Unlocking IT Career Success and Cybersecurity Mastery with CompTIA Certifications

Elevate your IT career and safeguard your digital space with our expert guide to CompTIA certifications, featuring Ron Culler and Jeff Parker. We tackle the misconception that a career in ICT is all about cable pulling, and instead, illustrate a world where advanced certifications are your golden ticket to setting up sophisticated systems and staying ahead in the cybersecurity game. Our guests from CompTIA walk us through the critical steps for those looking to broaden their skill set, starting with ITF+ and moving through to A+, highlighting the importance of structured troubleshooting and a proactive approach to learning.

If you've ever wondered how essential skills and AI are reshaping the IT industry, you won't want to miss this episode. We dissect the evolving nature of tech jobs, the implications for those who are hands-on learners, and the often misguided fear surrounding AI. Plus, we share insights on why a knack for math may not be as necessary as you think, unless you're venturing into the complex world of AI development. Our conversation aims to demystify the tech landscape while emphasizing the significance of adaptability and a thirst for knowledge.

The digital realm is fraught with risks, but we're here to equip you with armor against the onslaught of cyber threats. From the rising tide of cybercrime to the intricate scams that could compromise personal and business security, we explore firsthand the stark realities and preventative measures everyone should be aware of. We also share a chilling reminder of the importance of quick action when facing security breaches, showing just how vital it is to report incidents promptly to authorities. Tune in and empower yourself with the expertise to navigate the perils of our connected world, keeping both your career and your data secure.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey wire monkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. This week we're talking about computer certifications. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, technicians, project managers, estimators, ict personnel, even customers. We're connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Thursday nights, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream where you get to ask your favorite RCDD you know that's me questions on installation, certification, design and project management, even career path questions. But I can hear you now. But check, I'm driving my truck at Thursday at 6 pm. I don't want to get into an accident, that's okay. They are recorded and you can access them at letstalkcabelingcom. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, you would like to support this show. Would you click on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can even schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course, or you can also visit the webpage and look up our recommended products and use the Amazon links. You won't pay extra, but we will make a small stipend off it and, furthermore, we are always looking for corporate sponsors. So if you're a corporation looking to sponsor a podcast that's educating, encouraging, enriching and agnostic platform, reach out to me on social media so we can get this done.

Speaker 1: 2:04

I saw a post the other day where somebody said certification not directly related to your job are worthless. I don't agree with that, but I will agree that ICT technicians now are being asked to do way more than just pulling cable. They might be installing DAS or WAPS or hubs, routers, switches, access control, and a lot of that takes more skills than those skills required for pulling, terminating and testing cable. So computer certification is a career path that a lot of technicians look at to go beyond cable skills, and CompTIA is one of those companies that does those certifications, and I've known of CompTIA for a long time decades as a matter of fact but when I was at the Nica Bixie Summit in Denver, I happened to see that they had a booth, so I stopped and got the chatting with them and I said, hey, do you guys want to come on the show and talk computer certifications? And of course they said yes. So welcome to the show, ron Color and Jeff Parker. How you guys doing.

Speaker 2: 3:06

Doing great.

Speaker 3: 3:08

Doing great, Chuck Thanks.

Speaker 1: 3:10

I appreciate you guys coming on the show. I've been wanting to get you guys on for a long, long time. I just never expressed that. Here's the problem is because you guys probably the same way as me. Well, I'm sitting down watching TV with my wife and nights my brain doesn't disengage. I'm sitting and thinking about things I could do with the show and stuff like that, and several times the thought has come across my head that I need to have CompTIA on the show, Because what happens is a lot of technicians will get into the industry to pull cable and then they see those guys coming in behind them, you know, setting up the workstations and putting in the servers and and you know, like man, I don't have the pull cable, I can do that. So then that's not, it's natural progression, right? You?

Speaker 1: 3:55

know they're gonna get their certification. So first off, let's start off with, because I don't assume everybody knows who CompTIA is. So let's start with that. Who is CompTIA and how was that company formed? Who wants to take that one?

Speaker 3: 4:09

Jeff Sure. So thanks, chuck. I've been looking forward to this for quite a while, since we met in Denver. So CompTIA, we're a nonprofit. Our mission is to advance the global IT industry. We contribute to the growth and development of ICT, ict and computer industry in several ways.

Speaker 3: 4:28

You know the 30,000 view here is research. We do a lot of research within this channel. You know where are threats coming from. What are the skills that people need to be successful in particular job roles? We do a lot of analysis when it comes to those job skills in particular. Like we're going to talk about that a lot today, education and training is a big piece of what we do. So you know, once we identify job skills in particular roles, you know how do we help people develop those skills, how do we help people accredit those skills? And that's where certifications come in. So certifications, research, education and training. And then we do have a philanthropic arm where I don't know about you, chuck, but with a lot of industries, younger and younger kids need to be engaged to get them interested in, let's say, jobs that they may not have thought of. And by the time they get to high school or they're seniors and they're looking at their career path. They may not have done any of the work to help develop into those job skills.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Right, I think we talked about this during the pre-show call. You know, a lot of young and there's nothing wrong with this, don't take this wrong way but there's a lot of young people who want to become content creators right, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that but they don't realize all the background stuff.

