Security Certifications: Valuable Or Worthless?

Security certifications are a hotly debated topic: The CISSP is a must-have. The CISSP is worthless. The more capital letters you have after your name, the better. Or not.

Information Security Leaders, an independent security careers website, is now polling security professionals for its InfoSecLeaders Certification Survey to learn what they really think about security certifications. Are they valuable or meaningless to your career? Did they help you get your job or make more money? How did you weigh the SANS GIAC or CISM when evaluating a security professional?

The survey is open to all infosec pros, regardless of certifications held, if any. Among the topics covered in the survey: opinions and motivations for certification, certification as a career investment, certifications and the hiring process, and the value certifications bring versus other skills.

Information Security Leaders' Lee Kushner and Mike Murray plan to announce the results sometime around Black Hat USA and Defcon. Their goal is to capture the attitudes of the security community on certifications. The survey isn't backed by any sponsors -- it's purely indie.

The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and you can get a copy of the final results emailed to you afterward. To take the survey, go here.

-- Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading Follow Kelly (@kjhiggins) here on Twitter.