The IAPP announced Tuesday that it is updating its Certified Information Privacy Technologist certification in the coming months. The facelift to the CIPT program will include changes to both the exam and training products for the certification.
IAPP Certification Director Douglas Forman said that the updates are based on the recognition that privacy tech and engineering are "taking more of a central place with how organizations meet regulatory obligations."
To bring the program up to speed with the current landscape of privacy technology, the CIPT "Body of Knowledge" and "Exam Blueprint" will have its content and sections modernized. Thirteen of the 26 topics featured in the BoK and blueprint are new, including the addition of "Privacy Engineering" and "Privacy by Design Methodology" as two new fields.
Despite the changes, current CIPT holders will not need to re-test in order to maintain their certification.
Forman knows the wholesale content changes will be a challenge for those attempting to obtain the CIPT certification, but he acknowledges that those seeking the certification will benefit in the end. "We want this to have value and really get into the 'how' of privacy tech," Forman said, noting that leaders in the privacy tech field approved of the changes. "We didn't want to back off the difficulty of something that is so important."
Forman added that the updates reflect a broader group of professionals seeking to become CIPT holders. "While many of the current CIPT holders are working in privacy most of the time, further analysis has shown that there are numerous infosecurity and IT professionals who find themselves working on privacy requirements part of the time," Forman said. "We feel these professionals will find tremendous value in the updated CIPT."
The updated materials for CIPT training will start rolling out in November with new live and online training programs. The new CIPT textbook will be published in January 2020.
Changes to the CIPT exam won't come until 2020, and the current version of the CIPT exam will run until Dec. 31, 2019. The exam will be blacked out for the first month of 2020 before beta testing begins in February, and the official exam will be made available in March.