Information Assurance Training

Why Would You Benefit From Information Assurance Training?

All military IT personnel are now required to become certified according to the DoD 8570 guidelines. As of December 31, 2010 all military IT personnel must be compliant. However, since that deadline has passed many are awaiting updated information on possible extensions or acceptations.

Additionally, the DOD has not relaxed its high standards for personnel training across all Information Assurance levels and functions: all training providers must still be ANSI certified.

IT professionals looking to expand their information security knowledge to qualify for more lucrative government jobs handling IA would benefit from specialized training as well.

Over the next decade, certified information systems managers will experience more job opportunities, greater job security and higher earnings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Another benefit from becoming certified is that certified information systems managers can command salaries about 10% to 15% higher than non-certified individuals in comparable roles. Contributing factors to the increased need will be from technology growth, competition and greed.

As technologies grow more competitive with one another, the need for certified cyber-security professionals will increase. These professionals must be able to adopt the most efficient software systems for their clients' safety. Troubleshooting unforeseen breeches and attacks will be important as well.

These professionals have no further goal than to protect critical information from cyber-attacks and information loss.

Not all IA jobs are in the Department of Defense (DoD) sector, but a great deal of them are - all of which require information assurance training and certification by 2011.

Information Assurance Explained

Information security is often misinterpreted as information assurance and vice versa. These areas of data protection are related, but there are fundamental differences.

Information assurance (IA) protects data, software and hardware and also provides protection against hacking and malicious code attacks. IA covers a broad area of governmental duties which can range from fraud examination to forensic science, criminology to disaster recovery, and much more.

The DoD defines IA as the practice of managing information related-risks. Security professionals who specialize in information assurance seek to protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, authentication, availability and non-repudiation.