By David Shearer, CISSP, (ISC)² CEO

The (ISC)² team would like to extend our gratitude to you for being an (ISC)² member. Thank you for all you do each day to help us achieve our vision of inspiring a safe and secure cyber world.

We are excited by the progress and development made in 2018 as the global (ISC)² team continues their commitment to delivering value to you. I’m happy to share some of the teams’ accomplishments with you, including: 

Multi-Factor Authentication Now Available

I’m thrilled to share that we have added Multi-Factor Authentication as an additional layer of security to your online (ISC)² member account. MFA is just one feature of the new and improved Member Dashboard that was introduced this week. I encourage you to activate this feature in your account, as well as update other communication preferences.

Digital End-To-End Transformation

Speaking of technology enhancements, our team is dedicated to delivering value to you at every encounter. That is why we have invested in a digital end-to-end transformation that took place largely in 2018. (ISC)² revamped much of our online presence, and we are continuing to improve the various platforms and technologies that you use to engage with us and that (ISC)² employees use for our day-to-day business operations.

Sold-Out (ISC)² Security Congress

I am excited to share that this was the second year in a row with a sold-out Security Congress. We are looking forward to 2019’s event in Orlando, Florida at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort October 28-30. The new venue will provide us with increased capacity to grow the conference and welcome colleagues from all over the globe. Due to its large and international travel-friendly airport, Orlando will be the home of Security Congress for years to follow, at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. Registration is open now, so make plans to join us in Florida next year!

New Advocates and Growth in Asia-Pacific

Tony Vizza, CISSP joined our team as Director of Cybersecurity Advocacy, Asia-Pacific. With more than 25 years of experience, Tony will focus on educating the public and private sectors about the need for stronger cybersecurity training, policies and recruitment. He will give a voice to the growing number of members in this incredibly dynamic region. Membership in Asia-Pacific exceeded 17,500 during the year, with China reaching the milestone of 2,000 members . Mary Jo de Leeuw joined (ISC)² just this month as our Director of Cybersecurity Advocacy, EMEA. She was recently ranked as one of the U.K’s 50 most influential women in cybersecurity and we are thrilled to have her as part of our team.

Keeping Families Safe Online

Your Center for Cyber Safety and Education continues to expand all its Safe and Secure Online educational and scholarship programs around the world. The award-winning Garfield cyber safety education program for children has been proven to increase cyber safety knowledge by 28%. The materials for parents and seniors are currently available in eight languages and the Center’s goal is to have it in 30 languages this next year. This opportunity for our profession to give back to the community in so many ways is something we as members should be very proud of and I encourage all of you to learn more about this effort to make it a safer cyber world.

Workforce Gap and Additional Industry Research

The cybersecurity skills shortage is continuing to grow in awareness each day. Our latest Cybersecurity Workforce Study found the gap to be 2.93 million worldwide. But our research is focused on more than the gap as we examine challenges facing the profession to find solutions for not just the profession, but the professional. Other 2018 research reports include Building a Resilient Cybersecurity Culture and Hiring and Retaining Top Cybersecurity Talent .

Think Tank Webinar Channel Awarded

The (ISC)² Think Tank webinar channel , which features 60-minute roundtable discussions with industry experts was honored by the BrightTALK platform as the Highest Growth Channel in the IT category . If you’re not already taking advantage of these free webinars, I highly encourage you to do so. Not only is the material useful to your day-to-day work, but the on-demand, weekly webinars are an easily accessible way to keep up with your CPE requirements. 

Professional Development Opportunities

A key focus for (ISC)² next year is to provide more professional development for you, as well as ensure that all of our material is deeply enriching to your career, no matter where you are in your journey. We debuted two courses this year that are free for (ISC)² members: GDPR for Security Professionals: A Framework for Success and DevSecOps: Integrating Security into DevOps. We look forward to bringing you even more courses in the new year. 

Finally, next year marks our thirtieth anniversary and as we approach 150,000 members worldwide, we look forward to even more growth and development for (ISC)², and more importantly, for you. Thank you for another exciting year.

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