Cisco's $10 Million in Scholarships for Cyber

Abdullah.AA

I suppose now since 29th august is over (depending on where you are in the world), those who didnt get a rejection email are considered accepted, i hope.

SMBgurus

As a Cisco Partner involved in their certification process for the loads of security products and exams to get partners certified as a fire jumper requirement for those of us who are not master partners, but strong cyber security client bases I can say they have had a ton of work and investments going into the security side of their business and really went all in on 1/2 infosec and 1/2 aci/sdn/sddc for the future of cisco and they really did on the security side more so then I've seen as the partner relations manager from early 2000's and the responses look like a bit of delay tactics which is expected as the learning network was down for maintenance this weekend, they recently just migrated all the partner training and exams from the partner learning network and all around have been having a bit of delays given all the M&A they've done. I applied for this to see and assume they'd give a bit of partner preference to the program giving they only sell through the channel i.e. partners and I've been selected as 1 of 2 companies to test their SMB specialization back in 05 for IL and for some of security training in their regional offices directly with their CSE's which they never have done before with the GSSO, but given the M&A and movement of the partner learning systems which will likely take precedence as partners can't sell what they are not qualified on and from what I can tell they're lacking in partners able to keep up with all of the crap as they can't put it out as fast as they're acquiring it...

I'd give it a few days as all I received is the same thing everyone else has thus far. Unless anyone has actually received the assessment and others start receiving it on here I'd be surprised if they aren't releasing them in phases to see how well people are scoring to benchmark an acceptable score to get an estimate of what score to consider for acceptance based on the funds they actually want to put towards the program.s. I further wouldn't doubt if some are released in phases and that the extremely under qualified would get denied out the gates, but the basic questions asked were very little to determine who should qualify and likely a bit of strategic investment is being done with the "give away" i.e. tax right off... Meaning using your certification ID attached to your e-mail and a bit of algo use to rate you by location, partner association, etc... This way they can at least hope that some of those whom pass might fill the gaps for partners that sell their gear over another vendor in a high demand area, but lack the candidates to hire in the areas. Not to mention this certification can help some partners focused on security access contractors and bump their partner level up and be able to offer what they want to start pushing early next year further as if the exam is anything like it was before they acquire the same net flow company the exam was on then, then this will fit nicely into their bigger plan which would be rather organized thinking for Cisco and partner programs in general, but they have surprised me since they made this announcement to partners and actually followed through on the investment into the partners on security like giving all SE's new ASA's and for each training and exam passed online in the 5 foundational areas now they get like 500$ after level 4 and 250 after level 2 (just exam and 8hr+ of edu vs. whiteboard and pov/poc). Plus I'm sure 100's signed up multiple times given the lack of confirmation and they probably don't have the assessment done yet or maybe just have finished it, but knowing the old PeC and the likeliness this will run on the same system we get access to new HW releases, labs for CCIE training, sales training and everything else they've been considering again to my surprise rather well given the hordes of data they have compared to all other partners except Microsoft (but a software company so a bit better at it) Cisco has/was behind the curve in 14' still and now is on par and getting ahead of the rest. EMC/RSA soon Dell mixed in should be interesting, but I doubt they are overwhelmed with applicants vs. just overwhelmed as the Government's program to find 10k people is still going on yearly and was only intended for 2-3 years and its the same fukkers every year of which they start offering last minute cyber camp acceptances giving people a week notice and I could tell the year I went.

If people want to just post if they got their assessment that will likely be enough to tell how they move with this and I doubt anyone is going to send the link to it as they have a very simple tracking in the URL to your account used for surveys and that I can send to staff if I want to schedule them for their exams or requirements if any, so probably don't want to open it or try 2 accounts and all teh BS people do as its easy t see generally speaking unless you are great with websec. If people want to join as a partner to my program whom have a cisco certified ID for any active certification pm me and i'll add you and give access to the training and study materials for partners, just requires a certification with the vendor and if you're qualified as I get to know you or your certifications increase I'll gladly consider offering contracting on projects at the appropriate level or for those with their own clients in their area, you can access our distributor pricing discounts and use it to buy/sell hardware and earn your own rewards as well. I have just about every vendor you can imagine and a partnership with them on various levels that if you have a std certification with the vendor and want access to their free/partner training provided I can separate access from you being able to drain the accounts with a crazy PO I don't mind adding you as an associate that'll give you access to their vlabs and benefits which full disclosure may or may not offer a partner bump if sales are met to the next level and increased benefits, which I'll gladly share and pass on the discounts, business, conference passes, etc to those with businesses in their region as Chicago suburbs is plenty for me. Partner discounted in lab purchases unlikely this would be shared as it is limited and I learned my lesson being responsible for anyone else via my signature as the lab discounted in-house use gear can't be resold or it requires full repayment, but I would be more then happy to share the lab we have 20 vendors security products now in and grant access for learning and locals the ability to come and play or present design requirements for their study needs and accommodate the design (you may need to add your own storage/UCS/blade but infrastructure is here with VMware vcloud and all MS software, ideally I'd love to have other consultants join in and do a group buying to have an extra edge w/ gold tier discounts to offer our own clients and list ourselves as conglomerates with national coverage opening more deals for everyone and the benefit of knowing hey my buddy's team in WI or VA etc specializes on this and I'll send it to them or see if they want to assist on the project if needed along with mentor new comers to the industry learning in a real world lab vs. all linux tools on linux VM's never attacking enterprise gear which is what the enterprise uses!! PM me if you want to add ur account or discuss further and I'll send our partner ID for you to associate with and review your credentials, Cisco first, but really pick a vendor any vendor we should have it Good luck if i hear more on program ill update you after i search it out a bit more or calll partner support to see what te deal is as they'll likely call anyway to verify users can or have time allocated for it

