Category: Career Advice

I have made no secret of my distain for the ‘GDPR Practitioner Certification‘ badge, and I still have no time for it, or its recipients who pass it off as real-world experience. But what alternatives are there if you want to obtain some form of data protection certification / privacy education?

The de facto standard, and really the only player in town, is the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), and their flagship badge, the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), is the most widely recognised and respected acronym you can add to your CV/resume. It’s the equivalent of the CISSP for those of us in the cybersecurity industry.

Continue reading “How Valid Can the IAPP’s Certifications Be?” →

My original title was “Data Security vs Data Protection[…]”, but an unfortunate number of people see these as pretty much the same thing, even interchangeable. Then I chose Cybersecurity instead of Data Security but that doesn’t cover all forms/formats of personal data, so I finally had to settle on Information Security.

As for Data Protection, it’s not, in and of itself Privacy, and so on…

Continue reading “Information Security vs Privacy, are the Lines Blurring?” →

If you’re reading this, you likely fall into 1 of 3 camps:

  1. You are horrified at the concept and can’t wait to tear me a new one;
  2. You actually think I may be able to help you make lot of money; or
  3. You know me and realise that the title is nothing but click-bait

If 1., then good for you, I would do the same. If 2., then you’ve come to the wrong place unless you’re prepared to put in significant effort. If 3., then you’re right! 🙂

Continue reading “How to Make Lots of Money From GDPR” →

[WARNING: Contains bad language.]

The 3 things I hate most about my chosen field of cybersecurity are, in no particular order:

  1. The proliferation of ‘silver bullet‘ / end-point protection technologies – when security is primarily concerned with people and process;
    o
  2. Security organisations using either F.U.D or regulatory compliance to make money without providing real benefit – with GDPR for example; and
    o
  3. Security ‘professionals’ who bad-mouth other security professionals at the lowest point in their careers – against Susan Mauldin for example.

In 4.5 years and close to 300 blogs I have never used the following words. But for those guilty of 3.;

Fuck you!

Seriously, how dare you!? Especially those who actually had the nerve to say Susan wasn’t qualified because she had a music degree and no other security related qualifications on her LinkedIn profile. Like certifications or even a degree are accurate representations of either a person’s skill-set, or their competence. I have no security relevant degrees, and my certifications were collected by reading a book and passing a pathetic multiple-choice test, but I will happily match my ABILITIES against anyone who does what I do.

More to the point, unless you actually work(ed) for the company that was just breached, you have no idea of what caused the breach in the first place. Yes, you can point to unpatched devices, and a host of other vulnerabilities POST-forensics, but you have NO idea of the business pressures the IS/IT teams were under. And if you think that should not matter, you’re not a true security professional.

I am in no way defending organisations that egregiously ignore security good practices just to increase profit. Nor am I defending the truly incompetent. But unless you have irrefutable evidence that either was the case, keep your opinions and reproaches to yourself. There is no such thing as 100% security, and there is no such thing as unlimited resources. The best you can ever hope for is that you have enough.

In security, a bad guy only has to be right once, security professionals have to be right ALL the time. Eventually we ALL make mistakes. Most of us are lucky, and our mistakes lead to nothing more than a minor event, but for some, the mistakes are career ending. Too often this is not because the people involved actually WERE incompetent, but because of the pressure to resign from the jerks who somehow think they are better. That the breach would not have happened under their watch.

Have you noticed though, that the people who are most critical and vitriolic tend to be mid-level no-bodies who will likely never make to the CISO level?

Do these people actually think that by taking cheap shots at the less fortunate that decent people won’t hate them for it. That Equifax and the other breach victims will suddenly reach out to them for help? That someone who has nothing better to do than kick someone while they’re down is just the kind of person they want on their team?

Let me ask you this: When was the last time you saw someone getting berated by his/her team for missing a penalty / field goal / you name it? You probably can’t remember, and why? BECAUSE THEY ARE ON THE SAME FUCKING TEAM!!

There are only 2 sides to cybersecurity; the good guys and the bad guys. Choose which side you’re on and stop being part of the problem.

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In Security Certifications Are Just the Beginning, I tried to explain that collecting cybersecurity certifications at the beginning of your career actually makes sense. However, it’s always your experience that will eventually be the difference between success and mediocrity.

Then, in So You Want to be a Cybersecurity Professional?, I qualified that even at the start of a career, certifications are only a small part of what you need to make a positive impact. Once again, it’s only the experience you gain by doing the work that gets you where you want to be. There are no shortcuts, especially on the ‘technology track’.

I have very recently had reason to reflect on the other end of the career spectrum. Not at the end of a career obviously, but at its height. Are the ubiquitous CISSPs, CISAs, CRISCs and so on certifications of the cybersecurity world actually worth it? Do they add anything significant. Can your career actually outgrow any use you may have had for them?

My current reflection actually germinated a few years ago when I spent an inordinate amount of time ‘collecting’ my Continuing Professional Education (CPE) hours. I spent way too long going over my calendar, email, and other sources to gather this information just to enter it FOUR times; one for each certification. I think I’ve done this every year for the past 4.

Now I’m being audited by a certification body. While I fully accept the reason for this, it means I not only have to gather another year’s worth of CPEs, I now  have to dig out a load of ADDITIONAL information for the previous year’s entries!

Given the nature of my business, I simply don’t have the time. More fairly, I took a serious look at the benefits I get from these certification and have now chosen not to MAKE the time. Basically, there are no benefits that I can see. At least there are no benefits that outweigh a day or more of my billable time.

Benefits need to be tangible to the self-employed. My employer is not paying for me to maintain these certs, this is out of my pocket.  So from my perspective, if you contact me regarding a contract of some sort, and request a list of my generic cybersecurity certifications, I can only assume one or more of the following;

  1. You are a recruiter trying to match acronyms to a job description;
    o
  2. You are a company looking for a cybersecurity expert but have no idea of the right questions to ask; and/or
    o
  3. You have no idea who I am (no arrogance here, cybersecurity is still a surprisingly small community).

In theory, you should aim to be immune to all of the above. If your CV/resume, LinkedIn profile, and/or reputation etc. speak for themselves, it’s your previous accomplishments that will set you apart. If you are still relying on certifications to get you in the door, then there’s a very good chance you should be focusing more on personal PR than studying for your next acronym.

For example, I have been in business for myself for 4 years and still have no website or sales function. The contacts that I have made over the course of my career keep me fully occupied. That suggests to me that the cybersecurity community in general means a hell of a lot more than any association. My peers help me every day.

This is something you have to earn. Not by being liked [thank God], but by being a genuine ‘practitioner’. Certifications can never give you this credibility.

But, I am NOT saying every certification can be replaced, some you have to have to perform a function (like ISO 27001 LA). It’s the ones you get from just reading a book, or receive for free as long you pay the annual fee (I was literally given CRISC for example). Do I really need to maintain a cert that I didn’t even earn?

In their defence, there is a lot more to these certification bodies than just the acronyms, and I have never taken advantage of these extracurriculars. Once again, I am just not prepared to make the time when I have clients paying for my time.

If only the CPEs could be earned by doing your job! Every new client, every new scenario, every new regulation you learn ON the job should absolutely count. I spend at least 3 hours a week writing this blog, but none of that time counts either.

Who knows, maybe this is a terrible mistake, but it’s with a certain sense of relief that I’m letting my certifications die.

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