Takeaways Tech Support

The IT Pro Track at ChannelCon 2019 offered insights (and continuing education units (CEUs)!) on topics including tech support, cloud computing, cybersecurity and more. If you missed out, don’t worry – you’ll have another chance to watch in September during the rebroadcast. In the meantime, check out our five takeaways from the event.
1. The Help Desk as Solutioneers

The first IT Pro Track session featured CompTIA Chief Technology Evangelist James Stanger facilitating a panel on the state of tech support. ImageNet Consulting, LLC, Vice President, Managed IT Services, Juan Fernandez and ITProTV Edutainer Wes Bryan shared their insights and advice for IT pros who work in tech support.

Fernandez and Bryan both talked about how tech support is truly about troubleshooting and helping people.

“I call the help desk solutioneers – they're solving end-user problems,” Fernandez said.

Bryan added to this sentiment, saying that it’s up to IT to help end users understand why security procedures are so important.

“For the average person, when they have the roadblock of multifactor authentication, it can be frustrating,” he said. “Tech support needs to coach people about how to do it and why.”
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Workforce Community Meeting Takeaways

Better thinking comes from diversity of thought, said Channel Futures’ T.C. Doyle, but how do we bring diverse people and thinkers into technology? It starts with undoing some of the traditional hiring practices in IT, according to panel members at the Combined Workforce Communities Meeting. Some legacy companies no longer require a four-year degree for tech jobs and others are relaxing educational requirements overall. “They need people and it’s allowing them to diversify their workforce,” said Carolyn April, senior director of industry analysis at CompTIA.

Adults also need to adjust their thinking on what success means for their kids. It used to be that a four-year degree was necessary to get a job in the workforce, but as times change those expectations need to keep up.

“It’s a shift and a mindset change,” said Aaron Woods, principal consultant at CEX Services LLC. “Let’s look at this as a stepping stone. You can start with certifications. I talk about CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+ as the baseline and then move from there.”
A huge oil company was trying to figure out why their underwater valves intermittently failed deep down in the gulf and spent $1 billion on IoT devices, sensors and new pumps to figure it out, said Doyle. It wasn’t until an oilman talked to a marine biologist that they understood the problem wasn’t with the machinery but bivalve sea creatures messing with the equipment.
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Internet of Things (IoT) and Technical Debt

The current state of the internet of things (IoT) has been at the top of people’s minds. And why wouldn’t it be? Businesses are using IoT more than ever before. Unfortunately, I’ve found that IT and cybersecurity folks are often left out of IoT implementations at key points.

This wasn’t a surprise to me. CompTIA has been researching how IoT devices are being used worldwide for some time, including in the 2019 Trends in Internet of Things study. Many of the discussions I’ve had with IT pros centered around the myriad security issues surrounding IoT and how to resolve them.

These security issues revolve around an unspoken truth: as an industry, we tend to skip certain steps in the development process, hoping to resolve them later. This practice is called technical debt. And like financial debt, it needs to be addressed before it gets out of control – especially when it comes to IoT.
What Is Technical Debt?

Technical debt happens when a device or piece of software is created and a person or organization consciously (or, sometimes, unconsciously) decides to skip certain steps to quickly release some software or piece of hardware.

The idea is that eventually they will pay back that debt. Ever felt a bit burned when you realize that your new, wonderful operating system seems to be more beta quality than production ready? Ever had your operating system or browser fall victim to a security bug that should have been caught? Well, then, you’ve experienced the results of technical debt. It’s happened to all of us.
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Get Certified and Get Promoted

IT professionals benefit from getting certified at all different points in their careers. From high school students to career changers and entry-level IT pros to those with a few years under their belt, it’s not unwarranted to ask if investing in an IT certification or two is something they should hold off on until they’ve already made inroads in the field. A recent study by IDC reveals, however, that if you’re on the fence about getting certified, it might work in your favor to snag a cert or two before you land your first IT job. The advantages of CompTIA certifications, it seems, can start on your first day … or earlier!
CompTIA Certifications Can Position You for Promotions

IDC found that IT professionals who get certified before their first IT job get promoted about 23% sooner than those who have not yet been certified – an average of 14 months versus 17 months. And not only do promotions happen sooner for IT pros who have CompTIA certifications when they walk in the door, but there’s also a better chance of them getting promoted. Period.

Within one year of hire, 58% of those who were already certified got promotions, compared to the 53% who got certified once they were on the job. It’s a fairly small variance, but where money and title are concerned, it never hurts to take steps that will position yourself even slightly ahead – if it’s possible and convenient to do so.

