Robotics, Women in SaaS

This month, CompTIA podcasts covered a range of topics with member-experts and CompTIA staff providing insight into today’s most talked about tech topics—from robotics to women in SaaS, creating company culture to channel readiness, and more. Take a look at what we overheard on CompTIACasts in July then check out all of our podcasts, subscribe and start listening today.
Collaborative Robotics

Jim Hamilton, vice president of CompTIA’s member communities, talks robotics in manufacturing, the concept of collaborative robotics and making robots safe for human environments with Scott Denenberg, co-founder and chief architect, Veo Robotics, Inc., on EmTechCast.“We allow a manufacturing engineer and a systems integrator to take the best of both worlds and design a process step that really leverages the strength, the speed, and the repeatability of a robot and the dexterity and the judgement and the flexibility of a human.”
- Scott Denenberg, Co-Founder and Chief Architect, Veo Robotics, Inc.
Creating Intentional Company Culture

Jason Brunt of e3 Technologies, Steve Alexander of MSP-Ignite and Miles Jobgen of CompTIA talk about creating an intentional culture and how Brunt’s experience with ADD and dyslexia helped shape the way he looks for talent on Breaking Barriers with CompTIA's Managed Services Community. “There are a lot of unique ways to find staff and to find people, and there are a lot of good people out there who don’t fit the normal or typical or expected criteria. If you know what to look for in a personality—and as long as they have that minimum level of aptitude—you can take their personality to fit with your clients.”
- Jason Brunt, Founder and CEO, e3 Technologies
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Thinking of IT Jobs the Same Way

Diversity in technology is important especially now because tech occupation employment is predicted to grow to 8.6 million, said Doyle. “All signs point to heavy growth,” Doyle said. At the same time tech jobs are exploding, low-income students are 12 times less likely to have access to computer science in school, and black, Latinx and low-income families are less likely to have access to broadband wireless and personal computers.

To tackle those issues, April, Woods and Sue Krautbauer, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Techadox, spent an hour discussing ways parents, educators and businesses can bring more diversity to the tech workforce.

It starts with educating hiring managers. “We have to focus on this hiring managers and get them to truly understand what’s going on in today’s time,” said Woods. “What you did 10 years ago is not relevant to today.”

“The marine biologist says, ‘You don’t have an oil valve problem, you have a clam problem,’” Doyle said. The oil company never would have come up with that solution without a totally different perspective on the problem. “It was diversity of thought that led to a better business outcome. Challenging one another creates a better outcome.”

For small businesses that don’t have a hiring manager or HR department, it’s about focusing on the owner or president, whoever does the hiring, and getting them to understand that the traditional four-year degree isn’t necessarily a requirement for a good employee, April said.

“All people have intrinsic value in your organization, so you have to think of how you tap into their skills and desires to impact your company culture,” Krautbauer said.

The panel was followed by working group sessions to identify tools we have today, tools we need and some best practices for hiring diversity. Here are some takeaways from the Combined Workforce Community Meeting, presented by CompTIA’s Advancing Women in Technology, Future Leaders and Advancing Diversity in Technology communities.
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Overrated and Underrated Tech Trends

The premise of digital transformation—integrating digital technology in all areas of business—includes fundamentally changing how a business operates and presents to users or customers. As the theory goes, digital transformation also requires a culture change to businesses to constantly evolve, assess, and experiment, and yes, sometimes fail. The concept has been touted as a radical new way of thinking about business operations. But Sobel argues it is redundant to even mention at this point.

“I look at it and say, digital transformation is a way of packaging consulting services to people that want to buy things. Digital transformation is like, oh wow, the use of technology to change your business. Isn’t that every implementation of technology ever? Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about the whole time?”

April argues that perhaps it’s not so much calling out the concept but the naming of it that Sobel disagrees with. “We’re the buzzword industry,” says April. “I think digital transformation is meaningful in a sense. It’s just in the next iteration of what we’re doing with technology, but it’s basically just a name.”

Robinson agrees with the prevalence of jargon in the industry but also notes that ideas like digital transformation are teaching old businesses that technology isn’t simply about replacing older models with new, but instead about assessing and changing processes and embracing how technology can better their business and interactions with customers.

