RE: CISSP Question

["David Harley" <david.a.harley () gmail com>]

> Well I don't know if we were heard on this mailing list but I 
> jsut received a notification that starting October 1st the 
> ISC" CISSP requirements will change!!
> The new change looks to be a bit tougher then until now.
> https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?category=1187

I doubt if the bigwigs at the top spend much time on this list, or respond
that quickly. :) The debate about how much CISSP is worth has raged for
years, and it's a perfect reasonable subject to discuss. 

(It's the ongoing more-than-hints of malpractice on the part of the
certifying organizations and the accusations that cert holders are ignoble
alphabet-soup-obsessed and more-qualified-than-thou that are yanking my
chain. I'm more than happy to discuss the issues in a spirit of debate, but
enough with the holy wars...)

I doubt if it will do much for the public image of the CISSP cert. The world
seems to be divided into those who think it's worth something, and those who
persist in equating the cert with the test. Increasing the experience
requirements will not convince those who don't want to be convinced: if they
don't think up to four years in the field is enough, extending it by a year
is not going to make much difference. 

Those who think cert holders are obsessed with keeping the market to
themselves will see something sinister in restricting endorsement to (ISC)2
cert holders. Not a view I hold, by the way: it makes sense that applicants
should be endorsed by people who have the baseline knowledge of the field
that the cert is intended to demonstrate.

Increasing the experience requirements may, however, see a bigger take-up of
qualifications that don't have an experience requirement. Nothing wrong with
that, but perhaps (ISC)2 could make more of their Associate status as a
selling point, for people who consider that the (ISC)2 approach is right for
them but don't have the experience yet. 

-- 
David Harley CISSP, Small Blue-Green World
Security Author/Editor/Consultant/Researcher
AVIEN Guide to Malware:
http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk/pages/avienguide.html
Security Bibliography:
http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk/pages/bibliography.html