Perhaps expectedly, CompTIA certification holders, regardless of when they get certified, are promoted more than IT pros who never get certified. This could be attributed to many factors – some skills based, some confidence based, some owing to IT certifications being necessary for particular job roles.
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How to Choose a Cloud Vendor

Today, what has changed? We are now using our devices, all our devices and appliances for that matter, to connect to applications and data that are stored, well, somewhere else. Today we call that the cloud.

The IT manager has a choice:

1. Call Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM or any of the other solution providers and prepare to write a big check.

Or

2. Roll up the sleeves and start asking some serious questions, researching and planning. This will require time, resources, investment and a very serious look at how the business functions.

When choosing option 2, the first question would be, “Why?” That seems like an obvious or over-simplified question to ask administration, basically on the verge of insubordination. But actually, it is spot on.

What are we as an organization looking to gain from the cloud? List out the benefits the company will gain, then begin looking at the drawbacks. At first, it is quick to observe that moving to the cloud means savings that outweigh any possible disadvantage.

But upon further investigation, the analytical IT manager sees otherwise. There are many factors that could cause issue for the organization:
Vendor contracts
Control of cloud services
Privacy
Security
Downtime

This IT manager will begin to seriously look at what solutions are offered by the cloud provider and compare to what the organization is currently doing.

They will ask questions like the following:
How much will software licensing cost versus my desktop licenses over the long run?
What is the cost for processing resources?
What if I go over my limit?
How do I manage user access?
Is there a charge for adding users?
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Threat Intelligence Platforms

Threat information sharing has long been a hot topic. The idea behind information sharing is fairly simple: after an organization gets attacked and successfully recovers, that organization can then share the solution with everyone else. This way, organizations help strengthen each other.

Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs) and Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) exist to provide invaluable information like this. These organizations are central resources for gathering and disseminating information about hacker techniques and cybersecurity issues to private and public companies. In fact, CompTIA is now working closely with the cybersecurity community on managing an ISAO. Using information from an ISAC or ISAO helps organizations anticipate attacks and position cybersecurity controls more effectively.

Threat intelligence feeds such as AlienVault OTX, Blocklist.de, URLhaus, and many others, are also available. No matter what organization or threat intelligence feed you choose, it’s up to you to leverage that information as much as possible. After all, wouldn’t it be nice if you could further customize and store information that you receive into your own database?

What IT Skills Are Covered?

CompTIA IT Fundamentals covers the foundations of IT concepts and terminology, infrastructure, cybersecurity, database fundamentals and software development.

CompTIA A+ covers the skills necessary for today’s IT support jobs.

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Trends Affecting the IT Workforce

IT security jobs are predicted to jump 28% from 2016 to 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and three unmistakable trends are shaping the future of tech jobs. It starts with shaking up the way we introduce people to technology careers, said Carolyn April, senior director of industry analysis at CompTIA.

“We also have to educate our kids that getting into technology is not a straight line to working for a technology company,” said April, who studies hiring trends in the IT industry and said the phase-out of the four-year degree is the No. 1 game-changer she sees in the IT workforce.

“The idea that a four-year college degree is not necessary to have a lucrative, worthwhile career has been a big pivot that opens the door for so many people to enter the tech industry,” April said. “We're waking up to realize that there are other means to get educated and get started in this industry.”
Alternatives to Education

April spoke to a packed room during the CompTIA’s Combined Workforce Communities Meeting: The IT Workforce of 2026 with industry thought leaders Sue Krautbauer of Techadox and Aaron Woods of CEX Services. The popular session that looked at trends shaping the IT workforce conversation was hosted by CompTIA’s Advancing Diversity in Technology Community, Advancing Women in Technology Community and Future Leaders Community.
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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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Ingredients to Business Success

One of Britain’s most influential business women, Baroness Karren Brady, opened day two of the EMEA conference in London, revealing some of the secrets to her success, including how she has led West Ham United to record revenues and attendances in their new home at the Olympic Stadium.

To kick off her keynote, Baroness Brady told the story of how she came to be MD of Birmingham City football club. In 1993, she saw an advert in the paper for a club for sale, went to her boss at the time and pitched the idea of buying. That was a Friday afternoon and by Monday, she was in a press conference announcing her new position to the press. During this press conference, she says the press made remarks about her being a woman and her lack of qualifications, but with clear goals for the club in mind, she convinced them she had the drive and determination needed to succeed.
Success Lies in Culture

After seeing the state the club was in, Baroness Brady realized: “No one at the club had any drive to run it like a business.” Her first job was to transform everything from the way the finance department paid wages to how relationships were being built with suppliers. However, doing this would shake up the way the club had been run and had the potential to ruffle many feathers.

