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What is C#?

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We have put together a top list of C# questions and answers to give you an overview of one of the most powerful languages in the world!  If you just want to brush up on your C# knowledge prior to an interview or simply understand its functions in more details, check out some of the most commonly asked questions.

  1. What is C#?

C# is an object oriented, type safe and managed language that is compiled by .Net framework to generate Microsoft Intermediate Language.

  1. What are the types of comment in C#?

i. Single line

ii. Multiple line (/* */)

iii. XML Comments (///).

  1. Can multiple catch blocks be executed?

No, Multiple catch blocks can’t be executed. Once the proper catch code executed, the control is transferred to the finally block and then the code that follows the finally block gets executed.

  1. What is the difference between public, static and void?

Public declared variables or methods are accessible anywhere in the application. Static declared variables or methods are globally accessible without creating an instance of the class. Static member are by default not globally accessible it depends upon the type of access modified used. The compiler stores the address of the method as the entry point and uses this information to begin execution before any objects are created. And Void is a type modifier that states that the method or variable does not return any value.

  1. What is an object?  

An object is an instance of a class through which we access the methods of that class. “New” keyword is used to create an object. A class that creates an object in memory will contain the information about the methods, variables and behavior of that class.

  1. Define Constructors?  

A constructor is a member function in a class that has the same name as its class. The constructor is automatically invoked whenever an object class is created. It constructs the values of data members while initializing the class.

  1. What is Jagged Arrays?

The array which has elements of type array is called jagged array. The elements can be of different dimensions and sizes. We can also call jagged array as Array of arrays.

  1. What is the difference between ref & out parameters?

An argument passed as ref must be initialized before passing to the method whereas out parameter needs not to be initialized before passing to a method.

  1. What is the use of using statement in C#?  

The using block is used to obtain a resource and use it and then automatically dispose of when the execution of block completed.

  1. What is serialization?  

When we want to transport an object through network then we have to convert the object into a stream of bytes. The process of converting an object into a stream of bytes is called Serialization. For an object to be serializable, it should implement ISerialize Interface. De-serialization is the reverse process of creating an object from a stream of bytes.

  1. Can “this” be used within a static method?  

We can’t use ‘This’ in a static method because we can only use static variables/methods in a static method.

  1. What is difference between constants and read-only?  

Constant variables are declared and initialized at compile time. The value can’t be changed afterwards. Read only is used only when we want to assign the value at run time.

  1. What is an interface class?  

Interface is an abstract class which has only public abstract methods and the methods only have the declaration and not the definition. These abstract methods must be implemented in the inherited classes.

  1. What are value types and reference types?  

When a variable is declared using one of the basic, built-in data types or a user defined structure, it is a value type. An exception is the string data type, which is areference type. A value type stores its contents in memory allocated on the stack.

  1. What are Custom Control and User Control?  

Custom Controls are controls generated as compiled code (Dlls), those are easier to use and can be added to toolbox. Developers can drag and drop controls to their web forms. Attributes can be set at design time. We can easily add custom controls to Multiple Applications (If Shared Dlls), If they are private then we can copy to dll to bin directory of web application and then add reference and can use them.
User Controls are very much similar to ASP include files, and are easy to create. User controls can’t be placed in the toolbox and dragged – dropped from it. They have their design and code behind. The file extension for user controls is ascx.

  1. What are sealed classes in C#?  

We create sealed classes when we want to restrict the class to be inherited. Sealed modifier used to prevent derivation from a class. If we forcefully specify a sealed class as base class then a compile-time error occurs.

  1. What is method overloading?  

Method overloading is creating multiple methods with the same name with unique signatures in the same class. When we compile, the compiler uses overload resolution to determine the specific method to be invoke.

  1. What is the difference between Array and Arraylist?  

In an array, we can have items of the same type only. The size of the array is fixed. An arraylist is similar to an array but it doesn’t have a fixed size.

  1. Can a private virtual method be overridden?  

No, because they are not accessible outside the class.

