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Company, staff and associate certifications and qualifications - Current

 The Accreditation Specialism Advistory Group: Our Director, Owen Birnie, took over as the temporary Head of the Accreditation Specialism Advisory Group in March 2024. Whilst it has been many years, since Accreditation was recognised as a specialist profession by the Cabinet Office, there remain a considerable number of "accreditors" who continue to support IA in government, the police and military. As it is, Owen is proud to represent the group in terms of the breadth of experience of audit, assurance and wider security knowledge. Owen shall run ASAG as a benevolent dictatorship. This means that he has earmarked a number of objectives, canvassed the group's opinions, and will seek to deliver those objectives in the year that he will be in post.

The Institute of Information Security Professionals - Fellow: Director, Owen Birnie was nominated as a Fellow of the IISP late in 2015. Following a rigorous interview, he was awarded his Fellowship in April, 2016 at the IISP Congress.

The Cyber Essentials Scheme: BladeSec IA Services was certified against the Cyber Essentials scheme by the IASME Consortium in July, 2015.

Associate Trainer, QA: Late in 2012, Director Owen Birnie was professionally evaluated by QA and invited to become an Associate with them to deliver courses that were previously undertaken by The National School for Government. These include "Fundamentals of Information Assurance in HMG" and "Information Risk Management for HMG IA Practitioners - IS 1&2". Such training is officially licensed and quality assured by QA to ensure consistency and external recognition.

Historical certifications and qualifications

The NCSC Certified Cyber-security Professional Scheme: Director, Owen Birnie was certified against two senior CCP roles, Security and Information Risk Advisor and Accreditor by The Institute of Information Security Professionals in April 2014. Owen remains one of the few consultants recognised by GCHQ as an Accreditor and regularly attends events in this capacity. These include the Accreditors' Forum and SUAC. BladeSec IA confirms that his CPD remains up-to-date, and that his re-certification against the two roles was awarded earlier in 2020 by the Chartered Institute of Information Security.

Information Assurance for Small to Medium-Sized Enterprise Governance Standard: BladeSec IA Services was certified against the IASME Governance Standard by the IASME Consortium from July, 2015 to July, 2017. Following a security incident within IASME, BladeSec IA chose not to renew this standard.

The Institute of Information Security Professionals - Full Member: Having found some time to make a Full Application for membership, director, Owen Birnie was invited for a full membership interview in late 2011. In January, 2012, he was delighted to be awarded the 300th Full Membership of The Institute. As a result he was featured in the March edition of Pulse Magazine from The Institute.

The CESG Certified Professional (CCP) Scheme: Late in 2011, director Owen Birnie was invited to participate as an Assessor for the CESG Certified Professional Scheme (previously called The CESG Certification for IA Specialists) as part of the IISP, CREST and Royal Holloway, University of London consortium. His CV was one of the ones supplied to CESG for the pilot to show the qualifications, authority and knowledge of the examiners that the IISP have available.

InfoSec Training Paths & Competencies - Examiner Certificate: Due to the quality of his ITPC submission, director Owen Birnie was invited to resubmit his application at Examiner level. He was awarded the InfoSec Training Paths & Competencies Scheme (ITPC) Examiner Certificate in August, 2008. In this capacity, he has marked the ITPC submissions for over 50 candidates including Lead Accreditors and CommSec Managers and Practitioners. Owen continued to do this when the ITPC scheme transferred to the IISP.

InfoSec Training Paths & Competencies - Government Practitioner Certificate: As a requirement of retaining his CLAS membership, director Owen Birnie passed the InfoSec Training Paths & Competencies Scheme (ITPC) Government Practitioner Certificate in May, 2008. Further, his Compulsory Personal Development for ITPC was up-to-date at the time the scheme ended. This allowed him to "grandfather" into the CCP role of Security and Information Risk Advisor at Practitioner level - see above.

The Institute of Information Security Professionals - Founder Associate Member: Director, Owen Birnie has been an ardent supporter of The Institute of Information Security Professionals since its inception. He became a Founder Corporate Associate Member in January, 2007.

CESG Listed Advisor Scheme: Director, Owen Birnie has been an accredited CLAS Consultant continually from October, 2006 until the scheme closed in October, 2015. In this time, he undertook a variety of roles which are detailed here and here.