5 Certifications for IT Security Fundamentals
IT Security, often called information security, is a way of protecting information from misuse or any kind of unauthorized access. Information security essentially revolves around the three main principles—confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This means that the information should be only accessible to the company to which it belongs, it should not be tampered with, and should be available to use anytime and anywhere.
With the rising number of digital platforms and businesses, cyber threats and attacks are also increasing day by day. Hence, large organizations, companies, and even small businesses require technical help for protecting and securing their business online from different types of attacks.
Technical professionals who secure information systems need to have detailed knowledge of the terms and techniques needed to do it. So, having only a degree doesn’t specify if an individual is qualified enough to work on protecting and securing real-time systems. An IT security professional should have a stronghold over the basics and nitty-gritties of all the terms and concepts of security along with emerging trends and technologies, and being a certified specialist in the area gives an individual an edge over others in their career.
Here are some of the essential certifications that provide a hands-on and industrial approach that you can consider having on your resume to enhance your IT security career.
SASE Expert Certification
SASE Expert Certification Training by CATO Networks comes along with training and has 2 different levels: Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 is the basic, beginner-friendly course that is essential to take for being SASE certified, while Level 2 is an advanced-level course covering advanced security and networking topics. SASE is the new-age technology that is being adopted by modern businesses due to the need for framing the strategies for business continuity.
The only prerequisite for this certification is having basic knowledge of network, security, and the cloud. It covers the architecture of SASE, its integration point solutions, and SASE migration. A candidate requires a minimum score of 85% to pass the exam and get certified.
This certification is on track to becoming an essential one as it is a new technology and offers a practical approach to understanding the SASE architecture and how it is used in the real world scenario.
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA Security+ is a global certification that teaches and validates the fundamental skills of performing basic security functions. Most corporates and defense organizations consider this certification while recruiting for the security profile as this certification validates the core security skills of a candidate.
The Security+ certificate provides the best practices in hands-on troubleshooting, problem-solving, identifying, and analyzing skills for different real-time security incidents. The Security+ exam consists of 90 multiple choices along with performance-based questions that have to be completed within 90 minutes. A candidate requires a score of 750 on a scale of 100 to 900 for passing this certification.
This certification covers a wide variety of topics—attacks, vulnerabilities, threats, architecture, and designs of various hybrid networks, as well as the implementation of administering identity and access management and end-to-end security.
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Network+ is a certification that covers the fundamentals of network security—configuring, managing, and troubleshooting networks. The Network+ certification covers a wide variety of topics starting from networking fundamentals like network services, topologies, architecture, and cloud connectivity to maintaining and troubleshooting connectivity and software issues regarding the networks.
The Network+ certification comes along with training options to choose from: online training, self-paced training, and training along with labs. The certification exam consists of 90 questions, which are a combination of performance-based and multiple-choice questions, that have to be completed within 90 minutes.
Thus, having this certification is beneficial for an individual to grow their knowledge in networking and security.
CompTIA A+
CompTIA A+ is an industry-recognized certification that covers core technologies, from networking to security to virtualization. It is the only industry-relevant certification that includes performance testing for professionals to perform the most critical IT support problems.
Candidates are required to pass 2 exams to get the CompTIA A+ Core 1 and Core 2 exams, which test the candidate’s ability to work in a hybrid workforce. The exams last 90 minutes and contain a maximum of 90 multiple choice questions, and they can be given either in offline centers or online testing centers.
This certification will be an additional benefit for an interview or for a successful IT career as it is trusted by most employers all over the world for identifying the correct persons for technical support and endpoint management roles.
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
The Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification validates a person’s understanding of different ethical hacking versions and phases, different types of security attacks, and preventive measures to stop them. It explains the hacker’s point of view for better protecting the IT systems and infrastructure.
CEH provides a hands-on approach and a systematic process in the hacking domain, which enhances the candidate’s knowledge and sharpens their skills in recognizing vulnerabilities in systems. The exam consists of 125 multiple choice questions that have to be completed in 4 hours and can be given either offline or online.
Having this certification validates that the person has a practical and hands-on approach to dealing with real-world hacking problems and defending a system against cyber attacks.
Conclusion
IT security is one of the most popular and growing industries in the technical field and also offers a wide variety of opportunities along with high pay for IT professionals. Most employers prefer candidates with some kind of certification while hiring for security profiles. Hence, having a cyber security or ethical hacking certification gives you an edge over others during the interview process and promotions. A certification is an excellent way to propel your career forward.
