Intro to the CISSP - The Top Certification in Cybersecurity

As cybersecurity becomes more complicated and more important in our interconnected world, it is also important to have certifications that allow you to have an idea that the person you are hiring to defend your computer systems knows what they are doing. There are plenty of certifications that allow someone to prove that they are experts in this field and know what they are doing - but there is a certification that is considered to be one of the top information security certifications that you can get that is considered to be a top certification in cybersecurity for multiple countries across the globe! This certification is an information security credential and proof of your mastery in the field of cybersecurity called the Certified information systems security professional certificate or CISSP for short!

The History of the CISSP Exam

The CISSP is an independent certificate in the field of information security that is granted by an international organization known as the ISC2. This consortium designed this certificate to be something that can be used to prove your mastery of cybersecurity even if you do not have a traditional college degree and even if you are getting a job in a completely different country on the planet. This certification was first designed back in the mid-1980s and by 1989, the ISC organization was formed from merging several organizations that worked in the field of information technology.

By the 1990s, the CISSP credential was officially formed and launched for members of the general public part of the info security field to receive, with the first exam for the CISSP being administered in 1994. This credential soon became recognized by organizations that work with digital tech as well as governments. By the year 2003, the CISSP was adopted by the United States of America's National Security Agency (a national-level security agency used for global monitoring of foreign and domestic intelligence) as a baseline for proving one's skills in the field of digital security.

The CISSP exam has also gained a decent amount of recognition with communities and countries outside of the United States of America. By May of 2020, the United Kingdom's National Academic Recognition Information Center assessed the CISSP to be the equivalent of getting a Master's Degree from an accredited United Kingdom university or college. This change has allowed people in the United Kingdom to literally get a CISSP certification and use it as a way to continue their education and get jobs that are normally only open to those who earn a traditional Master's Degree.

Nowadays, the CISSP is recognized in almost one hundred seventy-five nations across the globe, making it one of the most widely recognized credentials in the field of information technology that you can possibly get!

Prerequisites for CISSP

Now, not anyone can take the CISSP test. To do so, there are several prerequisites that you need to meet. First, you need to have at least five years of full-time work in the field of information security - or four years of work and a Bachelor's Degree in a computer science or security-related field - and need your qualifications endorsed by another ISC2 certificate holder in good standing with the ISC2 organization.

When you take the test, you will be given four hours in order to complete everything on the exam to try and get the CISSP certification. On top of that, the test will have anywhere between 125 questions to 175 questions, but you will not know how many questions exactly you will be getting until you actually take the exam yourself. You need to get at least seven hundred points or more out of one thousand points to pass the exam and get your CISSP certification.