Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. - T. S. Eliot
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The Value of IT Certifications Written by Robert Williams March 24, 2007 Until now it was possible for candidates in the United States (and other countries) to have exams taken for them in countries other than their own. Gunmen, located half way around the world, were able to take tests for people that paid the outrageous prices they were asking. Now, that is all over... The primary reason CertGuard was created was to increase the value of IT Certifications. But before we could actually set about increasing their value, we had to stem the factors that were steadily leading to degradation of the IT certifications and their associated worth. One of the items on our list of things to accomplish is to stop the gunmen from taking 'proxy-tests' for candidates that are too lazy to take the exams themselves. What are proxy-tests and why do they concern us? Well, simply put, a proxy-test is an exam taken by someone posing as a legitimate test taker. 'Gunmen', as they are commonly referred, are making large amounts of cash off of this illicit service that they provide. One major reason the gunmen were soliciting services outside their own country was because of the currency exchange rates given by the US Dollar. For an accurate cash flow analysis and the exchange rate, see our article on Gunmen Domain Hosts There are many ways that gunmen solicit their services, their most common means of communication is via many of the online NNTP servers. Newsgroup readers around the world are disgusted by the fact that these 'posts' often don't get filtered or removed from the servers, and are quite often left to sit for years, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to stumble upon their illicit content. Other gunmen actually have websites that can be found with the correct terminology in your favorite search engine. No, of course we're not going to give that information out. Initiating contact with a gunman was actually quite easy, I have personally done it numerous times. In order to gain the trust of the gunman I would usually have to add them to one of my many messenger alias' and let them contact me at their own discretion. There were often times that I wouldn't even hear from them, so I would just delete the account and create a new one. Our conversations would last between 1 and 6 weeks before he actually felt that I was a good enough (or maybe stupid enough) candidate to take a test for. Once the gunmen took the tests for my many aliases, they would send me a link to the Prometric website so that I could log in and check the results of the false name that I provided them with. Often they would even send me a falsified PDF of the Score Sheet with my fake name and the information of a testing center here in the United States. Everyone knows the repercussions of someone else taking an exam for you. If you don't know, please review our page dedicated to Gunmen. When it comes down to it though, you don't have the knowledge, the training, or the experience to work in a field that you're claiming to have that knowledge in, and you've pretty much ruined it for the people that do. The good news is... To help in our fight, Microsoft has taken a huge step in Exam Security by preventing foreign test takers in India and China from taking Microsoft Exams. CertGuard and Microsoft are working on ways to prevent gunmen from operating altogether, but that problem is a bit more difficult to attack. Note: As of April 1, 2007, Yes, this means that American Citizens will not even be allowed to take exams while visiting those countries. It's a small price to pay, but at least you now know that your Certifications are not being devalued by gunmen and the cheaters that buy into their services. This does not, however, affect the legal residents of those countries, legal residents of India will still be able to take exams in India, and the same goes for China. This only means that Pakistani citizens will not be allowed to take their exams in India, just as Korean citizens will not be allowed to take their exams in China. This does mean that the gunmen's services will be reduced to taking exams for legal residents of their respective countries. So, the battle has not been completely won, but the enemy is hurting. Now, our fight to increase the value of IT Certifications has been elevated to the next level. Now CertGuard can focus on educating people about the perils of using braindumps and we help provide a place where individuals can turn to find the information they need in order to EARN their IT Certifications. Robert Williams CEO, Founder CertGuard, Inc. |
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Gavin Smith left us a comment on 3/26/2007 |
Robert Williams left us a comment on 3/27/2007 |
Gavin Smith left us a comment on 3/31/2007 |
Robert Williams left us a comment on 4/1/2007 |
Robert Williams left us a comment on 4/1/2007 |
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