What Next After CISSP? Your Career Progression Guide

The CISSP certification has been leading the charts of top-paying certifications year after year.

Developed by (ISC)2, the CISSP certification is a strong validation of IT security management skills since its inception in the year 1994.

It is interesting to know that to date there are 180,000 CISSPs around the world and the number is growing with its growing popularity among IT professionals.

CISSP training and certification came together when information security is gaining seriousness as an industry domain with its common definitions, best practices, strategies, and a whole host of areas that were not completely established till that time.

As projected, it proved invaluable to the businesses, professionals, and the industry at large.

It is one of the reasons why information security is one of the major reasons the security industry has made progress over the decades.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was no head of information security in the organizations.

The highest risk-taking person at a company for security was a manager.

In many cases, there was no full-time senior professional in charge of security and it was a sub-division of the CIO’s job.

With changes in the security domain, things have changed, we now have EC-Council’s CISO (CCISO) certification for higher progression.

Chief Information Security Officer [CCISO]: Bridging the Skills Gap

Wondering What Next after CISSP? To the rescue, we have EC-Council’s CCISO certification. It was created with the intent of assisting professionals bridging the gap between middle management and executive management, making it a natural step after CISSP certification.

The executive role of CISO has drastically different responsibilities and skills than a manager.

CCISO certification program is meant for high-level executives to mitigate their needs to understand how to manage the budgets of their programs in a planned and strategic manner as they do not have enough budget to relentlessly fud all the projects they need or want.

A CISO determines which projects to fund and which to push off to future, what technology should be replaced, what roles to outsource, which trainings to send their staff on are some of the most important KRAs that comes under their everyday duties.

In addition to it, a CISO is the executive-level professionals who direct the entire strategy, operations besides budgets as mentioned.

It is for the protection of the enterprise information assets and management of all ongoing programs.

The scope of CISO’s responsibility encompasses applications and infrastructure, communications including policies and procedures that apply.

While, all these mentioned roles and responsibilities are extremely impactful and significant areas important to the role of an executive, until recently, there was no other certification program that covered these critical areas from an executive perspective instead of one focussed for middle management.

CCISO Is a Natural Next Step after the CISSP

The CCISO was developed by the expert groups of CISOs recruiter primarily to form the advisory board, exam writing committee, and write various sections of the CCISO Body of Knowledge (BOK).

These professionals created something that went beyond the CISSP to teach the skills truly required to be an executive leader in Information Security.

Upon a long process of debates and discussions eventually determined there should be five domains to the program.

1. Governance and Risk Management

2. Information Security Core Competencies

3. Information Security Controls, Compliance, and Audit Management

4. Security Program Management & Operations

5. Strategic Planning, Finance, Procurement, and Vendor Management

None of the members in the designing team was interested in reinventing what CISSP has already accomplished. So CCISO was designed from the beginning as a next step.

The domains for CCISO credential were selected to complement and build upon the CISSP program to help create executives level professionals from middle managers.

The mentioned programs should not be compared directly as they are truly complementary in nature, if you choose to compare them you might figure out that the first domain of each program is aligned. Domain 5 of the CCISO program is not a part of the CISSP program.

Although the direct comparison may not be a proper way to analyze as there are larger sections in CCISO domain 1-4 in CCISO certification syllabus which are not covered in the CISSP certification program as well.

Let’s look at it in another manner and compare the CISSP to CCISO.

How Do You Become CCISO in 2020

Undoubtedly, CCISO is industry leaders in cybersecurity, so another difference between the programs is their hands-on element in acquiring the credential in the training program, known as War Games.

War games test and examines a CISO’s ability to efficiently handle a cyberattack and assist to develop essential muscle memory to address critical circumstances that may come up.

CISOs are required to strategically think faster and respond to cyber incidents.

War Games are like the scenarios in the real-life cyber world and inspired by national defense approaches and tactics that are used by executives all the time to test the readiness of the employees and programs.

The real-life scenarios in the CCISO class prepare students for handling real-world scenarios as well as enhance their skills with hands-on practice of the new concepts.

These exercises are given to them at the end of the week of class in the training program build on the material in the class and BOK.

CCISO Certification Cost in India

This is one of the most relevant information that crosses our mind after completing CISO training.

The application fee for the eligible application is $100. Once it is approved, the voucher for the exam can be obtained for $500.

Off Late, EC-Council has partnered with ProctorU allowing candidates to take EC-Council exams remotely from home or anywhere else as long as they have a computer equipped with a webcam and a microphone.

This online delivery format requires students to have reliable and continuous internet connectivity and schedule the exams with a proctor through the ECC Exam Center.

You need to specify the service requirements while placing the order.

CCISO Salary in India

CCISO certification has a massive demand in the industry with Salary of CCISO professional in India reaching up to Rs. 2,936,196, the average salary range is somewhere around Rs. 495,794 and Bonus of Rs. 101,736 in profit sharing basis.

CCISO certification is valid for one year. To renew you must fulfill the Continuing Education requirements and remit a renewal fee of $100.00 (USD).

So, if you are aspiring for the role of a chief information security officer, go for the Virtual Instructor-led Live CCISO training.