cmztech

@danny for sure, honesty is the best policy. I was just jokingly saying how it hurt not to be able to say yes to everything under the pretense that they are probably hand selecting individuals. In which case, would make me and my lil 'ol CCENT (soon CCNA) be the bottom of the barrel. (but who knows!) well back to studying!

@Abdullah, no I did not receive an assessment link, yet. The email I was referring to seeing was the exact same one mentioned by @MrNetwork, is all. GL

scaredoftests

I haven't heard anything yet

danny069

cmztech wrote: »

@danny for sure, honesty is the best policy. I was just jokingly saying how it hurt not to be able to say yes to everything under the pretense that they are probably hand selecting individuals. In which case, would make me and my lil 'ol CCENT (soon CCNA) be the bottom of the barrel. (but who knows!) well back to studying!

Oh yeah for sure I know you were jokingly saying it, it hurt me too not to put CCNA certified at that time too, but like I said who knows what they are looking for. Good luck on studying.

devilbones

SMBgurus wrote: »

As a Cisco Partner involved in their certification process for the loads of security products and exams to get partners certified as a fire jumper requirement for those of us who are not master partners, but strong cyber security client bases I can say they have had a ton of work and investments going into the security side of their business and really went all in on 1/2 infosec and 1/2 aci/sdn/sddc for the future of cisco and they really did on the security side more so then I've seen as the partner relations manager from early 2000's and the responses look like a bit of delay tactics which is expected as the learning network was down for maintenance this weekend, they recently just migrated all the partner training and exams from the partner learning network and all around have been having a bit of delays given all the M&A they've done. I applied for this to see and assume they'd give a bit of partner preference to the program giving they only sell through the channel i.e. partners and I've been selected as 1 of 2 companies to test their SMB specialization back in 05 for IL and for some of security training in their regional offices directly with their CSE's which they never have done before with the GSSO, but given the M&A and movement of the partner learning systems which will likely take precedence as partners can't sell what they are not qualified on and from what I can tell they're lacking in partners able to keep up with all of the crap as they can't put it out as fast as they're acquiring it...

I'd give it a few days as all I received is the same thing everyone else has thus far. Unless anyone has actually received the assessment and others start receiving it on here I'd be surprised if they aren't releasing them in phases to see how well people are scoring to benchmark an acceptable score to get an estimate of what score to consider for acceptance based on the funds they actually want to put towards the program.s. I further wouldn't doubt if some are released in phases and that the extremely under qualified would get denied out the gates, but the basic questions asked were very little to determine who should qualify and likely a bit of strategic investment is being done with the "give away" i.e. tax right off... Meaning using your certification ID attached to your e-mail and a bit of algo use to rate you by location, partner association, etc... This way they can at least hope that some of those whom pass might fill the gaps for partners that sell their gear over another vendor in a high demand area, but lack the candidates to hire in the areas. Not to mention this certification can help some partners focused on security access contractors and bump their partner level up and be able to offer what they want to start pushing early next year further as if the exam is anything like it was before they acquire the same net flow company the exam was on then, then this will fit nicely into their bigger plan which would be rather organized thinking for Cisco and partner programs in general, but they have surprised me since they made this announcement to partners and actually followed through on the investment into the partners on security like giving all SE's new ASA's and for each training and exam passed online in the 5 foundational areas now they get like 500$ after level 4 and 250 after level 2 (just exam and 8hr+ of edu vs. whiteboard and pov/poc). Plus I'm sure 100's signed up multiple times given the lack of confirmation and they probably don't have the assessment done yet or maybe just have finished it, but knowing the old PeC and the likeliness this will run on the same system we get access to new HW releases, labs for CCIE training, sales training and everything else they've been considering again to my surprise rather well given the hordes of data they have compared to all other partners except Microsoft (but a software company so a bit better at it) Cisco has/was behind the curve in 14' still and now is on par and getting ahead of the rest. EMC/RSA soon Dell mixed in should be interesting, but I doubt they are overwhelmed with applicants vs. just overwhelmed as the Government's program to find 10k people is still going on yearly and was only intended for 2-3 years and its the same fukkers every year of which they start offering last minute cyber camp acceptances giving people a week notice and I could tell the year I went.