Still, Sobel thinks relabeling lessons from business 101 is unnecessary. “Business moves on technology. This is part of doing business now. Customer expectations have changed. They’ve elevated, but I just think of this branding and this naming as super overrated.”
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How to Save Money on Your IT Certifications

Getting an IT certification is an investment in your career. Whether you’re just starting out in IT or preparing for your next move, having a CompTIA performance certification can not only get your foot in the door for an interview, but also prove to employers that you have the hands-on skills they’re looking for.

But with every investment comes a cost. The retail price for exam vouchers can be daunting, but there are ways to save money. Here are five ways to get a voucher discount on your next CompTIA exam.
5 Ways to Get a Voucher Discount

In general, there are five ways to save money on your CompTIA exam voucher. Some discounts are available to anyone and some are only available to students or as part of a training program. Here’s a quick breakdown of the main types of voucher discounts.
Save with a Bundle

Purchasing a bundle is the easiest way for anyone to get a voucher discount. CompTIA combines exam vouchers with training materials into bundles to help you fully prepare for your certification exam and save up to 42%* off the retail price. Many bundles include the exam voucher, training materials and a retake voucher in case you don’t pass your exam on the first try. With a bundle, you can go into your exam with confidence knowing that you’ve set yourself up for success.

Many CompTIA exam vouchers can be purchased as part of a bundle, and more may be added in the future. When you’re ready to buy a voucher, check out the bundles in the CompTIA Store first. (When you're in the CompTIA Store, hover over or click "Bundles" in the menu bar. Bundles and pricing are subject to change. Discounts vary based on product.)
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Cybersecurity and Cloud Computing

You may remember back when we used computers on campus, all our work was stored in a centralized location. We shared applications that were stored, well, somewhere. There was very little that the machines we were using did. We logged on and worked on data that was somewhere else. Life was good. We just needed access to the terminals. Ah, the mainframe.

The cloud is essentially nothing more than a network of computers across the internet. We can access our data from anywhere we have connectivity. But what is connected is vulnerable.

Cloud service providers have made great strides in recent years to improve infrastructure security. However, the headlines show large data breaches from across all industry sectors, including those you would think are highly secure, suggesting there is still a lot of work to be done in securing cloud-based data.

Who is ultimately responsible for securing data? It is possible that moving to a cloud service provider may improve data security for some organizations. This must be taken into consideration along with access permissions to data stored on the cloud.

Managing access control for cloud-based data is an important function. As seen in the headlines, disgruntled employees have released sensitive information. The IT manager also needs to be aware of who has control of this process. They need to know if they will be able to modify access control or whether that is a function of the cloud service provider.

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Why You Need a Cybersecurity Knowledge Base

Threat intelligence feeds work best when they act as a starting point. First, an ISAO, ISAC or threat feed captures real-life examples of exploits that are specific to an organization’s systems. But, that's just the beginning.

Cybersecurity professionals are expected to customize and contextualize that information. They supplement given information with more specific knowledge about indicators of attack (IoA) and indicators of compromise (IoC) that are happening to their organization. Then they can investigate each tactic, technique and procedure (TTP) of a specific attack waged on the organization.

Here’s a quick overview of the difference between a tactic, technique and a procedure:
Tactic: A goal (e.g., the hacker wishes to extort money from a hospital through ransomware)
Technique: A particular activity (e.g., sending phishing e-mails to the people most likely to click on the link or attacking systems that are known to have a buffer overflow, like a low patch level, or some other vulnerability)
Procedure: The actual methods – as specific and procedural as possible – used to obtain information about vulnerable end users or systems (e.g., the details about the steps the attacker took to conduct a ransomware attack on your particular network)

Imagine how useful it would be if you could create a searchable knowledge base that captures your latest insights about how to pivot resources in your company.
What Types of Questions Will I Have to Answer?

CompTIA IT Fundamentals makes it easy for you by using multiple-choice questions to assess your current skills and help you figure out if IT is right for you.

CompTIA A+ takes things a step further with performance-based questions, which test your hands-on skills to prove to employers that you have the skills needed for tech support jobs. Learn more about IT careers with our newly revised career roadmap.