  1. Describe the accessibility modifier “protected internal”.

Protected Internal variables/methods are accessible within the same assembly and also from the classes that are derived from this parent class.

  1. What are the differences between System.String and System.Text.StringBuilder classes?

System.String is immutable. When we modify the value of a string variable then a new memory is allocated to the new value and the previous memory allocation released. System.StringBuilder was designed to have concept of a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed without allocation separate memory location for the modified string.

  1. What’s the difference between the System.Array.CopyTo() and System.Array.Clone() ?

Using Clone() method, we creates a new array object containing all the elements in the original array and using CopyTo() method, all the elements of existing array copies into another existing array. Both the methods perform a shallow copy.

  1. How can we sort the elements of the array in descending order?

Using Sort() methods followed by Reverse() method.

  1. What’s the difference between an interface and abstract class?

Interfaces have all the methods having only declaration but no definition. In an abstract class, we can have some concrete methods. In an interface class, all the methods are public. An abstract class may have private methods.

  1. What is the difference between Finalize() and Dispose() methods?

Dispose() is called when we want for an object to release any unmanaged resources with them. On the other hand Finalize() is used for the same purpose but it doesn’t assure the garbage collection of an object.

  1. What are circular references?

Circular reference is situation in which two or more resources are interdependent on each other causes the lock condition and make the resources unusable.

  1. What are generics in C#.NET?

Generics are used to make reusable code classes to decrease the code redundancy, increase type safety and performance. Using generics, we can create collection classes. To create generic collection, System.Collections.Generic namespace should be used instead of classes such as ArrayList in the System.Collections namespace. Generics promotes the usage of parameterized types.

  1. What is an object pool in .NET?

An object pool is a container having objects ready to be used. It tracks the object that is currently in use, total number of objects in the pool. This reduces the overhead of creating and re-creating objects.

  1. List down the commonly used types of exceptions in .Net?

ArgumentException, ArgumentNullException , ArgumentOutOfRangeException, ArithmeticException, DivideByZeroException ,OverflowException , IndexOutOfRangeException ,InvalidCastException ,InvalidOperationException , IOEndOfStreamException , NullReferenceException , OutOfMemoryException , StackOverflowException etc.

  1. What are Custom Exceptions?

Sometimes there are some errors that need to be handle as per user requirements. Custom exceptions are used for them and are used defined exceptions.

  1. What are delegates?

Delegates are same as are function pointers in C++ but the only difference is that they are type safe unlike function pointers. Delegates are required because they can be used to write much more generic type safe functions.

  1. How do you inherit a class into other class in C#?

Colon is used as inheritance operator in C#. Just place a colon and then the class name.

  1. What is the difference between method overriding and method overloading?

In method overriding, we change the method definition in the derived class that changes the method behavior. Method overloading is creating a method with the same name within the same class having different signatures.

  1. What are the different ways a method can be overloaded?

Methods can be overloaded using different data types for parameter, different order of parameters, and different number of parameters.

  1. Why can’t you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface?

In an interface, we have virtual methods that do not have method definition. All the methods are there to be overridden in the derived class. That’s why they all are public.

  1. How can we set class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being over-ridden?

Declare the class as public and make the method sealed to prevent it from being overridden.

  1. What happens if the inherited interfaces have conflicting method names?

When using explicit interface implementations, the functions are not public on the class. Therefore in order to access these functions, you have to first cast the object to the interface type, or assign it to a variable declared of the interface type.

  1. What is the difference between a Struct and a Class?

Structs are value-type variables and classes are reference types. Structs stored on the stack, causes additional overhead but faster retrieval. Structs cannot be inherited.

  1. How to use nullable types in .Net?

Value types can take either their normal values or a null value. Such types are called nullable types.

  1. How we can create an array with non-default values?

We can create an array with non-default values using Enumerable.

  1. What is difference between is and as operators in c#?

“is” operator is used to check the compatibility of an object with a given type and it returns the result as Boolean.

“as” operator is used for casting of object to a type or a class.

