Nashville Technology Council

Today we released a study conducted in partnership with Vaco Technology on the state of technology jobs in Middle Tennessee for the third quarter of 2010. This report, released once a quarter, provides a consistent format for reporting on open job positions.  It includes top tech employers, most popular job positions, and trending data points.  One thing is clear: Nashville is poised to gain traction as one of the leading tech centers in the nation.  In particular we are leading Healthcare IT (HIT), transactions, digital media, and start-up enterprises.

In Greater Nashville, there are more tech jobs than there are people to fill them. The Nashville Technology Council is focused on a three level pipeline for talent growth:

* T3 – Organic growth through local high schools and universities
* Professional Development (Courseware for Career Transition)
* Economic Development (Individuals and Companies)

The Nashville Technology Council spearheads the T3 Initiative to help our local students connect with opportunity and support their academic needs. Our partners at the Nashville Health Care Council and Nashville Chamber of Commerce work with us on events such as the Health Care IT Workforce Solutions Forum to address the gap between skills desired in our local IT grads and the myriad career opportunities in their own backyard.   What else can we do to strengthen our existing workforce, encourage companies to relocate and create the next generation of Techville?  Leave us your comments below and let us know what you think we can do as a tech community to address these issues.

You can review the press release on our Q3 2010 Hiring Trends Report here and download the report in its entirety here.

Tim Smith, Founder and CEO of MyWerx, is the latest new member to answer our “5 Questions”:

1. How long have you been in business in Nashville?

Which business? I have been in Business since 1982 when I helped my Father start our first business Copyright Management, Inc.

2. What does your company or organization do best?

Envision and build forward thinking software solutions to improve the lives of creators and marketers of copyrights.

3. What is one interesting fact about your company?

Our software has the potential to revolutionize the commercialization of copyrighted works.

4. What new technology product or service are you the most excited about?

MyWerx of course. Next ,Yelp and EchoSign are tied.

5. Who is the most interesting person you have ever met?

My business partner Tim DuBois.

He is one of the most balanced right brained left brained people I have ever known. Both sides are as big as his heart.

Check out the Beta version of MyWerx at www.mywerx.com. Would you like to be our newest member?  Check out our membership page to learn about how you can be a part of the Nashville Technology Council.

We hope that you all enjoyed the 10th Annual InfoSec conference this past week.  This year, InfoSec10 hosted over 458 IT security professionals at the Nashville Convention Center, making this year’s conference the largest InfoSec to date!

Nashville Technology Council Member Bruce McCully of Dynamic Edge wrote this insightful blog post about his discoveries while attending the InfoSec breakout sessions and panels.  What was the most valuable take away you got from InfoSec?  Let us know in the comments!

According to a 2009 Symantec Study, cyber crime is now the most profitable criminal activity– just ahead of drug trafficking.

What are they after? Access to your data. They want account numbers, social security numbers and personal information. Today, these threats come from all over the world. No longer is the average hacker a bored college techie. Now, there are warehouses of children in Russia that are paid cash per SSN harvested. They have the time and motivation to exploit any and all weaknesses in our networks.

The worst part is there is a weakness in every network that no firewall or virus software can eliminate. The people using it. The number one way criminals gain access to your network is by misleading a user into inviting them in. One wrong click and they have everything they need to rob you blind and destroy your business.

Here’s the scoop: the criminal does some research and crafts an email specifically directed at one of your employees. It says something about saving money on healthcare or another work related topic to peak their interest. There’s a link and a form that the user is asked to fill out. Here’s what’s new to this trick—the email appears to come from someone inside the office, usually their boss.

By clicking on the form, the user gives the criminal control of their computer. That night, the criminal uses access to the user’s machine to break into the company server. He then has free will to harvest and destroy your data as he pleases.

The best targets for these crimes are businesses that do not have a full time IT person. These businesses usually depend on a tech guy to come out and fix stuff when it breaks. The biggest problem here is that most of them don’t even know they’ve been hacked until it’s too late. A recent study found that last year 40% of small businesses were hacked. Half of them didn’t even know they were attacked.

What can you do? Train your people, blog about it, tell your mom, and make sure that you don’t click on anything that you are not expecting. If you’re ever suspicious, ask whoever supposedly sent you the e-mail if it’s legit. Just remember, the email is may not be from who it says it is.

I learned about this new threat 3 days ago when the Nashville Technology Counsel hosted Infosec. I haven’t told my mother yet, or trained my staff, but I did blog about it. Tell your friends folks. This threat is real.

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The T3 initiative of the Nashville Technology Council presents a behind the scenes networking event exclusively for local college students on September 22nd.  Join us as we partner with Deloitte – HQ for a one-on-one panel discussion with key executives.  The event will also include a tour of the facility, snacks, giveaways, not to mention the opportunity to ask real world questions about career paths in technology at Deloitte.

Deloitte was recently recognized by Bloomberg Business Week as the #1 place to launch a career.  Learn how you can be a part of it!

RSVP for this event here. Know a student who might be interested in attending?  Spread the word!