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MSP Hiring Gaps, State of the Channel

CompTIA podcasts covered a range of topics with member-experts and CompTIA staff providing insight into today’s most talked about tech topics. There are parallel threads across all the podcasts—from finding ways to narrow the IT skills gap to analyzing what the trends and talking points really mean to technologists and tech companies, and much more. Take a look at what we overheard on CompTIACasts in September then check out all of our podcasts. Subscribe and start listening today.
Trained, Disciplined Help Wanted for MSPs

On Coffee Break with CompTIA Councils, Chris Phillips, director of CompTIA's Industry Advisory Councils, chats with Robert McFarlane, Managed Services for Sirius Computer Services, about the opportunities and high demand for jobs in technology industry, how to find the best talent for MSPs, and the need for operational discipline—on both the client end and for MSPs.[Hiring and recruiting] is definitely challenging for us, not only as a solution provider, but for everyone. In Dallas-Fort Worth alone, there are over 12,000 unfilled cybersecurity vacancies. We have a variety of strategies that we hire all over the world, but it’s tough and something we need to be working on each and every day…. For those interested, aptitude and attitude go a long way.— Robert McFarlane, Managed Services for Sirius Computer Services

Listen now.
Making Strategic Connections to Grow the IT Funnel

Technologist Talk features guest Amy Kardel, CompTIA’s new Vice President of Strategic Workforce Relationships, and her ideas about how to bridge the IT skills gap and nurture the careers of future technologists with a collaborative and strategic approach.Why are we more attractive than other industries looking for workers? That’s the important differentiation we can make. If you look at the tech industry, we are something that is everywhere: cities, rural areas, hospitals, government, schools. So we need to think about how we are an enabler for other industries. We’ve had a lot of investment in our sector, [tech] can pay well, and [has] a lot of advancement opportunities in many areas.
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Security Awareness Training

No matter how solid your cybersecurity posture and how minimal risk your employees are, you need to be prepared for the day a cyberattack occurs. Developing an incident response plan and running a war gaming exercise gives your employees the tools they need to respond quickly, mitigate the situation and return to business as usual.
What Is War Gaming?

War gaming sounds intense because it is. Take your employees, in particular your first responders, through a breach incident exercise. A first responder could be defined as any employee whose primary function is to communicate with customers digitally in addition to those who are charged with remediating a breach incident. Common first responders are customer service reps, administrators, the finance team and IT technicians.

But the war games shouldn’t stop with entry-level employees: an effective war game exercise also involves the executive suite.

All of your employees are your weakest link when it comes to IT security, therefore, if you are leaving out a particular team in your war gaming exercise, you’re inadvertently creating a weak link in your organization.

Including executives in the exercise is critical as they will be the most frequent target of cyberattacks. In reality, many executives are not IT saavy nor do they possess security awareness.
What to Include in an Incident Response Plan

The purpose of the war gaming exercise is to demonstrate to all employees the severe gravity of a breach incident. Beforehand, create an incident response plan.

Templates for incident response plans can easily be located online and can be used as a starting point, but it’s best to find something specific to your environment. Ask your professional network to share their incident response plans with you. And ask your security vendors for their incident response plan. Compare multiple response plans and use them to inspire your own.

Here are some tips for incident response plans for specific employees.
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Cybersecurity Perspectives

There’s no denying that cybersecurity is one of the biggest topics in technology today, if not the biggest. Emerging technologies get a lot of headlines because companies are exploring these new trends to find growth opportunities. But at the end of the day, businesses are starting to realize that any new initiative will be short-lived if it is not properly secured.

Making matters more complicated, there is an entirely new approach to cybersecurity. Gone are the days of building a secure perimeter that holds all corporate data and applications. In a cloud and mobile world, businesses have to expand their technology toolbox, build processes for secure operations and educate the workforce on security issues. In this environment, IT pros have to constantly refresh their skills, and CompTIA’s cybersecurity certifications can help keep tech workers ahead of the curve.

However, CompTIA’s latest cybersecurity research study finds that technical skills are not the only ones that security pros need to worry about. As with other parts of digital transformation, cybersecurity is a field where the business side and the IT side need to come together to build the best solution.

