Basta Named to EC-Council CPENT Scheme Committee Board
Posted on: June 28, 2023
Tigerville, SC (June 28, 2023) Dr. Nigel Basta, North Greenville University’s (NGU) program director for cybersecurity, has been selected to serve on the EC-Council CPENT Scheme Committee Board.
His role on the committee will allow him to help write the Certified Penetration Tester (CPENT), a 24-hour examination that challenges candidates through real-world penetration testing and scenarios.
Only 92 individuals have earned CPENT certification, and just 34 have achieved more than 90 percent on the exam. Basta holds the highest score on the exam to date.
“The scope of the committee is to determine how we can enhance penetration testing,” Basta said. “We will be looking at future trends and how we can tie penetration testing to government compliance.”
EC-Council, an official academic partner of NGU, offers an Ethical Hacker certification, which Basta invented in 2005.
“In the real world, students are going to be working in a hybrid environment. They’re going to have routers to connect to the internet. They’re going to have Microsoft servers and Linux servers among other systems that perform different functions,” Basta said. “We would be doing our students a disservice by teaching them security from a vendor’s standpoint.”
Basta said the board appointment will help him better educate students in NGU’s Cybersecurity program.
“Knowing the trends in cybersecurity and where the field is going helps me develop curriculum for students,” he said. “Being aware of the trends around the world will help us prepare them to launch their careers quickly in the field of cybersecurity.”
“I’m so proud that 100 percent of our graduates sign a job offer before they graduate,” Basta said.
Basta said he is motivated by a desire to help others, especially vulnerable members of society.
“We can stop criminals from victimizing people. Unfortunately, the people I see being victimized the most are kids and seniors,” he said. “I want to give back to the community through my knowledge and experience to decrease the number of attacks we’re seeing against vulnerable citizens who just don’t have enough knowledge.”
The National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense publishes the national gold standard for cybersecurity education. NGU’s cybersecurity program aligns with these standards to prepare its students for the field.
NGU is an official academic partner of the EC-Council and CompTIA, providing access to more than 36 certification exams, from Ethical Hacker, Network Defender, and Encryption Specialist to CompTIA Fundamentals, Cloud Essentials, and more.
For information about NGU’s cybersecurity degree program, visit here.
About North Greenville University
NGU offers more than 125 areas of study across certificate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and early college opportunities. Online. In-person. At our main campus in Tigerville, SC, the Tim Brashier Campus in Greer, SC, or several educational centers around the U.S. One university, many locations. Every day. Epic. Learn more.
