The reason I needed to be in central London by 1.30pm was because I had an exam scheduled. I wanted to do at least a little bit over my six week break which was related to my day job, although not something I directly do or am responsible for. As I’m the Privacy guy at the company, and with a somewhat technical background, I inevitably have an interest in data protection and security more generally. I’d toyed with the idea of doing the full CISSP, but that’s a pretty serious commitment and not something I’d get the full benefit from – I’m not hands-on with our firewall and network configuration, nor do I really want to be.
I looked around for something more accessible, with some training, and found a British Computer Society (which yes, does sound like something that may have existed around the time of Babbage & Lovelace’s calculating machines, although it was founded as recently as, erm, 1957) offering: the Foundation Certificate in Information Security Management Principles, or CISMP for short. I’m sure they’d be shocked, shocked to find anyone confusing the CISMP for the CISSP.
The CISMP basically tests you against your knowledge of this book and related matters.
Even with the ups and downs of the bike journey, I made it to Crystal Palace station at 12.15pm, and got to Bank with time for lunch before the computer-based exam at a Global Knowledge place on Old Broad Street. I decided I’d earned a decent meal, and came across a Burger Lobster which welcomed me warmly, and served me up a lobster roll, fries and session IPA in short order.
Just the ticket – I was ready for action again, and completed the exam successfully (and in a lot less time than the allotted two hours). I’ll have to decide if I pursue any of the further courses beyond this Foundation-level one.
Timsformational 