“To have a successful business, you have to build a brand that people trust, believe in and want to work with and for,” she remarked.

To tackle this, she focused on building a culture that centered around better communication and ensuring employees knew their role in the business journey. Key to transforming the club was the fact that her changes were implemented with overall goals in mind and each new process was articulated as a step to achieving these.

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Every MSP Can Implement AI to Reach Business

Underrated: Chatbots and AI Implementation

Why aren’t more small businesses implementing emerging technology solutions? According to CompTIA’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) research, AI offers limitless possibilities and data collection opportunities, but many businesses find that gaps in skills and knowledge prevent them from adopting newer technology. What’s the solution for businesses that want to be on the cutting edge? Keep it simple: Save time and create a streamlined, tailored experience for clients with AI-powered chatbots. Maddy Martin of Smith.ai (pictured right) says that there’s no reason to wait for mainstream adoption of this easy solution. Read on to find out what she thinks about this underrated technology and how vast improvements in recent years have made it powerful tool for MSPs and other small businesses.
Why do you think the use of AI with chatbots and online chats is underrated?

Maddy Martin: Frankly, there’s an increasing preference for text-based communication—for clients and individuals. Most people and their clients are at their computers, typically in an office during business hours, and are constantly dealing with phone, text and email interruptions while trying to get work done. They want to win new clients, but interruptions kill their productivity. The solution is to streamline communication with tech-forward delegation and automation that works in real time.

Chatbots and using AI for your business can be a way to answer questions that are commonly asked without the interruption. Most MSPs are small businesses, so answering inbound calls or emails does interrupt the amount of work you're able to get done. What do you do with all these leads that are coming to your site if you have a call system that is staffed by you and your technician? The technician really should be focusing on technical work and assessments, and your time is better spent focusing on growing and optimizing business strategies instead of doing the all the communication necessary for capturing, qualifying and scheduling a lead.
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Technology Implications

Those of us who work with HHS public sector clients know that change is inevitable, whether it is driven by new legislation, changes in administration, or just continuous process improvement of government programs. This blog explains some of the ways the 2018 Farm Bill, passed by Congress and signed by the President in December 2018, may launch the need for technology support.

At a high level, the 2018 Farm Bill reauthorizes SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) - formerly known as the Food Stamp program – through 2023. While the final version of the bill does not call for significant change to SNAP eligibility, it does include several provisions related to SNAP Employment & Training (E&T), as well as a variety of other changes regarding Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), Quality Control (QC), SNAP-Ed Reporting, and the use of SNAP for online food purchases.

The two changes that will most likely require new technology initiatives at the State level are as follows:

1-The legislation mandated the establishment of the National Accuracy Clearinghouse (NAC) - a technology-based solution designed to curb interstate dual participation in SNAP. The premise of the NAC is simple – states contribute daily files of their active SNAP participants in a common format to a centralized database. The states then submit information requests to the database on program applicants, and the NAC looks for overlapping information on a range of data points, such as Social Security Numbers, names, and dates of birth (DOB), to determine if the individual is already a SNAP recipient in another state.

The Farm Bill required USDA/FNS to issue guidance for nationwide implementation of the NAC within eighteen months of enactment, and regulations have yet to be released. The legislation requires these regulations to “incorporate best practices and lessons learned” from the NAC pilot conducted in five southeastern states in 2014-15. The evaluation of the pilot found that states that integrated the NAC into their eligibility systems realized significantly better outcomes (i.e. prevention of dual participation) than those that did not. So, in addition to the creation of contributory files, which are necessary for the NAC to match information, states can expect to develop ways to effectively incorporate the information returned from the database into eligibility systems and business processes.
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Cybersecurity in a World

With technology changing and developing every day, it is vital that today’s cybersecurity professionals are able to adapt to evolving situations without getting too rooted in one focus, according to the Emerging Tech Smackdown session at EMEA Member and Partner Conference.

Dr. James Stanger, Chief Technology Evangelist at CompTIA, (pictured right), led the session with Chris Hodson, CISO EMEA of Tanium, and Gary Fildes, cybersecurity and information security principle inspector at the Office of Nuclear Regulation, covering everything from the myth of the cybersecurity “expert” to the new threats faced from technologies like the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI).
IoT is Everywhere

The internet of things might be the most problematic technology from a cybersecurity standpoint because it is becoming increasingly integrated into society. The extent of this was demonstrated when the speakers asked the audience at EMEA to hold up their fingers to show how many IP-enabled devices they had on them at that moment in time. The vast majority of attendees had at least two devices, with many people holding up three and even four fingers.

