U.S. DoD Announces New Certification Mandate

Here's an interesting sidebar from the August 2006 issue of Certification Magazine, page 9:

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will require 80,000 of its information assurance personnel to be certified within the next three years, according to its 8570.01-M “Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program” manual. The 13 mandated credentials include offerings from ISACA, (ISC)2, CompTIA and the SANS Institute.

This seems like a boon for the certification organizations listed, and a bit of a disappointment for those of us whose certifications will be "watered down" by all the new DoD certees. I'm assuming all 80K DoD employees will be required to get (at least) the Security+. I can hear them doing the "happy dance" at CompTIA now.

You can read the full article at: http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/CM_COMM_cardev_article.asp?articleid=2078&zoneid=167

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Comments

Slowhand

Must. . . refrain. . . from making. . . jokes. . . about Department of (brain)****. . .

Non-Profit Techie

I Would think there would have already been some sort of requirements. This is a good thing for the cert community tho.

sprkymrk

Being right in the middle of this myself, I have a few opinions. On the one hand, it's great that the DoD finally realized that they need to have (at least seemingly) qualified individuals in these positions. Here are a few things I forsee likely to happen:

1. Several current DoD employees who currently hold IASO, IAM, and similar positions will move on to other positions outside of IA. These are the ones who don't WANT to be there anyway and would rather not deal with anything that might measure their skills (or lack thereof).

2. Several other current IT/IA folks will welcome this opportunity. Their respective departments wil authorize any and all travel/training requests to get them certified. The "grandfather" clause is in the neighborhood of 3 years, so they have plenty of time.

3. DoD IT contractors will have to get their folks certified or risk losing their jobs (as individuals, the contract itself won't be in danger) and all new hires will have to have the appropriate certification. This has already been a good thing where I work, as it is putting a highlight on the unmotivated/unskilled employees who have yet to obtain their certification.

The respective certification authorities have already stated (in the face of DoD requests) that they will NOT dumb down the exams for government folks. Let's hope this is true.