There is an on going effort to make some major changes to the International Information Systems Forensics Association (IISFA.org) I would like to find out from the forum members, what changes they would like to see made.
If anyone is not familiar with them, The International Information Systems Forensics Association (IISFA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the discipline of information forensics in the form of evangelism, education, and certification. They are the sponsors of the CIFI certification.
Sincerely,
I gave up on the IISFA after the local chapter contact never responded to a sponsorship inquiry. That said, I'd like to see them improve relations )
Are any changes coming to the IISFA? The original poster asked, and not many people responded, but I am sure that this is not the only source of input. Perhaps an idea of what is in the works would help us get an idea what is going on. How active is the organization?
Funny you should ask… I was speaking with an associate today and we are attempting to get final approval to take over the website and get it updated. Then you will see allot of new fresh changes and positive activity happening within the next 30 days…
Keep the faith…
TowerRat
My feelings are that any professional organization who tries to promote themselves as industry leaders and the be all certification certainly cannot be taken seriously when they GRANDFATHER people in …
The bottom line, IISFA messed up from the begining when they decided to promote their organizational goals and needs by grandfathering people the CIFI. They had the opportunity to rescind those handed out certs early on and they chose not to. I would encourage anyone looking for certifications consider other certifications, such as the CCE, wherein no one has been grandfathered in.
A technical certification is earned, not handed out. When you grandfather folks it leaves you open to questions, just as the IISFA has. And I wonder, to become a "Certified Training Partner" you must pay a one time fee of $2500.00. Why is this?
Thoughts?
farmerdude
Sorry to jump in slightly off-topic. I agree with what you say about boot camps, but are the MCSE or Comptia certifications a joke just because training providers, that aren’t necessarily affiliated to the parent organisation, run these two-week intense courses? A lot of companies who hire IT professionals have practical tests as part of their hiring process to filter out candidates who are boot camp graduates. Maybe not a completely failsafe process, but at least it shows their acknowledgement of the existence of certificate holders who don’t have any breadth or depth of knowledge.
Like I said, I agree with your point about boot camps and I understand your unwillingness to ‘backtrack’ to impress or satisfy the uninformed, I wouldn’t be prepared to do this either.
It isn’t my intention to cause a pointless argument, however, I think that saying these certification programs are a ‘joke’ because of the existence of boot camps isn't necessarily fair to those that bothered to put in the background study and hours to get the most out of their certification.
I don’t hold either an MCSE or a Comptia certificate, but I'd like to get the views of those that do.
Here is what my company is trying to get approved; we would like to create a multi-tiered certification program. The first layer would be the current CIFI. On the second layer we would like to create a certification named the Certified Information Forensics Examiner (CIFE) this certification would comprise of a multiple choice test and a hands on practical test. On the third layer would be numerous OS specific test, when a member passes three tests on this level they would become a Master Certified Information Forensic Examiner (MCIFE). On the final level there would be a management level certification named Certified Information Forensic Manager (CIFM).
Also we would like to create a committee for Computer Forensics Standardization, there is a current need in the industry for a more formal standardization and the IISFA should be the driving force behind them.
Matthew,
What you're attempting to do has been done. You start with the CCE, and then you move to the CCE+Windows, CCE+Linux, etc.
Unfortunately the IISFA will never be able to change the fact they grandfathered folks in. This discussion took place seemingly long ago, but James was unwilling to make any changes. No one can justify grandfathering, unless from a pure marketing perspective. If you want to start an organization and develop a certification and then try to get it out there en masse you need a vehicle to move it. Grandfather folks in, and hope that is your vehicle. It never really took off, though, did it? The best thing the IISFA could have done was stop, rewind, make everyone test, and move forward.
Folks, it doesn't take a master level or even graduate level education to read;
http//
And question the words contained therein. If you know anything about Data Forensics then the acronyms CCE, CFCE, SCERS, etc. are things you've heard of before. Technical certifications shouldn't be given away nor based on marketing hype.
Matthew, I'd like to hear why you believe the IISFA should be the driving force for "more formal standardization".
regards,
farmerdude
matthew,
Any more updates on IISFA? I don't want to bore anyone by repeating what I said in another post here, so please see my other post in the general froums regarding issues and questions I have about them.
Thanks!
Bobby