Broadly speaking, the business side wants to move very fast, and the IT side wants to be very cautious. Neither end of the spectrum is the ideal place to live, and finding common ground is a challenge for most organizations. Here are three areas where IT pros and business staff have different views on cybersecurity, along with suggestions for how to bridge the gap.
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Types of Cyber Attacks So Basic You

It’s not fake news. Data exposure is now a fact of corporate and daily life. Just ask Evite, Capital One and Toyota – a few of the victims of large-scale data breaches this year. But just like everything else, there’s more going on behind the scenes. What you don’t see on the news are smaller, lower profile stories of small businesses and individuals suffering the consequences of cyberattacks – and they’re not as elaborate as you may think.

According to CompTIA’s research report, Cybersecurity for Digital Operations, only 35% of IT staff rated their current cybersecurity as completely satisfactory. Staying on top of risk means continually assessing threats – even the most basic ones. Don’t give cyber-criminals an opportunity to get their hands on your valuable data or wreak havoc on your systems. Revisit these basic cyberattacks and refresh your security strategy with the assistance of CompTIA resources.
Spoofing

Spoofing happens when a source hides its true identity, masquerading as someone or something else. This tactic is often used during a cyberattack to disguise the source of attack traffic. For example, sending an email with a fabricated “From:” address would qualify as spoofing. Of course, there are different types of this deception, including: DNS server spoofing, ARP spoofing and IP address spoofing. Identify fake email addresses and websites
DDoS

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to flood a website or online service with traffic in order to overwhelm and render it unavailable. While a hacker doesn’t really gain any valuable information from this type of attack, they do find success in causing confusion and chaos – oftentimes making it a perfect distraction to launch another type of attack. Secure the perimeter to help prevent DDoS attacks
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Getting into IT after Getting

David Kent was officially a civilian as he drove through the Chicago suburbs on his way home from his final military medical checkup. In the U.S. Marines, Kent had risen to the level of staff sergeant and amassed a set of valuable tech skills and CompTIA certifications to back them up. His next move was to join an aerospace and defense company as a classified network engineer. Signing out of the military and then on with a military contractor wasn’t a move Kent took lightly.

“It was very important for me to have a job that I could rely on,” Kent said. “It was such a relief and security for my family moving forward.”

With a lucrative, highly skilled IT position in his immediate future, Kent’s life was a mirror image of what it had looked like less than a decade earlier. But when he was laid off during the Great Recession – before his CompTIA certifications and military service – he struggled to see his future and the path forward.
From the Automotive Industry to IT

In 2006, the economy wasn’t doing too bad. Kent, a recent high school graduate, stepped directly into a union job working on the line at the Chrysler plant in Belvidere, IL. He was making a solid wage and planned to be in the position for a while. Kent started laying down the infrastructure for his future; he bought a house, got married and had kids.
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Project Management Is Important to Cybersecurity

Project management is defined as “the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.” At least, so says Wikipedia.

As such, project management is an extremely useful skill set and important in many areas of cybersecurity and IT in general. Those in the field would do well to learn the basics of project management, and the CompTIA Project+ certification is an excellent way to demonstrate your mastery.
Applying Project Management to Cybersecurity

Project management is important for many reasons. First off, many cybersecurity and IT projects themselves are often run using project management principles and procedures. For example, you generally wouldn’t roll out a new end-point security solution to thousands of nodes without a plan. The same applies to most major IT implementations, such as upgrading or replacing desktops and infrastructure across the enterprise.

While smaller organizations might just wing it, so to speak, the risks are simply too great for a larger enterprise to attempt such an undertaking without a solid plan. Applying project management principles to such an implementation increases the odds of success and being able to complete the project on time and on budget.
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Crisis Management for SMBs

These are trying times for business of all sizes. Worries about employees, customers, inventory and what to even do, are top of mind. While those concerns are also paramount to solution providers, VARs and MSPs also have an enviable opportunity right now—to provide organizations with the tech solutions to keep doing business in this new normal.

