It looks like the Department of Defense (DoD) is really pushing its personnel to obtain information assurance (IA) certifications through organizations that are ISO 17024 registered. The DoD Directive 8570.1, (all IA personel with privileged access to a DoD system, regardless of job series or occupational specialty, to obtain a commercial certification credential) will require an additional 30 percent of an estimated 100,000 DoD IA workers obtain a commercial certification in 2008.
DoD certification efforts under 8570 began in 2007, with an initial 10 percent of the DoD IA workforce obtaining professional credentials, and will continue through 2010.
Link to the newsfeed for the full article here.
A new standard has been released by ISO which outlines the code of practice for IT based computer testing. ISO/IEC 23988:2007, derived from British Standard BS 7988 was released in January 2007 provides a means to (quote from ISO):
- show that the delivery and scoring of the assessment are fair and do not disadvantage some groups of candidates, for example those who are not IT literate;
- show that a summative assessment has been conducted under secure conditions and is the authentic work of the candidate;
- show that the validity of the assessment is not compromised by IT delivery;
- provide evidence of the security of the assessment, which can be presented to regulatory and funding organizations (including regulatory bodies in education and training, in industry or in financial services);
- establish a consistent approach to the regulations for delivery, which should be of benefit to assessment centres who deal with more than one assessment distributer;
- give an assurance of quality to purchasers of "off-the-shelf" assessment software.
Mickie S Rops in her Association Knowledge and Credentialing Blog encourages
"All associations considering or offering computer- or internet-based testing (and all associated service providers/vendors) would benefit from a review of this informative standard which, by the way, applies to both low and high-stakes assessments."
Interestingly one of the key assessment methods - assessment through simulations is excluded in the standard. Go here for more information from ISO
It looks like the Department of Defense (DoD) is really pushing its personnel to obtain information assurance (IA) certifications through organizations that are ISO 17024 registered. The DoD Directive 8570.1, (all IA personel with privileged access to a DoD system, regardless of job series or occupational specialty, to obtain a commercial certification credential) will require an additional 30 percent of an estimated 100,000 DoD IA workers obtain a commercial certification in 2008.
