(ISC)2 Publishes Guide To Information Security Profession For High School And College Students
PALM HARBOR, Fla., USA, July 6, 2005 The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. [(ISC)2®], the non-profit international leader in educating, qualifying and certifying information security professionals worldwide and currently celebrating the Year of the Information Security Professional, today announced the release of a career guide to the information security profession to spark interest among high school and college students to enter the field. Titled ?Decoding the Information Security Profession? and co-sponsored by Microsoft Corp., the guide was distributed last month to more than 3,500 school counselors, administrators and educators at the National Career Development Association Global Conference and the American School Counselor Association Conference, both held in Orlando, Fla., and the National Educational Computing Conference in Philadelphia. The guide will also be made available online to the 17,000 members worldwide of the American School Counselor Association. Career counselors can also download the career guide onto their school?s online career and resource centers through the (ISC)2 Web site at www.isc2.org/careerguide. Interested students can also view and print the catalog directly from the (ISC)2 site. Printed copies of the guide are available by request. The 35-page booklet was created in part in response to the findings of the first study on the global information security workforce, conducted last year for (ISC)² by industry analyst group IDC, that showed the demand for new professionals would nearly double to 2.1 million by 2008 worldwide. The guide also helps to achieve one of the main goals of The Year of the Information Security Professional initiative, which is to attract high-quality candidates to the field. ?Twenty-five years ago, the information security profession was new and obscure,? said Rolf Moulton, CISSP-ISSMP, president and CEO (interim), (ISC)². ?Today, society has come to rely heavily on information security professionals to protect businesses, governments and the public-at-large from increasingly sophisticated thieves and destructive hackers.? ?It is (ISC)²?s mission to professionalize the practice of information security, and that involves encouraging the highest standards of ethics, knowledge and skills among professionals early in their careers,? Moulton said. ?Being an information security professional is a tough job, but it can also be an immensely rewarding career. In this Year of the Information Security Professional, (ISC)² is proud to release what is likely the first information security career guide to help young people get a grasp of the profession and its many opportunities and responsibilities.? Decoding the Information Security Profession? covers the following areas: · Description of information security
· Typical jobs, titles, industries and organizations
· Professional requirements
· Certification options
· Typical salaries
· Career outlook
· A listing of schools, education facilities, certification companies and other resources and associations
In addition, quotes are dispersed throughout the guide from information security professionals from major organizations nationwide such as Microsoft, American Express and the U.S. Postal Service offering insight about how they got started in the field, their professional responsibilities, educational recommendations, future opportunities, words of wisdom and more.
?Career counselors will find this resource helpful in increasing their understanding of the field of information security, and learning about the career opportunities it offers separate from the IT field,? said Janet G. Lenz, Ph.D., MCC, NCC president, National Career Development Association. ?The guide gives persons seeking information about the information security field a valuable resource as they consider important career choices, and will become a useful tool to our members and the individuals they work with in career services settings around the globe.?
?Our professional school counselors around the globe will now be able to talk with students about what it takes to get started in a career that plays an important role in protecting organizational as well as personal information assets,? said Judy Bowers, president, American School Counselor Association.
For more information on the “Decoding the Information Security Profession” career guide and to find out how to receive copies, please contact Sarah Bohne, (ISC)2 director of communications and constituent services, at sbohne@isc2.org .
About (ISC)²
The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. [(ISC)2®] is the premier not-for-profit organization dedicated to certifying information security professionals around the world. Founded in 1989, (ISC)² has certified more than 33,000 information security professionals in more than 100 countries. Based in Palm Harbor, Florida, USA with offices in Vienna, Virginia, USA, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, (ISC)2 issues the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP?/span>) and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP?/span>) credentials and related concentrations to those meeting necessary competency requirements. The CISSP?/span>, the Gold Standard in information security certifications, is the first information technology credential to meet the stringent requirements of ANSI under ISO/IEC Standard 17024, a global benchmark for assessing and certifying personnel. (ISC)² also offers a portfolio of educational related products and services based upon (ISC)2?s CBK®, a compendium of industry best practices for information security professionals, and is responsible for the annual (ISC)² Global Information Security Workforce Study. More information about (ISC)2 is available at www.isc2.org.