Cisco Update the Recertification Policy for Professional Exams

I received an email the other day that informs me that from the 18th August, the recertification policy is changing for Professional Level exams.

It was always the case that the exams were only valid for three years, then you had to re-sit the entire SP, DP, or NP track. The only way out of this was to pass a CCIE Written exam in this timeframe.

So, it now looks like all you have to do is to pass one exam from the required professional level in order to recertify.

IMHO, this seems a bit slack. The professional level exams are all very focussed on specific technologies. For example, lets look at the CCSP. You have to pass five exams, all for very specific technologies. I have always told people to go and sit the Security CCIE written days after your last CCSP exam. The Security CCIE written is like a collection of all the CCSP exams, with some very basic CCNA level and CCNP level routing thrown in. So, classing this as a recert for the CCSP is good in my eyes, as it does prove knowledge throughout the tested subjects.

However, passing the CCSP in 2003, then just sitting the IPS exam to recert seems silly. You may have never touched IOS or the PIX/ASA for three years, but you are still classed as a security professional in the eyes of Cisco.

I just hope that this does not go to devalue the professional level certifications as we all work hard for these. I have passed the NP, DP, and SP and they are all good tests of knowledge.

I would be very interested in hearing your opinions on this matter.

Thanks,

Cool Online Network Tools

Be sure to check out these online networking tools provided by Phereo in the UK. They have an online Subnet Calculator and also Subnet Planner, both very handy. You can get to them by following this link, www.phereo.co.uk.

I am on a roll - Google Certified Professional

I have been using AdWords for quite a while now, and since I am in the certification game, I thought what the heck, let's do the Adwords Exam.

So, after 90 days of activity, and getting over the minumum spend from one of my clients I decided to "eat the manual", do the online training and sit the exam. After a wet week on the east cost of Yorkshire, armed with the Adwords Book, I decided to sit the exam.

104 questions in 90 minutes, and WOW was it hard. The online training is very good, and you should have a good understanding of how AdWords works to be in a position where you can even take the exam.

All in all a very hard exam. I do not have a marketing degree, but I used the online tools, and my study method, and proved I am worthy of the challenge.

So, if you need any Google AdWords campaigns managing, you know who to ask!

You can check my professional status here

I Passed the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

Well, I recently passed the Certified Ethical Hacker exam, so I thought I would share my findings.

I have not sat an exam for quite a while now. With my CCIE recert looming, I thought it necessary to start getting back into the swing of things. My last exam was the CISSP in December 2004!, the longest exam break in my last ten years of certifications!

So, I started to prep for the CEH exam about three months ago. I bought the Official CEH exam guide from Amazon. The book, although thorough has horrendous typography, with spaces added into the middle of words on virtually every page. Really makes reading hard as it stops your flow. As well as this, I built myself a couple of hack machines, one on Linux and one on Windows. For the Linux machine I downloaded the v1.0 release of BackTrack.

So, armed with all this, and my usual trusty MindManager (I will be blogging loads on Mind Mapping) I set about my studies.

I used my usual, trustworthy study method, again one I will explain and blog later. The same method that has got me through over 40 exams including ones such as the CISSP and CCIE (on the first attempt). This consisted of reading through the material, and then making Mind Maps, before the practical hands on. It also helps that I am involved in some hands on penetration testing at work right now.

So, to cut a long story short, I passed the exam with 96%. I found it a very fair exam, but I must admit that the courseware and knowledge required is very wide. It is not like a traditional Cisco exam where you can eat the course notes, and be assured that is where the exams will be asked from. This exam is vast, pulling on a lot of quite detailed technical knowledge as well as the utilisation of many tools available on the Internet.

All in all, I found the CEH a very valuable experience. I already have the networking knowledge (CCIE) as well as the security knowledge (CISSP), combined with some application knowledge (CNA, MCSE). But the CEH gave me a great understanding of the available tools, and also it is quite worrying the number of very easy to use tools that are out there that can cause a lot of damage!

Well, eventually

Well, after a long time deliberating, I finally decided to bite the bullet and launch a blog. Quite a few people of asked me to do this so here goes.

Don't know if anybody will be interested but I will share my views on certification, security issues, as well as the latest and greatest new technologies that I stumble across.