Cyber Security classes and certification courses in Los Angeles.

For the past decade cyber security has been a hotly debated topic regarding jobs in information technology. The key questions asked by information technology professionals concerns, which certifications are in demand and where can I find employment after training is completed. On May 19, 2014, the United States Department of Justice filed major indictments against five leading government Chinese officials for cyber stalking and hacking. The United States government by filing these charges officially admitted a major Internet cold war is in progress. Secretary of State Chuck Hagel is tripled his staff to combat this serious securities threat. As a cyber-securities professional, you can find work in this growing field because of the demand, which now exists. We will reprint the Fox news story below and follow it up with some suggestions regarding, which certifications will benefit you in this present environment.

DOJ brings cyber-espionage case against Chinese officials
The Justice Department on Monday announced a first-of-its-kind criminal cyber-espionage case against Chinese military officials, accusing them of hacking into major U.S. companies to steal trade secrets.
Prosecutors described the alleged crimes as "21st century burglary."
Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal law enforcement officials revealed the indictment Monday morning, accusing five Shanghai-based Chinese officials of targeting the U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar products industries. The alleged victims include major U.S. firms like Alcoa, Westinghouse and United States Steel.
Holder said the hackers were targeting a total of six American companies, stealing information deemed useful to companies in China, including state-owned firms. He stressed that the alleged hacking is far different than the type of intelligence gathering conducted by governments around the world, in that this involved cyber-espionage for the sheer purpose of gaining the commercial upper hand against U.S. businesses.
"This is a tactic that the United States government categorically denounces," Holder said. "This case should serve as a wake-up call to the seriousness of the ongoing cyberthreat."
The charges were described as the first such case brought against state actors. The specific charges relate to cyber-espionage and theft of trade secrets.
John Carlin, recently installed as head of the Justice's National Security Division, had identified the prosecution of state-sponsored cyberthreats as a goal for the Obama administration.
"For the first time, we are exposing the faces and names behind the keyboards in Shanghai used to steal from American businesses," he said Monday, accusing the Chinese officials of "stealing the fruits of our labor."
The charges are being brought in a federal court in Pittsburgh, Pa. Holder, who acknowledged the defendants have never set foot in the United States, was pressed Monday on whether there's any hope that the Chinese government would hand over the five officials charged in the indictment.

Holder said the "intention" is for the defendants to face the charges in a U.S. court, and he hopes to have Chinese government cooperation.
U.S. officials have accused China's army and China-based hackers of launching attacks on American industrial and military targets, often to steal secrets or intellectual property. China has said that it faces a major threat from hackers, and the country's military is believed to be among the biggest targets of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.
Last September, President Obama discussed cybersecurity issues on the sidelines of a summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
White House spokesman Ben Rhodes said at the time that Obama had addressed concerns about cyber threats emanating from China. He said Obama told Xi the U.S. sees it not through the prism of security, but out of concern over theft of trade secrets.
In late March, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel revealed that the Pentagon planned to more than triple its cybersecurity staff in the next few years to defend against Internet attacks that threaten national security.
Hagel's comments at the National Security Agency headquarters in suburban Washington came as he prepared to visit China.
"Our nation's reliance on cyberspace outpaces our cybersecurity," Hagel said at the time. "Our nation confronts the proliferation of destructive malware and a new reality of steady, ongoing and aggressive efforts to probe, access or disrupt public and private networks, and the industrial control systems that manage our water, and our energy and our food supplies."
Fox News' Shayla Bezdrob and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
What certifications will benefit you as an information technology professional?
There are three certifications, which are in high demand for those who want to work in cyber security. They are: the CompTIA Security+, The Certified Internet Systems Securities Professional/CISSP and the Certified Ethical Hacker. Companies needing employees with the capability to protect their data will look for people who hold these credentials.
ABCO Technology located at 6733 S Sepulveda Blvd. in Los Angeles offers classes for all three certifications mentioned above. Call us from 9 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday at: (310) 216-3067. You can email us at:
info@abcotechnology.com
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Career Advancement through certification programs

Certification programs are often lumped in with higher education options but a certificate is not an academic degree. A certificate is professional qualification, proof that individuals are knowledgeable and proficient in a specialized skill, trade, or profession according to standardized requirements. Standards are regulated by accredited professional organizations or associations. In some professions, certification is required for employment, similar to licensure. Licensure, however, is a legal requirement for certain professions and is regulated by the government via state agencies, primarily to ensure public safety. Registration is another form of regulation, requiring professionals to file and comply with regulatory agencies.


