Welcome to the first part of the DOD 8140/8570 series. The purpose of this series is to provide information for individuals to help them understand the certifications and how to skill-up.

For this part, we are going to be discussing the Entry Level categories within the Approved Baseline Certifications list. A quick background on the DoD 8140/8570; these are used as guidelines that highlight the requirements and expectations such as training, certifications, and the management of those who perform DoD Information Assurance functions. The Baseline Certification List is broken down by Category or Specialty and Levels. These certifications align with specific Information Assurance (Cybersecurity) Roles.

There are three Entry Level categories, those being:

• Information Assurance Technical/Technician (IAT) – Level I
• Information Assurance Management (IAM) – Level I
• Information Assurance Architecture and Engineering (IASAE) – Level I

These three categories have minimum requirements allowing for individuals or companies to get their compliance started with the 8570 Baseline Certifications. There are three levels to each of these, starting with Level one which is primarily in the computing environment (CE), or in simpler terms, system/PC assets.

If you are hands on, and enjoy working within the environment, maintaining, and fixing compliance issues, the Technician category would be a great fit for you. We offer the following certifications that align with the 8570 IAT Level I category:

• CompTIA A+
• CCNA
• CND
• Network +

Potential job roles could be Junior Software Engineer, Cyber security Analyst, Network Engineer, System Administrator.

If managing people is in your skill set, or you’ve wanted to explore it, the Management category would be a great fit for you. We offer the following certifications that align with the 8570 IAM Level I category:

• CND
• Security +

Potential job roles could be Cybersecurity Analyst, Information Assurance Manager, Information Security Specialist.

Last, if you enjoy designing and setting up secure information architecture systems, the Architecture and Engineering category is a great fit for you. We offer the following certification that aligns with the 8570 IASAE Level I Category:

• CISSP

Potential job roles could be IT Systems Engineer, Network or Systems Engineer, Data Architect.

Depending on your area of interest, LearnKey has you covered to help you become compliant for an Information Assurance role. To review more information regarding the Baseline Certification List, please refer to the link here. You can also use this resource to familiarize yourself with the additional requirements outside of the baseline certification.

In the next part of the series, we will be discussing up-skilling to Level II and III.