If people want to just post if they got their assessment that will likely be enough to tell how they move with this and I doubt anyone is going to send the link to it as they have a very simple tracking in the URL to your account used for surveys and that I can send to staff if I want to schedule them for their exams or requirements if any, so probably don't want to open it or try 2 accounts and all teh BS people do as its easy t see generally speaking unless you are great with websec. If people want to join as a partner to my program whom have a cisco certified ID for any active certification pm me and i'll add you and give access to the training and study materials for partners, just requires a certification with the vendor and if you're qualified as I get to know you or your certifications increase I'll gladly consider offering contracting on projects at the appropriate level or for those with their own clients in their area, you can access our distributor pricing discounts and use it to buy/sell hardware and earn your own rewards as well. I have just about every vendor you can imagine and a partnership with them on various levels that if you have a std certification with the vendor and want access to their free/partner training provided I can separate access from you being able to drain the accounts with a crazy PO I don't mind adding you as an associate that'll give you access to their vlabs and benefits which full disclosure may or may not offer a partner bump if sales are met to the next level and increased benefits, which I'll gladly share and pass on the discounts, business, conference passes, etc to those with businesses in their region as Chicago suburbs is plenty for me. Partner discounted in lab purchases unlikely this would be shared as it is limited and I learned my lesson being responsible for anyone else via my signature as the lab discounted in-house use gear can't be resold or it requires full repayment, but I would be more then happy to share the lab we have 20 vendors security products now in and grant access for learning and locals the ability to come and play or present design requirements for their study needs and accommodate the design (you may need to add your own storage/UCS/blade but infrastructure is here with VMware vcloud and all MS software, ideally I'd love to have other consultants join in and do a group buying to have an extra edge w/ gold tier discounts to offer our own clients and list ourselves as conglomerates with national coverage opening more deals for everyone and the benefit of knowing hey my buddy's team in WI or VA etc specializes on this and I'll send it to them or see if they want to assist on the project if needed along with mentor new comers to the industry learning in a real world lab vs. all linux tools on linux VM's never attacking enterprise gear which is what the enterprise uses!! PM me if you want to add ur account or discuss further and I'll send our partner ID for you to associate with and review your credentials, Cisco first, but really pick a vendor any vendor we should have it Good luck if i hear more on program ill update you after i search it out a bit more or calll partner support to see what te deal is as they'll likely call anyway to verify users can or have time allocated for it

Quoting the longest 3 run on sentences I have ever seen in my life.

Ertaz

devilbones wrote: »

Quoting the longest 3 run on sentences I have ever seen in my life.

Thanks. Now I have to get all the coffee off this screen.

danny069

Whoa! There were no periods in there at all, okay maybe 3 or 4 I'm exaggerating.

cyberguypr

Here you go:

16 periods (includes stuff like "program.s.")
1 colorful language
2 "the" misspellings

Total word count : 742
Number of different words : 454
Complexity factor (Lexical Density) : 61.2%
Readability (Gunning-Fog Index) : (6-easy 20-hard) 27
Total number of characters : 7729
Number of characters without spaces : 4465
Average Syllables per Word : 1.57
Sentence count : 23
Average sentence length (words) : 62.87
Max sentence length (words) : 202 ( THAT IS LOOONG!!!)
Frequency and top words :

Top Word Occurrences
partner 15
you 15
partners 11
want 9

Ertaz

cyberguypr wrote: »

Here you go:

16 periods (includes stuff like "program.s.")
1 colorful language
2 "the" misspellings

Total word count : 742
Number of different words : 454
Complexity factor (Lexical Density) : 61.2%
Readability (Gunning-Fog Index) : (6-easy 20-hard) 27
Total number of characters : 7729
Number of characters without spaces : 4465
Average Syllables per Word : 1.57
Sentence count : 23
Average sentence length (words) : 62.87
Max sentence length (words) : 202 ( THAT IS LOOONG!!!)
Frequency and top words :

Top Word Occurrences
partner 15
you 15
partners 11
want 9

%100 win.

