ISC2 Cybersecurity Certificate (CC) offered for free through the end of 2024 is a nice opportunity to add some skills for people interested in Information Security. The offer includes a full set of online self-paced training materials along with a voucher for taking the certification. No professional experience is required to take and receive this certification. You do have to register with ISC2 for their yearly membership, called an Annual Maintenance Fee (AMF) at $50 USD, but only after you pass the certification. That is a reasonable price to join a professional organization and to get tracked into a future path for the professional certification like the SSCP, CCSP, and CISSP.
I can attest that the CC training material was excellent. As a person who has been in security for over a decade, I found the coverage of all the major topic areas of security to be very informative. I also liked the depth of content which lets me refresh my skills to current terms, content and contexts. There is a lot of training content to review so budget time to go through all the materials.
What got me started on this certification was being part of a System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Compliance audit for some products at my job where I found myself scrambling for the right terms when writing and responding to Cloud Control Matrix (CCM). Understanding the Information Technology (IT) side of things was not enough. You also need the context of the security standards and policies along with the current terms used to be effective. CC was one avenue to getting that context and content.
I am also using this as a jump off point for preparing for the CCSP – Certified Cloud Security Professional certification. The CC is a subset of the CCSP and other ISC2 professional certifications after reviewing the different certifications content. So there is no time wasted getting this one first as all that material and more will be in the higher level professional certifications.
I hope somebody out there tries this as well and we add another security person to the rolls.
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