CISSP: Group B credits

[Alec]

I've got my CISSP earlier this year and decided to be proactive in earning CPEs from day one. While there is enough information and recommendations on Group A credits I'm a bit unsure about practical ways to earn Group B credits. The list of suggested activities on ISC(2) website provides some guidance, but besides "Technical skills not in information security" - which includes things like programming languages - other options seem to be more management-oriented. I wonder what other fellow CISSPs would recommend as feasible options to earn Group B credits for someone in a security engineer position. Thanks!

[Alec]

Makes sense, and thanks for the poodle grooming example - I will make sure to stay focused and not deviate! 🙂

[amandavanceISC2]

@Alec Congratulations on obtaining your CISSP and welcome to the (ISC)² family! These are great questions and answers from @Badfilemagic and @Early_Adopter! I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Amanda Vance and I work on the Member Support team at (ISC)². If anyone has any questions and would like to contact me, please feel free. If you would prefer to contact me directly, I have listed my contact information below.

Best Regards,

Amanda Vance

avance@isc2.org

[Alec]

Thank you, Amanda! I will certainly keep your contact info handy in case I have more questions!

Regarding my last question about CPE rollover: could you confirm if my understanding is correct that I can earn no more than 40 credits in each of the years 1 and 2 and no more than 80 in the 3d year without "losing" any credits above these limits?

[amandavanceISC2]

@Alec I will be happy to clarify the CPE rollover policy. 

It is true that the CPEs do not rollover from year to year, so if you get 50 for year 1, the 10 extra CPEs will not rollover into the year 2 requirements. However, these extra CPEs do count towards your three-year CPE requirement (120 total with at least 90 being Group A). Once you submit the required 120 CPEs, up to 40 Group A CPEs that you earn in the last 6 months (in excess to the 120) can be rolled over into year 1 of the new three-year cycle. 

Even though, the CPEs do not rollover from year to year, I would recommend to still submit them if you have them. There are times that members are not able to meet their annual CPE requirements, so if you have extra in one year that are adding to the three-year total, that will help you so you don't fall behind. 

I hope this helps answer your question.

Best - Amanda Vance

[nagarajan]

Hi Alec,

You can submit the following for credits towards Group B:

1. Any technical training and certification.

2. Publication of book on technology/security.

3. Any blog that you published.

4. NON tech training such as : ITIL, PMP, AGILE, SCRUM etc.

Cheers,

Raj

[Alec]

Thanks Raj, this is good to know.

Initially I was under impression I must earn 10 Group B credits, but now that I learned it's actually "either A or B" the pressure is off! I think there are much more clear ways to earn Group A than Group B credits and this is good.

[Alec]

Thanks @amandavanceISC2, this is certainly helpful. I'm still a bit confused about the treatment of extra credits - so they don't rollover to the next year, but are considered in the total required 3-year count. Using your example, if I earned 50 credits in year 1, 30 credits in year 2 and 40 credits in year 3 would this satisfy the renewal requirements? How about this scenario: 50 in year 1 + 50 in year 2 + 20 in year 3?

[amandavanceISC2]

@Alec that is correct! At this time, we are not currently enforcing the suspension policy, so as long as members are meeting the three-year CPE and AMF requirements, they will not be penalized if they do not meet the annual CPE requirement of 40 a year. This means that (per your example), if in year 1 you submit 50 CPEs, year 2 you submit 30 and year 3 your submit 40, you will end up with a total of 120 CPEs (three-year CPE requirement). Do keep in mind that at least 90 of the 120 have to be domain related activities (Group A). The other 30 can be Group A or Group B, or a mixture of both. Please feel free to call me directly if you think it might be easier explained over the phone.

Best Regards,

Amanda Vance

727-493-3579

[Alec]

Thank you, Amanda!

[vasantpatel]

Hi Amanda,

Its kIndia confusing. Here is the sample scenario, the membership cycle is from feb to jan. 

- First year 2017 say I earned 50 cpe, all in group A, the extra 10 was in November 2017, same group. 

- Second year 2018 say I earned 30 cpe before june-July and then 10 after august 2018, all in group A. 

- Third year 2019, I only earned 30 cpe before jul-aug or before December, all in group A.

So total I earned 120 anyway, is this doable?

On isc2 website it was indicated somewhere that as long as you earn your extra cpe in second half of year means last 6 months of your cycle you will be able to roll over those extra cpe.

Please clarify.