Iristheangel

Howdy all,

I checked into it for you all and the assessments are starting to go out. There's a lot of people to go through so it's going to take time. The best advice is to keep an eye on your email and as soon as you get the assessment, complete it as soon as possible to you get yourselves into the queue. Good luck!

Abdullah.AA

Iristheangel wrote: »

Howdy all,

I checked into it for you all and the assessments are starting to go out. There's a lot of people to go through so it's going to take time. The best advice is to keep an eye on your email and as soon as you get the assessment, complete it as soon as possible to you get yourselves into the queue. Good luck!

You're the best

Ertaz

Iristheangel wrote: »

Howdy all,

I checked into it for you all and the assessments are starting to go out. There's a lot of people to go through so it's going to take time. The best advice is to keep an eye on your email and as soon as you get the assessment, complete it as soon as possible to you get yourselves into the queue. Good luck!

Thank you for checking!

Mr.Network

Iristheangel wrote: »

Howdy all,

I checked into it for you all and the assessments are starting to go out. There's a lot of people to go through so it's going to take time. The best advice is to keep an eye on your email and as soon as you get the assessment, complete it as soon as possible to you get yourselves into the queue. Good luck!

great, thank you.

OctalDump

I got the email for the pre-assessment and survey. I did it, and.... I don't know what happens now. They say that it might take 'a few days' to get test results and directions for next steps.

It's progress, I guess.

Abdullah.AA

OctalDump wrote: »

I got the email for the pre-assessment and survey. I did it, and.... I don't know what happens now. They say that it might take 'a few days' to get test results and directions for next steps.

It's progress, I guess.

We should start a study group soon mate

techsecurity

Gl to you guys. When did you applied for the scholarship? The assessment has a time limit?

techsecurity

Abdullah.AA wrote: »

I remember it was in mid june, afternoon when i just saw an ad posted on cisco's security twitter account, I signed up then.

and yes the assessment has 1 hour time limit, but dont worry it wont take you that long to finish.

Thank you very much for the info mate. I applied around the first days of July so I have to to wait a little bit more.

Ede890

some questions on the test wasn't exactly right.......

Abdullah.AA

Ede890 wrote: »

some questions on the test wasn't exactly right.......

I know exactly what you mean, this is Cisco's method, have to choose what seems to be the closest to correct

9bits

I took my assessment this morning, and missed enough questions that if it were a Cisco exam, it would have been a fail. But I won't jump to any conclusions on what Cisco is looking for.

I think it would be a mistake to assume Cisco wants to take the people who have the most certifications or the most experience in cyber security. Maybe they do, but then maybe they're targeting a group where they know the certification will be likely to show benefit and improvement. I don't see senior level security people benefiting most from this kind of course. But at the same time, Cisco is going to want people who can finish it and succeed. So they may be targeting more of a middle ground as far as knowledge and experience goes. Who knows? Time will see how this plays out.

Moh Al-Wab

I did not get the assessment yet.
How many questions were there?
Is there any time limit?
Do you get the score once you finish the assessment -just like a Cisco exam? And if yes, what was your score?

Iristheangel

They STARTED sending them. It doesn't mean that they have completely sent them to everyone involved. If you haven't received an assessment, just keep an eye out or check your spam folder

Moh Al-Wab

Abdullah.AA wrote: »

the time limit was 1 hour. and yes you get the score when you finish and they show you the wrong and right answers.

good luck.

How many questions were there?
Was it hard? Is CCNA R&S level enough to solve well in the assessment?

FillAwful

I received the assessment email early this morning as well. I am in the middle of SEC503 at SANS VB at this very moment. Argh, so much brain. Hopefully some of the things in SEC503 will be helpful for the assessment since its so fresh at the moment. Good luck to all.

ITBot

Got the email but will probably have to wait until after work to take it. Time to brush up on my Cisco!

danny069

Got the e-mail too, have to set aside an hour to do it.

tonylo1420

I know some questions are not 100% correct,but just try. Some question I don't know how to answer because it has so many new things with it. For example, new firewall function ,the cyber security attack etc.

tonylo1420

Moh Al-Wab wrote: »

How many questions were there?
Was it hard? Is CCNA R&S level enough to solve well in the assessment?

30 question.
normal
CCNA R&S is not enough,because it will ask Linux,Windows,network and security. Also, security question include Internet security and network(acl,ASA). But I think you can try to answer the question.:)

9bits

I wouldn't stress too much over getting every question right. Part of this scholarship program is sharing your success story at the end, which means Cisco wants people who are going to go from some point A to point B...not people who are already at point B. That said, it's possible getting everything right could disqualify you.