Two active betas: Mile2 pentesting and security officer

FluffyBunny

With thanks to "laloutre" on the CertStation Discord: Mile2 are seeking beta testers for two of their security exams. I've not had much dealings with Mile2, so they've mostly been an unknown factor to me. I've applied to take the betas, to see if they're any good.

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Round 2 of BETA testing for our C)ISSO (Information Systems Security Officer) and C)PTE (Penetration Testing Engineer) exams to be submitted for ANSI certification begins in February! 

Get free preparation materials, practice exam, and certification exam.

APPLY at: https://www.mile2.com/cpte-cisso-ansi-beta-test-request/

trojin

ty for sharing

JDMurray

There's been discussions about Mile2 here on TE for nearly as long as I have been posting. I think very few members have had much to say about their certs or org.

I submitted my application. It looks like the exams are proctored only online and during specific dates next month.

FluffyBunny

Yup, I guess they're running the beta tests outside of their usual online proctored environment. Fair enough. 

Like you I've heard of Mile2 for ages now, but never more than "I haven't ever dealt with'm". I know that one of my acquaintances teaches a class for them here in the Netherlands and they seem to be (at least) trying to widen their market a bit. 

I know one dude on these forums was pretty enthusiastic about them, saying the contents are on par with some of the competitors. But... with their post count of 4, I almost dread they're a shill. 

EDIT: After checking with my acquaintance, they halted their partnership with Mile2 after the first year. 

FluffyBunny

Bumpy start! 

I was approved for both the C)ISSO and C)PTE.

The welcome email sets people up with the same default password and on my dashboard I have to explicitly click a link saying "Do not sell my personal information".

When I mailed them about this they responded rather briefly, saying the mail tells me to change the password immediately ("which you should know as a cybersecurity professional") and that the opt-out is because of GDPR (or "GDRP" as they put it) and that they'd gladly remove my account and beta access again.

Which they promptly did, citing my "obvious distrust of their organization". 😲🤣

Shame. I was willing to give them the benefit of doubt. 

JDMurray

I did see the "you must change your password on first login" feature and didn't think anything of it. I didn't notice the opt-out for selling my personal info link. I'm logged into my mile2 account now and I don't see the ability to opt-out in my account settings. Also, their site has a few broken page links and doesn't work very well with Firefox, so who knows what else I'm not seeing.

FluffyBunny

I didn't notice the opt-out for selling my personal info link. 

It could be because their site detected me being from Europe and you're not. Did you get the big green cookie-warning bar at the top? It was in there. 




Anyway... I hope you'll enjoy the training and exam! Do let us know how it turns out and how you feel about the contents and quality. 

JDMurray

Oh, I did see that, but just clicked the "Accept" button without reading to notice if my US IP was given that same link to click. I did notice that Mile2's US office is in Tampa, FL, so they are not entirely EU.

chrisone

Good luck to the both of you. New training, certs sounds exciting! 

FluffyBunny

chrisone said:

Good luck to the both of you. New training, certs sounds exciting! 

Oh, I'm not taking the training, nor the exam. 

As I said: they kicked me out of the beta program. 

JDMurray

I was accepted to take the C)ISSO and C)PTE beta exams in two weeks. I'm going though the C)ISSO training videos now and the material is very broad and fundamental InfoSec, much like you would see in Security+ and CISSP. There are occasional technical mistakes and misinterpretations of concepts, but overall it's a good foundation. There is also written material, but it is hundreds of pages and is not in a downloadable/searchable/audible format, so I'll just give it a quick flip-through before I move on to the C)PTE materials.

JDMurray

OK, Mile2 is off to a really bad start with me. I'm scheduled to begin the C)ISSO exam 30 minutes ago. The Zoom link to connect with the proctor at the 10to8.com remote exam service has not appeared on my exam schedule page. The link was there when I checked yesterday, but has since been replaced with a "Changed" icon with no explanation of what has happened. I have messaged the proctor, but there has been no reply to me thus far. This is the last day to take the C)ISSO beta exam, so I'm guessing a proctor didn't show up for work and there's no replacement, or the C)ISSO beta has concluded early and they cancelled the remaining exams. My C)PTE beta exam's Zoom link is still on its page, so we'll see how that goes in a few hours.