  1. What’s a multicast delegate?

A delegate having multiple handlers assigned to it is called multicast delegate. Each handler is assigned to a method.

  1. What are indexers in C# .NET?

Indexers are known as smart arrays in C#. It allows the instances of a class to be indexed in the same way as array.

  1. What is difference between the “throw” and “throw ex” in .NET?

“Throw” statement preserves original error stack whereas “throw ex” have the stack trace from their throw point. It is always advised to use “throw” because it provides more accurate error information.

  1. What are C# attributes and its significance?

C# provides developers a way to define declarative tags on certain entities eg. Class, method etc. are called attributes. The attribute’s information can be retrieved at runtime using Reflection.

  1. How to implement singleton design pattern in C#?

In singleton pattern, a class can only have one instance and provides access point to it globally.

  1. What is the difference between directcast and ctype?

DirectCast is used to convert the type of an object that requires the run-time type to be the same as the specified type in DirectCast.

Ctype is used for conversion where the conversion is defined between the expression and the type.

  1. Is C# code is managed or unmanaged code?

C# is managed code because Common language runtime can compile C# code to Intermediate language.

 

Do you feel worthy of utilizing the answers to these questions in a real interview scenario? Take a look at our latest C#/ASP.NET Senior Software Development role and see if you’ve got what it takes! You can check it out by following this link!

– Guru99

Discover why Short-Term Marketing Strategies are being used more than ever…

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Digital media and financial pressures on CEOs are forcing marketing employees to focus increasingly on short-term metrics at the expense of creativity and brand building.

Short-term marketing tactics are increasingly taking precedence over long-term brand building, which is affecting advertising effectiveness, but whose responsibility is it to even the balance between fast results and brand longevity?

The issue of short-termism was raised by an IPA report in June that suggests the use of short-term metrics to measure campaign success is resulting in a sharp drop in creativity and diverting budgets away from longer-term brand building activity.

Author of the IPA report Peter Field believes the rise of digital and programmatic advertising is partly to blame for this shift in thinking, since it has put increased pressure on marketers to track whether activity is working in real time. If a message fails to resonate it can be quickly changed, which is appropriate in some instances but does not necessarily lend itself to brand building.

“There is a real pendulum that companies swing because they want long-term brand building to make sure the brand resonates and continues to be loved but that is a slow burn,” says Susan Smith Ellis, CMO at Getty Images.

“The instantaneousness of measuring then causes a shift back to all the digital channels all the time and trying to figure out how to measure these different pieces by the nanosecond.”

Smith Ellis believes companies need to consider whether “they are being schizophrenic about their behaviors”. She says: “The balancing of short-term revenue and long-term brand building is an art and a science and very few companies do it well.”

 

The impact of digital transformation

The Royal Shakespeare Company is in the process of going through a digital transformation and implementing a full overhaul of how it delivers commerce and content. Photo credit David Tett

Taking a long-term view depends on the position and direction of the business. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is in the process of going through a digital transformation and has worked with software provider Progress to implement a full overhaul of how it delivers commerce and content.

Richard Adams, consultant digital programme manager at the RSC, says: “What we are doing is accepting short-term measures are in place, but underneath it I have implemented lots of different approaches to data.”

Adams is in the process of rolling out the ability to track trends over a longer period to understand how people interact with the company, which therefore allows the RSC to start thinking about how to change the way it works to become data-driven and evidence-led rather than reactive to short-term campaign successes.

“We are firm believers that a lot of traditional digital marketing spend is inefficient and wasted.”

– Neil Costello, head of marketing, Atom Bank

When embarking on a long-term digital transformation project, it is vital for the entire company to be on board in order for this approach to work. Adams says: “One of the things about transformation is that you have to somehow work out how to take people with you. You can put as much technology in place as you want but people have to know why and that explanation has to be simple and relevant.”

When launching a new business, it could be tempting to look for quick wins but in order to create a viable long-term business proposition, brand building is key.