Speaker 1: 5:43

So, like I always told my boys when they were all growing up because you know they wanted to be, you know, professional skateboarders Always have a back go plan right and this is perfect, you know, that's why I said you guys mentioned something about you're doing the middle school education during that pre-show thing and I love that, because, if you, because they're already exposed to devices right. Yeah, I mean, when I was in school we didn't have devices right, we had pens and paper and stuff like that. And even though technically I'm a boomer, I'm an early adopter. I had a. I had a Radio Shack 2 RS80 in 1982. So I'm an early adopter, so I've I really kind of consider myself like almost a millennial, but not a boomer.

Speaker 1: 6:26

But so I'm an early adopter and we need to get to this kid. This kid, they already got the experience in playing with computers. If you want, if you want something fixed on your computer, ask your kid, they probably know how to do it already. So why not capitalize on that, that momentum, and give them the skills? And you're right, not everybody can be a content creator, because it's a very, very competitive field. And and not everybody can be a lawyer. Some people, you know, sometimes the world needs ditch diggers. And I'm not saying having a computer service, we can use it to be ditch diggers. But my point is but there's some people who love doing it. There's some people one of my sons loves he works for in a nursery Not, you know, not a kid's nursery, but a nursery doing plants. He loves being outside.

Speaker 1: 7:08

He loves being with it. Okay, so some people want to do computers, and why not get them young? Right, I did. I did not know that comp T was a nonprofit. That's new to me, so I guess you would do. You said you do some philanthropic Philanthropic.

Speaker 3: 7:27

Philanthropic Chuck, I have to practice that word myself. Yeah, so tech girls, just there's a. There's a program we do called tech girls. It's about engaging middle school girls into it and we offer a lot of free resources, a lot on free online virtual courses, and we're also endeavoring, through that program and others, to diversify the workforce.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Now let me ask you this and this wasn't one of our pre scheduled questions, but I'm sure you probably answered pretty quickly Is comp T just a US based certification program, or can people outside of the US get comp T certified or comp T credentials?

Speaker 2: 8:05

We're global, have been for for quite a while. We're actually the largest industry certification body globally.

Speaker 1: 8:16

I've always known that the IT industry, the ICT industry was global, but I never really thought about it until I started my podcast because I expected all my audience to be US based. But a full probably 40% are outside of the US. You know, the UK, uae, saudi Arabia. I mean I'm flattered that goes out that big. But you're right, this does reach more than just outside the shores of America. So what kind of courses does comp T provide?

Speaker 2: 8:51

Everything from really from the foundations of what IT is, or foundations of what technology is, all the way up into, you know, our most advanced courses in cybersecurity and data analytics and cloud infrastructure and server systems and things like that. So it's really kind of over the entire IT spectrum or the technology spectrum is what we're looking for and we're looking to actively grow that. So we're we're looking at new certifications and refreshes of old certifications. That's one thing that sets us out a little unique is that our certifications aren't stale. It's not a one and done. You don't get it and then walk away forever saying you're certified Right, we have to refresh our certifications every three years and because of that, we're constantly updating the content of those things. So we're we're dropping off old technology, adding in new technology. It's something I mean you know as well as I do that the things have changed throughout our you know, our 30 plus years in this, in this industry. You know and and if you don't stay current, you're going to get left behind.

Speaker 1: 10:06

Oh, absolutely. I remember, as a, as a young technician, we were doing cabling at a law firm in Washington DC, one of the largest law firms in Washington DC. And so we're sitting there, we're pulling cable into the data center and you're building this cabinet. It's it's like four feet wide by four feet deep and it's like 10 feet tall and we're pulling cable. I just kind of and what do you? What, what, what, what do they? What do they put on it? It goes, oh yeah, man, we're putting in a a one gigabit drive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's more, there's more memory on my phone now. Oh right, huge device. So our industry moves at the speed of light and it's always changing. So let me ask you this about the certifications If somebody gets a certification, is it kind of like the big secretentials where you have to get CECs to renew it, or is it? How does that work?

Speaker 2: 10:53

Yes, yeah, we have a continuing ed program where you can actually do. You know, you can watch webinars at 10 conferences, take additional course material, you can take other certifications that they can count towards it, and we even have our own refreshes so that you can actually take one of our certmaster CE courses and you go through it's, I think, about eight hours of study material, depending on the certification, and then you're able to take the exam at the end of it and you're good for another three years.

Speaker 1: 11:29

Oh, nice, nice, I like that. So I would like to frame our conversation to my audience. My audience is going to be the young emerging professionals in ICT, information communication technologies. Right now they might be pulling cable and they could be anywhere from like 18 to about 35. They may have literally just a few months of experience, or they might have like 10 years experience, but they've only been pulling cable and now there's really starting to think of hey, I want to get into this computer stuff. And you know, the funny thing is you would think that somebody's in the ICT industry would already have some skill sets with computers. The fact is quite opposite. A lot of times what I find is, especially when I'm teaching face to face classes and people have to come to my computer to sign in on an Excel spreadsheet, they're literally doing this, typing it in. They don't even know the home row. Yeah, that's right, there you go. But you can do it really fast, you know. Yes, so what would be a good education or certification path for somebody with that kind of history?

