Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

In the latest episode of the Security Swarm Podcast:The Importance of Certification in the Security Space,” we explore the critical role certifications play in our field and the top certifications that are particularly relevant for security professionals in today’s ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.

We’re also looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community… those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please reply or leave a comment with your suggestions, and we’ll be featuring them in the coming weeks.

A Free Tool

OpenBMP is a monitoring system designed to work with any compliant BMP sender. Uses PostgreSQL for primary data storage, with RIBs state maintained plus full history for every changed BGP update. Features include centralized BMP collection, real-time topology monitoring, BGP and route security, looking glasses, route analytics, traffic engineering analytics, BGP pre-policy What-Ifs, IGP topology analysis, and more. Kindly suggested by IDownVoteCanaduh.

Tutorials

Misha Sv is a YouTube channel featuring some terrific Python programming tutorials that have been shared by a senior data scientist with additional expertise in Python programming and machine learning. Appreciated by cwk9, who explains, “You don’t have to program to be a Sysadmin, but all the best Sysadmins I’ve seen can do some programming.”

External Attack Surface Management Attack Surface Summary

A Cheatsheet

SQL CheatSheet is a handy, downloadable 3-page quick reference of the most-commonly used SQL statements. Extra_Discipline_644 recommends this “handy reference tool for programmers of all levels, whether you are a beginner just starting out or an experienced developer looking to brush up on your skills.”

External Attack Surface Management Attack Surface Summary

Another Free Tool

Group Policy Attribute Search is a Microsoft website that allows you to run full-text searches through all existing Group Policies. Offers filters that can search for the policies that are supported by certain platforms, so you can check to see what is properly supported by all the platforms in your network. You can also limit the search by the Microsoft Office Group Policy and User Policy Settings. Thanks to lavoy1337 for the suggestion.

External Attack Surface Management Attack Surface Summary

Tutorials

Fireship is a YouTube channel that offers a large library of concise and entertaining coding tutorials that can help round out an admin skillset, along with perspectives on the latest technology news. New content covering assorted programming topics is added each week, so there’s always something new to see. monkeyknifefight8 considers it “a fun channel with quick video introductions to different programming languages and tech stacks.”

External Attack Surface Management Attack Surface Summary

P.S. Bonus Free Tools

aText is a utility for creating custom text shortcuts and macros that are instantly replaced with frequently used phrases. Offers some cool advanced features like auto capitalization and correction, date-time scripts, cross-platform/cloud collaboration and synchronization, and more. Our thanks for this one go to Tracker102.

DigiCert Certificate Utility for Windows is a versatile admin tool to simplify the certificate management process. Provides seamless management of SSL Certificates for websites and servers, as well as Code Signing Certificates for trusted software. Appreciation for this suggestion goes to Shamu432.