Network security breaches are never out of the news it seems. From home users unwittingly downloading viruses, government departments being hacked and losing sensitive data or entire police forces having to pay hackers to unlock ransomware so they can access their own files in order to carry out their duties.
I remember when I worked at Cisco when the security support team was first formed. Competition to get on the team was fierce because the knowledge you gained was so valuable. Many of the team members went onto high-level consulting positions, and others were head hunted by government security departments. All the engineers had taken the CCNA Security, and some passed the CCNP and CCIE Security.
Cisco recently updated the exam topics for the CCNA Security exam so now would be an excellent time to consider passing this prestigious exam. Here are a few reasons to consider taking it.
- Cisco Systems are the market leader in security devices providing advanced malware protection, email security, next-generation firewalls and intrusion prevention systems as well as web security, security management and VPN security clients. It makes sense to certify with the biggest vendor.
- Network security is one of the most challenging and rewarding careers available. Your knowledge and experience is highly prized by any company, no day at work is ever the same, and because threats and technology are continually changing, you are always learning new things.
- Cisco offers security certifications from CCNA up to CCIE, so the sky is the limit. The CCNA Security covers everything you’d expect to know as a junior level network security engineer including risk assessments, password security, AAA, Layer 2 attacks, firewalls and NAT, IPS, cryptography and, of course,
- There is next to zero chance of your career path becoming redundant in the foreseeable future (unlike around 90% of the current career paths).
- Roles exist for junior security engineer/support all the way up to senior architect.
- You can easily cross-train into penetration testing or CISSP or security management. The career choices are many.
- 27,400 IT security jobs are expected to be created in the next 4 years.
Our video training course for the new CCNA exam has just gone live. The course has been updated to include the latest exam updates for the IINS 3.0 210-260 exam. As always, we NEVER use IT trainers because they have almost always lost their edge having not worked on live networks sometimes for several years! Your course has been created by leading Cisco CCIE security expert Adeolu Owokade (CCIE 26495) who consults for major blue chip companies designing secure solutions as well as installing and troubleshooting security devices for enterprise level networks.
Adeolu has a wealth of experience to share with you which you can immediately apply to live networks. He covers all the theory you need to know before progressing onto configuration examples and labs where you can see him configure VPNs, IOS firewalls and Cisco ASA devices. You can follow along either using GNS3 or our live Cisco racks.
The course is over 15 hours mixing up theory and labs and features end of module exams as well as a practise exam for you to take so you can prepare for the real thing. Not only that, we’ve added some bonus subjects which Cisco have removed from the syllabus but seem to still be including in the exam (and in their current exam study guide) including Cisco Configuration Professional (CCP), IOS NAT and access lists.
The CCNA Security course has been retired by Cisco so check out the Cisco CyberOps Associate.
Have Fun
Paul Browning
