CompTIA Network+: Is it necessary for a cybersecurity career? | Guest Tommy Gober
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Infosec Instructor Tommy Gober joins Cyber Work Hacks to discuss the CompTIA Network+ certification. Despite often being bypassed in favor of Security+, Gober explains why Network+ is fundamental for a robust cybersecurity knowledge base. Learn about critical networking concepts like the OSI model, IP addresses and protocols, which are vital for understanding how cyberattacks work. Discover how strengthening your networking proficiency can enhance your cybersecurity career, even if you don't aim to become a network admin. Gober also shares top tips for excelling in the Network+ exam, including mastering port numbers and subnetting. Don't miss this enriching episode designed to boost your cybersecurity skills!
0:00 Introduction
0:50 Cybersecurity salary ebook
1:44 Overview of Network+ certification
2:55 Deep dive into networking concepts
5:15 Integrating Network+ with Security+
7:03 Essential networking skills for cybersecurity
9:03 Top tips for Network+ exam preparation
10:02 Final thoughts
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Infosec’s mission is to put people at the center of cybersecurity. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and phishing training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. More than 70% of the Fortune 500 have relied on Infosec Skills to develop their security talent, and more than 5 million learners worldwide are more cyber-resilient from Infosec IQ’s security awareness training. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Chris Sienko: Today on Cyberwork Hacks, I'm talking with Tommy Gober, one of Infosec's teachers and bootcamp instructors, all about the CompTIA Networking Certification, the Network Plus.
[00:00:09] Tommy Gober: on network plus what we're looking at, this is the fundamentals of networking. A lot of folks will attempt to do network plus before doing security plus. The order is not hugely important, but, it does definitely lay that foundation.
[00:00:25] Chris Sienko: Even if you've got your security career all mapped out, Tommy and I will explain some ways that earning a Network Plus certification will enhance your cybersecurity practice, even if Network Admin is not a part of your career journey.
[00:00:36] Tommy Gober: it's going to let you understand how specific cyber attacks occur. And so by having that real deep understanding and filling in what I like to refer to as Swiss cheese knowledge
[00:00:47] Chris Sienko: tune in to check out the NetPlus today on Cyberwork.
[00:00:50] Chris Sienko: The IT and cybersecurity job market is thriving. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 377, 500 new IT jobs annually. You need skill and hustle to obtain these jobs, of course, but the good news is that cybersecurity professionals can look forward to extremely competitive salaries. That's why InfoSec has leveraged 20 years of industry experience Drawing from multiple sources to give you, cyber work listeners, an analysis of the most popular and top paying industry certifications.
[00:01:18] Chris Sienko: You can use it to navigate your way to a good paying cyber security career.
[00:01:21] Chris Sienko: So to get your free copy of our cyber security salary guide ebook, just click the link in the description below. It's right there near the top, just below me. You can't miss it. click the link in the description and download our free cyber security salary guide ebook.
[00:01:34] Chris Sienko: Your cyber security journey starts here.
[00:01:37] Chris Sienko: Now let's get the show started
[00:01:44] Chris Sienko: Welcome to a new episode of Cyberwork Hacks. The purpose of the spinoff of our popular cyber work podcast is to take a single fundamental question and give you a quick, clear, and actionable solution to it, or a new insight into how to utilize InfoSec products and training to achieve your work and career goals. My guest today, Tommy Gober is an InfoSec instructor, and I was happy to have him on to discuss CompTIA security plus certification, uh, as well as InfoSec security plus bootcamp this year. But that's not all that Tommy has for an area of expertise today. We're going to be talking about another.
[00:02:16] Chris Sienko: CompTIA cert, uh, sort of the fraternal twin, I guess, to the security plus, this is the network plus certification. So, uh, Tommy and I are going to try and make the case that even if you don't plan on being a network administrator or being anywhere near that side of things, uh, having a net plus in your back pocket can go a long way towards making you a better cybersecurity professional.
[00:02:34] Chris Sienko: And I'm looking forward to that. So Tommy Gober, thanks for joining me today.
