[ale] a quick test of web site stupid

[David Ritchie]

On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 12:56 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Given the importance of reliable software in a growing number of areas, I
> see a need to have professional licenses for programmers that touch
> finance, health care, public safety, etc. We don't let just anyone design a
> bridge and that's for good reasons. We need to rethink this field from a
> public health and safety perspective.
>
> I can also see a need for mandatory professional certifications for System
> Administrators in those same areas.
>
> ditto for DBA work.
>
> James P. Kinney III
>
>
Snort...  the mice voting to bell the cat.

1) Will never happen, as the companies want huge masses of potential
employees for which that they don't have to pay much.
2) How would you certify competency? The field is changing all the time,
and the demand for people who even 'kinda' know what
they are doing currently (and probably for the indefinite future) will
outstrip supply.
3) Supposing (or more correctly, "when") something blows up - what would be
'punishment' meted out against the professional?
Are they really to blame when their employers aren't willing to patch, or
unwilling to listen... ??
4) Shelf life of professional certifications is short, so professionals
have to be selective. Licensing will, by definition, be bureaucratic and
trail
current practice. Often the certification questions are a laundry list of
random stuff that may or may not have any use in day to day administration,
or aren't specifically geared to security related issues. I can't  expect
licenses to be any more current.
5) making network secure that are also usable by your employees to get
their jobs done (particularly as more and more stuff is becoming cloud/web
based)
is really a PITA. IPV6, I am guessing, is going to make this even harder,
and corporate IT departments are largely clueless about it. That is just
one way
to see this blowing up. Bridging networks outside of buildings is getting
increasingly trivial to do, particularly if have some level of physical
access. SSL VPN's
and tunneling are particularly troubling to me...

Disclaimer: Not based on experience with any past, present, or future
employer(s). I do this to build my typing speed.

-- David
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