Stanger, Hodson and Fildes discussed how machines communicate about us as we move, meaning that data is constantly being created and stored about us, some of which can be used for malicious purposes. They predicted that in the future, our environments will customize themselves for us because of the data collected by the devices that are in our lives.
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What Is DoD 8140

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) set out to assess and manage its cybersecurity workforce with DoD Directive 8570. In 2015, it was replaced with DoD Directive 8140. And as discussed in our article on the difference between DoD 8570, 8140 and 8570.01-m, DoD 8570.01-m outlines which cybersecurity certifications are approved to validate the skills for certain job roles. Today we’re going to dive into the updated directive, DoD Directive 8140.
DoD 8140 Defined

DoD 8140 replaces DoD 8570 to expand covered work roles. DoD 8570 was created to identify, tag, track and manage the information assurance, or cybersecurity, workforce.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), DoD 8140:
Reissues and renumbers DoD 8570 to update and expand established DoD policies and assigned responsibilities for managing the DoD cyberspace workforce.
Authorizes the establishment of a DoD cyberspace workforce management council to ensure that the requirements of this directive are met.
Unifies the overall cyberspace workforce and establishes specific elements to align, manage and standardize work roles, baseline qualifications and training requirements.

DoD 8140 expands on DoD 8570 to leverage the Defense Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (DCWF), which draws from the original National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NCWF) and the DoD Joint Cyberspace Training and Certification Standards (JCT&CS).
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Earning IT Certifications

These days he handles a range of networking and systems administration tasks:
Creating accounts to facilitate access
Utilizing Active Directory and SharePoint
Troubleshooting any number of tickets that come through for the systems he supports

Before joining the military, he had numerous professional endeavors on his plate – but developing IT expertise was not one of them.

“I was a computer user, but I had basically no knowledge about networking or network security,” Quinones said. “I had a basic knowledge of computers, but that’s it. I started working with them in the Army, basically, after joining.”

In the military, Quinones quickly grew from a casual computer novice to a skilled IT professional.
Earning His First IT Certification

About 10 years ago in Puerto Rico, Quinones was on quite a different career path – or more accurately, multiple paths. He had earned a bachelor’s degree in business with a focus on finance and accounting, was working as a bank officer and had joined up as a U.S. Army reservist.

The U.S. Department of Defense requires those who work on military computer networks to hold certain IT certifications, so Quinones set out to get CompTIA Security+. Despite having limited exposure to cybersecurity, he found that he thrived in the test prep boot camp the military sent him to.

He didn’t take the certification exam until two months after completing the week-long class, but the targeted test prep stuck with him, bolstered by the hands-on computing skills he was already building. Quinones passed his CompTIA Security+ exam on his first attempt.

In 2014, Quinones was called up to active duty, which meant a relocation and all the significant life changes that come with it. In Puerto Rico he had his civilian jobs, a home and a world of familiar surroundings. When he and his family moved to Kentucky for his assignment, they were leaving everything they knew behind. But active duty was also opening up a new world of opportunity.

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Threat Intelligence Analyst

Threat intelligence is a critical piece of the cybersecurity puzzle, and threat intelligence analysts identify and understand emerging threats and indicators of compromise and then take action to prepare accordingly. If you like deep rabbit holes of research and breaking apart language to analyze its true meaning, then a career as a threat intelligence analyst could be a good fit for you.
What Is a Threat Intelligence Analyst?

A threat intelligence analyst detects cyberthreats and malware and analyzes the level of threat to inform cybersecurity business decisions. They need to know what cybersecurity risks are of most concern to the organization, what assets need to be protected and how to prioritize threats to focus their efforts on what's most important.

This is not an entry-level position – it requires experience in both cybersecurity and computer networking. While threat intelligence analysts aren’t working directly on IT infrastructure, previous experience as a network administrator or network engineer helps provide the understanding needed to fully understand threats.

A threat intelligence analyst may also be responsible for:
Predicting trends in cybercrime based on current activity
Describing threats in layman’s terms to stakeholders and executives.
Deeply analyzing emails, blog posts and social media presences to determine what level threat something or someone poses
Conducting digital forensics

Threat intelligence analysts have to excel at analytics. This is a relatively new position and varies from in-house positions to consulting work. Whatever capacity the company has hired a threat intelligence analyst at, the position is a crucial one. The role of threat intelligence analyst is generally three-fold: technical research, intelligence research and communicating the findings to the proper people. Threat intelligence analysts may be part of an in-house team or work for a managed service provider (MSP) providing cybersecurity services to clients.