[00:02:37] Tommy Gober: Hey, Chris, good to be back.
[00:02:38] Chris Sienko: Thank you. So, uh, Tommy, for those who are new to CompTIA certs, um, we had James Stanger on to discuss what he called the CompTIA tech trifecta, which is the A plus, the Network plus, the Security plus. Can you refresh us on the scope specifically of the Network plus certification?
[00:02:53] Chris Sienko: What skills are you learning with this?
[00:02:54] Tommy Gober: Yeah. So
[00:02:55] Tommy Gober: on network plus what we're looking at, this is the fundamentals of networking.
[00:03:00] Tommy Gober: Um,
[00:03:01] Tommy Gober: a lot of folks will attempt to do network plus before doing security plus.
[00:03:06] Tommy Gober: Um,
[00:03:07] Tommy Gober: the order is not hugely important, but,
[00:03:11] Tommy Gober: uh,
[00:03:11] Tommy Gober: it does definitely lay that foundation.
[00:03:13] Tommy Gober: you're getting into, um, the, the. The basics of networking, um, conceptual models, such as the OSI networking model, that's, that's huge in every networking, uh, course that you ever take, um, understanding what's going on at those different layers.
[00:03:28] Tommy Gober: Also, we're going to dive into various protocols that we've got, the ways that these protocols are implemented, um, how those communications happen, what goes on inside of a frame or a packet, what makes an IP address. So all of those things get covered in this.
[00:03:43] Chris Sienko: All solid concepts to know just for any sort of tech person. And, uh, if you keep watching Cyborg Hacks, we're going to get even deeper into that in future episodes with some practice exams and some other things. But, uh, Tommy, because the job market right now is tight and very competitive, despite having lots and lots of open spots, uh, it's kind of easy to get the baseline of bare minimum experience.
[00:04:05] Chris Sienko: You need to do the thing you want to do, uh, whether it's a SOC analyst or a pen tester or GRC, you can run the tools. You can do the job, but I think going deep on networking concepts feels like a little sort of an extra credit to a lot of students and learners. So talk about the benefits of being proficient in networking, even if you're all cyber security all the time and not really planning anything to do with being a network admin.
[00:04:28] Tommy Gober: Sure. Yeah, the it can seem extra credit, but what I see the value of understanding networking in depth as being is it's going to really kind of open up. Explore, um, why things are the way that they are.
[00:04:44] Tommy Gober: It's going to let you understand how specific cyber attacks occur. And so by having that real deep understanding and filling in what I like to refer to as Swiss cheese knowledge,
[00:04:55] Tommy Gober: where you have a really good grasp of what's going on, perhaps, but you're missing some key holes that are in that knowledge.
[00:05:03] Tommy Gober: Network plus really goes back and fills in a lot of those holes so that you understand the, the why and the how that might be otherwise behind the scenes.
[00:05:11] Chris Sienko: Beautiful. So, uh, what advice do you have? Uh, maybe there is no advice. Maybe this is, um, I'm barking up the wrong tree, but, uh, If you're running sort of parallel tracks and trying to learn the, so-called Tech Tech trifecta at once, is there a way of integrating the Net Plus study into your ongoing security plus study?
[00:05:29] Chris Sienko: Is that something where concepts one from one can reinforce concepts from the other? You know, like maybe like learning two languages at once?
[00:05:36] Tommy Gober: Yeah, it, uh, it can be helpful to have both of them to learn them concurrently or to sequence them, uh, network and then security plus there is some overlap. It's not a great deal. You can certainly get just your network plus, um, and then tackle the security plus later. Or if you already have security, plus you can come back and do network.
[00:05:59] Tommy Gober: Plus you will have a leg up if you already have one or the other. But there's just not a, a great deal of overlap between the two. But, um, there, there the things that do overlap, uh, comes into play of what are those type different types of protocols. What are those port numbers associated with those protocols?
[00:06:18] Tommy Gober: And again, getting back to that, how and why behind the scenes, it can really give you a leg up whenever you're going for the security plus.
