9/5/2012 -- Sometimes, a company does something that makes you stand up and salute them even if what they have done isn't the final step yet, but merely a move in the right direction. In this case, Red Hat needs to be commended for creating a program that allows an exam candidate to take an exam in a remote location as opposed to a proctored site at their testing facility.

Under the newly available option, candidates receive a testing machine that they setup and authenticate with -- it has the ability to scan identification credentials. They then begin the exam and a number of cameras watch the candidate and feed the video to a proctor who is watching them from another location to make sure they don't have notes scribbled on their arm, open a book, phone a friend, et cetera.

For the longest time, I've railed that the current method of testing is too archaic. We can remotely monitor criminals under house arrest and know what they are doing in their homes, but we require someone answering a multiple choice question to drive to a testing site and check in with a receptionist who is prohibited from knowing anything about the exam for fear of accidentally saying something that may help the candidate. While this may seem like a minor inconvenience if you live in a large city with a plethora of testing centers, it is much more than that for many who must give up a sizable portion of their day to travel to and from such facilities when there isn't one for many miles or those in your area are booked solid with four hour beta exams.

This remote testing machine looks like something from twenty years ago and Red Hat still won't send them outside of the big cities, but hopefully it will get enough attention to get others thinking about the problem. It is a step in the right direction -- a step no one else was taking -- and for that, Red Hat deserves a great deal of praise.

Microsoft Second Shot Returns
As of Aug. 27, Microsoft's occasional "Second Shot" offer is once again available. Between now and May 31, 2013, candidates can take an exam a second time if they fail it the first. Second Shot is valid for Microsoft IT Professional or Developer Certification exams that can be taken at Prometric testing centers.

More information can be found here.

Technology Book of the Week: 'The Computer Incident Response Planning Handbook'
With a title and subtitle almost as long as the book itself, it might be easy to dismiss N. K. McCarthy's The Computer Incident Response Planning Handbook: Executable Plans for Protecting Information At Risk. To do so would be a big mistake. The 200 pages of this book are packed with information needed for developing response plans that can be understood, implemented, and enforced.

If you are just wanting to know wan an IRP is in order to pass an entry-level security exam, then this is not the book for you. When you actually have to craft one, however, then there is no other title that you'll want to have by your side and McCarthy has done a great job of condensing down an enormous amount of information into just what you want and need. That is one of the things you must learn from 20 years of experience and a past that includes serving as an Information Warfare Officer and member of the FBI's Infragard program.