It sounds odd, but if you think creatively, there are some cool ways to meet your Certified Information Security Systems Professional requirements.
To maintain the CISSP certification, you must earn 40 continuing professional education (CPE) credits annually, and 120 credits over a three-year period. Then again, you could always forget those CPE for CISSP requirements and take the exam again, but who really wants to sit for another six-hour CISSP exam? So let's get inspired and explore interesting ways to maintain your (ISC)2 credential.
You can go the traditional route for CISSP continuing education and attend conferences, such as Black Hat and RSA; subscribe to industry recognized periodicals, like Information Security magazine; or attend top-notch classroom-based training from the SANS Institute, or educational programs such as (ISC)2's own Security Congress events, where you can earn up to 28 CPEs with an All-Access Pass, plus an additional two for attending the Town Hall meeting at the conference.
All of these are credible and recommended ways to keep abreast of industry trends and best practices in the CISSP Common Body of Knowledge domains -- updated in April 2018 -- but there are more creative ways to earn CPE for CISSP credits.
Before we begin, let's cover the basics. If you visit the (ISC)2 website, you'll find a list of qualifying CISSP continuing education activities that include, but are not limited to:
This leaves the game of CPE for CISSP open to your interpretation, and that is exactly what (ISC)2 intended. According to Marc Thompson, the executive vice president of ITPG, "The whole point is to give you the freedom to choose your own destiny. After all, it is your education."
Here are 10 creative ways to meet CISSP CPE requirements, in no particular order.
As for No. 10, if you wrote this article, you would have earned 10 more CPEs!
The CISSP certification has an $85 annual maintenance fee, $255 for the three-year period. CISSPs are expected to adhere to the (ISC)2 code of ethics, which is covered in the CISSP exam, and to understand core concepts of security and risk management. Learn more about CISSP continuing education and (ISC)2's enhanced CPE submission program here.
CISSP® is a registered certification mark of (ISC)².
Editor's note: This article was originally published in June 2005 and has been updated.
29 Mar 2018