What's it like to work at a place like Best Buy as a PC tech?

[jsmithepa]

Cybersecurity is King, these days. Experience matters, though.

Any idea why now and then we hear, oh Target lost millions of customer data, oh Facebook, oh this giant insurance co.... I mean these are not Pop&Mom stores, and we knew from, at least a decade, China/DPRK/Russia are stealing our stuff... why does it still happen? Don't we have the expertise? or People signing the checks prefer to hire people the know/family than real professionals? (my guess).

 

[USAFRet]

Any idea why now and then we hear, oh Target lost millions of customer data, oh Facebook, oh this giant insurance co.... I mean these are not Pop&Mom stores, and we knew from, at least a decade, China/DPRK/Russia are stealing our stuff... why does it still happen? Don't we have the expertise? or People signing the checks prefer to hire people the know/family than real professionals? (my guess).

The word "experience" is the key factor.

Much like a flashlight app for your phone needing access to your contacts list.
WHY? Those two functions should never meet.
Clueless devs, clueless managers, on up the chain. Or worse, doing this on purpose, knowing the masses won't notice.

Or, otherwise competent devs, but supremely arrogant.
Taking a laptop home with a copy of a large part of the user database. Unencrypted.
And leaves it on the bus.
Of course, he's not supposed to have a full copy, and if he needs that much data it needs to be encrypted and anonymized. But he knows better.

 

[AllanGH]

...doing this on purpose, knowing the masses won't notice...

Given what I've seen of human nature, that looks like the head of the nail to me.

 

[USAFRet]

Given what I've seen of human nature, that looks like the head of the nail to me.

Don't discount the 'clueless factor' as well.

I've seen this at work:
How do it...?
well, what does utube say?
Video, reference to some obscure javascript lib.
Download, put it in the code, code to access the particular function.

With no clue as to what else that library is doing.

 

[AllanGH]

Without stripping out the unneeded functions?

OK....I see what you mean.

 

[USAFRet]

And at that point, I walk over and give him a dopeslap.
However, there are only so many dopeslaps available in a workday.

Said person recently left our office, and is now a major part of the cybersecurity team at a mid level software contractor.
Got the job due to having many certifications and lip flapping on the resume. Not due to actual experience and competence.

 

[AllanGH]

Probably "dressed to impress", too....

 

[CountMike]

You know, it's funny...a lot of people don't grok that--my wife included.

When I come into the house after doing something I like to do, my wife bemoans my "working so hard", and how I must be "so worn-out"....I have to put on an artificial 'tired face', hide the fact that I was enjoying myself, and let her dote on me a little bit. Far be it for me to spoil her fun....

Your wife is keeper !!

 

[CountMike]

Any idea why now and then we hear, oh Target lost millions of customer data, oh Facebook, oh this giant insurance co.... I mean these are not Pop&Mom stores, and we knew from, at least a decade, China/DPRK/Russia are stealing our stuff... why does it still happen? Don't we have the expertise? or People signing the checks prefer to hire people the know/family than real professionals? (my guess).

Because not enough cyber security pros ?

 

[volstead]

After I got my A+ the first time, I applied at Best Buy along with a few local shops. Manager at Geek Squad I dropped off my resume with told me even with an A+, I was probably overqualified and he wouldn't be able to pay what I was likely after since he could train high school students or recent graduates with no skills/certifications and pay them much less per hour. Combine that with what others have said about having to overcharge for such simple and basic services like an OS installation or virus scan, I ended up declining the offer.

I can see it both ways. Some customers just don't want to know anything about computers. They just want their pc to run and will pay the price for it. Hey, fine. I'll take your money then. On the other hand, there are blatant attempts at ripping people off. I used to work in social services with special needs people and one time this older fellow comes in with his laptop. This thing was nice but this guy was not knowledgeable about computers at all. I asked him how much it cost and where he got it from; Best Buy for about $800. I asked him what he used it for: internet access. So the retail salesman sold him an overpowered pc just for internet use when he could have spent $400 for a decent i3.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Upselling is very common. For example, just walk into a commission based car dealership a you will understand. Not a rippoff as you do get more performance, but very misleading, especially when they exploit people with disabilities or people unfamiliar with computers.

 

[volstead]

Upselling is very common. For example, just walk into a commission based car dealership a you will understand. Not a rippoff as you do get more performance, but very misleading, especially when they exploit people with disabilities or people unfamiliar with computers.

Yes, this what I'm talking about. Retailers want to sell big price systems (with warranty and extra services), but on the other hand customers need to know why they're buying a pc in the first place. Most would say "internet access," but a few need a workstation, video editing system or a gaming pc, which entails a minimum of $700. You don't need a Ferrari to do weekly trips to the dump.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Because not enough cyber security pros ?

No. Too many lazy security pros.

 

[AllanGH]

lazy security pros.

An oxymoron, if ever there was one.

 

[USAFRet]

hey now...

 

[NightHawkRMX]

You're an All Star

 

[AllanGH]

Ret....there are the lazy kind of people who do it right the first time-around, because they don't want to do the job over (and pride in doing a good job plays a big part in it too). Then there are the lazy kind of people who can't be bothered to do it right, then palm it off on somebody else to do it over for them.

I suspect that you never fell into the second category. 😉

 

[volstead]

Your wife is keeper !!

Nice Heinlein reference there.

 

[AllanGH]

Your wife is keeper !!

Her best quality is that she is able to put-up with me. The woman is a saint, I tell ya.