been greater. 

"Community" is what social tools like blogs are all about. So I encourage you to comment in the space below. Thanks for reading.

Best Regards,
Scott Howell
scotthowell949@gmail.com
www.twitter.com/scotthowell