Thank you for your thoughtful questions. We appreciate the feedback and understand your concern about the changes.
AMFs are critical as they are used by (ISC)² to support the costs of maintaining the (ISC)² credentials you and your peers work so hard to earn. To maintain accreditation and ensure the long-term credibility, impact and relevancy of your certification, our exam department is working hard year-long to meet the highest industry standards and to keep evolving the exam over time to accommodate the latest changes in best practices, technologies and principles.
AMFs also go to support all the resources and systems necessary to manage the association. For more than 15 years and despite rising costs, (ISC)² has managed to avoid increasing AMFs while maintaining the highest standards for our certifications and supporting a growing international membership base. We also have invested in new member benefits, most recently in the development of a growing portfolio of immersive professional development courses exploring timely, relevant topics such as GDPR, DevSecOps and creating a security-minded culture. Valued at $400 or more, these courses are available to members at no additional cost, help members earn enriching CPEs and are accessible at any time by members who sign in to www.isc2.org and click on My Courses. More courses are in development.
Other expanded benefits recently introduced to help you grow include:
- Member Perks offering more than 300,000 discounts on everyday expenses
- Savings on industry events like Black Hat, RSA Conference and member pricing for (ISC)² events, including our new Secure Summits and global Security Congress
- Discounts on third-party services including phishing awareness training; communications, public speaking and presentation skills development; cloud security training; insights into the latest security vendors and solutions; best practices for securing IoT devices; and more
After careful evaluation of future growth plans – with a core focus on investing in our members’ long-term professional development and delivering on our value promise to you – the Board of Directors approved changes to our membership policies and AMFs. These changes strongly position the association to better support our mission of inspiring a safe and secure cyber world, while also investing in a rich set of valuable resources for our members to help build and maintain your expertise across all the domains of your certification.
The new fee is in line with similar membership associations and certifying bodies. We also decided that simplicity was the best approach to our AMFs. By no longer billing in arrears and selecting a single AMF for all members, we ensure equal access to all our resources, benefits and future growth opportunities. Again, we understand the concern with the change and are aware that members will be affected differently depending on their personal and professional situation. That was a key consideration in providing advance notice of more than five months for members to align their accounts with the new policy.
We feel that members receive a very strong return on their annual investment when considering the growing array of resources available to you, as well as the global recognition and credibility a certification like the CISSP brings as a complement to the expertise and knowledge you’ve gained throughout your careers.
We hope this helps clarify why we have increased our AMFs and reassures you that there is a strong return on your investment that will only continue grow in the future.
Please feel free to reach out to Member Services directly with any questions you may have about your membership.
Thank you for being an (ISC)² member.
Samantha O'Connor
(ISC)² Online Community Manager