Speaker 3: 12:42

Sure, yeah. So if we start at the very beginning, where they're not they don't have a lot of technical background. They're just starting to look into that as a part of their career or as a need as their job roles are expanding and Tech is touching everything. I would look at what we call ITF plus, it fundamentals plus. That's almost a pre-career cert. It helps individuals identify as basic understandings of technology, a little bit of networking, a little bit of cybersecurity, a little bit of troubleshooting, just touching it, so that you're very comfortable there.

Speaker 3: 13:23

In some of the courses that we have, there's actually, you know, here's the home row for your laptop. This is where you start when you type. It can be that simple all the way up through. Here's what a network handshake might look like. So I would almost if they don't have a strong background in technology, I would look at ITF plus first and then from there you can look at what we call CompTIA A plus. That is a help desk or there's an awful lot of great content in there. It's actually just talking to somebody out in Scottsdale Basic networking.

Speaker 3: 13:59

You know what's the handshake? What's it mean to network? How do two different devices speak so that they can operate together on a network, very basic stuff. There's the troubleshooting procedure which I got to tell you. I value that more and more. So if something you connect doesn't work, how do you troubleshoot it in a way that there's procedure that you can follow and get down to what the real problem is. A plus has that in there and then you know basic cybersecurity is a core part of A plus. So those are the kind of three things within A plus I highly recommend. And then from there it depends on what. If you're going into IT as a full-time career or if you're, you know, part of a electrical contracting firm and you're starting to do more government work and you're starting to do more network, you know commercial or residential network plus, which is network engineering or security plus cybersecurity specialists I would recommend, ron, what are you thinking?

Speaker 2: 15:00

Yeah, yeah, same thing. We actually are building out career pathways so we want to be able to take somebody that can come in and say I'm interested in a career in technology I don't know what, but I'm interested in this career and that the ITF is that first piece of it. A plus is a starting point for both our infrastructure, the traditional IT you know servers and switches and routers and things and also our cybersecurity. Then you take that network plus, you know, to give you that understanding of. You know all the cables that you're pulling around and all the switches that these things are plugging into, why and what. And then you can step up and go into servers and operating systems and the cloud. Or you can go into security and analytics and pen testing and architecture design and all kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 16:01

But these are, you know, a stepping stone process and we're not the you know, we're not the only industry certifications out there, but what we are are vendor neutral. So our certifications are unique in that we provide the foundational knowledge of why these things exist. And then, if you're, say, working with Cisco equipment, then you take Cisco certifications to learn how to use their tools, you know. You may take a Netgear certification to learn how to use their tools or Microsoft or so on. So it's we're that foundational piece. Most people finish our certification. They understand why we're able to. You know why you use these technologies and why these things operate the way they do.

Speaker 1: 16:46

I love the fact that you're you're you're a vendor neutral. I mean, there's always going to be a need for specific training by manufacturers. Even on the cable side we have those. You know there's this. You know cable manufacturer A will give you training on how to install their stuff and and but there are some foundational skills. That goes across all of them. So I love the fact that you, that you do that. But if there's somebody out there who, who has been tinkering around with some computers for a while, can, is there a way that they I mean, do you do you have to go through a certain sequence of certifications or can you jump anywhere in those? And if you can, is there a process for, like, showing you have that knowledge or those skills to be able to sit for that exam?

Speaker 2: 17:26

Well, you can actually. You can actually take the exam. So, if you want, you can actually go out and take it. You don't have to go through the a learning course or anything like that. It's helpful so for people that that don't have that information. We publish our, our learning objectives or the exam objectives, so the areas that we're going to focus on. You can see that. That's published on our website. So, when you look at an A plus certification or a security plus like we just really updated our security plus and we've got a lot of new areas so we're we're looking at general security concepts, threats and vulnerabilities, architecture, operations, program management so those are those are areas. If you have that knowledge, then you can take the exam.

Speaker 1: 18:18

So if I'm looking to take that test and I go on the CompTIA website and I look at that list, I can use that as a study guide to say I'm good here, there, there, but I need to maybe learn some more on cybersecurity something like that as maybe like a study plan.

Speaker 2: 18:34

You can. We also have our CertMaster Learn products. We've got our test out products as well that are extremely beneficial. What's nice is you can get into one of these things and it's a self-paced and you can go back and review. It's an adaptive learning, so as you're learning this, if you have areas of difficulty you can go back and refresh. One of the things that sets our exams apart from a lot of other entities or organizations is that we're they're testing skills, so you actually have to do things. So there are virtual environments and things where you're actually having part of the exam. You're actually having to go in and type commands and do things, so it's not just memorization and then you're out the door. So these are practical performance based and that's what a lot of employers are looking for, that they don't want somebody with just a certification or a degree or some piece of paper that says, oh, you did it. They want to know you actually have skills and our certifications do that.

Speaker 1: 19:50

There's book smart, and then there's street smart.

Speaker 2: 19:52

Exactly. That's the thing.

Speaker 1: 19:57

It is what it is.

Speaker 3: 19:59

I would suggest so. For example, let's say we, chuck, I know you've got Vixy's project management cert, which is a great strong certification high end. We have Project Plus, which is not as stringent. So if you were like you've had some project management experience, you're looking at our website and you're like I think Project Plus, I could sit and take this. I know people who have done that and past it or a plus or other exams.

