By Haja Mo — Opinion
This is my opinion on the state of cybersecurity certifications today. Our digital world is under an unrelenting siege. Every minute, another company is breached, another database is ransomed, and another CISO is forced to explain the inexplicable. We are in a state of perpetual cyber warfare, yet the industry responsible for training our frontline defenders is, to put it bluntly, failing us. It has been captured by a dangerous obsession with volume and marketing hype, flooding the market with an army of paper tigers while our digital fortresses burn.
The source of this failure is a certification model built on a foundation of pure absurdity. I am talking about the rise of the “3-Day Cybersecurity Expert.”
Let’s be clear: the notion that one can become a competent cybersecurity professional in a three-day bootcamp is a laughing joke. Would you board a Boeing 747 captained by a pilot with three days of training? The question is ludicrous. Yet, every day, enterprises place the controls of their multi-million dollar digital infrastructure in the hands of professionals minted from similarly accelerated programs. We are entrusting our most critical assets to Mickey Mouse amateurs, and it is organizational negligence of the highest order. This isn’t training; it’s a dangerous charade that prioritizes quick revenue over actual competence.
The Myth of “Value by Association”
For years, the established players in the certification space have deflected criticism with a hollow boast, a classic marketing argument that has nothing to do with results:
“We are a huge, well-known organization. We have certified over a million people. Therefore, our certificate is valuable and signifies competence.”
This is the very definition of a broken model—one that values association over ability. The proof of skill is meant to be the brand name itself. It’s a numbers game, a relentless pursuit of volume that treats professionals like products on an assembly line. This model struggles to answer the most crucial question a hiring manager can ask: “But what can your certified professional actually do? Show me.” They can’t. They can only show you a piece of paper that proves someone passed a multiple-choice test.
The Endless Upsell: A Business Model Built on “Not Enough”
There’s another part of their game, one that is as predictable as it is predatory. First, they sell you a training course. The moment you finish, the marketing emails begin: “What you learned is not enough. To really succeed, you need to buy this next course.”
And so it begins—an endless funnel of upgrades and add-ons. “You need this, you need that.” Your certification isn’t a mark of completion; it’s an entry ticket into their sales database. I can guarantee that any student of these programs has an inbox filled with these desperate upsells.
Now, our approach. It’s simple: we don’t do that.
I will make you another guarantee. Find any Rocheston student, anywhere in the world, and ask them if they have ever received a single marketing, buy, or upgrade email from us. The answer will be the same every time: Nope. Never.
Our mission is to deliver a complete program that creates competent engineers, not to trap students in a perpetual sales cycle. We respect our students, and that means we respect their inboxes.
The Challenge: Show Me the Skills
This broken paradigm must end. The time for hiding behind big brand names and inflated numbers is over. At Rocheston, we are issuing a direct challenge to the industry: Show me the skills.
Stop telling me about your market share. Show me what your certified professional, trained in just a few days, can actually produce. I’m waiting. The reality is, they have nothing to show except a certificate.
This is where the paradigm shifts. We must move from proof of knowledge to proof of capability. A Rocheston Certified Cybersecurity Engineer (RCCE) Level 2 candidate doesn’t just complete a course; they endure six months of intensive, rigorous, practical training. They don’t just earn a certificate; they produce a tangible artifact—a professional portfolio of 24 distinct, enterprise-grade cybersecurity reports.
When an RCCE candidate is asked to “show me,” they can present this body of work. When their credentials are questioned, they can point to an immutable record on the blockchain that verifies their achievement with absolute certainty.
Cybersecurity doesn’t fail because we lack slogans or scale. It fails when we can’t turn knowledge into execution under pressure—and when we hire on association instead of demonstration. The RCCE model moves the field from trust me to test me. That shift is overdue.
History has shown it a thousand times over: it’s never the giant with the biggest numbers who changes the world. It’s the smaller, hungrier David who dares to challenge the Goliath. Rocheston is that David — armed not with slogans, but with code.
This is our challenge to the industry. Let’s have a direct, product-to-product comparison. Put the deliverables of your three-day certified amateur next to the six-month, battle-tested portfolio of an RCCE. The difference is not just apparent; it’s the chasm between a marketing gimmick and a true professional.
To my colleagues and competitors, the challenge is simple: show us the work. To the CISOs and hiring managers, I implore you: stop begging for talent and start demanding proof. The future of our digital security depends on it.
One More Thing…
And to those of you who are now eager to attack Rocheston’s credibility, let me say this directly: please, bring it on. I welcome the challenge.
We’re the small team that’s out-building the giants, and that should make you nervous. We don’t have time for marketing slogans because we’re too busy writing code and shipping tech that actually works.
That code has earned us ANAB accreditation—the same recognition you have—and RCCE has more DoD 8140 approved job roles than certification providers 100 times our size. While you were satisfied with the status quo, we built our own blockchain, our own OS stack, our own cloud, our own cybersecurity framework, and our own standards because the old ways are failing.
I was creating certifications and frameworks in the early 1990s, long before many of you entered this field or even born. So, by all means, bring your criticism. But more importantly, bring your three-day trained amateur. Put them side-by-side with one of our six-month, battle-tested RCCE engineers. Then go to https://www.rocheston.com/rcce-skills and bring me their work. I’ll bring mine. The difference will speak for itself.
I’m ready.
Thank you for your time. God bless. 🙏 Opinion