The most successful channel partners will be the ones that are communicating with their customers, listening, and responding in kind. In a previous blog, we highlighted how to manage employees through a crisis. In this article, we talked with members of CompTIA’s communities and advisory councils to get their advice for how to best manage customers through the current pandemic. Here are four things to consider, according to solution providers, that will help forge tighter, long-term relationships.
Start with Communication

When crisis strikes, whether it’s a natural disaster that no one saw coming, or a situation that built more slowly, like the coronavirus pandemic, it’s critical to communicate quickly to customers. Those conversations need to inform customers that status of your own business—i.e., we’re up and running or we have a skeleton crew for the time being—in order to set proper expectations. There’s nothing more frustrating for a business when a trusted partner said it can do something but then not do it.

Secondly, it’s important to communicate with partners in order to identify their most immediate needs and how you can respond. Once you talk with multiple customers, you can prioritize their needs and act accordingly, said Juan Fernandez, vice president of managed IT services at ImageNet Consulting and member of CompTIA’s Channel Advisory Board.
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The New CompTIA Cloud Essentials+

Migrating to and leveraging the cloud has become a top priority for many companies. IDC predicts $162 billion in worldwide spending on public cloud by 2020. To support cloud initiatives, employees across all departments – not just IT – need the skills to make operational cloud decisions. The new CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ IT certification was designed to improve business acumen and equip both IT specialists and non-technical professionals with the skills they need to support their company’s cloud initiatives.
What Is CompTIA Cloud Essentials+?

The new, improved version of CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ is unique because it is the only internationally recognized, vendor-neutral IT certification that utilizes key business principles and fundamental cloud concepts to validate data-driven cloud recommendations.

This means those who earn CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ will be able to make essential comprehensive cloud assessments.

They will also be equipped to perform the following tasks:
Minimize security risks while making informed cloud decisions
Grasp new technology concepts and solutions
Increase a company’s efficiency and manage costs

Getting IT Certifications Through the Army

Since he already held CompTIA Security+ when he began doing tech full-time in the military, he had confirmed his ability to competently and securely manage the technology he was working on. He realized, though, there was an opportunity to know more.

Focusing on the other skills areas leading up to CompTIA Security+, and earning the applicable certifications, would give him an even more thorough understanding of how enterprise technology functions from top to bottom.And in addition to strengthening his foundational tech skills, he couldn’t beat the price.
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IT Industry Outlook 2020

So, folks, get ready. 2020 is on its way. In mere weeks, we close the books on another decade and start one anew amidst champagne toasts, Auld Lang Syne, and the ball drop in Times Square.

And as usual in the tech industry, much has changed and will continue to do so. Biggest change? Clout. The techies have it. Ten years ago, for example, the most valuable companies in the world were Exxon Mobil, Petro China, Apple, Microsoft, and Petrobras. Today? That list still features Apple and Microsoft, but no longer the juggernaut of energy companies. Instead, add three tech giants to the pantheon: Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Now, with clout and power comes responsibility. And how that plays out will be something to watch closely in the year ahead.

If you think about it, the industry is in the midst of a dichotomy of sorts. It is both maturing like any other industry has done historically, but at the same time remains the unmatched source of innovation and wealth in the global economy. This holds true for the giants of the industry, but also the people who work in technology professions or run those multitudes of tech businesses that operate at a grain-of-sand fraction of the size of a Google.

For those who work in technology, the turn of the calendar prompts some thought-noodling, particularly how best to adapt to a quickly changing, complex environment. At CompTIA, we try to do the same. Each year we publish our IT Industry Outlook research that projects out about the year ahead. This year’s theme is “Taking the Next Step.” That next step could be advancing your career along a new technology path. Or it could be changing your business model if you are a tech firm owner. Or, you could decide to take the plunge into an emerging tech discipline, say drones or artificial intelligence.

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CompTIA Network+ vs. CCNA

There are several IT networking certifications on the market, and CompTIA Network+ and Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) are two of the most popular. While CCNA covers select networking skills as they relate to Cisco routers, it can’t beat CompTIA Network+ for comprehensive networking skills that can be applied in a multi-vendor environment.

Before choosing a vendor-specific networking certification like CCNA, IT pros should consider the benefits of earning CompTIA Network+, a vendor-neutral certification that will give them the knowledge and tools to create the IT career they want most.

