New SANS Cert

Do we need another SANS cert? I don't think it's so much about us...it's what SANS wants.

I was reading TaoSecurity this morning and ran across this link to the recent SANS newsletter...

Does anyone on your staff do an excellent job of cleaning out PCs that have been infected by spyware and other malicious software. We are just starting development of a new certification (and related training) for Certified Malware Removal Experts and we are looking for a council of 30 people who have done a lot of it to help vet the skills an dknowledge required for the certification exam and classes. Email cmre@sans.org if you have a lot of experience.

I looked at this and thought...hhmmm...why create a new certification for skillsets that admins should already have? After all, malware detection is really just an advanced form of troubleshooting...which all admins should be knowledgeable in, right? I mean, when you have trouble with your car, do you examine it (ie., look at the gas guage and determine you're out of gas) or do you just abandon your car on the side of the road and get a new one?

Of course, there is a school of thought that believes why should you certify someone to run "format c:\", then fdisk, then re-install the OS? Ugh. I don't know which is worse...thinking that "slash and burn" is an acceptable solution, or certifying something like this.

Thoughts?