Professional certification for qualified candidates who work within the U.S. National Industrial Security Program.

April 7, 2025

Hot news!  The ISP® current exam will formally close out close-of-business 7 April.  The new exam launch will begin on 15 April and will incorporate the revised exam time of 2.5 hours and virtual (remote testing).  We are excited to offer the revised testing time and the virtual testing as enhanced features of the exam taking experience!

Exam candidates who scheduled the exam before April 1, 2025, for two hours may cancel their appointment and schedule a new one to take the 2.5-hour exam. There is no cancellation fee for this process.

Should you have any questions about the current exam expiring and the launch of the new exam, please contact the ISP® Co-chairs, Liz Fant and Tanya Matthews or our Executive Director, Kyle Fernley.

We are pleased to introduce the Industrial Security Professional (ISP®) Certification Program Strategic Plan to the NCMS membership and ISP® Stakeholders. The NCMS Board of Directors is committed to the ISP® Program and have established the ISP® Strategic Plan as a tool to help guide Continuous Improvement within the Certification Program. The document is a baseline, public, living document and will be updated as goals and objectives change in order to sustain the Continuous Improvement endeavor.

Should there be any questions or feedback, please reach out to the ISP® Certification Committee Cochairs, Liz Fant and Tanya Matthews.

As part of NCMS’s ongoing commitment to continue to provide a premier certification program, the 61st Board of Directors (BOD) evaluated the ISP® Certification exam test time against the standards of other professional certification exams. On September 15, 2024 the BOD voted to extend the exam time from 2 hours to 2.5 hours effective with the release of the updated exam which is anticipated to occur Q2, 2025. We will provide an update when we have an exact implementation date.  Until the extended time is implemented, the testing time remains at 2 hours.  Should you have any questions, please contact the ISP® Certification Co-chairs.

HOT NEWS: The 61st Board of Directors approved deleting the requirement to include a Supervisor’s Recommendation Letter in the examination application package effective immediately (11 Jun 2024). This is the only change to the examination application package.

HOT NEWS: The Board of Directors approved revising the mandatory experience requirement from 5-years to 2-years effective immediately (24 Mar 2024). This is the only change to the experience requirement. Why make the change? We received comments that the 5-years’ experience requirement was too restrictive and a shorter/reduced experience was needed. We listened and adjusted to a 2-year experience requirement. 

At the 2023 Winter NCMS Board of Directors (BoD) Meeting held Jan 2024 in Nashville, TN, the BoD voted to discontinue the ISP^® Accreditation. All activities for the ISP Certification will remain valid and intact. The following FAQs support the Accreditation discontinuation. For a full list of Frequently Asked Questions, click here

The ISP^® Committee has addressed the issue that many ISP^®s have experienced where they attend a conference, workshop or seminar and no certificate of attendance/completion is issued by the host organization. Since the ISP^® program requires proof of attendance in order to claim the CEU, these events were not able to be counted towards recertification. 

Effective immediately, ISP^®s may self-certify ONLY in instances where a certificate of attendance or completion is not issued. This form must be completed and submitted along with a detailed agenda which supports the CEU being claimed when completing the recertification application.

The form can be found with other program documentation.

If you have any questions, please contact the ISP® Certification Committee leadership.