Stories by: Linda Musthaler

For the first time ever, companies that develop and administer IT certification exams are working together to combat a problem that has largely been swept under the rug for years: certification fraud.

With the crackdown on certification cheaters, the ITCC strongly urges candidates to know and follow the certifying agencies' security policies. They are posted online and must be acknowledged when a candidate wants to take a test.

The integrity of IT certification is vitally important to everyone. IT, as an industry and a profession, is largely unregulated. There are no government standards that define the qualifications of any level of IT professional. There is no licensing process or required educational background. In essence, anyone can declare himself a "network engineer" or a "systems analyst." It's the Wild West of professions.

A member of the Exam Security Team from a major IT solutions vendor recently received an e-mail from an IT professional who owned up to the fact that he had inadvertently cheated to prepare for his certification exam.

Symantec seems to be one of those companies that toiled for 25 years to become an overnight success. The company has grown rapidly through mergers and acquisitions, not the least of which was systems management company Altiris in April 2007. Now in 2008, Symantec is a powerhouse player in security, systems management, application virtualization, storage management and compliance.

You might think that all laser or inkjet printers are pretty much the same, and basically, they are. Manufacturers such as Canon, HP and Lexmark don’t make a lot of money on each printer they sell. The big bucks come from selling you supplies such as ink cartridges over the life of a printer.