• CIN will be sunsetting the official CIN app! The app will be turned off on Saturday, August 1st. Thank you to everyone who used the app to post updates. It just was not adopted as much as hoped. This is ONLY the mobile app. The CIN community is not being affected. :)

LinkedIn Exam Scammers

I have reported to LinkedIn almost 1000 times about scammers coming from India or the Philippines sending connect requests to myself and countless others in my network offering 100% guarantee's to pass exams. Here is the problem that really needs the CIN involvement from CompTIA because I see NO ONE talking about it on this side of the fence. LinkedIn is doing absolutely nothing and what is horrible and shameful is there is a bustling market and as hard as I work my butt off daily to study. I think EVERYONE should be required to take the exam HONESTLY. I know we have all of these written bylaws but criminals and their customers don't give a crap about rules.

1. Enable Geolocation exam scheduling. If a person's address is in Baltimore, Maryland or Philadelphia, PA. They should not be able to have a exam pass on their exam center from India, Shanghai, China or a foreign country outside of the US. The same is vice versa for someone sitting in Nairobi, Kenya with an exam center in Pakistan or India.

2. Focus on Practical questions in a higher density 80/20 versus multiple choice exams where brain dumps are common from unscrupulous vendors. I have reported even US based exam centers where I was asked if I wanted to pass some CompTIA or ISC2 exams. What was even more surprising is the same exam center was still open and I know they were doing this scam. I know it is a business and they have to be "caught", but if you see a ridiculous amount of exam passing in the same center. Their should be pattern verification and validation. This is not rocket science.

3. Cheaters will always find a way. I get it, but seriously. If we want employers and industry to take CompTIA exams dead serious. I would question why we don't make it more challenging for scammer companies or cheaters who profit off of the CompTIA name and exam brands.

4. Identify the exam center by name and location ON THE CERTIFICATION VALIDATION PORTAL. That is the #1 way to put a nail slammed shut on the scammer. If the exam center location is printed on the Certificate itself AND in the portal of the Certification validation portal. It literally shames people into taking their own dang exam and it disincentivizes the scammers whole business model of anonymity. CompTIA could lead the industry to doing such a simple change by adding a line to the certification exam with the location of the exam center where a person took the exam. Remote proctored exams should identify the city, state or country the exam was proctored.

5. "Login and take the exam for you" scams which has become the most common. Work with Pearson Vue to block all remote session ports during the exam and common remote software which will be a running process on the machine. If a person's machine flags. Require them to report to a local onsite exam center instead of just cancelling the exam.

Thoughts?

Recommendation/Advice/Experience on SecAI+

Hi Everyone!

I'm preparing myself on taking SecAI+. I just finished the on-demand TTT series released early this year and I also adquired a training in Udemy related to this cert. I've been certified in CySA+ and Pentest+ since 2021 but for SecAI+ given that this is an "expansion series" which foundations are Security+ I would like to hear your advice, recommendation, study guide, experiences during the exam, etc that could provide more insights on this exam.

Appreciate your comments and guidance

Best regards

  • Question
Is there a bug with the AutoOps+ TTT on-demand completion tracking?

Hello All,

I was wondering if I am the only one seeing this issue.
I completed the session 1 AutoOps+ TTT webinar last night, via on-demand on my mobile phone.
Today I used the same link to access the on-demand session again, on my laptop, to download the completion certificate.
The strange thing was that it said I needed to watch the 90 minutes to access the certificate.

I have been using this same process for the CySA+ TTT series without any issues. I downloaded the course materials and completion certificate on my PC after completing the session on my mobile phone.

One difference I noticed is that when I open the CySA+ TTT on-demand sessions, they ask for my registered email address. The AutoOps+ did not ask for my email address on my phone or my laptop.

Has anyone else seen this occur? My main concern is that my completion of each session may not be logged properly for my CertMaster access and my end-of-series test voucher.

@Stephen Schneiter are you able to check and verify that my session 1 for the AutoOps+ was logged as completed, so I can get the CertMaster voucher and be progressing towards the final test voucher as well?

