Blogs

Congratulations, Spring 2012 Graduating Class!

Fountainhead College will recognize nearly 50 graduating students at its spring graduation ceremony on Friday, April 20, and the first class of online students from the school's four online programs will walk across the stage to receive diplomas.

The college will award 27 Associate's Degrees and 20 Bachelor's of Applied Science Degrees during the ceremony. Mike Hammond, Chairman of the Knox County Commission, will present the graduation speech. Mr. Hammond has served on the Commission since 2004 and was Director of Operations at WIVK-FM for 39 years. See Mr. Hammond's full biography below.

Several graduating students will join the workforce immediately, having been hired by employers in the Knoxville area including Radio Shack, Ruby Tuesday, Equipment Locator Services, Navigator MD, Experis Staffing, and Clearly Speaking.

The graduating class comprises students from all program areas of the college, including Network Security & Forensics, Radiological Protection, Health Information Management, Information Technology, Electronics Technology, Wireless Communications, and Computer Programming, among others.

Fountainhead College wishes our graduates the best as they begin this new chapter in their careers. We are proud that in our 65-years as an institution of higher education, our graduates continue to have a unique and positive impact on nearly every technology-related industry in the region.

Mike Hammond Biography

Mike Hammond is the Chairman of the Knox County Commission. He was elected as Commissioner at Large Seat 10 and has served on the Commission since 2004. He served as Director of Operations at WIVK-FM for 39 years.

Mr. Hammond was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in February 2010 by Taylor Swift. He has been named Broadcaster of the Year by the Associated Press, Program Director of the Year by the Country Music Association, and received the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award for this coverage of Tornadoes striking East Tennessee in 1996.

He was named Elected Official of the Year by the Knox County Council of PTA and was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PTA and Farragut Primary School. Active in the community, Mike has been Co-Chair of the Dogwood Arts Festival, and Chairman of the Red Cross as well as serving on the Boards of United Way, Tennessee Theater, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Knox County Drug Court and has consulted numerous charities regarding fundraising. He was a member of the Leadership Knoxville Class of 1998 and serves as Co-Chair of the Transportation Planning Organization.

A native of Hawkins County, Mr. Hammond graduated from the University of Tennessee. He and his wife, Vivica, have four children and four grandchildren.

Graduates hired by local tech companies

Fountainhead extends a warm congratulations to several graduates who have recently been hired by local technology companies. We wish you the very best as you begin your new careers!

• Chris Duncan is now working as a Systems Engineer for Gravity Networks.
• John Tolliver is now working as a Computer Technician at Computer King.
• Richard Day is now working at the SAIC Helpdesk at Experis.
• Gary Grant is now working in Tech Support for NetLearning.
• Harold Gilreath is now working in User Support for Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

Pentesting Workshops Scheduled: A few seats still available

Fountainhead College of Technology welcomes cybersecurity expert Joe McCray to campus April 10 and 11 to teach two hands-on, all-day workshops on penetration testing. Students, InfraGard members and attendees of last October’s East Tennessee Cyber Security Summit will be learning about pentesting, which is a method of evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack from malicious outsiders or, in some cases, insiders with malicious intentions.

A few seats are still available for the April 11 workshop. The registration fee is $50, payable to "East Tennessee Cyber Security Summit." For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This workshop will cover some of the newer aspects of penetration testing such as Open Source Intelligence Gathering with Maltego and other Open Source tools. Basic Network Scanning, Enumeration, Exploitation (remote and client-side), and Post-Exploitation relying heavily on the features included in the Metasploit Framework will also be covered. Basic Web Application penetration testing will be covered as well with focus on practical exploitation of SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS).

Joe McCray is the founder & CEO of Strategic Security, LLC, an IT Security consulting firm that provides in-depth technical security assessments of networks, web applications and regulatory compliance gap analysis.

Software packages that should be installed prior to attending the workshop are:

• Nessus: http://nessus.org/download/ (with home feed and all plugins loaded)
• Passive Recon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6196/
• ShowIP: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/590/
• ServerSpy: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2036/
• Tamper Data: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/966/

Meet the best minds in cybersecurity at the 2012 Techno Security Conference.

Fountainhead College, in partnership with the 2012 Techno Security Conference, offers FREE VIP registrations to students wishing to attend. The conference will be held June 3 - 6, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Registrations are ahead of last year's numbers for this time of year, so please register as soon as possible before the offer ends. Students must pay their lodging and travel expenses, however, Fountainhead College will provide lunch Monday and Tuesday.

Attendees have registered from 51 different countries over the years. Frequent attendees are some of the top practitioners in the world in the fields of Information Security, eDiscovery, Mobile Forensics, Digital Forensics and Technical Business Continuity Planning. Last year, over 1,000 people attended. This is a very popular conference that sells out early each year.

How to Register:

Visit the conference website and select the Sponsor/VIP Pass - NO IPAD option, enter "0" for amount paid and enter "Special Fountainhead College VIP" in the Promotional Code section.

For members who hold a CISSP or a CISA certification, this conference provides 32 CEU credits.

Contact Casey Rackley or Patrick Allen for more details.

Find your future at Future Fair!

Wouldn't it be cool to see and experience different technologies that drive our economy and learn about job growth in these fields?

Join us at Future Fair, Saturday, March 31, 1 - 4 pm and experience hands-on exhibits and demonstrations of today's coolest, most in-demand technologies.

Register to win an iPad 3 by checking out three 10-minute "discovery sessions" where you'll learn about degree programs at Fountainhead College and job opportunities in these areas.

• Learn about promising careers in high-tech industries
• FREE T-shirts
• FREE Food, Games & Activities
• Door Prizes
• Live Radio Remotes: WIMZ, The X, and JACK

Check out at these career fields:

• CyberSecurity
• Information Technology
• Electronics & Robotics
• Radiological Protection Technology
• Health Information Management
• Programming & App Development
• Wireless Communications

Watch a cool promo piece for Future Fair:

What is happening within Knoxville's Muslim community?

The InfraGard Knoxville Members Alliance welcomes Shadab and Nadeem Saddiqi on March 15th, at 9:30 am, to speak about Islam, Muslims, and what is currently happening within the local Muslim community in Knoxville.

InfraGard's bimonthly meeting is open to the public and will be held at the Fountainhead College of Technology Auditorium.

Can biologicals live in nuclear pools or in nuclear areas and truly thrive?

This raises an interesting issue for Radiological Protection students:
if biologicals can live in radioactive areas and thrive, how does this affect how the NRC/DOE (and Rad Pro workers) protect the safety of the workers and public.

A tangential issue might be whether the biologicals - if any exist in radioactive areas or nuclear facilities - should be protected and moved from those areas or eradicated for human safety issues (i.e. not being able to relocate the biologicals due to significant risk exposure to humans). The article (linked below) discusses how the Chernobyl area is a haven for wildlife. Could nuclear areas offer an unintended shelter for other biologicals?