Whenever someone asks me what direction they should focus their IT career, particularly in regard to cybersecurity, my answer is always the same: “It depends.” It’s usually not a very satisfying answer, but it’s an honest one. 

Early in my own career I learned the pitfalls of not specializing in something. While there’s always a place on a support team for someone who seems to know a little bit about everything, this makes for a very poor career move. On the surface it seems like a great idea, but in reality…

 

It’s simply not possible to be an expert in everything. Everyone hits their limits with time, memory, and determination eventually, so we must choose wisely what we want to specialize in. Having no specialty is a recipe for a mediocre career, especially in cybersecurity.

So, if you’re just kicking off your security career, or re-tooling and looking for inspiration, the best place to start is finding a specialty. A few...

Charles has been wrapping up production on the SCOR (350-701) Video Training Series this week, so we thought it’d be fitting to go over one of the topics on the blueprint with you!

In this video, Charles takes a look at the advantages and features of Cisco Stealthwatch. Enjoy the training, and stay tuned for an upcoming product launch in the near future! 

If the security track is on your radar, particularly CCNA Security, you need to have a working understanding of configuration and troubleshooting with Cisco's Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM).

In this video, I'll walk through the setup of a basic clientless SSL VPN using Cisco's GUI-based ASDM software.

All the best,

Charles Judd - Instructor
CCNA R/S, BS Network Security

I get asked a lot about home lab equipment by those interested in studying cybersecurity, particularly CCNA Cyber Ops and CompTIA CySA+ students. In this new video, I'll give you a look at my setup, and give some recommendations for creating your own basic security lab and why it's important.

All the best,

Charles Judd - Instructor
CCNA R/S, BS Network Security

Whenever someone asks me what direction they should focus their IT career, particularly in regard to cybersecurity, my answer is always the same: “It depends.” It’s usually not a very satisfying answer, but it’s an honest one. 

Early in my own career I learned the pitfalls of not specializing in something. While there’s always a place on a support team for someone who seems to know a little bit about everything, this makes for a very poor career move. On the surface it seems like a great idea, but in reality…

 

It’s simply not possible to be an expert in everything. Everyone hits their limits with time, memory, and determination eventually, so we must choose wisely what we want to specialize in. Having no specialty is a recipe for a mediocre career, especially in cybersecurity.

So, if you’re just kicking off your security career, or re-tooling and looking for inspiration, the best place to start is finding a specialty. A few...

I’m afraid we’ve over-romanticized the concept of cyber security in many ways. We imagine ourselves as Mr. Robot, staring at our terminals intensely, valiantly defending against state-sponsored DDOS attacks in real-time. I don’t want to discount the validity of these events, because they can and do happen quite frequently. The problem is, we often neglect to address the biggest and most prevalent vulnerability in our environments – the humans.

Studies consistently reveal that over 60 percent of security breaches are due to some sort of employee error. We’ve reached a saturation point where we’re rarely separated from our devices. Often this means that employees are always within arm’s reach of their corporate networks. Disaster is literally just one click away. There’s almost always a human element to a breach, whether that be malicious intent from a disgruntled employee or a simple oversight by well-intentioned personnel.

Don’t...

In this video, we'll take a look at The Onion Router, better known as the Tor browser. I'll demonstrate how Tor relays traffic through proxies to anonymize web traffic, and discuss some practical uses for this software.

If you're a security-minded individual, Tor is a tool that you will definitely want to check out for secure browsing.

All the best,

Charles Judd - Instructor
CCNA R/S, BS Network Security

A national survey from Common Sense Media found that adults spend over nine hours each day in front of various screens – including computers, tablets, phones and televisions. I will confess that the first thing I do upon waking is grab my phone and check message notifications, news feeds, and the occasional startled cat video from Reddit. It seems that online is the new default setting for the world.

During a recent holiday break from school, my kids spent a lot of time blissfully adding to this staggering statistic with a mixture of Spotify, Netflix, Xbox Live and various MMOs. All was right with the world until an unexpected power outage in the neighborhood brought things to a screeching halt. I’m not sure I have ever seen such looks of dismay-edging-toward-terror on their young faces. They have always existed during a time in which being unplugged from the web is an unimaginable state.

Security Concerns

With our ever-increasing screen time and desire for...