http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9026624
By Jaikumar Vijayan
July 09, 2007
Want more money for your information security skills? Try getting a
professional certification. For all the continuing debate about the real
value of IT certification programs, the premiums that companies are
willing to pay for certified information security professionals is
actually trending upwards.
A report released last week by New Canaan, Conn.-based Foote Partners
LLC shows that formally certified security professionals on average are
still commanding about 10% to 15% higher salaries than noncertified
individuals in comparable roles. The numbers were marginally higher than
the premiums offered for certified security professionals six months
ago. Among the certification programs commanding the highest premiums
were Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) ,
Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Information
Security Manager (CISM).
In contrast, the premiums being offered for individuals with
professional certifications in other IT areas fell by about 2% over the
past one year, according to the Foote report. The analysis was based on
salary data from 33,800 U.S and Canadian IT professionals.
"Security certifications bucked the overall trend by growing in value
from October to April, up an average of 1.7 percent across the entire
group of twenty-seven security certifications that we survey," the
report said. "This is a very important development, because salaries as
well as skills pay for IT security professionals stopped growing and in
some cases declined a few years ago following what had been a strong
wave of hiring in the wake of Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, and
Sarbanes-Oxley Act legislation," the Foote report said.
That trend has begun reversing itself as demand for qualified security
professionals has begun to steadily grow recently, said David Foote, CEO
of Foote Partners, in an interview with Computerworld. High-profile
breaches, such as the one at TJX earlier this year, have made company
executives increasingly nervous about the impact of security breaches on
their customer bases, Foote said. As a result many have begun to ramp up
their security efforts, resulting in an overall increase in demand for
qualified security professionals to their highest levels after 9/11, he
said.
This trend in IT security certifications pay is an indication that,
finally, there is something other than government regulation that is
driving business leaders to invest more in security, Foote said. "The
trend is not being driven by compliance and regulations. It is being
driven by people saying customers are demanding more security," from the
companies they do business with, Foote said.
Also pushing up the premiums for security certification is a new
Department of Defense directive which requires over 100,000 security
professionals in certain specific job roles to be certified within a
five year period, Foote said. The directive affects full- or part-time
military service members, contractors, or those with privileged access
to DOD information systems who are performing information assurance
functions.
The two trends are creating a "perfect storm" in terms of pushing up
premiums for IT security certifications at a time when other
certification programs are commanding lower premiums than they used to,
he added.
Received on Wed Jul 11 00:17:29 2007