CSX Fundamentals Study Guide Great for New Hires

I have just finished reading the CSX Fundamentals Study Guide, which ISACA provides for the CSX Fundamentals exam. I am impressed. When I hire entry level individuals to work for my company, I look for someone who has familiarity with the topics outlined in the guide. I don’t expect them to be an expert, but when we are tackling a subject as a team, I expect my employees to know the topic being discussed.

Over the years, my employees have been exposed to many cyber security issues, and for the most part, they understand the new ideas and are able to conduct research on them. This helps improve our company’s awareness of critical cyber security issues and what we can expect with the next issue we will have to evaluate or the next solution that we will have to implement. What I like about the CSX Fundamentals Study Guide is that it outlines those very key topics we are in the throes of working on every day.

Everything changes rapidly in technology; however, companies are not always on the cutting edge, and the subjects covered in the guide are works in progress. That means the guide and courses are preparing someone who is entertaining a cyber security career so that they can be versed in what is currently going on. I appreciate that as a hiring manager. I don’t expect an entry-level person to be certified with high-end skills or have extensive experience in a particular area. I do expect them to come on board and be able to acclimate to our environment and be part of the team working on such things as data loss prevention (DLP), mobile technologies and their use within the corporation.

I have expertise in forensics and encryption on my team; however, I need new hires to know the basics of why and how to use these technologies. The guide provides a good base of knowledge for these and other technologies where the expectation that an entry-level hire would be able to work with another team member and provide value in taking over some of the tasks.

Naturally, a new hire would need further training, that goes without saying, but the CSX Fundamentals Study Guide helps to put that person on the same page as the rest of a team in the cyber security community. I would also recommend using the guide in preparing for the exam. After instructing CISA and CISM courses for years, this guide seems to hit the fundamentals right on and would benefit the exam taker.

The CSX program is very meaningful to the cyber security field and I expect the courses ISACA is creating will boost the numbers in the profession.

Editor’s note: the CSX Fundamentals Study Guide was recently an ISACA Bookstore book of the month.

Cheryl Santor, Information Security Manager, Metropolitan Water District of SoCal

[ISACA Now Blog]