Speaker 3: 20:30

I always recommend at a minimum consider taking a practice exam. If you're going to take a practice exam, our Certmaster practice has seven 800 questions. I would at least sit for that and you score 85, 90 percent. I always suggest 90 percent because I want people to feel very comfortable walking into an exam. You score 85, 90 percent on one of our practice exams. You can feel pretty comfortable. Now what Certmaster practice is going to point out like, okay, you're not ready here, here, here, then I would look at additional study material. But yes, people have taken our exams cold. It's an experience. Our exams are set up a little bit differently than a lot of the other exams in the industry. So I always recommend at least get some practice time under your belt.

Speaker 2: 21:18

Yeah, you can't take our tests online sitting at home. You actually have to go into a facility.

Speaker 1: 21:24

You read my mind, I'm assuming, like Pearson View or something like that.

Speaker 2: 21:31

Right, they're all proctored exams.

Speaker 1: 21:33

Okay.

Speaker 2: 21:33

There's somebody there. There's a camera behind you. They're watching so you're not cheating. They want to make sure that you're actually doing the job.

Speaker 1: 21:45

That's why you're so good. You read my mind, because I was sitting there saying I'm thinking I wonder if they conduct this like just log in from your home or you do with the Pearson View. So you quit reading my mind. There's not enough room for me in this head. I don't need a lot of people inside of it. Oh, and full transparency and this is not Jeff's fault, I don't have the Bixie project management certification.

Speaker 3: 22:06

I don't. I'm sorry, Chuck. I apologize.

Speaker 1: 22:07

I just want to make sure that the person who listened to this doesn't hear that and think that Chuck has that. Chuck has the RCDD and the technician certification but don't have the project management one. And that's not because I don't want it, it's just I'm towards the end of my career and what's another server case I'm going to do right now?

Speaker 2: 22:25

You know so I'm not saying I'm a project manager. Project management is a dark art anyway.

Speaker 1: 22:31

So, and I was a project manager for 15 years and I'm telling you it's, it's a tough position to have, it truly is, it really is, especially if you come from the field. But then you know this actually shows, not about project management, let's not. Let's squirrel, squirrel.

Speaker 3: 22:46

Yeah, yeah, let's. Yeah. My apologies, I was. I thought no, no, no, what's your fault? I just want to make sure that.

Speaker 1: 22:51

I clarify that because I don't want somebody here you say that and then later on down the line say, well, chuck took the big project manager class. Chuck has not. Chuck has been a project manager for 15 years but I have not taken that certification. Right, but there you go. So let's talk about skills, right? So as a cable technician, you know some of the skills you need to have. You can't be colorblind, Imagine that.

Speaker 1: 23:18

You have to be somewhat physically fit, and when I say somewhat, I mean you got to be able to pick up like 50 pounds. You got to be able to climb up a ladder, climb down a ladder and stuff like that. What kind of skills? If somebody's doing a self inventory, what kind of skills should that person have if they want to go down the whole comp to your credentialing route?

Speaker 2: 23:39

What do you think, Jeff?

Speaker 3: 23:41

Yeah, so a desire to learn, and always I think that's the primary one. Honestly, I mean there needs to be a natural affinity for this kind of work. Whether it's you know you're pulling cable or fiber or whatever you're doing, there's a part of you that needs to enjoy the work. But I also think that the ongoing learning that we need to do, especially with the markets changing as quickly as they are and AI coming in and everything else, I think this desire to learn and not being not letting your skills kind of dull over time, I think that's an essential ingredient to be successful.

Speaker 3: 24:24

I think in any career, honestly, but especially in IT and cyber and help desk, whatever the job role may be, you have to have that deep seated desire to just ongoing education. And the flip side of that is knowing how you like to learn. If you don't know that, now find that out, because, like my son, my oldest son is very visual, my daughter likes to read, my other son is audio and that's we've had to tailor solutions for them as we were helping them kind of move through an education. If you can figure out how you learn best and you don't lose that desire to learn, you're going to be very successful in any of our certifications. Ron, what would you? What do you say?

Speaker 2: 25:10

Yeah, I mean, the beauty of a tech job is that when you're to that point, you're done pulling cables, you're done climbing ladders, you're done crawling under floors or in basements of buildings or whatever it may be. You're looking for something that's warm or moderately warm, because you may be in a computer room, but something that you can, you know you can do, regardless of whatever physical limitations you may have. And that's the beauty of technology and you know this stuff is is so much of what we do is remote. Now, you know, after the pandemic hit, that just changed a lot of things we can do. You know, the vast majority of our work without actually ever having to leave a home or facility, and that's a great thing.

Speaker 1: 26:04

I love, jeff, when you pointed out that you have to know the way that you learn the best.