[00:06:25] Chris Sienko: Yeah, I totally agree with that and I think that it, it's worth noting that it's a long way between. Being able to completely set up a home lab and knowing exactly what every single thing does, and at least understanding, you know, the general concepts, like you said, of, of where, you know, what packets are and what, you know, important numbers are and so forth.
[00:06:43] Chris Sienko: Um, so yeah, I think that's a excellent advice. So, um, Obviously, InfoSec is all about helping you pass your certification exams with flying colors. But we also want you to make sure that you retain that info and use it to level up your skills and your career. you know, we want people who are able to just keep building on, you know, strength on strength like that.
[00:07:03] Chris Sienko: And so along with the info you need to retain for a passing NetPlus grade, you talk about what networking concepts, if any, you think a security professional should Continue to be sharp about in their cyber security career.
[00:07:16] Tommy Gober: Yeah. So I would say definitely, uh, you know, as tech changes. All the time, the fundamentals don't, the fundamentals don't change. Um, we, or they change very slowly. I should say, I'll go ahead and throw him a caveat there, but with the, um, with some of those fundamentals, um, you know, do you have these different OSI networking layers, uh, involved?
[00:07:42] Tommy Gober: Um, we even work in some discussion about the TCP IP networking layer model, um, ways that these, um, protocols interact with one another, ways that the various Services interact with one another, the structure of those packets. Um, all of these things will really give you a lot of insight whenever you start learning about some new cyber attack that's out there or some new defensive.
[00:08:05] Tommy Gober: Measurements out there or perhaps you even discover some new novel way to defend a network against some sort of unwanted intrusion That's all going to be possible if you have that understanding of the fundamentals
[00:08:19] Chris Sienko: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, uh, you know, we, and we're hearing so much about things like asset discovery and really knowing your network and making sure there's no, uh, you know, dark spaces or whatever. And, and, uh, you know, where people can, you know, maybe someone got dismissed eight years ago and they're, they're, you know, their, their account credentials are still in the, in the system somewhere.
[00:08:38] Chris Sienko: And, and I suppose, uh, understanding, you know, again, it goes back to that idea of. Being able to do the job you're doing now versus. the job you want to do next, which involves, you know, another layer of, of skill rather than just reading log files and escalating things to the head of the sock and so forth.
[00:08:56] Chris Sienko: So I think that's, uh, I think it's going to be essential personally. But, um, as we wrap up today, Tommy, you've, you've taught hundreds of students over the years. What's your top piece of advice for studying? For in taking the network plus exam.
[00:09:08] Tommy Gober: for the network plus Number one thing to know on here is to know your port numbers Know which ports are associated with which protocol or which service And then also know it the other way around, know which services associated with which port number. And then the other huge, uh, stumbling block for a lot of newcomers to the network plus is understanding subnetting.
[00:09:32] Tommy Gober: Subnetting, uh, really trips up and snags a lot of, uh, beginners in there. And so I personally spend quite a bit of time making sure that we understand how subnetting works. Why the notation is what it is. It can be very, very confusing. Um, if you're just looking at it from static text, but once you have it, someone to explain it to you conversationally, it starts to really click and, uh, and it becomes such a big stumbling block that you might hear others having those troubles with.
[00:09:58] Tommy Gober: So know those port numbers and know your subnetting.
[00:10:01] Chris Sienko: Perfect. Perfect conclusion there. Thank you so much, Tommy Gober. This has been extremely illuminating. I appreciate your time.
[00:10:07] Tommy Gober: Thanks, Chris.
[00:10:08] Chris Sienko: Uh, and thank you all for watching this cyber work hack. If you enjoyed it, please share it with somebody, colleagues, forums, your social media accounts, word of mouth recommendations are how shows like this grow their audience and make sure to subscribe to our podcast feed and our YouTube page.
[00:10:22] Chris Sienko: Just type in cyber work and info sec. In any of them, we'll, we'll pop right up there at the top. If you have any topics you want us to cover on the show, drop them in the comments, we're always reading and we'll do our best to accommodate. Uh, until next time, this is Chris Senko wishing you happy learning.
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