JOHANNESBURG – If you’re interested in pursuing a career in IT, it makes good sense to do a course in IT security. So says Kerry Damons of Boston City Campus & Business College.
She points out that because of the emphasis on safeguarding sensitive data and networks nowadays, this area of IT is growing and offers valuable employment opportunities.
Boston City Campus & Business College is currently updating its IT courses. This means that students that enrol at Boston for further study in 2014 will use MS Office 2013 and Windows 8.
“Every single company and individual that makes use of a computer needs to invest in some kind of IT security. Without this security we risk losing all our data and possibly money too,” she explains.
“Considering the trends in social networking and cloud computing, humanity has a lot of important information that is vulnerable to theft. Be it at work or in our personal lives, we all rely on IT security professionals to protect – among many other crucial things – our privacy, our passwords and log-in codes, the money in our bank accounts, our mobile phones, Facebook, our PCs, laptops and company networks.”
IT security stretches across all industries and applications and thus offers challenge and excitement for those who like to go beyond the everyday problem solving.
IT security technicians work in both preventing and fixing security breaches. As glamorous as it looks on television to see the good-guy hacker break into the enemy’s network, it takes a lot of knowledge and practical programming experience to reach that level of expertise where corporates depend on you to secure their systems.
The first crucial step in entering the field of IT security is to enrol for relevant training. According to Damons there are quite a few options available regarding courses of study. You can start with a computer programming qualification, preferably one that is recognised by CompTIA, the Computing Technology Association that represents 89 countries globally. Then you can go on to specialise in security.
You can enrol for the CompTIA Security+ training and certification course. Due to a marked increase in hacker activity, the rapid surge in virus-related activity and the need to protect sensitive data, CompTIA launched this course fairly recently and Boston City Campus & Business College offers the course at its campuses throughout South Africa. (The list of all the campuses nationwide is available on www.boston.co.za.)
As a Platinum class education partner of CompTIA, Boston certifies the most individuals on CompTIA certifications in the sub-Sahara African region. Boston is currently among the top three providers of the 2700 international providers that service CompTIA learners. Boston was also voted best computer training college by The Star readers in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (Star Reader’s Choice Awards).
CompTIA Security+ training provides an introduction to the world of computer security and network security. The course teaches the basics of securing a company network and the various different types of threats users may encounter. To find out more about IT courses, learning programmes and entry requirements or to receive free career advice, visit the Boston campus in Voortrekker Road, Alberton, opposite McDonalds. Alternatively, contact Boston City Campus & Business College on 011 551-2000 or e-mail [email protected].
“With a recognised qualification in IT security, you can expect to find employment as a security technician/administrator, security analyst, and network and information security technician,” Damons concludes.