Niche Delivery Model

If you operate using a niche delivery model, your business has a specialisation. If you’re all things to all people, you will struggle to make money. Decide what you’re really good at and focus your effort on your area of strength.

If you’re a niche provider, it’s important to determine who your customers are, segmenting them according to their value to your organisation. Your business should make it a priority to profile customer segments to understand your clients better.

Do this by designing your ideal client. Determine what drives them to buy your services, stay with you or not, and discover what frustrations and desires they have. Then, you can base your business model and marketing strategies around this knowledge to narrow your niche.

GSAC: Generalist, Specialist, Authority, Celebrity

The generalist, specialist, authority, celebrity or GSAC pyramid outlines the stages an individual or business goes through in their subject area as they get more experienced. For example, Gordon Ramsay is a celebrity in his subject area. While he is now extremely comfortable at the top of the pyramid, he started as a generalist and worked his way up the pyramid.

When starting your business, you will typically be a generalist. Moving from generalist to specialist requires focus and investment in improving your skills and expertise. Becoming an authority typically requires getting published online or in books to share your expertise with the industry. Finally, achieving celebrity status results from becoming recognised and known within the industry and beyond.
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AI to Workforce

Thought Leaders, Industry Leaders

CompTIA Advisory Councils and Communities are comprised of some of the best and brightest minds in technology—and also its most unselfish. It’s inspiring to know that so many members care not just about their own company’s success—but about the success of the tech industry. As one member said to me, “Our success is predicated on the success of the overall market in emerging technology. We work with CompTIA to help get that value proposition out, which in turn helps increase interest, accelerate demand—and make us all more successful.”

Drone Industry Continues to Take Flight

CompTIA’s presence was felt at almost every major drone/UAV conference in 2019, and we’ll continue to work closely with our Drone Advisory Council to tout the innovations and advantages that drones bring to the business world. Meanwhile, CompTIA is also supporting the Aerospace Industry Association on the development of an industry consensus standard that will focus on cybersecurity of UAS. Chief Technology Evangelist Dr. James Stanger will represent CompTIA on a committee that focuses on data privacy, ownership, distribution and storage of data collected by drones. More to come in 2020 for sure.

Business Applications Marketplace

Business applications are vital to the operations of any company, and it’s critical that they stay aligned with emerging technologies such as IoT, AI and more to ensure a seamless user experience and integration with other systems. In 2020, the Business Applications Advisory Council wants to create more synergies between these vendors as well as start developing a marketplace with CompTIA that connects technology vendors with partners, and CompTIA-certified experts with potential employers.

IoT Comes Front and Center

In 2019, our Smart Cities Advisory Council rebranded itself as the IoT Advisory Council in order to focus on the internet of all things. The council will be developing more content, including infographics, uses cases, white papers and blogs that highlight outcomes and the impact of IoT solutions in business.
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Cybersecurity-Why It’s Great to Start at the Help Desk

A common misconception is that cybersecurity is an entry-level job. While that can be true to a certain extent, when it comes to working on a first-level support team, landing a cybersecurity job comes down to how mature the company’s processes and procedures are.

In general, the smaller the company, the more talent they’ll be trying to squeeze out of each individual. Some security operation centers (SOCs) are an extension of the help desk, or in some security-based companies, the SOC is the help desk. Either way, time spent providing technical support to end users is valuable experience for getting into cybersecurity.

Many years ago, a very smart person in this industry told me that the best way to understand our role with customers is that anything that connects to the network is something we should be aware of and getting paid to sell and support.

I think that's the first thing we need to explore—the old-fashioned definition of our job is only to sell and support information technology. I would argue the best way to think of our role is to help our customers use technology to achieve operational or business benefits. Take the information technology or operational technology out of it and just say, “If it’s connected to the network, that's something we should be in charge of.”

The ever-so glamorous hacking jobs are no walk in the park. A good penetration tester is technical, but more importantly, also knows how humans work.

I’ve talked to many people trying to break into cybersecurity. Some have college degrees, some have certifications, but a lot of people I’ve encountered have no experience in information technology at all, and I think this is a huge step that people try to skip.

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What Are the Stakesa+ certification

While the Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report has a strong focus on money, the findings of this year’s report reveal so much more than an IT professional’s desire for cash.