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Business Model Work Harder

Many business owners, including vendors and solution providers, think backbreaking hard work is the only route to achieving a sustainable business. However, the business model you select will have a more significant impact on your future success and growth. No matter how much hard work you put into your business, it means nothing if that work isn’t aligned directly to your business model and customer offering.

Diving into the Holiday Season and Analyzing the Industry Outlook Report

On Volley, hosts and CompTIA research analysts Carolyn April and Seth Robinson are joined by Randy Gross, CompTIA CIO and executive vice president of certification operations, for the annual holiday episode. For Halloween, the trio discuss what scares them about the impact of tech in the real world; for Thanksgiving, Carolyn, Seth and Randy talk about what—or rather, who—they are thankful for; and as gifts to themselves, the group shares what tech-related news is on their holiday wish lists.

When choosing a business model for your organisation, you should consider:
The way you deliver service to your clients.
The dynamics of your internal teams.
The strategies that can be applied to make money.
The steps you need to take for long-term business success.

Investing the time and effort to understand these areas and get them right will give your business a better opportunity to make money. This was the topic at the managed service provider workshop at a recent ANZ Channel Community meeting in Sydney, where Si Harris, a trainer with 6,500 coaching sessions and 400+ keynotes under his belt, presented to attendees. Read on to learn the key takeaways for SMBs, vendors and solutions providers looking to better utilize their business models.
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Top Paying IT Certifications

AI Advisory Council

CompTIA officially launched our Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council on Jan. 1, but several of the founding members got a head start last November, meeting for the first time at CompTIA’s Year-End Planning Meeting to discuss and prioritize goals and initiatives. Admittedly, much of the tech talk was complex, but when the members discussed some innovative practical applications for AI and blockchain, and how AI can integrate into the other emerging technologies, it was hard not to get excited about the future. Speaking of which…

The Certification of Data

One of the initiatives AI Council members want CompTIA to explore is the possibility of certifying data created through AI and other processes. CompTIA of course has a tremendous reputation and market share in the certification space (second globally to Microsoft), but that’s mainly people skills. Certifying data is a whole different beast. The problem, AI Council members said, is that most existing data certifiers can’t be objective. They feel that wouldn’t be the case with CompTIA, a vendor-neutral, non-profit organization. We’re not sure if it’s feasible/possible, but it’s another great example of our members thinking outside the box.

Spirit of Collaboration

Toward the end of the YEPM conference, four Advisory Councils (Blockchain, AI, IoT and Drone) packed together in a ballroom to hash out a goal they could work on together: creating a piece of content that showcases all four emerging technologies integrating together in an end-to-end solution. The camaraderie, brainstorming and thought leadership was awesome to see. We’re looking forward to seeing how this shapes up over the next several months. When complete, it would be a great marketing tool for anyone selling technology.

Blockchain Opportunities Seem Limitless

Do a Google image search for “blockchain” and watch how many photos for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies come up. Of course, blockchain is so much more than Bitcoin, an opinion very much shared by members of the Blockchain Advisory Council. Their frustrations with that perception will lead to a slew of initiatives in 2020, including the development of use cases that demonstrate the power of blockchain, a blockchain glossary and training matrix, as well as content designed to dispel the many myths about blockchain in the market. They will complement nicely the recent Blockchain Decision Tree completed by the council
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The Merging of IT and OT

It starts with a basic definition. Everyone in our industry was born and raised to manage information technology. So as a category, that's the scope of what we typically pay attention to.

The other side of the customers’ world, however, is that what I refer to as OT or operational technologies, and that gets into the category of equipment and systems that are used to do labor. But it's also associated with the systems of a building and the machinery on a factory floor or the pump drilling into the ground. The key is that the operational technology is, in many cases, older than a lot of the information technology companies use and those systems in place need to be retrofitted for internet connectivity. What's changed is that when all of that equipment is connected to the internet it will run on an operating system, use a processor, have a hard drive and connect to the network for programming, control and automation purposes as well as for information gathering and analytical purposes.

CompTIA: How should a technology professional be looking at this topic?