Speaker 1: 26:11

Yeah in in school, middle school, in high school I was actually labeled SLRD special learning and reading disabilities and it wasn't because I had a disability, it was because Chuck was lazy. And when I did the they, they gave you that, that exam every other year that you have to fill. I just said ABC, I didn't read the questions, I was lazy. Yeah, and public schools Well, don't get me wrong on, because I have friends that are public school teachers and they're fantastic. But that whole system doesn't really encourage out of the box thinking right and and you never know what skills you might learn in a public school that might help you later. I did not. In my 10th grade I took typing Right now. Here's why I took typing not because I'm like, hey, I want to learn how to type the home row so I can be really good with the computer. I took typing because I'm like one guy, 29 girls.

Speaker 3: 27:04

I.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Literally failed the class. Failed the class, but it taught me the home row so I can type pretty fast on a computer. Because I took that class. I didn't think would have any Impact on me later down the road, right? So what about math? Is math like a required skill that somebody's gonna need to do? Not really.

Speaker 2: 27:32

Not really I mean depending on what you want. If you want to get into development and and you know you want to start working in and some of these new things like AI and stuff like that yes, math is needed but, honestly, to do your job on a daily basis, you don't need math, you don't need Programming, you don't need a lot of things to do the the normal day-to-day job of Support technician or an engineer. You know it's. There's a lot more to it and and it's not, you know, having that ability to think outside the box, you know creative thinking, those are required. Yeah, yeah, understand understanding how other people you know think and communicate is it's huge.

Speaker 1: 28:20

Well, you open Pandora's box. I have to go down this hole. Ai Right, you open the door right. There are some people who are absolutely afraid of AI. There's a lot of people, there's a lot of people who don't understand AI and how it's gonna impact them. Are you guys, do you guys currently have any kind of training or certification on AI? Are you looking at creating any training or certification for AI?

Speaker 2: 28:45

Yeah, we're working on on several Different products and offerings. It's, it's not the terminator. You know there's no, there's no Skynet. You know we're not gonna go. Remember, right now AI runs on a computer. You can turn a computer off.

Speaker 2: 29:04

Mm-hmm you know. So At the end of the day, it's it's gonna make a lot of jobs easier, but it, you know, and it may make some jobs redundant, but Reality is that you know, it's one of these things that I Look at it as a tool. You know everything we do, all the technology, everything that we use, all the cybersecurity skills or For infrastructure skills I have. They're all just tools and a tool bag, and AI is another one of those tools. You know, as a cabler, you know you got a bag of tools hanging on your hip and, yes, you can take, you know, a knife and do a lot with it, but should you pull out your snips? Should you pull out, you know, your Limans pliers or your electrician, electrical scissors and things like that? You know I carried all kinds of things around with me, you know, over the years and it's like you know. I know that, yes, I can do this with a screwdriver and In a pair of Klein snippers, you know but I might be better.

Speaker 2: 30:18

But I shouldn't be doing that. Right, you know, it's all about knowing what tool you're supposed to use. Right and and that's what we teach people is is is how to use the tools.

Speaker 3: 30:29

Yeah, there was a phrase when I started programming and I was I was using Atari. What was it? 600?. I mean, this is I'm old. My 13 year old reminds me of that every day.

Speaker 3: 30:42

There's a phrase that we used to use. It's called garbage in, garbage out, and there's a part of part of AI is the data that's going in is a high quality, is it not? So AI is limited Based upon what data we feed it and the quality of that data. That's why you'll get, if you're looking at at, you know, microsoft's or Google's or whoever's AI, you might get different answers because there's different data sets going in. So I don't see it as the big threat at the moment.

Speaker 3: 31:14

You know we, we, you know we should keep an eye on what data we're feeding it and making sure it's it's quality data so that we get better results. But you know we were talking about this last week, actually, at our town hall or CEO is like if you use AI to write an article or to answer some questions, it's, it's, it's raw. You still have to put your personality into it. You still have to put your touch to it. You still have to edit it and make sure it says what you want it to say it's. It's not quite there yet, but it is a good tool for now.

Speaker 1: 31:49

No, I agree that a hundred percent, and so AI in my life has already had a huge impact. Okay, and we're more on the podcast side than the cabling side, right, and what I mean by that is so, for example, when I get done recording this, that when I go to edit it, I'm gonna upload it to my, my audio platform and AI. Ai listens to the show and writes the description for the show, right, no, I can do that too, but it does it in seconds. It takes me five, ten minutes to do that. It's easy for me just to kind of proves through what it wrote Fick, and usually, usually what are gets stuff wrong is people's names, exploring people's names, but it's really good at that.

Speaker 1: 32:33

And I've also used AI for research for shows, questions for shows, stuff like that. The thing I found with AI is it's how you prompt your question. If you just say, right, give me ten questions on project management, you'll be able to use one. But if you say, hey, act as a podcaster working in the low voltage arena, who's gonna have some guests on the show from a major Computer certification thing, give me ten questions, you will find you'll get a lot better. I guess that goes back to Jeff Garbage in, garbage out, right, yeah, yeah that's right right.

Speaker 1: 33:06

So now I don't think, you know here's, I don't think AI is really going to impact the cable installer out in the field, because it's not gonna go out there, it's not gonna pull and terminate the cable. That's always gonna be, you know, a human doing that. But it might help with the processes. You know the project manager, you know looking at time sheets, maybe scheduling stuff like that but I don't think it will have a really totally ticket job. So let's get away from AI again. When we went down that route, oh, but you open it, you open the door first, we both. Here's another one, one touch base on that.

