Retirees and CPEs

I am a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).  This is an internationally-recognized certification issued by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC²).   OK, way too many acronyms.  To earn this certification, you have to have four years’ experience in Information Security and pass a six hour exam.  The exam was the most difficult I’ve ever taken – ISC² should hand out coupons for stiff drinks upon completion.

When I notified ISC² of my retirement, I expected to surrender my certification.  I was delighted to learn that I could keep it, as long as I met the requirements for continuing education and paid my annual maintenance fees.

I decided to keep my certification, to keep my mind active and my options open.  Of course, it is now October 30, which gives me only nine weeks to get the remaining 20 hours of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) I need for this year.   Yikes!  This is a lot – and not being employed by a major company has limited my access to training. 

So I called in the big guns – my former security teammates.  Many have reached out to me with books and web sites.  So far I’ve taken a webinar on the top ten application vulnerabilities, a webinar on data and IT service excellence, a webinar series on Identity and Access Management, and am in the middle of a self-study course in writing. 

I’ve always known I would keep learning in retirement – the CISSP continuing education requirement is just the thing to kick myself into really doing it.