(ISC)² Blog

(ISC)² CAP Members - We Need Your Help

It’s time again for another (ISC)² Job Task Analysis (JTA) study, this time for the CAP certification. We frequently review and update our content outlines (aka exam blueprints) of our credentialing examinations. If you’re not familiar, the JTA is a methodical process used to determine tasks that are performed by credential holders and knowledge and skills required to perform those tasks successfully. As we prepare for a review of the CAP exam, we would like to hear from our CAP members! We would like you to comment on the new and emerging cybersecurity issues that should be addressed, but are... Read more →

CISO Stress and Tenure – Looking Beyond the Numbers

Being a CISO can be stressful. That should come as no surprise. According to a new report, the stress is bad enough to cause health issues and personal relationship crises, and on average, CISOs stay in each job for just 26 months. The CISO Stress Report by Nominet, a U.K. domain registry, reveals that 95% of CISOs work longer hours than they are contracted for and 88% are “moderately or tremendously stressed.” While CISOs are undoubtedly under a lot of pressure, it’s important to not paint all of cybersecurity with the same brush, and to draw a distinction between job... Read more →

White Paper on Cloud Security Risks - And How To Mitigate Them

Cloud security today is touted as better than ever. So how do we explain the ever-increasing number of data breaches? According to the new white paper, Cloud Security Risks & How to Mitigate Them, the disconnect arises from a shared security model. Cloud Service Providers protect the datacenter, but customers are responsible for safeguarding their own data, and focus is shifting from the provider to the customer. To reduce risks, cloud customers must take charge of data security. This is no small feat as many are in a period of transition and facing a wide range of threats… Insufficient access... Read more →

Threat Hunting: Is Your Security Operation Ready to Launch Such a Program?

As published in the November/December edition of InfoSecurity Professional Magazine. It could be a blended attack as slick as a multichannel marketing campaign. Or a spontaneous crime of opportunity by a single dis-gruntled employee. It could even be an innocent configuration error. When a threat exists, there will be indicators. The perennial challenge is to hunt for signs in the right places and to isolate the signal from the noise. How best to find—and remove, where possible—such threats remains up for debate. Lance Cottrell, chief scientist at Ntrepid, approaches threat hunting less as a specific set of techniques than as... Read more →

CISSP Architecture Concentration Exam Updates

If you hold the CISSP certification, you may have asked yourself “What’s next for me?” as far as your certification journey is concerned. For many professionals, the next step is one of the CISSP concentrations: architecture, engineering or management. This year, the CISSP-ISSAP (Information Systems Security Architecture Professional) exam will be updated. The exam length (125 items in three hours) remains unchanged, as do the number of domains (six). However, the domains have been reordered and reweighted based on last year’s Job Task Analysis (JTA) which is a process by which professionals who hold the CISSP-ISSAP review the content of... Read more →

UNDER ATT&CK: How MITRE’s methodology to find threats and embed counter-measures might work in your organization

As published in the November/December 2019 edition of InfoSecurity Professional Magazine By Naresh Kurada, CISSP Threat modeling is gaining even more attention with today’s dynamic threat environment. The sophistication of threat actors and development of advanced tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) has put a brighter spotlight on the process of finding vulnerabilities by incorporating the attacker’s point of view. There are several threat modeling approaches and techniques to consider. Often, these can be classified as asset-centric, system-centric, people-centric or risk-centric. For instance, Microsoft’s STRIDE (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service and Elevation of Privilege) is system-centric, while PASTA... Read more →

In the Face of a Global Health Crisis, Life (and Business) Goes On

By Clayton Jones, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for (ISC)² The past few weeks have been challenging. Governments, individuals and organizations are working hard to contain the spread of Covid-19. Many of us across the Asia-Pacific region are still haunted by the SARS epidemic that wreaked havoc back in 2003. At the time, I had a very young family and was new to (ISC)², which in the region was still in its infancy. I feared for the health of my family and was also very conscious of the potential impact an economic downturn in the region could have on my recently created... Read more →

CISSP Ranks Sixth in Salary-Earning Potential

(ISC)²’s Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) is currently the sixth highest paying IT certification, according to newly published research. CISSP-certified cybersecurity professionals earn salaries averaging more than $140,000. The CISSP is one of just six IT certifications commanding salaries above $140,000, which places them on the 15 Top-Paying IT Certifications for 2020 compiled by training company Global Knowledge. The list contains salaries ranging from an average of $117,000 for Citrix Certified Professional – Virtualization to nearly $176,000 for Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect. The list’s top four certifications are either in cloud computing or cybersecurity, confirming that demand in... Read more →

Breaches Increased in 2019, but the Number of Exposed Records Declined

The number of U.S. data breaches bumped up 17% in 2019 but despite the increase, the volume of sensitive consumer records that were exposed declined substantially by 65%, according to a newly published report. These statistics are a complete reversal of what happened in 2018, when the number of exposed consumer records soared by 126% and breaches declined by 23%, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) End-of-Year Data Breach Report for 2019 Data breaches tracked in 2019 in the United States jumped to 1,473, from 1,257 in the previous year, the report revealed. Meanwhile, 164,683,455 sensitive records were... Read more →

ICYMI: (ISC)2 Security Congress Call for Speakers is Open!