Speaker 1: 33:39

I think a lot of cable guys don't Expend enough mental energy on because they just don't realize the threat. I'm talking about Cyber security, right? I'm just doing cabling. I, that's that computer stuff I'm not putting in computers. So let's talk about what is first. What is cyber security, right, let's talk about that and let's follow that up with what kind of courses credentialing that you have that, as an installer, might be interested in sure For one thing it's not a piece of technology, it's not something you buy and and apply.

Speaker 2: 34:11

it's a, it's a mindset, it's it's you're protecting your stuff right, and and that's something that a lot of people Still don't quite grasp I mean, today We've we've gotten away from all these papers. You know, we used to, back in the day, we used to have filing cabinets full of papers and that was our customer information and that was our, you know, financial information and our medical information. All this stuff was in inside of a filing cabinet or a safe. Well, now it's all online, whether it's, you know, on your computer, on your phone, in the cloud, whatever it is. And you know when. When somebody breaks into your, into your shop and they steal your tools, your insurance company replaces your tools. Right, you can get that done. The windows get fixed and in your back in business a couple of days without tools and your back going to town.

Speaker 2: 35:06

With technology today and every business uses tech today if they break in and steal your data or delete your data, you can't bill your customers, you can't pull up that work order, you can't find out, pay your employees. You can't do a lot of things and you know back in the day, when it was just you worrying about somebody breaking into your shop or your automobile. It's local. You know it's within 25 miles of where you're at. That's where that person's gonna be. With the internet now it's global. You can actually be on the space station and have internet access. So it doesn't matter where you're at Anywhere in the world you can actually risk. So you just open shop everywhere and you've got doors globally. So it's something you have to take care of.

Speaker 1: 36:03

And one of the things you didn't mention and you hear the blots of stories over the last couple of years people's networks being hacked into, then the hackers holding their data for hostage money.

Speaker 2: 36:15

Yeah, exactly, and when they do it and what's bad about it a lot of people will just immediately turn around and pay the ransom it's called ransomware and they pay the ransom and hopefully they get the key to unlock their data or they get their data back. But that's just a copy, Right? They've got your data. Once you pay, they know you're gonna continue to pay, so they can come back and say hey, we're gonna leak your data out and embarrass you or let your competitors know all your secrets, pay us as much more money. So it's one of these things. It's think of these guys as petty thieves and con men. They're always out there, except now they have the ability to sit in luxury and do this whenever they want to and not have to worry about guard dogs out front or video cameras and things like that.

Speaker 3: 37:17

Just gonna jump in and say it's like if you're working in a spot where you're installing any kind of device, so if you're residential and you're installing, let's say, a camera, doorbell or a home house network or a smart network as part of a house, or you're a commercial and you're installing a PoE panel or fire control pretty much anything that's connected to the net could be like an open window to your house when you go on vacation. There's a risk for any of those things, and I actually Chuck Ron and I were sharing articles this week where a lot of the cybersecurity attacks from bad actors are coming through operational technology now, so devices that are connected to the internet and manufacturing. It's like a 40% increase. So anything that's connected. If you have any men or women that you work for or yourselves, and you're installing something on a network, there's a potential risk and that's just something.

Speaker 3: 38:17

Not everybody thinks about it. Chuck, when we're at Nica Bixie, I was asking a lot of the men and women dropping by it's like so do you install anything on the network? Oh yeah, we're doing more and more of that. It's like, well, if it's on the network, then there's a cybersecurity risk and not everyone's thinking about that yet, but we're making inroads on that.

Speaker 1: 38:37

It's fun because when we had a pre-show call and Ron was talking about how he set up his network because, ron, you're way more advanced and networking than I am okay, but you were talking about I'm not gonna say here because I don't want people to know how your stuff is set up, but your network is pretty secure from what you were telling me Well, I got a wireless router that I can use as a backup for my land-based internet, right, and also when I go camping, and so I got the wireless router.

Speaker 1: 39:04

It's connected to, like Verizon, at&t and a bunch of other things, so that way if one signal bad, it can change over. You always have the best signal, and so that way we can watch whatever we want to watch. So I got the router and I flipped it over and I looked at the password and it was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And I heard you ringing in my ear Secure your network. Secure your network, because I don't want somebody breaking into my network, hacking my data and then putting out to the world that I really spend a lot of time in electrician Facebook groups, even though I'm a low voltage, right.

Speaker 2: 39:35

Well, it's a truth. I mean, the manufacturers try to make these things easy, right, and not everybody's used to technology, so they want to make this thing as easy as possible. And there's a default password and account on just about every device out there, right? Well, you've got to change those things. You can't leave those the way they are, and you don't especially in a business environment. If you're running a company and you've got guys out in the field and they're installing IP cameras and they're installing access control systems and all of these other devices on networks and you're putting them in and you're setting things up, you don't want to have your company's default password. You know that everybody in your business knows, because when the guy doesn't, you know decides he's going to leave, he has the keys to every one of your clients' environments.

Speaker 1: 40:37

Well, as you're going down that road, my mind's thinking because I told you my mind's always thinking does that place an additional emphasis on the hiring manager or the company to do their due diligence to make sure that their person they're hiring to install the ring doorbells and the cameras and access, that they don't have some kind of a criminal background or some kind of nefarious background?

