February 17th, 2010 by James D. Murray
The United States Department of Defense (US DoD) Directive 8570.01-M is a set of guidelines and procedures for the training, certification, and management of the DoD Information Assurance (IA) workforce conducting Information Assurance (IA) functions.
According to the DoD Directive 8570 IAT FAQ, the long-term goal of DoD 8570.01 is the creation of a sustained, professional Information Assurance workforce possessing the knowledge and skills to effectively prevent and respond to attacks against DoD information, information systems, and information infrastructures. All DoD organizations must comply the requirements of this directive in order to put the right people with the right skills in the right place.
One way DoD 8570.01 prepares the IA workforce is by specifically requiring every full- and part-time military service member, defense contractor, civilian and foreign employee with privileged access to a DoD system–regardless of job series or occupational specialty–to obtain a commercial certification credential that has been accredited by the ISO/IEC.
So if you work for the DoD, or are looking for DoD work, what certifications should you have? And what does 8570.01 mean to people who are already certified?
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Tags: 8570.01, certifications, DoD
Posted in JDMurray | 12 Comments »
November 14th, 2009 by James D. Murray
The CWTS Certified Wireless Technology Specialist Official Study Guide by Robert Bartz and published by Sybex (1st Edition, June 2009, ISBN 0470438894) is the official study material designed to prepare the reader for passing the CWTS (PW0-070) exam and obtaining the CWTS® Certified Wireless Technology Specialist certification from CWNP. In this article, I have a look at this study guide, determine how comprehensive it is to the CWTS exam, and make a very subjective determination if it is, in fact, helpful in obtaining the CWTS certification at all.
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Tags: 802.11, certification, CWNP, CWTS, wireless
Posted in JDMurray, review | 7 Comments »
August 16th, 2009 by James D. Murray
This is a “Don’t let this happen to you!” blog article.
TrueCrypt is a wonderful, free program for encrypting and password-protecting devices with file systems, such as hard drives and USB memory sticks. However, throw bad disk sectors and no data backups into this mix and you may experience much “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Read on…
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Tags: hard disk drive, spinrite, truecrypt
Posted in JDMurray | 2 Comments »
May 20th, 2009 by James D. Murray
VMWare ESXi 3.5.0 is a bare-metal hypervisor available as a 60-day, fully functional evaluation. After 60 days, ESXi will operate with reduced accessibility and functionality. However, it is possible to reset the evaluation counter back to 60 days without loosing your ESXi machine’s configuration, inventory, or VMs. In a nutshell, the steps to perform this reset are:
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Tags: ESXi, VMWare
Posted in JDMurray | 5 Comments »
May 19th, 2009 by James D. Murray
A group of members here at TechExams.net are a little excited about the new beta exam for the revised CompTIA Server+ certification for 2009. OK, we’re excited at the prospect of picking up yet-another-certification for free while helping CompTIA test-run its latest revision of the Server+ exam. I already have the Server+ cert from way back in 2003, but my opinion is apparently as valuable a non-cert holder, so I was granted an opportunity by CompTIA to participate as well.
The objectives for the 2009 Server+ exam certainly show quite an improvement over the exam I took. I remember the big areas I had to study-up on were tape backup strategies, the numerous levels of RAID, and the various types of SCSI technology. The revised Server+ exam adds objectives about networks and networking devices, file systems, motherboards and components, electronic media storage systems, and virtualization. There are also sections on physical security, disaster recover, and troubleshooting. The new Server+ is a lot like the A+ and Network+ certs combined, but from the server room tech’s point of view.
Anyway, I don’t want to review the new Server+ exam before I actually take it. Instead, this article presents a study reference for the Server+ exam for those people who are participating in the beta test, and for those who will take the exam after it is formally released. The following (long) listing is derived from the 2009 Server+ objectives and contains links to external Web sites (mostly Wikipedia) that provide information about each objective. Remember that CompTIA exams are entry-level, so it’s not necessary to become an expert on each objective, but please do try and learn a few new things along the way.
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Tags: certification, CompTIA
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April 26th, 2009 by James D. Murray
I was looking over the study reference section in the Candidate Information Bulletin (CIB) published by the (ISC)2 for the new CSSLP (Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional) certification, and I noted a several incorrect titles and authors were listed along with a few older editions. I decided to present here an updated listed of these books along with corresponding links to sellers and publishers. There are currently no study guides specifically for the CSSLP exam, so this list may be your only hope for passing. 
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Tags: certification, CSSLP
Posted in JDMurray | 2 Comments »
March 25th, 2009 by James D. Murray
CISSP in 21 Days by M. L. Srinivasan and from Packt Publishing is a new entry into the universe of study aides for the (ISC)² CISSP exam. This book approaches studying for the CISSP exam by breaking up the domains of the CISSP CBK (Common Body of Knowledge) into twenty-one chapters, each to be completed by the reader in a day’s time. The book also includes a mock exam with items derived from the CISSP CBK.
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Tags: book review, CISSP
Posted in JDMurray, review | No Comments »
February 9th, 2009 by James D. Murray
Do you need to learn about TCP/IP protocols, computer networks, and how the Internet works, but can’t make head or tails out of the books written by people with names like Stallings, Stevens, and Comer? Then Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 Hours, 4th Edition by Joe Casad may be just the book for you.
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Tags: book review, networking, TCP/IP
Posted in JDMurray, review | 2 Comments »
January 27th, 2009 by James D. Murray
Candidates on the journey to pass the (ISC)² CISSP exam are constantly looking for recommendations of the best study resources to use, the most efficient ways of learning the material, and how to survive taking the exam itself. Although the CISSP journey is different for everyone, some wisdom and confidence surely can be gained by reading the recommendations of others who have already reached their CISSP-certified destination.
OK, OK, here’s the stuff you want to know…
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Tags: CISSP
Posted in JDMurray | 11 Comments »
January 20th, 2009 by James D. Murray
This is an recounting of my experience in acquiring the (ISC)² CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional) certification. Originally, I intended not to write a review of my CISSP exam experience. I had already passed the SSCP exam in April 2008 and written about that experience in my blog article, “The SSCP Certification Experience.” Because I intended to take the CISSP exam in the same location and from the same training vendor as the SSCP, I assumed my CISSP experience would be 99% identical; how wrong that assumption turned out to be.
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Tags: CISSP
Posted in JDMurray | 11 Comments »
