The (ISC)2 CISSP Information Systems Security Management Professional (ISSMP) exam, also referred to as the CISSP-ISSMP, will earn you the namesake certification that demonstrates your finesse in creating, introducing, and managing programs for information security. Besides, if you ace the exam in question, you’ll prove that you’re apt with the handling of incidents and can lead breach mitigation teams.

What Does CISSP-ISSMP Embody?

All in all, the CISSP-ISSMP designation is vital for those who want to align the security programs in accordance with the goals, mission, and strategies of a company through meeting the enterprise requirements for finance and operations. So, if you’re working in the positions of a chief information officer, chief information security officer, chief technology officer, and senior security executive and want to further augment your skills, this certificate is a perfect pick for you. However, to be eligible for partaking in the final qualifying exam, you need to fall in with several compulsory prerequisites, and in detail, these are to be a current CISSP and also have some work experience in one or more of the domains for the CISSP-ISSMP CBK or Common Body of Knowledge.

(ISC)2 CISSP-ISSMP Exam Details

Regarding the structural characteristics of the final evaluation conducted in English, you will need to solve at best 125 items formatted in the MCQs with a limited time of 180 minutes. Once you get 700 points and more, up to 1000, you will be awarded the certificate. Finally, an exam like this will go at a price of $599 and will be delivered through the testing centers of Pearson VUE.

Knowledge Areas That This Test Assesses

It’s clear that to pass any IT exam, you need to drudge and exploit as many training materials as possible. Nonetheless, prior to doing all these, you have to find out more about what you're going to study. For this reason, checking the topics in the CISSP-ISSMP CBK is the first and foremost thing that you should accomplish. Hence, here’s an elaborate outline of which domains and objectives and included by the certification vendor in the CISSP-ISSMP evaluation:

• Business Management & Leadership

  This area is divided into ten separate objectives focusing on a particular subject matter. Thus, the first one talks about the role of security with regards to the culture, mission, and vision of an organization. Next, you will cultivate the skills at positioning the program for security with the governance aspect of a company and will learn how to put into practice the suitable strategies for information security. More than these, you will also have to be apt with keeping the framework for security policy on par and managing the security points in both agreements & contracts. After that, candidates will demonstrate their understanding of overseeing the awareness of security as well as varied training programs, will denote, report, and gauge the metrics for security, and will prepare, receive, and be in charge of dealing with the security budget. Finally, this domain will enlighten applicants on the process of security program management and how to capture the product development as well as principles for project management.

• Systems Lifecycle and Its Management

  Next on the agenda is the management of the systems lifecycle topic, which looks at the way to incorporate the security features into the System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and the newly-appearing initiatives for businesses alongside technologies into the architecture of security. On top of these, defining and overseeing the high-end management programs for vulnerability involving scanning, penetration testing, and threat analysis will also be given consideration. To conclude, when reaching the end of such a domain, you will be asked to learn to monitor the change control security aspects.

• Managing Risks

  Under the third module, candidates will contribute to their learning by acquiring the relevant skills in devising as well as managing the program for risk management and conducting the necessary risk assessment through identifying risk elements, carrying out Business Impact Analysis (BIA), handling exceptions for risks, and accomplishing the cost-benefit survey.

• Incident Management alongside Threat Intelligence

  As soon as you reach the fourth measured chapter, you will accentuate two important portions like establishing as well as supporting the programs for threat intelligence and incident handling. To conquer this domain, you will have to carry out the baseline analysis, threat modeling, as well as Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and will be taught to create the mandatory documentation, identify anomalous behavior patterns, gather Incident Response Team (IRT), and combine the related attacks.

• Contingency Management

  The fifth topic, in particular, sheds light on the process of controlling the development of contingency plans and guiding the development stage of strategy recovery. In addition, while exploring this knowledge area, you will touch on the maintenance of plans for business continuity, the continuity of operations, and disaster recovery. To finalize, when such a domain calls it a day, applicants will learn to be responsible for managing the process of recovery by announcing disaster, executing the planning, remediating normal operations, and gathering feedback from the lessons.

• Security Compliance Management Including Laws & Ethics

  Above all, the final measured module targets to furnish candidates with a solid understanding of what the Impact of Laws has to do with information security. Besides, within the same chapter, you’ll grasp how the management issues relate to the (ISC)2 Code of Ethics and how to fitly verify compliance according to given laws, regulations, and best practices. What is more, such a domain will cultivate in you the skill to cooperate with auditors by assisting them in the inner and outer process for audits and jot down the exceptions for compliance.

Salary and Career Prospects

Indeed, studying for the actual CISSP-ISSMP exam is a tough process that should be decently rewarded afterward. Thus, if we take into account the information from Payscale, we’ll see that certified CISSP-ISSMP specialists can receive $115k per annum by applying for the job posts of a Facility Security Officer (FSO), Information Technology (IT) Manager, Director of Cybersecurity, Information Security Engineer, and the like.

Further Development

If you don’t feel like staying on the same spot in terms of tech skills and knowledge, you then have to consider other extensions of the (ISC)2 CISSP certificate. Thus, apart from the CISSP-ISSMP focusing on security management, you may also opt for the CISSP-ISSEP and CISSP-ISSAP that are centered on security engineering and security architecture, correspondingly.