In many professions, certification isn't required but voluntary, a career tool, one that defines and affirms your abilities, one that allows you portability in the field, and one that can lend you a competitive edge in the workplace. Expertise and experience can be subjective, relative to the places you have worked and how your jobs functioned within individual workplaces. Certification is an objective declaration of your credentials, particularly helpful for employers that are unfamiliar with the context of your experience.


Specialization is often key to certification programs. While professionals may have earned academic degrees that prepared them for entrance into an industry or practice of a certain occupation, professional mobility and advancement is dependent on job-related expertise and discrete skill sets. An entire subset of certification is product-specific. Information technology is a field rife with certificate programs. IT professionals are pursuing certification in hardware or software specialties.


According to Quint Careers and the Career Masters Institute, certification is increasing in visibility and number in a few particular fields: Information Technology, Financial Management & Planning, Safety, Healthcare, Human Resources, Hospitality, Internal Auditing, Manufacturing, Homeland Security, Training & Instructional Design, Automotive, Administrative, Project Management, Fitness Training, and Real Estate.


Certification Program Basics


Make sure that you choose a program that is accredited within your industry. Your human resources manager may be able to provide guidance. Professional association and organization websites provide extensive resources and links to help direct you to accredited programs. ABCO Technology has a helpful list of accredited certification programs for the Information Technology industry - http://www.abcotechnology.edu

1. Pay close attention to prerequisite requirements. Enrollment in certificate programs may require a prerequisite academic degree, workplace experience or achievement, letters of recommendation, or other requirements unique to your profession.
   
2. Certification programs typically prepare students for national credentials exams. Know how and when exams are administered, if there are fees attached to exams, and whether you can retake exams in the case of poor performance.
   
3. In many professions, certification needs to be renewed after a certain amount of years, and renewal may require education upkeep.
   
4. Different programs come with different costs and fees. Comparison shop, not for a bargain but for value: the elements and benefits of a program should match the price.
   
5. Certification should directly correspond to your career. The cost and effort you put into a certificate program should be useful and resonant. Ask yourself if certification is a redundant effort, if it is a vanity effort, if it is a misdirected effort, or if it genuinely offers you a professional advantage.
   
6. Consider consulting your employer about financial assistance. Many companies have tuition reimbursement programs and even those that don't may be amenable to funding certification programs that directly boost employee expertise and job-related skills.
   
7. Certain professions lend themselves to online education. Online certification programs can provide the necessary flexibility for full-time professionals.

Customer Relationship Management classes in Los Angeles

In today’s Internet business environment, customers are an extremely valuable asset of any business or organization. Numerous articles correctly state that keeping an existing customer or client is far more cost effective then attracting new customers. Translated into simple everyday language, we’re discussing repeat business, which is the key to any company’s survival. This article will define and discuss customer relationship management, which is commonly referred to as CRM.
CRM is the common abbreviation for customer relationship management. CRM entails all aspects of interaction that a company has with its customers, whether we’re talking about sales or service-related activities. While the phrase customer relationship management is most commonly used to describe a business-customer relationship, CRM systems are also used to manage your business contacts, clients, contract wins and sales leads. Forward thinking companies and organizations regard CRM as a valuable business asset, which must be protected at all possible costs.

The Customer Relationship Management Business Strategy

Customer relationship management is often thought of as a business strategy that enables businesses to:
1. Understand the customer.
2. Retain customers through better customer experience.
3. Attract new customers.
4. Win new clients and contracts.
5. Increase profitability.
6. Decrease customer management costs.

How Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is Used Today
Customer relationship management solutions provide your business with the customer support data to help you provide services or products, which your customers want, deliver better customer service, cross-sell and up sell more products or services effectively, close deals, retain current customers and better understand who your customers are.

Organizations frequently looking for ways to personalize online experiences (a process also referred to as mass customization) through tools such as help-desk software, email organizers and different types of enterprise applications rely heavily upon CRM tools and services to facilitate their operations.
What is a Dashboard as it relates to CRM?

Dashboard is a term that is widely used to describe an application interface that provides users with quick access to information or common tasks generated by CRM software. In CRM (customer relationship management) the dashboard is used to monitor business performance and CRM data and reports are often shown in the dashboard to provide a quick and easy overview of current business customer related activities and performance using charts, graphs, and maps.

A CRM dashboard is designed to let users perform some specific actions and tasks with a single mouse-click from the tool’s interface. For example, a click from the CRM dashboard could provide you with a detailed report on any lead follow-ups that are scheduled for today. Advance applications will make suggestions regarding cross or up-selling products.
ABCO Technology located at 6733 S Sepulveda Blvd. STE 106 in Los Angeles offers detailed information about Customer Relationship Management in the Ecommerce Course. Please call us between 9 AM and 6 PM Monday through Friday at: (310) 216-3067.
Email us for class schedules at:

info@abcotechnology.com.
Improve your CRM performance today!


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Crowd funding in 2014, the New Ecommerce strategy to gather capital for your project!

The twenty-first century, with break-throughs in technology has created innovative strategies for small and medium-sized businesses to raise capital to fund their projects. Conventional banks and lending institutions are crippled by extensive regulations including Dodd-Frank, which limits the amount of financial risk banks can take for small companies who want to market their product or service. As a result of this vacuum the need is being filled by the emergence of crowd funding. Crowd funding is becoming a lucrative source of capital for small businesses. This article will briefly look at 10 websites who are active players in this new industry. The Internet is filled with discussions about crowd funding. Fox news recently featured a 3D printing company who used crowd funding to bring their new $199 3D printer to market. New ideas create excitement and this draws millions of potential businesses and investors to this market place. Unfortunately we have found over 700 websites who claim to provide crowd funding. Our research has limited this number down to ten sites who are crowd funding sites with a strong track record of providing accurate and complete information to investors.
Let us ask the question… what crowd funding site is best for you?
As a crowdfunding industry reporter, I wanted to provide you an easy guide for which site to visit for your crowdfunding needs.

I’ll begin with a small overview of this industry, a short primer on the different kinds of crowdfunding models so you can find what you’re looking for, and then I’ll get to specific site recommendations.

The base of the Crowdfunding Industry
Collaboration on the web is an area of tremendous growth. Crowdfunding, or collaborative funding via the web, is one of the standouts for growth in this evolving collaborative economy.

The Crowdfunding Industry Report by Massolution provided data showing the general crowdfunding industry has raised $5.7 billion in 2013, across more than 2 million individual campaigns globally. In 2014 the industry is projected to grow to $7.1 billion.

Some of the most interesting developments in crowdfunding, which are expected to grow in the months and years ahead, include: investment crowdfunding, which is simply (becoming a shareholder in a company), localization (funding focused on participants in specific cities and neighborhoods), mobile solutions, and group-based approaches.

The JOBS Act that was passed in April of 2012 paved the way to investment crowdfunding; however, the JOBS Act Rulings by the SEC have yet to be fully implemented to formally start the market. Expect big movement and activity in this area in 2014 and 2015.

Crowdfunding Models
There are 2 main models or types of crowdfunding. The first is what is known as donation-based funding. The birth of crowdfunding has evolved through this model, where funders donate via a collaborative goal based process in return for products, perks or rewards.

The second and more recent model is investment crowdfunding, where businesses seeking capital sell ownership stakes online in the form of equity or debt. In this model, individuals who fund become owners or shareholders and have a potential for financial return, unlike the donation model.


