Cisco's $10 Million in Scholarships for Cyber

Queue

Looks like I was accepted 2 days ago, but didn't catch the email. Gmail moved it to my promotions tab. It said they will be back in touch with me by Friday, January 6th to let me know when I'd start. The first two cohorts are filled ending on June 2017.

GeekyChick

I've been thinking about this cert and I think what they're doing is letting everyone in and weeding people out as the training goes along. There are tests/quizzes along the way and I suppose people will either pass, drop out or get kicked out(?). Anyway, just a passing thought. Everyone else has probably already figured this out and it just hit me. My point is just that they'll let everyone in knowing not everyone will finish.

cyberguypr

Very good point. I am also wondering what the attrition rate will be. There's no way everyone who got in will complete the program.

Ertaz

cyberguypr wrote: »

Very good point. I am also wondering what the attrition rate will be. There's no way everyone who got in will complete the program.

If it's all self paced...

There will be pretenders failing and cycling out, and there will be infosec ninjas reviewing the basics and finishing way early.

Smilymarco

As far as i understand it is self-paced as long as you stay inside the 90 days.

9bits

If Cisco follows their general certification pattern, they'll create higher level certifications along their cybersecurity track at the CCNP and CCIE levels in the near future. This scholarship program helps them jump start the track, and gets people invested in it and talking about. Cisco knows security is only going to grow, so it's in their best interest to pull people toward their certs, and this program will do exactly that. I doubt they're hoping people will drop out or fail.

PC509

It is CCENT level or CCNA level? I'm hoping it's a somewhat difficult cert so it has some value in the industry.

Abdullah.AA

9bits wrote: »

If Cisco follows their general certification pattern, they'll create higher level certifications along their cybersecurity track at the CCNP and CCIE levels in the near future. This scholarship program helps them jump start the track, and gets people invested in it and talking about. Cisco knows security is only going to grow, so it's in their best interest to pull people toward their certs, and this program will do exactly that. I doubt they're hoping people will drop out or fail.

as someone else mentioned else where, Cisco Has been having a tough year in 2016, with the lay offs and competition they have in the Network Security market with Palo Alto/Fortinet and Check point on one front , and amazon cloud services on another front.

maybe this is Cisco's way to get few thousend IT people to recommend their products if they happen to be certified Cyber Ops. (Cisco AMP, Cisco WSA/ESA ...etc).

Ertaz

Abdullah.AA wrote: »

as someone else mentioned else where, Cisco Has been having a touch year in 2016, with the lay offs and competition they have in the Network Security market with Palo Alto/Fortinet and Check point on one front , and amazon cloud services on another front.

maybe this is Cisco's way to get few thousend IT people to recommend their products if they happen to be certified Cyber Ops. (Cisco AMP, Cisco WSA/ESA ...etc).

Yep. Cheap marketing.

rob1234

PC509 wrote: »

I hope with this thing, a lot of people will take it and give their experiences. I'd love for it to become a solid, reputable certification. I'll take it without the scholarship if it becomes something like that. If it's just "another" cert just with the Cisco name, I'll pass. I'm hoping it's the former. Sounds like a nice cert! I'd love to take it.

Hopefully, some study materials are released and I can study on my own soon.

I think that is what Cisco are hoping for and have been smart here give it away free at first gets everyone's attention people get the cert so it becomes less unknown good market penetration then sit back and cash in on another security cert.

Although I know quite a few people with very little security experience being accepted so this may water its reputation down and just become a security+ type exam.

shortiebs

Weird, i havent gotten any correspondence since Sept 6 when i took the assessment. No rejection or accepantance.
I reapplied from a different email and got a rejection. guess i slipped through the cracks

OctalDump

cyberguypr wrote: »

It was me. I called them and gave the order to accept everyone form TE who applied, except OctalDump

BTW OctalDump, any update?

