CompTIA Blog

During the IT Security Community meeting at CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting today, Chris Whitener, chief strategist, HP secure advantage, enterprise business, Hewlett-Packard Company, listed out for attendees where major threats to your IT network can originate.Chris Whitener of HPInsecure interfaces and APIs can wreak havoc on your IT system.  For instance, watch for anonymous access and/or reusable tokens or passwords.  Check for clear-text authentication or transmission of content.Malicious i ...

Training companies are all about technology and looking for new ways to increase learning.  However when it comes to using technology to enlarge their own marketing reach, they often are a step behind.  During Colloquium yesterday, Elizabeth Shaw, social and emerging media analyst, Forrester, gave training leaders an in-depth tutorial on why interactive marketing matters and how they can use it to grow their businesses.Internet-enabled marketing channels create a dynamic and/or two-way dialog wi ...

The term “Hall of Fame” is used across all facets of our lives, including business, sports and communities, but its significance is rarely acknowledged properly. In many cases, the designation is given to a set number of individuals each year, even during periods when few actually deserve it. Over time, this diminishes the value of the hall of fame, and those who truly are worthy of the honor.While this dilemma plays out in other industries, CompTIA is looking to continue and build on the legacy ...

During the IT Services & Support Community meeting at CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting this morning, Matthew Poyiadgi, senior vice president, global sales, CompTIA, showcased a host of ideas to help IT service providers jumpstart their social media efforts.“Social media invites customers to have a say,” said Poyiadgi. “Stop thinking ‘campaigns to our customers’ and start thinking ‘conversations with our customers’.”Matthew Poyiadgi of CompTIAIn showing examples from good social media practice ...

Today, there are more than 600,000 open IT jobs in the United States, making IT training and education as critical as ever in building a strong workforce. The current economic environment has nurtured continuing developments in the IT industry. As new technologies emerge, the industry is looking to organizations to develop and drive new talent to fill those open jobs.The common theme for driving this talent is collaboration. It will be the collaboration of agencies, public and private organizati ...

While the United States government is faced with a potential shut down this week, when a new budget in eventually passed, small businesses can profit from knowing how to navigate their way through the red tape. That task sounds daunting, but a basic understanding of the shortcuts will allow VARs and MSPs to cultivate business from a number of agencies in the federal government. Our Small Business Owners Community members were given an educational primer on how to accomplish that in their CompTIA ...

During today’s CompTIA Annual Member Meeting in Chicago, Tim Herbert, VP, market research, CompTIA, addressed our relatively new Unified Communications (UC) Community and delved into the latest study data concerning customer and service provider perspectives on the market.CompTIA’s research looked at which UC technologies are customers using, what the customers want to do with the technologies and what is driving their decisions.  For the service providers at the meeting, Herbert also spoke on h ...

A look at the week of April 4 in public advocacy for the IT channel   Cybersecurity experts are beginning to feel that attackers have an edge on the government and are stressing the importance or collaborating with the private sector in fending them off.  H-1B visa reform is being pressed by tech companies, despite the persistently high US unemployment rate.  This week, the VA is taking steps to transfer its leading EMR system to an open source format. Cyber Attackers Have ...

On March 25, the Office of National Coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services announced the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, which was last updated in 2008.  The plan is being updated in order to reflect the impact of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and the Affordable Care Act.  The plan focuses on implementing key healthcare IT policies over the next five years through coordination between government agencies, ...

It was back at the tail end of 2009 that I first became aware of CompTIA and its presence in the U.K. Like many people working within the IT industry, I was familiar with CompTIA primarily through their certifications. I’d passed my own CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ and other similar exams at the start of my career and know many colleagues who have worked toward these qualifications too.But it wasn’t until I sat down with Matthew Poyadigi and William Linard of CompTIA UK that I became aware of Co ...

While it’s not really news to most, the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting (AMM) kicks off next week (April 6-7) at the Swissôtel in downtown Chicago. This second annual event is packed with educational sessions, collaborative community meetings and a lot of peer networking. For vendors, associations and solutions providers, these types of events have become critical to their long term goals, between the complexity of new business models and the rapid advancements in technology.Without the collaborat ...

CompTIA has fielded an annual security study for eight years. In the most recent study, 49 percent of firms rate security as a top priority, a significant jump from 35 percent of firms in 2008. Other CompTIA studies focusing on industry verticals or technology trends show that security concerns are a common thread through all markets. The IT industry has been talking about security for a long time, and the impacts are well known.For all the focus, ‘though, security breaches are still common and ...

A look at the week of March 28 in public advocacy for the IT channel   The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has released a strategic plan to carry out mandates in the HITECH Act.  The Pentagon has revised its cyber budget and is now asking for an extra billion dollars to protect its networks.  Sen. Robert Menendez has sponsored an amendment asking the Obama Administration to study the 1099 repeal. Healthcare IT Strategic Plan Unveiled — A draft of the ...

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Karen Mills, discussed the importance of international markets and the types of hurdles small and medium size businesses (SMBs) face when exporting products or services.The export topic gets some “ink” periodically, but relative to other SMB topics, not much. Somewhat puzzling considering: 76 percent of global economic activity occurs outside of the United States. Granted, the U.S. economy is still ...

Our most involved and dedicated members head to Chicago next week for our Annual Member Meeting (AMM).  It’s our second year of bringing our members together and providing a forum for networking, education and community meetings.Members and non-members can attend, however members benefit with free online registration until March 29th.  Yes, that’s today, folks.  Haven’t registered yet?  Save yourself a few bucks and do so now!Once you register, take advantage of MyAMM.  It’s AMM’s own online com ...