Certification - June 2008 - (Page 25)

GIAC experiences gave me a far greater knowledge base to draw on when faced with the need to create unique security and compliance solutions for my company. The resulting implementations made us dramatically safer and reduced the overall cost of compliance significantly.” For employers, a GIAC certification offers increased confidence in their employees’ skills and is a great indicator of job-related knowledge. Some employers use GIAC certifications as an aide in their promotion and payroll decisions. Jeffrey Wiley of Raytheon uses GIAC to help in his hiring process: “Being a GIAC certification holder myself, I know what it represents, and when interviewing [for a position], I frequently move GIAC holders’ resumes to the top of the interview stack. GIAC is an invaluable cert to have. It GIAC looks to the Advisory Board first when input is needed from industry subject matter experts on certification development. GIAC Advisory Board members often have additional opportunities to get involved with SANS and GIAC, including access to a closed mailing list of Advisory Board members with whom they can collaborate regarding the issues they are facing in the field. The GIAC program is ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 accredited. This ANSI (American National Standards Institute) accreditation means GIAC is a responsible, fair and quality-oriented testing and certification-granting organization within the high-stakes testing and certification industry. GIAC is expanding its scope to include other specialized certifications later this year. Becoming Certiﬁed “Being a GIAC certification holder myself, I know what it represents, and when interviewing [for a position], I frequently move GIAC holders’ resumes to the top of the interview stack.” ensures that the holder truly has hands-on skills.” In addition to the obvious benefits that come with a recognized credential, several GIAC certifications are included in the Department of Defense 8570 program. The DOD 8570 directive says that those who work for the Department of Defense and hold an IT securityrelated position must demonstrate they have an adequate level of practical IT security knowledge. The 8570 directive enforces this premise by approving a select group of IT security certifications. Top-performing GIAC certification holders also will find additional benefits as members of the GIAC Advisory Board. The GIAC Advisory Board is made up of GIAC certified professionals who wish to give back to the security community by taking an active role in the GIAC program. Membership on the Advisory Board is available to those who score better than 90 percent – which is considered honors level – on a GIAC certification exam. The first step to becoming GIAC certified is to choose a certification domain. The second step is to determine the specific skill sets you would like to validate, and then map these skills to the corresponding certification. The third step is to determine if you need additional training; GIAC offers knowledge assessments and practice tests to help you ascertain your skill level. The final step is to take your certification exam. GIAC certification domains include: • Audit domain: Duties consist of auditing the security posture of networks and systems or auditing systems for compliance with policy. • Legal domain: Covers legal issues related to IT security. • Management domain: Covers the skills needed to manage a technical staff of administrators, analysts and IT security personnel. • Security administration: This is by far GIAC’s most popular domain. If you are a technical person with technical hands-on duties and you want to validate and improve your skills, this domain is for you. GIAC offers 13 specializations in this domain at varying levels of complexity. INSIDE CERTIFICATION continued on page 39 June 2008 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE 25

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification - June 2008

Certification - June 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Tech Careers Academic Connection Dear Techie Virtual Village Online Degrees: Are They Right for You? Inside Certification New Opportunities and Challenges: Are Application Developers Ready? Interface Where Have All the Help Desks Gone? Ad Index Endtag

Certification - June 2008

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