Speaker 2: 41:00

And that's a big thing. I mean, for years I ran a cybersecurity company for almost 30 years and, believe it or not, we looked at people's social media. You know I went out and we would dig into what their behaviors were. Are they going out ranting about their employer? Are they sharing information about things that's inappropriate? What they're doing, that and they're my employee what's going to stop them from doing that about us, about our clients?

Speaker 2: 41:34

So it is an issue, but at the same time, one of the biggest things in industry right now, and this affects companies of all size.

Speaker 2: 41:43

It's something they call a business email compromise and it's a simple thing.

Speaker 2: 41:48

It is somebody sending an email or a text message to an employee of a company, specifically your bookkeeper, your accountant, whoever's in finance paying your bills, and saying, hey, we've just changed, I'm your vendor, we just changed our account number, send it over to this bank.

Speaker 2: 42:11

And people just respond and that's not a cybersecurity issue, that's a business issue. That's something where you as a business owner should say hey, if my customer calls me and says change an account number, or sends me an email or sends me a text message saying change this, we stop, we go over and pick up a phone and call them based on the number we have internally and say are you doing this and to make sure we may do it again with somebody else? Just a double check, cause you know, in the construction and cabling industry you're dealing with a with some sizable amounts of money, especially if you're going out and buying supplies. You know you're having to put the bill for some of these things. You don't want your paycheck, you know this money to be diverted somewhere else just because somebody, some con artist was able to send an email.

Speaker 1: 43:16

Yeah, my day job. They're really good at doing these snippet training sessions to help people become better at fishing and stuff like that. And I thought of post on one of my friends social. He did a social media post and it was kind of about cybersecurity and he said which one of these is the correct one? And it was said WWW. I'm just gonna make up a name wwwcapitalonecom, wwwcapitalonecom. They looked identical but the only difference was the A on one was a different font and if you didn't catch that, you might have clicked on. If somebody came across this wwwcapitalonecom, well that's obviously my bank or whatever. And boom, next thing you know, you put in your password, you use ID and they throw all $13.25 a month.

Speaker 2: 44:05

Well, unfortunately, that's one of the things AI, wrongly used, can actually make a little easier. It used to be. They used to tell you look for poor spelling or the. If the email came from a Nigerian prince, if somebody was giving you $100 million that you have no idea, don't respond.

Speaker 1: 44:26

Wait, wait, wait. I'm not getting my inheritance of $100 million. Not at all, oh man, I've already retired.

Speaker 2: 44:33

Well too bad. But what we found is that you can use AI now. You can use tools out there now to make an email look exactly like an email from FedEx or UPS or your bank and it goes through and does the spell checking and the grammar checking and stuff so it looks identical and makes it even harder to see. So that's why these are simple business rules Protect yourself. If you fire an employee and you get your tools back, you get your accounts. You lock them out of your systems. You take away their accesses. I mean, there was a guy recently that was fired from a high school in the Boston area and they didn't shut down his accesses and he went back in and he deleted systems and he removed their accesses from how they control their mobile devices and laptops and phones and things and iPads. Tremendous amount of damage. He finally they caught him because there's a trail and they caught him and he now has. He finally pled guilty to it and he's gonna have to spend time in jail for it, but it was a business year.

Speaker 1: 46:01

It's not even a threat to business and it's just sidetracked here for a second. I was cruising through Facebook a couple of days ago and I'm looking to add a couple Milwaukee Packout things to my modular toolkits. I've got Modbox and Packouts. I got both and because I do that, the Facebook ads automatically kind of zoom in and attack you. So this one thing came up and on the icon it said A's Hardware, a very well-known place that sells stuff, milwaukee Sales.

Speaker 1: 46:30

So I click on the link. It takes me to this link and I mean they had like Packout boxes for like five bucks and they normally go for like 50 bucks, 100 bucks, 150 bucks. And I'm thinking I hear my dad if the price is too good to be true. So I'm like it's probably not true and I'm like no, this can't be, this is A's Hardware. And then when I took my mouse and I hovered over the link, it didn't say A's Hardwarecom, it was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like that doesn't look right. So I just said you know what? I shut it down. No, I'm not staying away from that, because I have a feeling that that's not exactly what they're portraying themselves to be. So it's not just a threat to businesses. It's also a threat to your own money and your own accounts and stuff.

Speaker 3: 47:13

Yeah, and I would just to add on to what Ron was saying. The two things I try to share as much as possible is one make an environment at your job where it's easy to share the mistakes. So if you click on that link, you need to tell somebody. If you're like, okay, I thought I was doing single sign on for my 401K, but that doesn't make sense, you need to tell somebody. And you need an environment where you feel safe doing that, because the longer you go without reporting it, the greater the risk and peril to your business and yourself.

Speaker 3: 47:45

The second thing if people do scam you out of money, the FBI does a very good job of hopefully getting that money back, but they need to know as early as possible. So that environment where you know, yeah, you want to train people up to not make mistakes, but these guys, they are so good at scamming. I mean, it's like the sting you know that old movie where they're scamming the scammers. They're really good at what they do and people who have been in this for 20 years get caught sometimes. So you need an environment where people can self report and feel safe doing it and then when it gets to that level of a crime, you need to bring in the authorities as early as possible because they sometimes can recover money, because it takes a while for some of that money to scam tonight.

