For the first time Information Technology Soldiers are leaving Fort Gordon with a coveted civilian certification.

On Dec. 12, six Soldiers from the 15th Regimental Signal Brigade in the Military Occupational Specialty 25B10 Information Technology completed their training and all requirements for the "Industry Standard" CompTIA Security+ certification.

The Soldiers were the first to participate in the, "Security+ Bridge," a program created to meet Department of Defense Directive 8570- 1.M and put certified IT Specialists (Information Assurance Technician Level II) in the field. The program creation was a combined effort between the School of Information Technology and Knowledge Systems Directorate.

Soldiers received technical training regarding Army policies and Best Business Practices, encryption and authentication standards, and core Information Assurance concepts meeting the CompTIA objectives for certification examination. Soldiers received hands-on training with network packet filtering, port scanning/sniffing, steganography, working with Honeypots and monitoring network traffic to identify various network based attacks.

Kay Arnold, KSD director said, "This is a step forward in the process for the 25B10 Information Technology Specialist Course becoming a premiere IT training school." KSD is restructuring the unit's training materials to meet the CompTIA Security+ 2008 objectives and facilitate students challenging the industry certification exam starting Oct, 09.

Several Soldiers commented about the program acknowledging that they are motivated and feel they can successfully perform everything they are required to do. One Soldier said, "This is the stuff I joined the 25B MOS for."