At Long Last - The CyberCache is BACK!

First, apologies for taking so darned long to get this back up. I had to search around for a compiled list from the v1 cache - but landed on something I had rebuilt from Dec 2025. But, I think it's time to get it put back up.

So, here it is...

The Black Fedora Cyber Cache v2


Go check it out and if you have a contribution for the Cache, send me a DM and I'll get it added.

Enjoy!

Rick

  • Question
A+ Core 1

I sat and passed the A+ Core 1 yesterday (Friday 19th of June) using the Pearson OnVUE system. At the end of the exam I saw my result (passmark) 808 points, but I didn't see a breakdown of my weak areas. (Which I have always gotten for other exams that I have sat). Is there a way to recover this from CompTIA or from Pearson VUE?
Thanks

  • Question
Compcert Courses -- Where's The Beef

I'm wondering if these "CompTIA Compcert courses" that are not tied to actual CompTIA certifications are going to result in opportunities for instructor work, teaching classes that at best result in a "certificate of attendance"? In my decades of teaching as well as selling new courses to employers, students, and curriculum committees, that path has been made much more successful because of the recognition of CompTIA as a "Certification Issuer".

Thoughts?

Steve

Passed Linux+ XK0-006

I finally buckled down and took the Linux+ and passed it today. It took some extra study but after I let the 005 get away from me I swore to myself I wouldn't let it happen again. HUGE thanks to @Stephen Schneiter, Jason Eckert's great TTT and the amazing CIN network for the voucher. Watching the expiration timer tick down on it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish!

Flashcards. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

OK CINers. I'll confess. I build and distribute flashcards to my students. I've been using Quizlet for years. In 1-on-1 engagements, it has always worked well. It's always handy to have a flashcard deck available for small-group training so students can interact, compete, and demonstrate what they've learned. I've found that I sometimes have to monitor the level of competitiveness in some small group settings. When I have too many Type-A personalities, I'll team people up (I pick the teams) to diffuse that. The problem is that some of my students have started distributing my flashcards. Without asking, and after I asked them not to. Quizlet has no DRM solution to limit sharing. And if that wasn't bad enough, somebody tried selling one of my decks, and Quizlet sent me a 'That's Not Allowed' notice.

What tools are other CINers using for flashcards? I've heard of Anki. I have a friend who uses and swears by Notion. Thoughts? Comments?

CertMaster Competency Assessments

Looking for guidance for use of Competency Exams for CertMaster Perform courses. Are the Competency Assessments certs for courses like Pentest, CySA, Sec+, etc.. used by individuals or employers?

There is also practice exams in the courses that seem just as good if not a better tool for the student's to gauge their own level of preparedness before taking an actual certification exam.
  • Like
Reactions: Abu Afza

Passed SecAI+ Perfect Score

I passed CompTIA SecAI+ with a perfect score. The exam shows you the score right after you finish, but the official report only says “Pass.” My previous highest CompTIA score was an 885 on Security+ back in 2014, so this one felt good. I used CertMaster through our academic partnership, which also covered the voucher. I also did the TryHackMe AI Path, and that combination made a big difference. SecAI+ is not something I would recommend approaching only through the exam outline or a few theory notes. I have seen people in the forums say they studied just from the outline, and yes, maybe you can pass that way, but you missed sooooooo much approaching the exam just as another bunch of questions you go and try to wing. In the real world that won't help, and the bigger question is: can you actually do what the certification says you should be able to do in real life?

