Is there anybody out there who hasn’t heard the musty old joke about how the phrase “military intelligence” is a true oxymoron, or “a combination of contradictory or incongruous words” as Merriam-Webster defines it? Instead of continuing to obsess about all of the egregious blunders committed by all of the military commanders in the history of the world, maybe it’s time for a new turn of phrase.

How about one that’s perfectly suited to the information age, with continually renewed up-to-the-second relevance? Let’s say, for example, “effective cybersecurity.” Right? No matter how much we all claim to recognize and understand the problem, there just doesn’t seem to be anything that anyone anywhere can do to ensure that a system or network is totally hack-proof, 100 percent locked down.

When even the National Security Agency of the United States can get caught with its digital pants down around its ankles, what hope is there for the rest of everyone in the world?

EC-Council, which bills itself as being “the world’s largest cybersecurity technical certification body” and was organized after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to prevent a debacle of similar scale from unfolding in cyberspace, is working hard to answer that question. Last week, EC-Council announced the creation of a new learning track to train and certify a new breed of well-rounded cybersecurity experts.

Described as being both powerful and practical, the new program is intended to “prepare capable, quality cyber-manpower with verified skills that are in demand by the global workforce.” It certainly sounds like a timely idea. Businesses and governments that are floundering through a desperate search for truly secure cybersecurity measures could absolutely benefit from some finely honed expertise.

The new track lays out a progression from “core” competency to “advanced” competency to “expert” competency. At the core level are EC-Council’s established and familiar Certified Network Defender (CND) and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credentials, topped off by the brand new Certified Ethical Hacker – Practical (CEH-P) credential.

The advanced level includes both the EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA) credential and the new EC-Council Certified Security Analyst – Practical (CEH-P) cert. The expert level is occupied solely by the Licensed Penetration Tester – Master (LPT-M) credential, which EC-Council describes thus succinctly: “This exam has one purpose: To differentiate the experts from the novices in penetration testing!”

All levels of the new learning track are supported by official EC-Council training. The exams at all levels are available online, in live, proctored environment.