Atom Bank launched its app-based savings account in April, but its flagship product – its current account – launches next year so the brand is focused on driving earned media using social networks. A short-term campaign on TV or digital is therefore not on the cards, according to head of marketing Neil Costello.

“We don’t have the investment to go on TV and have no desire to do that. We are firm believers that a lot of traditional digital marketing spend, such as online display, is inefficient and wasted so it pushes you into the territory of gathering a following in social, where you have an army of advocates ready to purchase your product,” he says.

Costello was drawn to Atom from Aviva by the “chance to build a brand from scratch” and the ability to “be as risky and provocative as you like from the outset, as opposed to being hampered by a large brand that can’t move too far away from its established core”.

“It’s really easy to be lazy and start attacking the big banking groups and what banking has done in the past,” adds Costello, who says Atom is more focused on helping people redefine the relationship they have with money. He says: “By getting people talking about that on your behalf, you are fostering trust before your proposition has even launched.”

 

When a long-term view is needed

Electrolux has been working on its digital transformation for the past two-and-a-half years

Household appliances brand Electrolux has been working on its digital transformation with agency Prophet for the past two-and-a-half years with the aim of building brands in a more effective way. The project is long-term and still going.

In EMEA countries, Electrolux has more than 30 brands across different categories in the white goods sector and senior vice-president of EMEA marketing Lars Hygrell wants to introduce a more consistent consumer experience.

“We needed to bring rigour into measuring and understanding the effect of our investment in different channels.”

– Lars Hygrell, senior VP of EMEA marketing, Electrolux

He says: “With everything going on in the industry and marketing overall thanks to the changes and impact of digital, we needed to bring rigour into measuring and understanding the effect of our investment in different channels.”

The goal for Hygrell is to effectively manage short- and long-term requirements. He adds: “The beauty of our approach is to be able to not only look at the long term and say we only look at brand health, but to have that balance to make sure we have the right focus on the monthly, quarterly and yearly results.

“At the same time we need to drive and feed into the overall strategy of securing an overall consumer experience and brand building strategy that drives us in the right direction.”

  • The rise of short-term thinking is closely aligned to the fact marketers’ tenure in any one role seems to be declining.

 

The effect of short-termism on creativity

Shrinking marketing budgets and the use of short-term metrics to measure campaign success have resulted in a sharp drop in creativity, according to the IPA’s ‘Selling creativity short: Creativity and effectiveness under threat’ report. It shows that since 2006 the percentage of IPA campaigns that ran for less than six months has more than quadrupled to more than 30%. For award-winning campaigns the rise has been even sharper at around 45%.

The report suggests it is important to note this rise because “creativity delivers business results most strongly over the long term and this ‘miscasting’ undermines the impact of creativity”. Over these short time scales non-awarded campaigns also tend to outperform awarded campaigns.

Report author Peter Field says short-termism is “putting attention on short-term tactics and diverting budgets, particularly into digital sales.”

He adds: “If you undermine long-term thinking and strategy, you entirely undermine creativity because it lives in that world of long-termism.”

 

Did you find this Article Interesting? If so, check out our most recent Marketing Manager vacancy on our website.  It might be the perfect opportunity for you to take the next leap in your Marketing career! You can check it out by following this link

 

– Mindi Chahal

8 Amazing Browser Functions made with JavaScript Power

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Check out how the expanding power of JavaScript can make browsing the web much more entertaining

The use of JavaScript (JS) is increasing year by year. It’s use ranges a great yield from basic computer functions, to the operation of start-of-the-art machines such as drones and virtual reality technology. Discover some other amazing creative capabilities which can be generated using the incredible power of JS in the video below:

 

 

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5 Major Tech Giants collaborate in Future of AI

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The world’s biggest technology companies are joining forces to consider the future of artificial intelligence (AI).

Amazon, Google’s DeepMind, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft will work together on issues such as privacy, safety and the collaboration between people and AI.

Dubbed the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, it will include external experts.

One said he hoped the group would address “legitimate concerns”.

“We’ve seen a very fast development in AI over a very short period of time,” said Prof Yoshua Bengio, from the University of Montreal.

