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Data Privacy

How I prepared for my CDPSE (Beta) Exam

Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) is focused on validating the technical skills and knowledge it takes to assess, build and implement a comprehensive privacy solution. CDPSE holders can fill the technical #privacy skills gap so that your organization has competent privacy technologists to build and implement solutions that mitigate risk and enhance efficiency. ~ ISACA.

Validate Your Expertise. Boost Your IT Profile

Here is my CDPSE exam preparation journey!

CDPSE is an acronym for Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer.

ISACA certifications are some of the most popular and highest-paying worldwide and it is estimated that 11% of IT professionals in the United States and Canada are ISACA-certified, and their salaries are 12% above the North American average.

According to the ISACA’s 2020 Annual report, 265,000+ number of CISA®, CISM®, CRISC®, CGEIT®, CDPSETM and CSX-PTM certifications issued to date people are certified.

When ISACA introduced the Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) certification, it became among the most successful certification launches in ISACA’s history, as evidenced by more than 11,000 early adopters in 2020.

ISACA is now associated with the following quick facts:

  1. To help individuals realize the positive potential of technology.
  2. Enhancing a wide range of careers
  3. Having Sought-after certifications
  4. High salaries for ISACA certification holders.

ISACA’s certifications in IS Audit & Assurance, Data Privacy, Cybersecurity, IT governance, and emerging technologies are industry standards and provide the highest credibility.

I now have two (2) of ISACA’s Certifications i.e., CISA and the newest “giant” on the block CDPSE whose main focus is on implementing Privacy by Design Principles. (Privacy by design promotes a privacy-first approach to implementing new processes or systems to ensure privacy compliance)

I have published and shared a blog on my CISA exam prep journey and I also have a chapter in my book dedicated to Certified Information Systems Auditors as well. CISA is and has always been my BAE (Before Anything else). However, today I am writing about CDPSE.

For me to become CDPSE Certified, I was lucky enough to be among the first CDPSE beta Exam takers, the window for the Beta Exam closed in January 2021. There was also an option of early adoption which ran through March 31, 2021.

So, here is how I prepared:

Resources used: I read the CDPSE Manual first edition. This is so resourceful and came in handy since the CDPSE Question & Answer Database had not yet been released. The exam covers 3 domains which include;

  • Domain 1: data Governance 34%
  • Domain 2: Data Architecture 35%
  • Domain 3: Data Lifecycle 30%

Others resources:

I read also the NIST Privacy Framework, ISACA Privacy Principles, the EU GDPR, 2018 Publications, and some articles related to data privacy by Ian Cooke.

Duration: I prepared for the exam in a non-disruptive 2-weeks’ time.

I had a deadline of sitting for the exam by 30th January, so I scheduled for my exam two (2) days prior to the deadline.

On the exam date: I didn’t open the manual to read, just relaxed the whole day and took a nap as well during the day.

At around 23:00hrs, I installed the PSI secure browser application and the countdown started until when the exam was launched.

The year 2020 also turned out to be an opportune time to rethink how exams were taken. Instead of going to the exam testing center, I wrote the exam at around 1:00 a.m. EAT at home through remote proctoring. The proctor was very helpful in assisting me to get set / ready for the exam. It was a great experience. The exam session lasted for three (3) hours, which comprised of 120 Exam questions so I spent 1.5mins per question.

You are required to reach a pass-mark of 450 or higher to pass the CDPSE Exam.

Role of a CDPSE: The ultimate role of a Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer is to create and design the requirements for privacy protections within the enterprises’ products & services.

After the exam, I also got an opportunity to participate in the CDPSE Beta Exam In-depth interview whose purpose was to understand my motivations in taking the CDPSE beta exam, the relevance of CDPSE to my work, how well the marketing communications for the exam worked, and what can be improved to make the experience better.

Recommendations:

  • Read the CDPSE Review Manual thoroughly.
  • Use the CDPSE Question and Answer Database. I didn’t get a chance to use the online Q&A database because it had not yet been released but I recommend it to help you have an experience (Simulation) of how the actual exam may appear.
  • Join the CDPSE Engage Exam prep community and related topics here
  • See Vlog in reference to this article.

Subject matter experts: Some of the people on LinkedIn whose content on Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, and Data & IT Governance that I find resourceful include:

·      Rebecca Herold

·      Tim Clements

·      Mark Thomas

When time allows, I am hoping to share a vlog on the same experience in the future.

The official exam is now available. Wish you success in your CDPSE Exam.

In a world full of data privacy regulations, data breaches, where individual privacy and data are key issues, become a CDPSE”

To know more about the CDPSE Certification requirements, see the link

To know which certification is right for you, see the link

Additional Resources that are a great compliment to your study include:

Previous articles I have written about Data Protection Act, 2019 for Kenya https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-privacy-law-2019-veronica-rose-cisa/

Originally published here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-i-prepared-my-cdpse-exam-veronica-rose-cisa-cdpse%3FtrackingId=BWaxYGi4SUycpuee1mdQwg%253D%253D/?trackingId=BWaxYGi4SUycpuee1mdQwg%3D%3D

Author

Veronica

Published Author | Director, One In Tech, Foundation | Director, ISACA Board of Directors | IT Audit Professional | Speaker | Member of National Association for Corporate Directors | Vlogger | CISO | Global Mentor | Data Privacy Solutions Engineer | Award Winner in the Cybersecurity industry

Comments (0)

  1. Kagiso
    September 4, 2023 Reply

    Very informative, thank you for the information.

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