How to become better at networking despite the coronavirus keeping you at home

The ability to network in order to develop, or make new contacts, is another area of business that has been dramatically impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Most jobs in some form or another rely on being able to forge professional relationships both with colleagues in the office and people in the wider industry.

However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has led to the cancellation of conferences and other networking events, as well as forcing a significant proportion of the global population to work from home, in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Some organizers have taken conferences online to make up for cancellations, including Microsoft which has made its annual “Build” event for developers digital. As for more informal methods of networking, a search on Meetup, a platform which allows people to link with other people based on shared interests, found there are 1,092 “what does a computer engineer do” groups.

Dr. Rosina Racioppi, CEO of professional development program provider Women Unlimited, believed social distancing amid the coronavirus could be a catalyst for increased online networking and said it could stave off feelings of loneliness or isolation. Dr. Jo Webber, CEO of social networking app Pod, similarly said that utilizing spare time while in self-isolation to network online was a way of “laying the foundation for future growth for when the pandemic comes to an end.”

Reaching out to existing and new contacts on LinkedIn is one method suggested by Racioppi. 

How Computer Science Affects Your Chance of Finding a Date

When posting your profile to dating sites, should you brag about your Computer Science degree? The answer, it seems, depends on whether you are a man or a woman.So you want to maximize your Tinder matches. Yes - having a really nice smile helps but not all of us are photogenic and photoshop-ing is as likely to detract as to enhance. Best to concentrate on a compelling bio.

In an attempt to see if there is a correlation between what subject people study at university and their Tinder-worthiness the UK-based OnBuy.com designed a cunning experiment. Using data from HESA, the Higher Education Statistics Agency for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland they looked at the top 10 degrees students enrolled in 2018/19 and made Tinder profiles with everything in common apart for which degree had been studies.

Then they swiped right on 200 people and waited to see the results, which were are follows: 

 If you’re a man the most attractive degree to women is Medicine, compassionate and profitable, which scored 174 matches. However, Computer Science was hot on its heels, with 165 matches - just 9 matches short of first place. So CS seems to pull its weight for the males of the species.

Sadly the opposite seems to be true for women with computer engineering careers coming second lowest at 115 matches only just ahead of Engineering with 111. Interestingly Law and Education which occupied the top two slots for women came in at the bottom of the league for men. Notice too that Engineering got almost the same number of matches for men as it did for women, but the total number of matches for men was 1251 compared to 1425 for women - so on Tinder at least being female gives you a head start.

This research sadly confirms the gender gap for both Computer Science and Engineering that will only be overcome when more women are shown to have interesting and lucrative careers in the tech industries. I can't imagine that female law graduates are really more interesting to date. 

Telecom networks deal with 'unprecedented' pressure as Canadians work from home

Temporarily working from his Toronto home, music composer Igor Correia has run into an unexpected challenge: it takes an awfully long time to upload his work. "It just chugs and it's very slow," he said on FaceTime. The video call repeatedly froze. Correia, whose music is featured in TV commercials and films, said it took him "a few hours" to send a one-gigabyte file on Wednesday.

He's among countless Canadians following the advice of public health experts and telecommuting during the COVID-19 crisis. The massive shift is serving as a giant technological experiment, testing bandwidth limits and telephone network capacities as users hold virtual meetings, share files and stream audio and video content.

Correia usually works in a studio, where internet connectivity is seamless. At his normal workplace, "it's all set up," he said. "jobs with a computer science degree."

Corporate telecommunication technology is typically built with a higher capacity, with greater speeds for more concurrent users than consumer-grade products. Bell, Rogers, and Telus all acknowledged their networks are experiencing higher-than-normal traffic. And the telecommunications giants pledge their infrastructure can handle the sudden surge.

But lower-tech solutions are facing added pressure as well, with employees dialing into companywide conference calls and Canadians calling government agencies for information on the pandemic.

B2B Buyer Intent Data Tools Market In IT and Telecommunication with Analysis, Overall Business Outlook to 2026

B2B Buyer Intent Data Tools‎‎‎‎‎‎ 2019 Global Market Research report gives you comprehensive, professional analysis of the market size, share, manufactures, segments and forecast 2025. This report also offers you opportunities, current market trends and strategies impacting the global market along with estimates and forecast of revenue and drivers analysis.