“The field brings exciting opportunities for companies and public organisations. And yet, it raises legitimate questions about the way these developments will be conducted.”

Bringing the key players together would be the “best way to ensure we all share the same values and overall objectives to serve the common good”, he added.

One notable absentee from the consortium is Apple. It has been in discussions with the group and may join the partnership “soon”, according to one member.

The group will have an equal share of corporate and non-corporate members and is in discussions with organisations such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

It stressed that it had no plans to “lobby government or other policy-making bodies”.

“AI has tremendous potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education and manufacturing to home automation and transport and the founding members… hope to maximise this potential and ensure it benefits as many people as possible,” it said.

It will conduct research under an open licence in the following areas:

  • ethics, fairness and inclusivity
  • transparency
  • privacy and interoperability (how AI works with people)
  • trustworthiness, reliability and robustness

Microsoft’s managing director of research hailed the partnership as a “historic collaboration on AI and its influences on people and society”, while IBM’s ethics researcher Francesca Rossi said it would provide “a vital voice in the advancement of the defining technology of this century”.

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google’s artificial intelligence division, DeepMind, said he hoped the group would be able to “break down barriers for AI teams to share best practice and research ways to maximise societal benefits and tackle ethical concerns”.

And Amazon’s director of machine learning, Ralf Herbrich, said the time was ripe for such a collaboration.

“We’re in a golden age of machine learning and AI,” he said.

“As a scientific community, we are still a long way from being able to do things the way humans do things, but we’re solving unbelievably complex problems every day and making incredibly rapid progress.”

Artificial intelligence is beginning to find roles in the real world – from the basic AI used in smartphone voice assistants and web chatbots to AI agents that can take on data analysis to significant breakthroughs such as DeepMind’s victory over champion Go player Lee Sedol.

The win – in one of the world’s most complex board games – was hailed as a defining moment for AI, with experts saying it had come a decade earlier than anyone had predicted.

DeepMind now has 250 scientists at its King’s Cross headquarters, working on a variety of projects, including several tie-ins with the NHS to analyse medical records.

In a lecture at the Royal Academy of Engineering, founder Dr Demis Hassabis revealed the team was now working on creating an artificial hippocampus, an area of the brain regarded by neuroscientists as responsible for emotion, creativity, memory and other human attributes.

But as AI has developed, so have concerns about where the technology is heading.

One of the most vocal and high-profile naysayers is Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, who has tweeted the technology is “potentially more dangerous than nukes [nuclear weapons]” and expressed concerns humans were “just the biological boot loader for digital super-intelligence”.

In order to combat this fear, Google are developing their own AI kill switch which will always allow humans to maintain control over AI machines.

Last year, Mr Musk set up his own non-profit AI group, OpenAI.

It is not, at this stage, part of the Partnership on AI.

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– Jane Wakefield

4 Must-Know Methods for protecting against Ransomware

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Ransomware is a multi-million-pound crime operation that strikes everyone from hospitals to police departments to online casinos.

It’s such a profitable scheme that experts say traditional cyberthieves are abandoning their old ways of making money—stealing credit card numbers and bank account credentials—in favor of ransomware.

Due to the consistent development in Ransomware, you’re still largely on your own when it comes to fighting ransomware attacks, which hackers use to encrypt your computer or critical files until you pay a ransom to unlock them. You could choose to cave and pay, as many victims do. Last year, for example, the FBI says victims who reported attacks to the Bureau enriched cyber extortionists’ coffers by $24 million. But even if you’ve backed up your data in a safe place and choose not to pay the ransom, this doesn’t mean an attack won’t cost you. Victims of the CryptoWall ransomware, for example, have suffered an estimated $325 million in damages since that strain of ransomware was discovered in January 2015, according to the Cyber Threat Alliance. The damages include the cost of disinfecting machines and restoring backup data—which can take days or weeks depending on the organisation.

But don’t fear—you aren’t totally at the mercy of hackers. If you’re at risk for a ransomware attack, there are simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your business. Here’s what you should do.

