RE: A question about certification and training

From: Alvey Robert W KPWA (AlveyRW@kpt.nuwc.navy.mil)
Date: 12/23/02

  • Next message: Michael Boman: "Re: A question about certification and training" 
    From: Alvey Robert W KPWA <AlveyRW@kpt.nuwc.navy.mil>
To: "'Phillips, Mike'" <PhillipsMike@otc.army.mil>, "'security-basics@securityfocus.com'" <security-basics@securityfocus.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 14:41:15 -0800

    I'd recommend getting as many of the CompTIA certs as you can (in between
    whatever you focus on for your career), right now they last forever and they
    are recognized by almost anyone in any industry their certs cover. They
    aren't hard (all are simply entry level), but it looks nice if you're going
    in for security job to have the Security+, as well as a Network+ (For
    knowing how the network works and relating it to security), A+ (same thing
    but for hardware/OS concerns), Server+ (Servers are a big aspect behind
    security concerns as you probably already know), and Linux+ (For that extra
    umph and the majority of the security related tools are not only better (in
    my experience, which is rather limited) but cheaper on Linux). All their
    tests are relatively cheap and most don't even require a full week of study
    to complete, yet they still look nice on the Resume.

    As for other certs, try and focus on certs that relate to your career path.
    I know someone mentioned the CISSP, which I know next to nothing about, but
    some people here at work got a lot of out the SANs security certifications.

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Phillips, Mike [mailto:PhillipsMike@otc.army.mil]
    Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 5:43 AM
    To: 'security-basics@securityfocus.com'
    Subject: A question about certification and training

    Please accept my apologies if this is not the appropriate forum for this
    question..........

    I am researching the relative value of various professional certifications
    in the IT field. Specifically for the security area, would anyone care to
    share their experiences or views on the certifications available in this
    area? The sub-set of questions is the following- 1. Which certifications are
    worth the time/effort/cost? 2. Which are not? 3. How do you quantify the
    value added of obtaining certifications?

    Thanks in advance. Please feel free to respond to either myself or the
    group.

    Michael C. Phillips
    MSA, Inc., supporting U.S. Army Evaluation Center
    Whitfill Central Technical Support Facility Bldg 28 Ft Hood, Texas 76544

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