RM: I think the first part of the conversation is that we have a blind spot to the world of operational technologies. But it actually looks like a missed opportunity, right? Especially if I'm a managed service provider and my job is to monitor, manage and report on anything that attaches to the network. Well, it's no longer just the servers and the laptops and somebody's smartphone. As we move into more of the modern definition of IoT, all of the things in this world that have a processor, internet connection, and a sensor to capture and track local information—those things all become opportunities.

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The Fundamentals comptia a+

I think it’s a safe bet that folks around the world have already heard about the Iowa caucuses meltdown. We’ve often worried about some sort of perceived enemy. But in the case of Iowa, we have met the enemy – and in this case, the enemy appears to be us. And I mean us, here. Not just the organizers of the Iowa caucuses, Shadow (the company that created the app everyone is talking about), or tech professionals. I mean everyone involved.

What we witnessed wasn’t a technical meltdown, per se. We witnessed an organizational meltdown, with tech, apparently, only at the core. I say “apparently,” because once you deconstruct this meltdown, we’re seeing an organizational issue, where the tech folks usually become the scapegoat. Like the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, we witnessed the acute technical moment where the technology exploded. But trust me, this issue was a slow-motion meltdown that was months in the offing.

This event is especially interesting to me personally, and not because my mom was born in Iowa (Des Moines). It’s because I had a chance to discuss the “root causes” of the Iowa caucuses meltdown about two weeks before it happened. Let me explain.

About two weeks ago, Adam Powell at the University of Southern California invited me to represent CompTIA at their Election Cybersecurity Initiative Roundtable. It was quite the crowd: Vint Cerf, co-creator of TCP, Clifford Neuman, a creator of the Kerberos authentication protocol, and representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Associated Press, and many others were there. And, little old me. We discussed organization and technical issues surrounding this year’s elections.
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Benefits of Being an IT Generalist

There’s one in every workplace – a jack of all trades. That IT generalist who knows a little bit about everything, is praised for being an informed resource and has a very broad knowledge base. Maybe an IT pro you know comes to mind – maybe it’s even you! Having knowledge on a variety of topics is great, but is it perhaps better to be specialized in one specific tech topic instead? We’re here to compare being an IT generalist to an IT specialist to help you determine whether you want to set yourself up as a jack of all trades or a master of one. CompTIA’s 2020 IT Industry Outlook revealed an abundance of information about the state of the IT industry this year that can help us decipher the benefits of each path.

The directive includes three important policies:
Privileged users and IA managers shall be fully qualified, trained and certified to DoD baseline requirements to perform their IA duties.
All IA personnel shall be identified, tracked and managed so that IA positions are staffed with personnel trained and certified by category, level and function.
IA certification and training shall be monitored and reported as an element of mission readiness.

These policies made a big difference for U.S. DoD cybersecurity readiness. Not only did the DoD continue with DoD Directive 8570 for 10 years, it expanded upon it with DoD Directive 8140.
You Have a Versatile Skillset

As an IT generalist, your diversity is an impressive quality to employers. An IT pro that can be consulted with any type of project no matter what the challenge, is highly appreciated in the workplace.

According to the 2020 IT Industry Outlook, employers are facing a challenge of filling a broad range of skills. So, if you’re the type of IT pro who can help rewire a server room, fight cyber-crime and onboard a new hire, you provide a more unique value than someone with a specialization.

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The New CompTIA A+

CompTIA A+ first launched in 1993, and since 2001 has been refreshed every three years to ensure the topics covered keep pace with what’s happening in IT. Employers, subject-matter experts and IT pros working in the field guide us in what they look for in help desk technicians, technical support specialists and other jobs related to CompTIA A+ to make sure we’re covering the skills that are needed in today’s world. With the launch of the new CompTIA A+ came many questions, so we’ve set out to answer them here. Keep reading to learn more about the CompTIA A+ Core Series (220-1001 and 220-1002), and post any additional questions in the comments to keep the conversation going.

There are more than 1.2 million open cybersecurity jobs in the United States that need software development skills – and if you have any of the following skills, make sure potential employers know, as they are the top-requested skills in this category.
Information systems
Cryptography
Information assurance
Security operations
Information Security
Risk assessment
Authentication
Risk management
Disaster recovery planning
Cybersecurity Degree Requirements
6 percent do not require a bachelor’s degree
84 percent require a bachelor’s degree
10 percent require a graduate degree
Cybersecurity Experience Levels

All of this information is good to keep in mind while you are exploring a career in cybersecurity. Now let’s get a little more specific – what cybersecurity experience level is right for you? We’ve filtered through the information provided by CyberSeek by career level.
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