By David Shearer, CISSP, (ISC)² CEO

As we celebrate our thirtieth anniversary here at (ISC)², it’s incredible to look back at the changes our industry has been through. From advances in technology, to changing policy and regulations, this field is constantly changing, so it seems right that 2019 was no different for our association.

We began the year by officially launching our Professional Development Institute (PDI) as part of our mission to deliver even more value to our members. We wrapped up the year strong with our international Security Congress – our largest yet in attendance and number of programs – in Orlando, Florida. We made updates to our exams and further strengthened our certifications and courses with globally-recognized institutions.

This year of change was also one of transition. As approved by the board back in 2013, this year we instituted our first-ever increase of Annual Maintenance Fees (AMFs) and changed our billing policy from “in arrears” to up front. The policy changes were accompanied by a data migration of our member database and some of you were negatively affected by this unprecedented combination of updates. For any members impacted by these changes, I want to apologize for any difficulty you may have experienced this year. We are continuing to learn from this process, and we are implementing more ways to support you going forward.

Professional Development Institute

Throughout 2019, more than 12,000 of you completed a PDI course. The PDI course catalog offers more than 30 courses available at absolutely no cost to our members and associates, and representing $10,000 in free education and training, and 81 CPE opportunities. To date, we have seen members and associate consume more than $5.5 million worth of free professional development. We have courses on topics such as application security, cloud migration, creating a security culture, communicating with the C-suite, responding to a breach and many more. If you haven’t taken advantage of PDI yet, please visit www.isc2.org/development to learn more. And if you have a topic that you’d like us to add to the catalog, we want to hear it. Please, feel free to contact the team at PDI@isc2.org.

Security Congress

Our largest ever conference was held at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in October. More than 2,600 of you joined us in Orlando for our largest event yet, and we hope to see even more of you there next year. The Grand Hyatt in Orlando will be our Congress home for the next few years. Registration will be open soon; so, watch your inbox for early-bird pricing. 

Global Recognition

We delivered on our obligation to you, our members, to maintain the relevancy of all of our credentials. In 2019, we updated both our CCSP and HCISPP exams to ensure they encompass the topic areas relevant to the roles and responsibilities of today’s practicing cybersecurity professionals. All nine of our cybersecurity certifications are now recognized by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) following the signing of a Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) that confirmed the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) standing as an internationally-respected accrediting body with rigorous standards. Additionally, several of our courses and exams are now approved for college credit by the American Council on Education. 

Cybersecurity Workforce Study

Part of (ISC)²’s mission is to advocate for the cybersecurity professional, so to that affect, we continued our in-depth research into the cybersecurity workforce in the hopes of uncovering solutions and strategies to alleviating the looming workforce gap. Our 2019 study estimated the true size of the global cybersecurity workforce at 2.8 million – but also reported a needed growth of 145% to fill the gap. We also published reports on women in cybersecurity , the role of small businesses in supply chain security and the value assessed to cybersecurity in mergers and acquisitions audits .

Your Benefits of Membership

Along with PDI, we hope you’re taking advantage of all the benefits that come with being a member or associate of (ISC)². Between discounts on conferences, textbooks, products and services – as well as opportunities to connect with other professionals through chapters and our online community – there are many ways to put your membership to work for you.

If you missed any of the news this year, we encourage you to update your communication preferences in your Member Dashboard , so you don’t miss any of the exciting developments that 2020 has in store. We are looking forward to 2020 as a year of vision, and of course, to delivering even more value to you.

Best wishes to all for a safe and secure holiday season!