Posted by Alex Trent

Today there are dozens of computer security certifications available. We’ll cover some of the more popular ones, some obscure ones, and their costs and differences.

The one I’m sure everyone’s heard of, the CompTIA Security+ is well known but often thought of as the easiest to obtain. As of today, the exam costs $258 to take. Passing the exam requires a score of 560 on a scale of 100-900. This exam recommends having two years of networking with a focus on security. Exams taken/passed after January 1, 2011 will expire after three years. Exams taken/passed before this date will remain “lifetime certifications.”

An organization even older than CompTIA, called the Information Systems Audit and Control Association offers the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification. This certification is US Department of Defense approved. While more targeted towards auditors, a well trained auditor can find security issues that users and management would never think of. The exam gives 4 hours to answer 200 questions. A score of 450 is required to pass on a scale of 200 to 800. The exam can cost anywhere from $345 to $575 depending on various factors. The certification requires a minimum of 5 years experience of professional Information Security auditing.

Likely to be the second most well known and certainly the most internationally known, is the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) created by the non-profit International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)². This certification has 250 multiple choice questions, six hours to take the exam, requires a score of 700 or greater for passing, and costs $450 if you register early enough. Late registrations raise the price to $599. Five years of professional experience is also required for this certification. The CISSP is only valid for three years and much be renewed after that. While the CISSP covers a broad range of subject matter, it has been criticized as doing only that and not really covering any subject matter in depth. Even so, CISSP professionals salaries are known to be often in excess of $100,000 a year.

If you’ve ever heard of the SANS Institute then you might have heard of the certification entity they oversee called the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC). The certifications are linked to the training that SANS provides while focusing on vendor-neural security techniques to keep ahead of the “black hats.” Nearly two dozen certifications focusing on security, auditing, management, operations, and secure coding are offered by GIAC. The secure coding exams range from 50 to 100 questions for $349. All other exams, except the GSE, are $899. GIAC certifications are Internationally renowned as it is believed by many that anyone who has a GIAC certification really knows the subject matter extensively.

In Part II of this article I’ll cover some of the more obscure exams like the Certified Ethical Hacker exam. Until then, stay tuned.

About the Author: Alex Trent is a staff writer for WebProNews