Crowdfunding Sites You Can Choose From
Business owners are using different crowdfunding sites than musicians. Musicians are using different sites from causes and charities. Below is a list of crowdfunding sites that have different models and focuses. This list can help you find the right place for your crowdfunding goals and needs.

1. Kickstarter
Kickstarter is a site where creative projects raise donation-based funding. These projects will range from new creative products, like an art installation, to a cool watch, to pre-selling a music album. It’s not for businesses, causes, charities, or personal financing needs. Kickstarter is one of the earlier platforms, and has experienced strong growth and many break-out large campaigns in the last few years.

2. Indiegogo
While Kickstarter maintains a tighter focus and curates the creative projects approved on its site, Indiegogo approves donation-based fundraising campaigns for most anything — music, hobbyists, personal finance needs, charities and whatever else you could think of (except investment). They have had international growth because of their flexibility, broad approach and their early start in the industry.

3. Crowdfunder
Crowdfunder is the crowdfunding platform for businesses, with a growing social network of investors, tech startups, small businesses, and social enterprises (financially sustainable/profitable businesses with social impact goals).

Crowdfunder offers a blend of donation-based and investment crowdfunding from individuals and angel investors, and was a leading participant in the JOBS Act legislation. The company has localized crowdfunding and investment to help develop entrepreneurial ecosystems and access to capital outside Silicon Valley. Its unique CROWDFUNDING initiative in cities across the US and Mexico connects local investors with local entrepreneurs both online and offline, and does the work to validate top local companies in each city across the US and Mexico.

4. RocketHub
RocketHub powers donation-based funding for a wide variety of creative projects.

What’s unique about RocketHub is their FuelPad and LaunchPad programs that help campaign owners and potential promotion and marketing partners connect and collaborate for the success of a campaign.

5. Crowdrise
Crowdrise is a place for donation-based funding for Causes and Charities. They’ve attracted a community of do-gooders and fund all types of inspiring causes and needs.

A unique Points System on Crowdrise helps track and reveal how much charitable impact members and organizations are making.

6. Somolend
Somolend is a site for lending for small businesses in the US, providing debt-based investment funding to qualified businesses with existing operations and revenue. Somolend has partnered with banks to provide loans, as well as helping small business owners bring their friends and family into the effort.

With their Midwest roots, a strong founder who was a leading participant in the JOBS Act legislation, and their focus and lead in the local small business market, Somolend has begun expanding into multiple cities and markets in the US.

7. appbackr
If you want to create the next new mobile app and are seeking donation-based funding to get things off the ground or growing, then check out appbackr and their niche community for mobile app development.

8. AngelList
If you’re a tech startup with a shiny lead investor already signed on, or looking for Silicon Valley momentum, then there are angels and institutions finding investments through AngelList. For some time AngelList didn’t say that they did crowdfunding, which makes sense as they have catered to the investment establishment in tech startups, but now they’re getting into the game. The accredited investors and institutions on AngelList have been funding a growing number of select tech startup deals.

9. Invested.in
You might want to create your own crowdfunding community to support donation-based fundraising for a specific group or niche in the market. Invested.in is a Venice, CA based company that is a top name “white label” software provider, giving you the tools to get started and grow your own.

10. Quirky
If you’re an inventor, maker, or tinkerer of some kind then Quirky is a place to collaborate and crowdfund for donation-based funding with a community of other like-minded inventors. Their site digs deeper into helping the process of bringing an invention or product to life, allowing community participation in the process.

These 10 crowdfunding sites cover most campaign types or funding goals you may have. Whether you’re looking to fundraise or not, go visit the sites listed in this article that grab your attention and become involved in this collaborative community.
ABCO Technology offers classes for Ecommerce and crowd funding strategies. Please call us at (310) 216-3067 between 9 AM and 6 PM Monday through Friday. You can Email us at: info@abcotechnology.edu for a schedule of classes.
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