On February 3, (ISC)2 announced that it opened the call for speakers for its 2020 Security Congress in Orlando, FL, running from November 16-18. Speaker applicants can either submit for an individual presentation or panel presentation before the March 22 submission deadline. All submissions require a five-step process, which must be fully completed in order to be considered. Proposals must be non‐sales and non‐marketing oriented and no fees are required to submit. All applications must include a title, a proposal abstract (with a limit of 125 words) and three learning objectives to impart to attendees. As a reminder, (ISC)2 is... Read more →

Ransomware and Your Business

By Diana Contesti, CISSP-ISSAP, ISSMP, CSSLP, SSCP Ransomware is in the news lately with attacks on Norsk Hydro, multiple cities in Florida, Baltimore and Atlanta, not to mention the numerous hospitals that have been hit. These attacks have cost companies like Norsk an estimated $45 million due to lost revenues and the cost to restore and recover their IT department. The cost to the two cities in Florida is estimated to be $1.1 million and the tally continues to grow. Ransomware is short for ransom malware and has been around since the late 1980s, but is now gaining in popularity... Read more →

Register to Learn About Cybersecurity Workforce Study in CIS Webinar

This is one you won’t want to miss. (ISC)² Director of Cybersecurity Advocacy, John McCumber, will walk through the 2019 Cybersecurity Workforce Study results in a webinar hosted by the Center for Internet Security this Wednesday, February 12 at 12:30 p.m. ET. In an era of high-profile data breaches and devastating cyber attacks, cybersecurity impacts every individual and every organization. But (ISC)² research also shows that those in the field are optimistic that those challenges can be overcome if organizations take the right approach to growing the workforce and building strong cybersecurity teams. The presentation, titled “The Cybersecurity Workforce Shortage... Read more →

Open Source & Secure Software Development Are Not Mutually Exclusive

By Dr. Thomas P. Scanlon, CISSP Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University Today’s software developers are as much integrators as they are pure coders. There is an abundance of libraries, plug-ins and other third-party software components readily available to speed development. There is no sense in reinventing something when you can just download it, merge it in and move along. Using free and open source software (FOSS) components can save both time and money, so they make for attractive choices. However, including open source software into development projects often makes the cybersecurity professionals in an organization a little uneasy. But,... Read more →

(ISC)2 Expands Cybersecurity Awareness Efforts in Australia with Strategic Partnership

In yet another sign that (ISC)2 is working to increase its international efforts and alliances, today we’re excited to announce a new strategic partnership with the Australian Information Security Association to work jointly toward a safer and more secure cyber world. As the press release outlines: “. . . the Strategic Partnership Agreement . . . recognises (ISC)2 certifications as the global standard for cybersecurity certifications that AISA members can aspire to and achieve. AISA will run quarterly certification sessions to its membership for (ISC)2 certifications including the CISSP, CCSP and SSCP, among others. AISA will promote to its members... Read more →

Security Predictions for 2020 from the (ISC)² Community of Security Professionals (Part 2)

By Diana-Lynn Contesti, CISSP-ISSAP, ISSMP, CSSLP, SSCP and John Martin, CISSP-ISSAP Continued discussion from Security Predictions for 2020 from the (ISC)² Community of Security Professionals (Part 1) Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Operating Technology (OT) related to the state of digital certificates The issue is not just self-signed digital certificates or expired certificates. Many of these devices have digital certificates, which need to be managed via a Key Management System and maintained. The fallout, of course, is that without proper controls, these devices can and will be compromised. Currently, the onus is on the consumer... Read more →

Security Predictions for 2020 from the (ISC)² Community of Security Professionals (Part 1)

By Diana-Lynn Contesti, CISSP-ISSAP, ISSMP, CSSLP, SSCP and John Martin, CISSP-ISSAP Cyber-attacks will impact businesses on a larger scale in 2020 and will affect those who are unprepared, whether it is attributed to human error or other disasters. In an effort to combat some of the issues faced by corporations, it is time for CEOs to grasp the mettle and officially buy-in with their security practitioners’ advice. We have all seen various vendors make predictions for Information Security for 2020. These predictions include an increase in targeted Ransomware, threats to the 2020 Elections in the U.S. and other countries, and... Read more →

CISSP Once Again Recognized by SC Media

With RSA Conference in San Francisco fast approaching, SC Media has once again announced the finalists for its annual awards program. Winners will be announced at the SC Awards dinner and presentation on February 25 at the Intercontinental San Francisco. We’re proud to say that the CISSP has once again been recognized as one of the industry’s Best Professional Certification Programs for 2020 after receiving a Finalist designation in that category. The CISSP was also the winner at last year’s ceremony. The SC Awards are recognized throughout the cybersecurity industry as the crowning achievement for IT security, and winners are... Read more →