Get CISSP Certified and Turn Your Cybersecurity Career up to 11

It’s that time of year again. When all your New Year motivation starts to fade away, replaced by thoughts of “maybe next year.” If you’re like many IT professionals, maybe your New Year’s resolution was to grow in your career and set yourself up for a promotion by becoming a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). Chances are, you already know that becoming CISSP certified offers countless benefits.

You know it’s the path to a stronger, more versatile skill set that results in a new level of credibility and trustworthiness, placing you in the running for the career advancements and increased salary you desire.

But even with the benefits and prestige, you may be thinking: do I have what it takes? Am I ready to embark on this journey?

Is the CISSP Certification for Me?

Are you passionate about technology developments and rising technology trends that pose increasing security threats to systems within your organization? The answer is probably yes. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in the profession you chose.

We live in a rapidly changing digital world. Here are just some of the few recent changes in how we live and work with technology in our daily lives:

• Not long ago, bring your own device (BYOD) – the practice of bringing your own phones, tablets, and computers into work – was mostly a no-no in organizations. Today, it’s becoming more commonplace all the time.
• Social media prevails in our personal and business lives, bringing an increased opportunity for security breaches, hacker activity, and data leaks.
• Big-data has exploded beyond just a buzzword, with big-data problems (and solutions) cropping up everywhere.
• More and more organizations are shifting their server data to the cloud in an effort to scale up their cloud-based operations.

What does all this mean for cybersecurity professionals? Yesterday’s security measures are no longer enough, and if it’s your job to enforce them you’ll need to level-up.

We live in a dynamic and technology-based environment that continues to pose new and harmful IT security threats, as well as a potential loss of revenue to organizations.

In the first half of 2018 data breaches led to 4.5 billion data records being compromised – a 113% increase compared to the same period in 2017, per Business Insider.

Several companies like Aadhaar, Marriott, and Exactis saw hundreds of millions of breached records. Perhaps more well known (and certainly more publicized) was Facebook, with more than 87 million records breached.

As our landscape becomes increasingly technology-driven and the number of breaches continues to rise, there will be a growing need for CISSP certified professionals. In fact, demand for certified security pros is already making the news.

A recent (ISC)2 report revealed that, globally, the cybersecurity workforce gap has increased to more than 2.9 million. On a more local level, North America has the second largest shortage of qualified professional, with organizations struggling to fill nearly 500,000 open positions.

As you can see, there is an urgent need for certified information security professionals, a need which will only intensify.

Becoming a CISSP

So where to start? First, let’s look at the necessary requirements to become a candidate.

To qualify you will need to pass the exam and have at least five years of cumulative paid full-time work experience in two of the eight domains of the CISSP common body of knowledge.

Here are the eight domains:

But what if you don’t have the five years’ paid experience? Not to worry. A four-year university degree or equivalent, or additional credentials from the (ISC)2 approved list, both equate to one year of experience.

Still falling a bit short? You can also begin your CISSP quest by first becoming an Associate of (ISC)2. This route provides ample time – six years – to achieve the five years of experience required.