CompTIA Addresses Security Skills

WASHINGTON -- The need for information security preparedness at all levels of organizations, from the technicians in the server room to the CEO in the corner officer, will be addressed by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) at the FOSE 2007 conference here March 20-22.

Neill Hopkins, vice president, skills development for CompTIA, will deliver a presentation titled “Improve Your Organizational Security Posture - Essential Technology and Workforce Considerations” at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, 2007 in the Secure Fortress Theater at the Washington, D.C., Convention Center. He will be joined by Susan Farago, manager, Tivoli Certification Program, Tivoli Software Group, IBM

“A sophisticated security infrastructure has emerged over the last several years to counter the proliferation of threats to networks, information and data,” Hopkins said. “Many seem to believe that a fully automated solution is able to turn back all attacks; but reliance on technology alone has lulled many into a sense of complacency about information security. This complacency is keeping many organizations from addressing the single biggest threat to their information security and technology infrastructure: the person behind the PC.”

Research conducted by CompTIA for the past four years has consistently shown that human error is most often responsible for information security breaches. In 2006, human error was responsible for nearly 60 percent of information security breaches experienced by organizations, a significant increase from the prior year. Yet despite the prominent role that human behavior plays, just 29 percent of organizations required security training for IT staff; and just 36 percent offered end-user security awareness training.

For its part, CompTIA offers its CompTIA Security+™ certification, an industry accepted credential that validates mastery of critical practices for communications security, infrastructure security, cryptography, and operational and organizational security. CompTIA Security+ assesses the knowledge of IT professionals with two years of on-the-job networking experience with emphasis on security. The certification covers communication security, infrastructure security, cryptography, access control, authentication, external attack, and operational and organizational security.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA)