In a bid to combat cheating and to "protect the value of certifications" Cisco now requires all exam takers to provide digital photos and digital signatures during the admission process at Pearson VUE, Cisco's primary test centers.

According to Cisco: "This new layer of identity authentication will help to ensure candidate identity and result in increased assurance that individuals are presenting accurate certification records in the marketplace."

Cisco says the move is a precautionary one against cheating in the Cisco exam world, which Cisco Jeanne Dunn, senior director for Learning@Cisco says is an "isolated problem." However, CertGuard, which works with vendors to combat the exam cheating industry, believes cheating in the Cisco world is more widespread than Cisco is publicly admitting. "[Cisco] really need to open up their favorite Internet browser and Google 'CCIE' or 'CCNA'. These braindump companies [which publish actual questions and answers from Cisco tests] are easily searchable and their search engine advertising is often much better than most legitimate practice test providers," says CertGuard CEO and Founder Robert Williams. "I have over 600 braindump Web sites listed in my database and 98% of them have questions and answers from nearly every Cisco exam, even some exams that were released within the past 6 months. In fact, CCNA braindumps are more prominent on the Internet than MCSE braindumps."

Another problem in the Cisco exam industry is the so-called "hired-gunmen" who take exams for other people. More sinister is the claim, according to Williams, by some gunmen to actually owning testing centers.

"Hired Gunmen rely on the availability of the testing centers in their area and the ability to use those test centers whenever necessary. With these new methods in place that should make it much more difficult for the gunmen to follow through with their illicit acts, but only because they will be flagged for entering the facility more frequently than any normal exam candidate," Williams says.

He adds: "As for braindumps, I feel Cisco’s new methods will reduce the number of individuals that take exams strictly to collect exam questions, but that’s the only way I see Cisco’s decision affecting the braindump industry as of now. The people that use braindumps do restrict themselves to rote memorization of the questions and answers. This practice can be done in the privacy of one's home and is virtually undetectable unless the cheater talks about how s/he studied. This method cannot be detected in the testing center and neither a photo nor a signature will allude to the fact that they have cheated.

Jon Brodkin is senior writer at Network World.