That is where CertMaster shines. It is not just a bank of questions or a traditional PBQ-style experience. The best part of the preparation was the applied work. The 19 activities put you in scenarios where you have to compare AI types, work with prompt engineering, process data, conduct threat model analysis, build defensive policies, handle access requests, apply data masking and anonymization, audit AI behavior, analyze AI life cycle decisions, work through model inversion or theft, complete post-incident analysis, perform AI-assisted vulnerability analysis, identify deepfakes, review AI-assisted approvals, design governance structures, conduct risk assessments, create compliance reports, and analyze an organization’s AI structure. All activities are done via interaction with the CompTIA AI agents that guide you through the process like you have to do in real life. Then another AI agent corrects your work, gives you feedback and ask you if you want to try again

The 17 live labs were even more valuable because they made the material feel connected to actual security work. I worked through prompt engineering and bias detection, prompt design and optimization, RAG solutions, data integrity, AI threat analysis using public resources, AI threat modeling frameworks, Azure OpenAI deployment, structured prompt templates, securing Azure OpenAI, data sanitization for AI analysis, AI log analysis, prompt injection testing, AI-assisted attack vector identification, AI-assisted scripting, documentation transformation, and workflow automation. That is not just “study material.” That is the kind of work that helps you understand how AI systems are built, where they break, how they expose risk, and how security controls have to be applied.

The TryHackMe AI Path helped from a different angle. It gave me a more hands-on, attacker-and-defender view of AI security. You learn how AI-enabled systems behave, then you perform prompt injection, jailbreak, indirect prompt injection, make an agent leak or misuse information, poison the data of a model, perform threat modeling and get to a point where you change the application to the point where the system you are probing is no longer just deterministic code. That part matters because AI security is not only about knowing vocabulary. You have to understand behavior, context, trust boundaries, controls, and failure modes and actually perform AI pentesting.

That is the real value of SecAI+. Passing is nice. But the goal should not be just to collect another certification. Using CertMaster and THM AI Path will help you walk away with practical skills. For us; educators, this is exactly the kind of material we need to bring into the classroom. Students do not need only AI definitions. They need to understand how AI systems are designed, how they fail, how they are attacked, and how they are defended. I just received access to the Auto OPS+ Cert Master and it's the same amazing methodology with a lot of labs and AI powered activities. SecOT+ will be on the same line as informed to me by one of the SME's that also created the Cert Master and teaches OT Pentesting, OSINT and OT Fundamentals, workshops that I took. If you are looking for any of those 3 certs please, use Cert Master or take trainings, you will kill the tests.

Very happy with this one.

  • Question
CTT+ Instructors needed for July - December cohort.

Dear fellow instructors,

I am reaching out on behalf of Youth Development Project SA (YDP SA) – an accredited QCTO/SAQA training provider in South Africa.
Company Website

We are expanding our CompTIA course delivery in 2026 and are looking to connect with active CompTIA CTT+ certified trainers (or those with equivalent CompTIA instructional experience) who would be interested in partnering with us or being considered for training opportunities.

Specifically, we are looking for trainers who can deliver any of the following CompTIA courses:

  • ITF+, A+ for Cybersecurity, Network+,
  • Security+, CySA+, PenTest+, SecurityX (formerly CASP)
  • SecAI+ (Expansion Series)
  • AI Essentials Series: AI for Marketing, AI for Sales, AI Agent Essentials, AI Help Desk Essentials
If you are a qualified CompTIA instructor, please email my team at: [email protected]

  • Question
I Missed my SecAI+ online exam schedule

Hi, I hope topics like this are allowed in here if not please kindly delete this.

So I missed my online exam schedule. In my defense I'm in the part of the Philippines that got hit hard by a recent earthquake, we are still experiencing after shocks and intermittent power/internet loss. It was a free voucher from the TTT-series but its still a waste that I was not able to take it. I already contacted Pearson Vue hoping they'd consider my situation.

Im just here to ask if there's anything else that I could do to help with my situation
Id appreciate your suggestions thank you.

  • Solved
Certmaster access for SecAI+ On Demand

Hi Everyone!

I was not able to attend the TTT series for SecAI+ on live so I've been following on demand using the webinar sessions as well as the material in there. I noted something and is the access to certmaster is not longer in the links and @Stephen Schneiter mentioned people will receive the access code after completing the first session even for "on demand" learners.

I've already completed session 1 to 3 (started on Jun 16/2026) and haven't receive anything yet on my email. Does the certmaster access have some type of "valid time"? like, you must access or complete the training up to 15 days of finishing the live sessions?

I appreciate your comments.

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