CompTIA Blog

For those who have been following the roller coaster ride of whether comprehensive cybersecurity reform will be accomplished this legislative session, there have been some interesting developments that took place within the last 24 hours.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter yesterday informing Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that cybersecurity legislation will be introduced after the December recess. This letter prompted a reply letter from Sen. McConnell advising Sen. Reid to introdu ...

Professionals in the IT industry are traditionally more likely to put their faith in cold, hard facts. When it comes to the not-quite-age-old, but-getting-there question of the industry certifications’ true value, numbers, more and more, back up the claims of proponents of accreditation. In a new survey of 700 IT professionals, nearly three-quarters of the respondents credit their certifications for promotions, new jobs and other career benefits. In addition, 40 percent of those queried i ...

How securely are you using your smartphones or network-enabled tablets? CompTIA reached out to industry experts for their top personal best practices for mobile device security, and here’s the resulting checklist: 1) Password-protect your device. This was the starting rule for all experts CompTIA contacted. “Passwords matter a lot,” said Rebecca Lawson, director of WW Enterprise Security Solutions for HP Enterprise Business. “You need to use them.” 2) Lock your phone when it’s not in use. “ ...

A look at the week of November 14 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, authored an op-ed citing the urgent need for cyber legislation.  A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill allowing states to collect sales tax on online purchases.  The Institute of Medicine released a report recommending the creation of an independent federal entity to monitor effects of health IT.Ramping Up U.S. Cybersecurity; Op-Ed ...

Early in 2011, CompTIA issued a challenge to all of the member communities:  identify an IT related charity to support with a donation of $5000.The EMEA ITSS community adopted Close the Gap, a UN Global Alliance partner based in Brussels that helps bridge the digital divide by offering cost-efficient high-quality used IT-equipment to projects in developing countries.Close the Gap follows a five-step process to ensure the integrity of the program: Material donation, Material reconditioning, Benef ...

IT Outsourcing: Economic Slide Could Produce Upside for Providers Despite a decline in the IT outsourcing market recently, a possible double dip economic downturn could spell good news for outsourcing providers in the near future. So says findings from the latest quarterly report by outsourcing firm Everest Group, as reported in CIO this week. For the first time in the past year, activity within the global outsourcing market, for both IT and business processes (BPO), dropped, according to t ...

In my previous blog I wrote about managing your costs to increase profitability and the value of your IT business. Let’s change gears and talk about something else that is related to value, but is more difficult to measure than sales and profits. I’m talking about risk. Risk refers to stability of earnings and diversity of products, services and markets. Investors in the stock market fully understand that companies with lower risk factors are generally worth more. But how does this apply to a pr ...

From 2006-2010, one billion units of Internet-enabled devices were sold across Europe.  Ninety percent of those units were mobile devices.  Is your enterprise ready to embrace mobility?During a session at our EMEA Member Conference, panelists discussed the growing role of mobility and mobile devices in today’s enterprises.  Neal Louw, CTO of Dimension Data Europe, a $5 billion systems integrator, urged the audience to think of mobile enterprise not as evolution but revolution. It's a game change ...

Professor James Messer delivered a fantastic session at our EMEA Member Conference on the use of social media in the current training market.   Professor Messer has been creating free online training support videos for CompTIA certifications for several years and built his brand through the use of social media.Professor Messer offered insight on what has worked for him and how best to utilize social media for maximum impact within the technology training industry.  One of the many key tips that ...

Todd Lammle hosted an insightful and interesting session at our EMEA Member conference entitled “Relevant Certification Training for This Decade: How to Train Our Students for The Future—Now!”  Lammle sees issues with the way our current learning methods engage our learners; in an era of instant information and fast moving technology, it’s becoming harder and harder to get a student to sit down and actually read a book.  In fact, Lammle himself has reached a point in his life that even he can’t ...

At this year’s CompTIA EMEA Members Conference, Steve Head delivered an energetic, fun-packed and inspiring closing keynote that finished with a standing ovation.Through a series of comical stories and exercises, Head helped his audience understand that we are drawn to finding faults rather than focusing on what is right and working.  We need to be conscious of this and instead of ‘sweating the small stuff’ we need to focus on the good stuff!In a world where we are all looking to deliver more wi ...

Earlier this week a very significant development took place that went fairly unnoticed.  Congressman Greg Walden, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, unveiled legislation with the purpose of improving process and transparency at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).This move was significant because the FCC is an independent agency that has been at odds over what has turned into a partisan issue: net neutrality.  The FCC has been criticized for issuing last ...

Takeaway of the week is that more signs are pointing to IT jobs on the horizon. You just have to know where to look. Are you interested in healthcare IT? Have you considered spanning the globe right from your computer as an online-only contractor? If you’re already in an IT job, are you content? Other people say you are.   The Online-Only Worker Bee Technological advances connect the global workforce like never before. One of the growing dynamics of this new reality is the growth of t ...

On this Veterans’ Day, we pause to remember the sacrifices and courage exhibited by the men and women who defended our country and continue to protect our freedom. The call to duty requires not only bravery, but commitment and moral obligation to their fellow soldiers and sailors. With that in mind, business ethics seemed more than appropriate for today’s topic—especially with this week’s headlines.Few things are as electrifying to the media and populace as charges of inappropriate conduct in th ...

CompTIA consistently has called for repeal of the 3% federal tax withholding on government contracts.  Finally, the Senate has acted, passing H.R. 674 by a vote of 95-0.  This follows overwhelming passage by the House on October 27.  However, the bill must now return to the House for a vote, as an amendment (which passed by a 94-1 vote) was added to the original House version that would: Provide tax credits for veterans hiring; Require a Treasury study of tax delinquency among federal contractor ...