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If you work in the IT field, you should know there are numerous useful certifications that will help you land jobs like cisco’s CCNA, GIAC certs and CISSP. All these certificates have a purpose and are worth the effort. But what about CompTIA’s security+? You may heard about this certification and may have been wondering if it’s worth your time and effort. CompTIA may not have the same recognition that other certifications have, but it still provides a good solid baseline and is accepted as a solid certificate to have.

CompTIA security+ is a vendor neutral certification and provides a standard baseline to fill in cybersecurity job role. This certification is simply an entry ticket to landing cybersecurity job. If cybersecurity is not your goal, then security+ might not be for you, unless you are getting it only to meet your job position’s requirement. For example, the government requires certain certification requirement for specific billet. DoD Directive 8570 is utilized by department of defense to identify, tag, track and manage the information assurance, or cybersecurity, workforce. It also established a manual that includes an enterprise-wide baseline IT certification requirement to validate the knowledge, skills and abilities of people working in cybersecurity roles. Security+ will be meeting the IAM level I and IAT level II requirement as you can see at the bottom. It’s basically a check mark that you have to meet to fill and maintain a billet.

Security+ simply validates mastery of security knowledge of an individual. It is similar to having two years on the-job networking experience, with emphasis on security. Top companies such as Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Symantec and IBM accepts the certification and even recommends or requires it of their IT employees.

I personally have this certification myself and have gotten it almost a decade ago and I’d say this certification is definitely worth it and is an excellent starting point for those who want to start a career in cybersecurity. Unlike other cybersecurity certifications, security+ does not require any prior knowledge. If you are new, I’d say definitely go for it, but if you are not new in IT, I’d recommend you skip security+ and go straight to CISSP.

If you are are new into this industry, you should refer to the roadmap that is provided by CompTIA and make a plan to continuously advance your career, so you don’t calm to a halt. Certain certificate requires several years of experience before you are given the certification like CISSP.

Security+ exam covers threats, attacks and vulnerabilities; technologies and tools; architecture and design; identity and access management; risk management; and cryptography and PKI. Security+ only requires one exam, is compliant with ISO 17024 standards and approved by the US DoD to meet directive 8140/8570.01-M requirements. If you are interested, the exam costs $392, is 90 minutes long and includes multiple choice and performance based questions, and caps out at 90 questions total, and you must score at least 750 on 100 to 900 scale.