Global B2B Buyer Intent Data Tools Market Analysis Demandbase, 6sense, IT Central Station, Bombora, EverString, TechTarget, LeadSift, PureB2B, Idio, Aberdeen, IntentData along with their company profile, growth aspects, opportunities, and threats to the market development. This report presents the industry analysis for the forecast timescale. An up-to-date industry detail related to industry events, import/export scenario, market share is covered in this report.

The extent of the report stretches out from market situations to similar valuing between significant players, cost and benefit of the predetermined market areas. The numerical information is upheld up by factual apparatuses, for example, the difference between computer science and computer engineering investigation, Porter’s Five Analysis, PESTLE examination, etc

Geographically, the report takes stock of the potential of B2B Buyer Intent Data Tools market in the regions of North America including the U.S. and Canada, Latin America including Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, Europe including the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Nordic, Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ) including India, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia, and the Middle East and Africa including Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), South Africa, Israel, and Nigeria.

Security is leaving the data center and moving to the edge

The traditional network security model, in which traffic is routed through the data center for inspection and policy enforcement, is for all intents and purposes obsolete. A 2019 study by research firm Gartner found that “more users, devices, applications, services, and data are located outside of an enterprise than inside.”

Driven by the adoption of multi-cloud infrastructure and applications, mobility and distributed workforces, the focal point for security has shifted to users and devices. As a result, the current data center-centric approach to network security is struggling to support a load it was not designed to bear.

This outdated architecture is impacting productivity and the user experience while increasing networking costs since more and more circuits and APIs are needed to move traffic in and out of the information technology vs computer science. Meanwhile, implementing various security functions on remote devices requires a complex and difficult-to-manage mix of endpoint software agents.

The writing is on the wall: security needs to move from the data center to the edge of the network. Bringing security inspection engines closer to entities (users and devices) eliminates the need for trombone traffic through the data center. Research firm Gartner calls this architecture a secure access service edge or SASE, and it provides several major benefits.

Nine Network Security Topics Grabbing Headlines in Q1 2020

The security landscape is getting more complex as threats like IoT device attacks, fileless malware, and non-email phishing attacks continue to rise. The cost of failing to protect against these attacks has never been higher. In fact, Ponemon’s recent Data Breach Report found that the average cost of a data breach is now a staggering $3.92 million per incident. As threat actors change their methods, experiment with new technologies, and try out new attack vectors, it can be difficult for organizations to keep up with the rapid pace of change. With that in mind, here are 9 security topics grabbing headlines that you should know about

The exact definition of these buzzwords changes depending on who you ask, but in general, they refer to a framework (and sometimes the set of products used to implement that framework) where users and devices are not trusted by default, even if they are inside the network perimeter. Instead of authenticating a user once and then giving them blanket access, in zero-trust model users must authenticate every time they access a network service.

Many enterprises are interested in moving towards this model (thanks to the increase in remote workers and BYOD), but a lack of knowledge and mature products that offer the necessary capabilities are slowing them down. Read more about zero trusts in BizTech Magazine, Dark Reading or check out the new NIST zero trust guidelines from March 2020.

The current administration’s budget proposal for 2021 includes $18.8 billion allocated for cybersecurity, with approximately $9 billion dedicated to civilian agencies for network security, protecting critical infrastructure and boosting the cybersecurity workforce. Read more about how this budget will be used in software engineering vs computer science.

New property portal facilitates increase in digital networking

Eighty-percent of professionals consider networking important and valuable to career and business success, yet nearly 40% struggle to stay in touch with and grow their network, either because they don’t have the time (49%) or because they are unsure how to connect or re-connect.[1] This problem is particularly acute in the fragmented and overcrowded property sector, particularly for those new to the industry – until now.  The Land site, a new online hub created for property professionals to facilitate property development, is clearing a path through the clutter to connect all corners of the professional property market, removing the barriers to building networks, knowledge, skills – and property.

With a third of professionals in the UK relying on digital networking to build their business connections[2] and the latest research from LinkedIn revealing that 35% of users reported a casual online conversation or message led to new business deals or a new business partnership[3], The Land site provides the perfect hassle-free single-source digital route to market for savvy property businesses. Over 350 property and professional service firms are now registered and active on the portal, with over 2,000 commercial properties and land opportunities listed for sale.

CEO and founder of The Land site, Ramsey Assal, explains: “With over 1110,000 property businesses operating in the UK, and half a million employees, trying to identify development partners, secure funding, get expert advice or discover the latest products is time-consuming and computer engineering career.