A blog posting from Dan York reminded me that I need to sign up for my CISSP class so that I can go for that lovely CISSP certification in the first half. His post clearly highlighted some of the issues one must go through to not only get, but maintain the certification. All of those hoops are what sets the CISSP apart from other certifications.
My career in the computer security industry goes back to my first job out of school where I worked at a recruiting firm and was their system administrator. We also began to sell TIS Gauntlet, did an install, and learned the ropes. Through that company, I found a job working for a Check Point reseller and I began to support FireWall-1. A website dedicated to FireWall-1 and two books later, I got knee deep in security.
Even though I don't directly support FireWall-1 these days (now it's called VPN-1 Pro--Check Point always did like renaming their product every couple of years), I work with some other security products. One of the things I do as part of my job is analyze either customer-reported or internally-reported security issues and determine what, if anything, needs to be done about it. I play a large role in writing and publishing the actual customer advisory.