 

First of All, Who Are Ransomware’s Prime Targets?

Any company or organisation that depends on daily access to critical data—and can’t afford to lose access to it during the time it would take to respond to an attack—should be most worried about ransomware. That means banks, hospitals, Congress, police departments, and airlines and airports should all be on guard. But any large corporation or government agency is also at risk, including critical infrastructure, to a degree. Ransomware, for example, could affect the Windows systems that power and water plants use to monitor and configure operations, says Robert M. Lee, CEO at critical infrastructure security firm Dragos Security. The slightly relieving news is that ransomware, or at least the variants we know about to date, wouldn’t be able to infect the industrial control systems that actually run critical operations.

“Just because the Windows systems are gone, doesn’t mean the power just goes down,” he stated. “[But] it could lock out operators from viewing or controlling the process.” In some industries that are heavily regulated, such as the nuclear power industry, this is enough to send a plant into automated shutdown, as regulations require when workers lose sight of operations.

Individual users are also at risk of ransomware attacks against home computers, and some of the suggestions below will apply to you as well, if you’re in that category.

 

1. Create Data Backups

The best defense against ransomware is to outwit attackers by not being vulnerable to their threats in the first place. This means backing up important data daily, so that even if your computers and servers get locked, you won’t be forced to pay to see your data again.

“More than 5,000 customers have called us for help with ransomware attacks in the last 12 months,” says Chris Doggett, senior vice president at Carbonite, which provides cloud backup services for individuals and small businesses. One health care customer lost access to 14 years of files, he says, and a community organisation lost access to 170,000 files in an attack, but both had backed up their data to the cloud so they didn’t have to pay a ransom.

Some ransomware attackers search out backup systems to encrypt and lock, too, by first gaining entry to desktop systems and then manually working their way through a network to get to servers. So if you don’t back up to the cloud and instead backup to a local storage device or server, these should be offline and not directly connected to desktop systems where the ransomware or attacker can reach them.

“A lot of people store their documents in network shares,” says Anup Ghosh, CEO of security firm Invincea. “But network shares are as at risk as your desktop system in a ransomware infection. If the backups are done offline, and the backup is not reachable from the machine that is infected, then you’re fine.”

The same is true if you do your own machine backups with an external hard drive. Those drives should only be connected to a machine when doing backups, then disconnected. “If your backup drive is connected to the device at the time the ransomware runs, then it would also get encrypted,” he notes.

Backups won’t necessarily make a ransomware attack painless, however, since it can take a week or more to restore data, during which business operations may be impaired or halted.

“We’ve seen hospitals elect to pay the ransom because lives are on the line and presumably the downtime that was associated, even if they had the ability to recover, was not considered acceptable,” says Doggett.

 

2. Just Say No—To Suspicious Emails and Links

The primary method of infecting victims with ransomware involves every hacker’s favorite bait—the “spray-‘n’-pray”phishing attack, which involves spamming you with emails that carry a malicious attachment or instruct you to click on a URL where malware surreptitiously crawls into your machine. The recent ransomware attacks targeting Congressional members prompted the House IT staff to temporarily block access to Yahoo email accounts, which apparently were the accounts the attackers were phishing.

But ransomware hackers have also adopted another highly successful method—malvertising—which involves compromising an advertiser’s network by embedding malware in ads that get delivered through web sites you know and trust, such as the malvertising attacks that recently struck the BBC. Ad blockers are one way to block malicious ads, patching known browser security holes will also thwart some malvertising.

When it comes to phishing attacks, experts are divided about the effectiveness of user training to educate workers on how to spot such attacks and right-click on email attachments to scan them for malware before opening. But with good training, “you can actually truly get a dramatic decrease in click-happy employees,” says Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4, which does security awareness training for companies. “You send them frequent simulated phishing attacks, and it starts to become a game. You make it part of your culture and if you, once a month, send a simulated attack, that will get people on their toes.” He says with awareness training he’s seen the number of workers clicking on phishing attacks drop from 15.9 percent to just 1.2 percentin some companies.

