TrainACE - IT and Cybersecurity Training Blog

The term “honeypot” or, as it sometimes appears, “honey pot,” came to computer security from the world of espionage, where it referred to an agent who would be sexually available to a target. If all went as planned, the target would be compromised, either by sexual blackmail or because the relationship led the target to share secret information.

A huge portion of modern society uses some form of digital technology on a daily basis. Many conveniences on a national and personal level have been made possible due to this technology, but also opens up a Pandora's box of a whole new set of problems as well. The cyber battlefield grows more dangerous as organized hackers and other cyber threatening criminals set out to exploit the conveniences produced by the digital age for their own gain. There is an ongoing challenge, therefore, creating cyber security or defenses to protect the country from attacks; but have, on many occasions, been successfully breached to raise considerable concern even among the most savvy cyber security agencies in the world.

The term advanced persistent threat (APT) was originally used to describe complex, ongoing espionage perpetrated by foreign governments. However, today, APT typically refers to a category of cybercrime directed toward businesses or government entities. APTs are usually online attacks used to achieve goals beyond those that can be met by a single security breach, but some may involve malicious activity conducted onsite. Compromised computer systems are continuously monitored by the attackers or added to a stable of slave computers to be used to achieve some future goal. APTs are most often perpetrated by employing some form of malware, and IT technicians defend against APTs by installing antimalware software and hardware firewalls.

Nearly every security breach in a company’s online network is caused by some form of malicious computer program. These programs are generally referred to as malware, but they exist in several distinct categories, including viruses, worms and Trojan horses. Being able to identify when and how malware is affecting a computer system takes specialized training, but this knowledge increases the value of any IT security technician or manager who possesses it. These individuals are capable of assessing the scope and severity of a malware infection, which leads to efficient and detailed planning of the steps required to eliminate the malware and recover any lost data or system resources.

CASP+ has a new name. CompTIA’s advanced cybersecurity certification is now SecurityX, with the current exam version CAS-005 launched on December 17, 2024.

That name change is the first thing the old article needs to fix. People still search for CASP+, and many resumes still use the older name, but the certification to talk about in 2026 is CompTIA SecurityX.

The purpose has not changed much. SecurityX is still built for experienced cybersecurity professionals who want to prove they can design, implement, and defend enterprise security systems. It is more technical than a management credential, and it is not meant for beginners.

Computer forensics is no longer just about pulling files from a seized laptop. In 2026, digital forensics sits inside incident response, cloud investigations, mobile device analysis, malware review, insider-threat cases, fraud investigations, and legal discovery.

That is why salary data can look messy. A “computer forensics” job in a police lab may pay very differently from a digital forensics and incident response role at a defense contractor, bank, consulting firm, or managed security provider.

If you are looking at the CISSP, the real salary question is not “What does the certification pay?” It is “What does the certification help me qualify for?”

That distinction matters. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track CISSP-specific salaries. ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, and Payscale can be useful snapshots, but they mix job postings, self-reported pay, title inflation, remote roles, and employer salary bands. For a cleaner 2026 answer, it is better to triangulate: use BLS/O*NET for the occupation baseline, ISC2 for CISSP-holder salary context, and CyberSeek for demand.

Cloud security training deserves a place at the top of every tech firm's agenda for one simple reason: the cloud attack surface is growing faster than the security workforce. Recent analysis puts the global cybersecurity talent shortfall at roughly 4.8 million professionals, while cloud security guidance from major vendors keeps emphasizing the same point: organizations are responsible for securing the identities, data, workloads, APIs, and configurations inside their own environments.

Start With the Work, Not the Job Title

The best way to choose an information technology career is to compare the work each role performs every week. Job titles vary by employer, but the day-to-day patterns are easier to recognize: support users, keep networks online, administer systems, protect data, automate repeatable tasks, and document each completed update.