Speaker 2: 48:34

Well, you, know the person.

Speaker 3: 48:35

Nigeria is not going to be giving you money, but you know there are other countries that I won't name that they can stop those funds before they get there if you get early enough.

Speaker 1: 48:45

Yeah, one of my guilty pleasures. I don't watch regular TV. I spend the majority of my time watching YouTube, right, and there's several channels out there that there's computer hackers hacking the hackers' websites and stuff, wasting their time and exposing them, turning on their cameras and doing all kinds of stuff. Try to get them quit.

Speaker 2: 49:06

Just one of my guilty pleasures, yeah well, I mean, one of the things and this is something that you know, it's more of a personal security issue that I tell everybody about is you know, a lot of people have a. You know, when you started out you know 16, 17 years old you get a debit card. You get an ATM card, right. Or you open your bank and you get a debit card. Well, it says Visa on there. So you think, well, I can use this one. You got a Visa card. That thing's tied directly to your bank account.

Speaker 2: 49:34

So you know you've heard about scammers or skimmers and things and ATMs and gas pumps and stuff like that. Same kind of thing exists, you know, electronically with these websites. So you know you can go in and enter your information and if you put in that card information which looks and functions a lot like a credit card, but without the protections, you know you could turn around and find out your bank accounts drained. Banks don't have to give that money back. Some do, and that's a good thing. But I always tell people, especially in business don't use a debit card for anything.

Speaker 2: 50:17

Get a credit card. Get a credit card in that name and even if you got to get one, that's just a you know it has a set limit. You can't spend over what your you know half of your paycheck and use that for everything that you would swipe a card for, because the minute somebody gets that information it trickles back to everything you do with it and if that's your primary method for doing anything, and especially as a business, you could be out of business, have your accounts drained simply by swiping your debit card at a gas station.

Speaker 1: 50:59

Does CompTIA offer any kind of classes on how to identify, like email phishing and all those other things?

Speaker 2: 51:08

Not really in the annual cybersecurity awareness types of things. We do have that information in our courses and in our certifications, and then we have blog posts and things like that that talk about that. You know what to look for, but those are things that are constantly evolving. So, like I said, with some of the tools out there now, I can make that email look just like it came from UChup and I can get past and basically con people out of anything that they're dealing with you and it's not difficult to do.

Speaker 1: 51:54

Yeah, I don't trust you know if I get somebody sends me a text message, even if it's somebody I know if they send me a text message with a link on it?

Speaker 1: 52:02

No, Unless, I ask for that link, you know hey send me a link of that video we talked about at dinner the other night. Then I asked for that in advance. But if they're sending me a link, I don't know. I just really respond. I don't click link. Sorry, you know, I just don't.

Speaker 1: 52:15

You know, because I had one of my cousins, I just thought about this. He I got a message and it said hey, Chuck, how you doing. And I had talked to this guy in like years. I'm like I'm fine, how you doing. He goes look, I'm in a bind. Can you send me 500 bucks? I'm like, well, yeah, but you're gonna have to answer a couple of questions first. And he's like what I said? Okay, when we first met, I worked on one of your cars. What kind of car was it? And what did I do? Right, and click, they went away. Yeah, Because I knew there's no way they can answer. You couldn't even go on that guy's social media platform and even find that out, because that information is 30 years old, Right, he's not like. He's gonna say, well, Chuck, worked on my blah, blah blah and repaired my blah blah. I don't wanna say, just in the case, that guy's watching the show, Right? So, yeah, yeah, just be careful with everything, Everything.

Speaker 3: 53:05

Yeah, and Chuck, you mentioned Facebook. Every now and then we'll see, or I'll see on my timeline somebody you know. Here's 20 questions we want you to answer, you know, and like, share that info, like what's your firstborn's name, what's your favorite color. Don't answer those. Oh yeah, don't answer those. That's social engineering. They're trying to guess your password, even if they even the person who did it originally doesn't intend that Right. A really good scammer can take that information, social engineer it and figure out what some of your passwords could be.

Speaker 1: 53:39

Oh yeah, when I see those, I always answered them, but I always make up the wildest answers.

Speaker 3: 53:44

That's really don't put them. There you go, chuck. That's a good, that's even a better answer. It's like hey.

Speaker 1: 53:48

It's kind of like when you get those wrong phone numbers and they ask for for Bob. Oh well, oh, you didn't hear. Bob got killed in a car accident last year. There's no Bob living here. You know, I'm gonna waste your time. If you're gonna waste mine, I'm gonna waste yours. Yeah, yeah, gentlemen, what a fantastic show. What a fantastic show. I need to have you guys back on again so we can talk more in depth about cybersecurity, because we started tagging on the end. I think that could be a show by itself, so I appreciate you guys coming on today so much.

Speaker 3: 54:17

Oh, it's a pleasure, Chuck. Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1: 54:19

So we went over a lot of information and I hope that you can glean some of the information, maybe take some courses and become better, because, remember, knowledge is power.

Speaker 4: 54:28

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.