Doggett agrees that user training has a role to play in stopping ransomware.

“I see far too many people who don’t know the security 101 basics or simply don’t choose to follow them,” says Doggett. “So the IT department or security folks have a very significant role to play [to educate users].”

 

3. Patch and Block

But users should never be considered the stop-gap for infections, Ghosh says. “Users will open attachments, they will visit sites that are infected, and when that happens, you just need to make sure that your security technology protects you,” he says.

His stance isn’t surprising, since his company sells an end-point security product designed to protect desktop systems from infection. The product, called X, uses deep learning to detect ransomware and other malware, and Ghosh says a recent test of his product blocked 100 percent of attacks from 64 malicious web sites.

But no security product is infallible—otherwise individuals and businesses wouldn’t be getting hit with so much ransomware and other malware these days. That’s why companies should take other standard security measures to protect themselves, such as patching software security holes to prevent malicious software from exploiting them to infect systems.

“In web attacks, they’re exploiting vulnerabilities in your third-party plug-ins—Java and Flash—so obviously keeping those up to date is helpful,” Ghosh says.

Whitelisting software applications running on machines is another way Sjouwerman says you can resist attacks, since the lists won’t let your computer install anything that’s not already approved. Administrators first scan a machine to note the legitimate applications running on it, then configure it to prevent any other executable files from running or installing.

Other methods network administrators can use include limiting systems’ permissions to prevent malware from installing on systems without an administrator’s password. Administrators can also segment access to critical data using redundant servers. Rather than letting thousands of employees access files on a single server, they can break employees into smaller groups, so that if one server gets locked by ransomware, it won’t affect everyone. This tactic also forces attackers to locate and lock down more servers to make their assault effective.

 

4. Got an Infection? Disconnect.

When MedStar Health got hit with ransomware earlier this year, administrators immediately shut down most of the organisation’s network operations to prevent the infection from spreading. Sjouwerman, whose firm distributes a 20-page “hostage manual” on how to prevent and respond to ransomware, says that not only should administrators disconnect infected systems from the corporate network, they should also disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on machines to prevent the malware from spreading to other machines via those methods.

After that, victims should determine what strain of ransomware infected them. If it’s a known variant, anti-virus companies like Kaspersky Lab may have decryptors to help unlock files or bypass the lock without paying a ransom, depending on the quality of encryption method the attackers used.

But if you haven’t backed up your data and can’t find a method to get around the encryption, your only option to get access to your data is to pay the ransom. Although the FBI recommends not paying, Ghosh says he understands the impulse.

“In traditional hacks, there is no pain for the user, and people move on,” he says. But ransomware can immediately bring business operations to a halt. And in the case of individual victims who can’t access family photos and other personal files when home systems get hit, “the pain involved with that is so off the charts…. As security people, it’s easy to say no. Why would you feed the engine that’s going to drive more ransomware attacks? But … it’s kind of hard to tell someone don’t pay the money, because you’re not in their shoes.”

 

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– Kim Zetter

10 IT Infrastructure Skills every IT Master should know

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Infrastructure is no longer static, immovable, or inflexible — and neither should be an IT pro’s skill set.

Take a look at 10 of the hottest Infrastructure skills that IT pros should be considering today.

 

1. Cloud Security

The sad reality about new IT technologies is that security is often an afterthought. Cloud computing came along and people jumped onboard before a robust and well-planned security roadmap could be established. Because of this, many early cloud adopters are scrambling to re-architect their cloud services with advanced security. While cloud security essentially uses the same tools found in traditional infrastructure security, there are more things to consider. Security considerations ranging from third-party data storage, data access, and even multi-tenancy issues are new skills you can acquire.

 

2. Software-Defined WANs

As a whole, it’s going to take some time for end-to-end software defined networking (SDN) to take hold. But one specific aspect of SDN, namely software-defined WANs, can and should be implemented today. For many companies, SD-WAN will be their first foray into SDN — and it’s a skill that will be the tip of the “software-defined” iceberg.

