Category: deals

Cisco CCNA Cyber Ops

.. Cisco is introducing the Global Cybersecurity Scholarship program. Cisco will invest $10 million in this program to increase the pool of talent with critical cybersecurity proficiency. Cisco also has enhanced its Security certification portfolio with a new CCNA Cyber Ops certification.

Through the scholarship program, Cisco will offer free training, mentoring, and testing designed to help you earn CCNA Cyber Ops certification and hone the skills needed for the job role of security operations center analyst. The new CCNA Cyber Ops certification has been designed to address the critical skills deficit, providing the job-ready knowledge needed to meet current and future challenges in network security.

I haven’t had any luck getting into this program yet, but this is 1) free training and 2) free testing for a CCNA cert, which definitely has some market value, so join me in waiting!

My understanding is part of the application process involves an entry-level security questionnaire, FYI.

Humble Book Bundle: Cybersecurity

This isn’t a bad bundle for $15, all told. I’d consider it a buy if you want to understand some of the underlying security and crypto concepts, but not if you’re looking for up to the minute exploits or state of the industry type stuff.

For example: The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws, 2nd Edition is a book from 2011. A fair bit of it is still relevant, but six years is a long time. On the other hand, something like Cryptography Engineering: Design Principles and Practical Applications is going to be a solid foundational crypto book for a long time.

If you have zero certs or industry experience, the CEH isn’t the worst place in the world to start to get a beginning job, but it’s basically just a memorization test and the industry knows it.