Still nothing. I sent another email to support. I am beginning to worry that there is something funny going on with my email. I might try via other channels. It'd kill me if I was in the first group and just hadn't received any emails...

EDIT:

Looks like I sent the support requests to the wrong email address

ksijur

Got this on 12th...

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the Cisco Global Cybersecurity Scholarship. We're glad you have decided to take part in this life-changing opportunity to become a valued partner in protecting the internet from hackers and other criminals. We have filled the first two programs (cohorts) until the end of June 2017. You have been accepted into the Cybersecurity Program, but we don’t have the dates identified yet on when you will start your cohort. We will get back to you by Friday, January 6^th with additional information. Please be patient and wait to hear from us at that time.

Ertaz

OctalDump wrote: »

EDIT:
Looks like I sent the support requests to the wrong email address

You're fired.

Reinstall

I'm halfway through SECFND, I'm moving a little fast because it's a refresher for me but so far I do like the presentation and virtual labs. Seriously reviewing the material again even though I covered it before is still very helpful. I'm starting to pay attention to the details instead of just a high level overview.

I can't take SECOPS until sometime in January so I'm not rushing the SECFND class.

============
STUDY & LABS
============

1. My study style is take notes while I review the material
2. Take section quiz and write down missed questions
3. Take end of module quiz and write down the ones I missed.

You have to score about 75% on the end of module quiz to move forward.

I usually watch all videos at 1.5 speed, the presenters are from down south or something and speak slow. On a positive side, it is easy to understand them and you can take notes while they talk slow.

Inside the virtual lab it is better to have the lab machine(win, kali, cisco etc..) pop out into its own window, then you can adjust the size easier and have multiple lab windows open at once instead of changing between them. For the windows lab I have to change the resolution to make it so I can see the "windows start button".

Each module could take about 1-3hrs.

Abdullah.AA

Reinstall wrote: »

I'm halfway through SECFND, I'm moving a little fast because it's a refresher for me but so far I do like the presentation and virtual labs. Seriously reviewing the material again even though I covered it before is still very helpful. I'm starting to pay attention to the details instead of just a high level overview. I can't take SECOPS until sometime in January so I'm not rushing the SECFND class. ============ STUDY & LABS ============ 1. My study style is take notes while I review the material 2. Take section quiz and write down missed questions 3. Take end of module quiz and write down the ones I missed. You have to score about 75% on the end of module quiz to move forward. I usually watch all videos at 1.5 speed, the presenters are from down south or something and speak slow. On a positive side, it is easy to understand them and you can take notes while they talk slow. Inside the virtual lab it is better to have the lab machine(win, kali, cisco etc..) pop out into its own window, then you can adjust the size easier and have multiple lab windows open at once instead of changing between them. For the windows lab I have to change the resolution to make it so I can see the "windows start button". Each module could take about 1-3hrs.

nice update, at least this means you can take the SECFND exam early

Abdullah.AA

someone on the cisco cyber security study group has shared some pictures and comments on the training in two doc files
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-31760

chrisone

I got an official we are sorry email from cisco a couple months back. This whole scholarship program is just to push out another CCNA exam so it gains traction. I am glad I didn't waste my time with it, I have more interesting things to learn. No offense but I don't have time for another CCNA.

Replicon

Reinstall wrote: »

I'm halfway through SECFND, I'm moving a little fast because it's a refresher for me but so far I do like the presentation and virtual labs. Seriously reviewing the material again even though I covered it before is still very helpful. I'm starting to pay attention to the details instead of just a high level overview.

I can't take SECOPS until sometime in January so I'm not rushing the SECFND class.

============
STUDY & LABS
============

1. My study style is take notes while I review the material
2. Take section quiz and write down missed questions
3. Take end of module quiz and write down the ones I missed.

You have to score about 75% on the end of module quiz to move forward.

I usually watch all videos at 1.5 speed, the presenters are from down south or something and speak slow. On a positive side, it is easy to understand them and you can take notes while they talk slow.