 

3. Cloud Service Broker

As server and network infrastructures continue to be outsourced into the cloud, some in-house infrastructure administrators are left wondering what role they may play in the not-too-distant future. One skill set that will be useful is that of a cloud service broker. In this role, the broker will evaluate various cloud services and form/maintain relationships with them on behalf of the organisation. And, while negotiating contracts may be a major skills change for many administrators, this role still requires a deep understanding of the underlying infrastructure technologies that cloud providers offer. So if you’re looking to still use the technical skills you have, while also seeking to move toward more of a non-technical role, then this might be the right fit for you.

 

4. Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs)

Next-generation firewall skills are currently in very high demand. Today’s NGFWs not only incorporate traditional layer 3/4 access controls and stateful inspection, they also perform layer 7 packet inspection to identify and apply policy traffic based on application type. In many ways, the NGFW is the linchpin for other modern security tools — and thus a skillset that every enterprise will soon require.

 

5. Cloud-Managed Networking

Cloud-managed networking is still in its infancy. Wireless LANs were the first part of the network to move to the cloud. But because of the popularity of cloud-managed WLANs, routing, switching, and network security is also becoming more popular. While networking is networking, regardless of where it’s managed, most vendors are using completely new interfaces that administrators must master.

 

6. Collaboration

It used to be that enterprise collaboration tools consisted of desk phones, videoconference rooms, and perhaps a chat client. But these days, collaboration is far more wide reaching. We’re talking about personal meeting rooms with full HD video capabilities, smartphone apps that fully mimic your office phone and chat applications, and shared project-management tools that tightly integrate with other enterprise tools such as mail and calendaring. Collaboration tools are becoming hugely popular in the new “work from anywhere” world in which we live.

 

7. Mobile Device Management (MDM)

The use of employee-owned mobile devices and laptops in the enterprise continues to explode. Most enterprise applications these days have smartphone or Web-based apps that employees can — and do — use. Companies that were early BYOD adopters are finding that their infrastructure is left vulnerable because there is little to no security protecting potentially insecure devices from accessing company resources — or from preventing the loss of intellectual property on personal devices. Mobile device management is a popular way to alleviate many of these problems — and thus it is a great skill to know.

 

8. Malware Sandboxing

Advanced malware is becoming an increasingly difficult problem for enterprises to tackle. Even with the use of tools like next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention, advanced security gateways, and desktop malware prevention, advanced malware often squeaks through. Malware sandboxes are one of the newest and most popular tools used to catch malware that other tools can’t. Data flagged as potentially suspicious is placed in a simulated and segregated environment called a sandbox. The data then is allowed onto the simulated network, where it’s run through a gauntlet of tests to determine if the code starts doing something malicious. For security administrators, malware sandboxing is a great tool to have in the tool belt — and one that’s likely to grow in popularity.

 

9. Application Containers

Many people think application containers are the next evolutionary step in data center virtualization. Instead of virtualizing entire servers to host a single application, application containers allow for essentially the same thing, except they’re running on a single OS. An application container does this by creating virtual containers that enable OS settings unique to one particular application and hiding them from other applications. Data centers can run the same number of applications with far lower memory and storage requirements. Those who are heavily involved in server virtualization absolutely must look into containers.

 

10. Data Center Switching

Switching in the data center is far more advanced — and far more specialized — than it used to be. Today’s data centers often use a combination of switching, virtualized routing, and various application load-balancing and high-availability techniques that are growing in complexity. Add to this SDN’s creep into data center switching architectures and you have an area of networking that is highly complex, cutting edge, and in high demand.

 

Conclusion

Not only does this list encompass a wide range of infrastructure responsibilities, the skills also vary in technical complexity. In the end, there is almost certainly a skill or two that any infrastructure administrator has (or soon will have) on their “to learn” lists. The world of IT Infrastructure is growing rapidly, therefore this skill list will continue to expand over the course of time.

 

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– Andrew Froehlich

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