Certification During Deployment

During my combat deployment so far, I have managed to knock out a few certification that I will now share.

  • Cribl CCOE User
    • I was put on to the Cribl CCOE user cert by my friend’s parents. They both had previously worked for Splunk> and they both said Cribl was better than Splunk>. The cert took me roughly a week at ~2 hours a day to complete and pass the final exam. The certification is completely free and I encrouge anyone who wants to get a better understanding of SIEMs to take the CCOE User Certification course. Cribl also allows you to practice on their infrastructure so no need to rent a VM or anything like that. Highly recommend the cert.
    • Learn more about Cribl here.
    • Certification Completed: January 16, 2024
  • Google Cybersecurity Certification
    • Google’s Cybersecurity certification is relatively new compared to other certifications on the web. I would say that for someone who has basically no knowledge in anything have to do with cybersecurity it is a great class to take. Since I have a background with Linux and Python, the class came to me pretty easily. I would recommend this certification to someone who is thinking about getting into cybersecurity. The content is broad and it covers everything from the CIA Triad to the OSI model. The python section was really fun because the class allows you to type and run python scripts in browser.
    • Learn more about the Google Cybersecurity Certification offered by Coursera.
    • Certification Completed: February 22, 2024
  • ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (in progress)
    • I was searching around online looking for free classes to take when I had free time during my deployment. I stumbled on this link from Forbes. The name ISC2 seemed familiar when I realized that it was the same organization that offers the CISSP (arguably one of the best cybersecurity certifications you can get) certfication. I took the class and the way that it uses AI to help determine what domains you need more help in is a very nice feature. For things that I knew already, I could show that I know it and it would focus more on things that I didn’t know. The main reason that the title has “in progress“ next to it is because I didn’t realize that the certification exam wasn’t offered online. You, like with the CISSP exam, have to go to a location and take the exam proctored to prevent cheating. I will be completeing it once I get home and will probably write a post about how the test taking experience was. Overall, it was another great free certification that covers a wide range of information.
    • Learn more about ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity on ISC2’s website
    • Online self-paced Course Completed: August 27, 2024

The main reason for the huge gap between the certifications is because we spent a lot of the deployment on the move. Most of the places we were at didn’t have internet (let alone cellular). I promised myself that once I got to a spot where I knew I wasn’t going to be moving for a while, I would get back into taking courses online. So far I feel that I have expanded my knowledge further despite the certifications being entry level. I would recommend the Google Certification and ISC2 Certification if you’re brand new to Cybersecurity or IT. They both lay a very nice foundation to build upon. The Cribl certification was something that I took because I actually met the creator of Splunk> at a mil conference back in 2018.

TL;DR
Certifications can be done anyhwere if you put in the work.