Inside the virtual lab it is better to have the lab machine(win, kali, cisco etc..) pop out into its own window, then you can adjust the size easier and have multiple lab windows open at once instead of changing between them. For the windows lab I have to change the resolution to make it so I can see the "windows start button".

Each module could take about 1-3hrs.

You said you have to have 75% for end module quiz, do you have multiple retries?

NetworkNewb

Replicon wrote: »

You said you have to have 75% for end module quiz, do you have multiple retries?

I'm going to guess he is going to say yes to that question, but was thinking how funny it would be if they didn't. If you failed any module quiz you were officially out of the scholarship.

Replicon

NetworkNewb wrote: »

I'm going to guess he is going to say yes to that question, but was thinking how funny it would be if they didn't. If you failed any module quiz you were officially out of the scholarship.

I would guess too, but wanted to confirm. Another thing that will be interesting is to know how long after the course you have to take the exam? I have a feeling cisco will want to have certified people soon enough so my fear is you need to take the exam right away which means those 3 months will be intense

Reinstall

All training and tests should (not must) be completed within 90 days.

Yes, you can retake the modules. The modules use the same questions so it's not terribly difficult. Hopefully you get it the second time.

NetworkingStudent

I took the test, but never heard back from CISCO if I got accepted or NOT. I did get Black Friday emails from a learn@Cisco email address.

Is there an email address, where we can request a status update on the program?

Thanks

OctalDump

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

I took the test, but never heard back from CISCO if I got accepted or NOT. I did get Black Friday emails from a learn@Cisco email address.

Is there an email address, where we can request a status update on the program?

Thanks

From the Cisco forums:

You should visit this website Support Home Page Support Home Page, login using your account information (if you don't have one, create one).Click on *Contact Certification Support* provide your personal info, type your issue then at +Product+ select Cybersecurity Scholarship Program. Typically the support responds within a day.

yuddhidhtir

I thought I was rejected so was not keenly checking updates of this programme. As always I never get notification of email from learning@cisco, don't know why its like that. So on 29th did a search on my gmail and found out that I have been selected and the email was of 12th Dec, felt surprised. The email came from support@t2000inc.zendesk.com and it said,

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the Cisco Global Cybersecurity Scholarship. We're glad you have decided to take part in this life-changing opportunity to become a valued partner in protecting the internet from hackers and other criminals. We have filled the first two programs (cohorts) until the end of June 2017. You have been accepted into the Cybersecurity Program, but we don’t have the dates identified yet on when you will start your cohort. We will get back to you by Friday, January 6^th with additional information. Please be patient and wait to hear from us at that time.

ypark

What do you know!? I just did search in my Gmail for "zendesk" and I have the same email dated Dec 12th!! All this time, I thought I didn't make it.

Thanks yddhidhtir for sharing!

chopsticks

6th Jan is just 5 days away.

scaredoftests

I just finished Chapter 14.

GeekyChick

I just found this on Cisco's Learning Center site. There are a couple of free classes that you can signup for and take to prepare for the Cyber Ops class if you haven't started already. This is the comment:

The easiest way seems to be to sign up for the Cisco Networking Academy NDG Linux Essentials course or the Packet Tracer 101 - Networking Academy course. Both of which will probably be very helpful for most people towards completing the certification.
Once you are enrolled in either of those classes you have access to the self-study NetAdad classes.

xxxkaliboyxxx

GeekyChick wrote: »

I just found this on Cisco's Learning Center site. There are a couple of free classes that you can signup for and take to prepare for the Cyber Ops class if you haven't started already. This is the comment:

The easiest way seems to be to sign up for the Cisco Networking Academy NDG Linux Essentials course or the Packet Tracer 101 - Networking Academy course. Both of which will probably be very helpful for most people towards completing the certification.
Once you are enrolled in either of those classes you have access to the self-study NetAdad classes.

Thanks Geeky Chicken, will enroll as soon as I get some downtime.