IT pros are going hard after certifications for a few reasons:
They want more experience.
Holding multiple certifications makes them more well-rounded pros and gives them more opportunities.
The skills gap is real – there are plenty of IT jobs out there for those who are qualified.
They’re more effective in their current positions.

At the panel, we discussed how over the years, we’ve seen attacks on key pillars of society.
Identity: U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Credit: Equifax
Healthcare The US healthcare.gov site, as well as statewide issues, such as the State of Oregon’s health exchange
Electoral Process: 2015 U.S. elections database, 2016 elections, Iowa
Retail: Tesco, Target

We discussed how so much is at stake, kind of on a sliding scale, from better to worse, if things go wrong during specific points of the election cycle. They include, from better to worse:
Loss of service: Critical, embarrassing delays that effectively deny a service.
Loss of confidence in an event: Where we can’t tell what really has happened, or where a pillar (e.g., an election) is somehow compromised.
Loss of confidence in the entire process: Where people don’t just question a specific event, but the very democratic process itself.

We discussed that while it may seem dramatic at this point, if too many issues occur, then we could see an erosion in confidence in the entire system. I find this interesting, because word on the street in Washington, D.C., after Iowa, is that for the next election cycle (four years from now), the Iowa caucuses won’t even be on the political radar.

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What Is DoD 8570 Cybersecurity

We recently covered the basic differences between U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 8570, the DoD 8570 manual (8570.01-m) and DoD Directive 8140. Now we’re going to focus on DoD Directive 8570. Although it is retired, it is an important milestone in cybersecurity workforce management for the U.S. government. Understanding DoD Directive 8570 provides a path to understanding the current DoD Directive 8140.
DoD Directive 8570 Defined

DoD Directive 8570 was issued in 2005 to identify, tag, track and manage the information assurance, or cybersecurity, workforce. It also established a manual that includes an enterprise-wide baseline IT certification requirement to validate the knowledge, skills and abilities of people working in cybersecurity roles. It was replaced by DoD Directive 8140 in 2015, which expands upon it.

Note: The DoD used the term information assurance to describe cybersecurity in 2005, but the term has since changed to cybersecurity in most cases.

The purpose of DoD Directive 8570 was twofold:
Establish policy and assign responsibilities for DoD Information Assurance (IA) training, certification and workforce management.
Authorize the publication of DoD 8570.01-m.

DoD Directive 8570 addresses the contractors and entities of the DoD – including military and defense agencies – that provide cybersecurity (or IA, at the time) functional services for DoD information systems.
You Are Valuable to Companies with Small IT Departments

A small company may also come with a small budget, which could mean they don’t have the ability to hire several IT pros that specialize in different fields. Being an IT generalist can make you more appealing to a smaller company, where your varied skillset is invaluable. You can also continue to gain experience in many different facets of IT.

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What’s on the new CompTIA A+ exams?

The new CompTIA A+ Core Series (220-1001 and 220-1002) provides a foundation for a number of different IT jobs and helps entry-level IT pros prepare for the jobs of the future.

In addition to topics you might traditionally associate with tech support, the new CompTIA A+ has an increased emphasis on cybersecurity, including malware, as well as cloud, virtualization and internet of things (IoT) network protocols and connectivity.

It also covers scripting so that help desk technicians and technical support specialists can interpret code to identify if it might be malicious or if it’s supposed to be there.

CompTIA A+ continues to emphasize problem solving within a technology context. Employers want IT pros who can think critically and approach problems systematically to find a solution. Having CompTIA A+ shows employers that you have the hands-on skills and proof of your ability to solve technology problems.
Entry-Level Cybersecurity Jobs

You may be surprised to hear that there are no entry-level cybersecurity roles in the software development pathway. If you consider the overall degree requirements shared above, it makes a little more sense since 94 percent of job openings require higher education.

Software development, on the other hand, has entry-level opportunities that can be obtained with IT certifications, boot camps and other non-degree training courses, so consider starting your career in software development and get your degree while you’re working to prepare you for your next move.
Mid-Level Cybersecurity Jobs

If you are a few years into your software development career and are hoping to transition to a cybersecurity career, having these skills can help you:
Information security
Information systems
Linux
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