Cisco Systems announced this week that it has instituted a new policy which will take effect over the next 12 months, whereby all candidates must have a digital photo taken and provide a digital signature at the Pearson Vue test center before being allowed to sit any Cisco exam.

This new identity authentication appears to take aim at those who may attempt to have others take their exams for them as well as help track those who are taking or retaking exams just to memorize questions to sell on or give away to other candidates.

A Pearson Vue statement said that the company estimates the process will add approximately 5 minutes to the testing check-in time. “We’re dedicated to candidate authentication procedures that allow us to quickly verify a test taker’s identity, without compromising candidate privacy and convenience,” the company stated.

Cisco is the only major IT certification vendor to implement this policy and they have indicated that these are the first of many new procedures that will be taken to further improve test security.

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The Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) demonstrates that a network professional has the knowledge and skills required to manage Routers and Switches that form the network core, as well as edge applications that integrate voice, wireless, and security into the network.

The CCNP certification is designed for:

• Network and System Administrators
• Network and System Support Engineers
• Software Engineers
• Technical consultants

Required Exams

To achieve CCNP you must already have a valid CCNA qualification

In addition four further exams are needed, these are outlined below:

• Exam 642-825 - Implementing Secure Converged Wide Area Networks (ISCW)

• Exam 642-845 - Optimizing Converged Cisco Networks (ONT)

Plus a choice of:

• Exam 642-901 - Building Scalable Cisco Inter-networks (BSCI)

Plus

• Exam 642-812 - Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN)

or

• Composite exam 642-892