It's always good to know what your fellow worker is making. The average reported salary of corporate system administrators who reported using US dollars as their currency was $67,675, according to the latest survey by the SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute.

The overall median salary for all system administrators around the world was $65,000 and coincided with the median for all males. The median salary for females was $63,000. A system administrator is defined as one whose primary job function is to manage computer and network systems on behalf of another, such as an employer or client.

The SANS survey was conducted on 6,198 system administrators around the world, the bulk of them in the US and Canada but many in other jurisdictions also reported on their salaries, including three from Bermuda.

SANS noted that despite the global economic malaise, the average salary increase for all full-time workers worldwide was 8.15 percent.

A total of 1,810 respondents (24.03 percent) saw no changes to their salary or had their salaries cut. About 54 percent benefited from increased salaries. The salary survey for 2002 was administered during April and May, 2003 and received 10,334 responses, made up of 9,651 individuals and 683 consultants.

About 92 percent claimed to work full time at their jobs. About 34 percent said their primary task was server management, another 23 percent described themselves as "generalists", 14 percent dealt with security, 13 percent with networking and the rest dealt with project management, databases, help desk, or "people management" functions.

SANS noted that the word "administrator" is becoming more acceptable for workers engaged with managers of computer and network systems. A few years ago, the word 'administrator' carried the connotation of secretary.

The word showed up in 32 percent of the respondents' titles. Respondents had an average of about eight years of experience on the job. Only ten percent had more than 15 years of experience. SANS notes that the salary data does not factor in experience and therefore should not be used as a general comparison. However, the report includes a large amount of data to allow you to compare in some way to make accurate comparisons based on experience, education, job title and classification.

The 68-page report can be downloaded for free from the SANS site at http://portal.sans.org. You must register (also free) before you can download the file. It's really worth looking at if you are working in the sector, or if you plan to join their ranks.

Bill Gates does listen! At least this is what one can conclude in Microsoft' s decision to help the Toronto police develop an investigative tool for tracking Internet paedophiles around the world.

According to Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper Microsoft got involved in the project when Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie of the Toronto Police sex-crimes unit sent an e-mail to Gates in January asking for help.

Microsoft is working free of charge with the Toronto force to develop the program, called the child exploitation linkage tracking system, or CELTS. Once it is developed, the software will be able to scan through files on seized computers and catalogue the illegal material without officers having to view each picture. It will also build up a profile of the paedophile.

The program will take a face print of each child in the images and will then compare these with other images seized from around the world. Toronto police are hoping the software will allow them to get information before the courts more quickly and find other paedophiles.

The SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute is hosting a free webcast on security strategies on September 25 at 2 p.m. Bermuda time. "MS-Blast and SoBig.F (worms) proved, once again, that a security strategy built around reactive technologies is inherently flawed," SANS said. "By the time security administrators implement patches, virus signature files and policies, the damage has been done. The propagation vectors of today's worms are so efficient that organisations must adopt a 'Day-Zero Defence' strategy that secures their systems by default. This session will review the evolution of Internet threats and introduce the security paradigm 'Day-Zero Defence' that ensures host-based systems are protected against new and unknown threats." Go to www.sans.org and register for the free webcast.

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