FluffyBunny

Good luck JD! I hope the other one fares better. 

JDMurray

An hour after my exam start time, I get an email from 10to8 saying there were technical difficulties and I was invited to take my C)ISSO exam at the time scheduled for my C)PTE exam, or reschedule my C)ISSO exam for the end of this month. The problem is today is the last day the C)ISSO beta exam is available to take on 10to8's booking calendar, so I'll have to give this exam a miss.

JDMurray

OK, I just finished both exams. It was a 3-hour test window in a Zoom session with several other people also testing. I completed the 100-item C)ISSO exam in about 40 minutes and got a score of 69%, and the 100-item C)PTE exam in 32 minutes with a score of 63%. I think that's pretty good with no studying. (I scored 74% on both of the 50-item practice quizzes.) There was no information given about the beta exams themselves, so I have no idea what the passing scores are. I can't talk about the exam content, but the C)ISSO is very similar to the objectives of the CISSP, and the C)PTE is like the C|EH or maybe Pentest+ R1 with no code. The Mile2 training materials I saw are very similar to EC-Council's and could use some technical editing, updating, and correcting.

FluffyBunny

JDMurray said:

The Mile2 training materials I saw are very similar to EC-Council's and could use some technical editing, updating, and correcting.

That's a bit of a shame, seeing how this is already supposed to be the new exam + content. 

Thank you for sharing your experiences! 

JDMurray

The exams might be new, but the course material content I saw seems to date from 2017-2019.

FluffyBunny

Ahhh, right.. so they're only re-newing the exam to a small degree, making sure that it is actually usable in a CE (continued education) setting similar to CompTIA, ISC2, ECC and others. 

JDMurray

Yes, the Mile2 acceptance email made reference to the "ANSI beta exam," so you may be correct. A CE program (and certification renewal) is necessary for ISO/IEC 17024 compliance, which is necessary for acceptance by US DoDD 8140 and the NICE Framework.

kaiju

A bit late to the game but I just submitted to take the CISSO beta exam.

kaiju

I never got a reply from Mile2 so I guess I will not get a chance to play with the Beta exams.

edit: Just submitted another request to take the CISSO exam since I haven't received a reply.

JDMurray

The exam schedule I saw had the last exam sign-up date on Feb 15th. Maybe they extended it to later, but send them email to be sure.

kaiju

My first request was sent on 2/9. I guess they are swamped but I will send an email.

Edit: Disabling the ability to copy and paste on their website will make people curious. "Pentesters" will definitely poke around ...... lol

dmaketas

I sat for the CISSO exam yesterday. Everything went smoothly without any issues that JDMurray mentioned. I didn't read the online books, but I mostly listend to the videos, while doing something else at the same time.
I got 71% which I assume is a pass. 

My two cents: for something that cost me zero it was OK. If I had to pay for it, I'd much rather go for CISSP.

JDMurray

I just received emails from Mile2 (with the subject line "Mile2 ANSI Certification Notification") informing me that I passed the C)ISSO and C)PTE exams and received the certifications. The emails also say that Mile2 is now ANSI accredited for these certs, and that I have been provided with two 50% discount codes for any Mile2 Ultimate Self-Study Combo package--which appear to be a US$500-$1000 value.

FluffyBunny

Congratulations JD! I'd expected the results to have been out months ago, but I'm glad to hear you passed.

Cool that they gave you discount codes, next question is whether you'd have an interest in any of the packages. In short, it's still just a way for them to try and get money out of you.

A year later, how's your feeling about Mile2?

dmaketas

Congrats @JDMurray, I still haven't received anything so I'm hoping for my C)ISSO. Nothing can beat a free certification.

JDMurray

FluffyBunny said:

Cool that they gave you discount codes, next question is whether you'd have an interest in any of the packages. In short, it's still just a way for them to try and get money out of you.

A year later, how's your feeling about Mile2?

I would take more betas if offered, and even do some review work on their study materials if asked, but I'm up to my eyeballs in free training materials provided by my employer and don't need to buy anything else right now.

I haven't received any communications from Mile2 until now, so I'm still undecided on their product' value compared to their competing training/cert vendors.

dmaketas

I am happy to share that I passed the C)ISSO exam. I haven't received an email as JDMurray but I logged in, on mile2 and then under the tab "My Certificates", it was there