cisa cpe

CISA CPE Resources – 4 Facts of CISA Renewal Process

chrismonroe Cyber Security
7 min. read

CISA certification is for sure one of the most reputable information security certifications you can get. Once you get it, you must ensure that you follow CISA renewal process to maintain your CISA benefits. ISACA expects certified professionals to submit CISA CPE credits each year to maintain and renew CISA certification. So what are the CISA CPE resources?

In this post, we will go through the four facts of CISA renewal process. These are:

  • CISA CPE requirements
  • CISA CPE courses you can attend to complete your CISA CPE needs
  • How you should do the CISA CPE reporting
  • What you should do in case of CISA CPE audit.

Let’s go through these CISA renewal facts one-by-one.

CISA CPE Requirements

Before we dive into how you can earn CPE credits for renewing your CISA certification, it is better to learn what the CISA CPE requirements are. Actually, ISACA expects similar CPE requirements for all of its certifications: CISA, CISM, CGEIT and CRISC. You can see these details in ISACA online CPE requirements post.

There are three fundamental CPE requirements for CISA renewal. These are:

1- ) Earn minimum 20 CISA CPE credits each year. ISACA expects CISA certified professionals to keep their knowledge up to date with changing dynamics of the market. Therefore, you must earn 20 CPE credits each year to maintain and renew CISA certification.

2- ) Earn 120 CISA CPE credits in three-year period. While the minimum CPE credits you must earn is 20 CPEs for each year, you must have completed 120 CISA CPE credits by the end of three-year CISA renewal period. This three-year period starts the next January after you get the CISA certification until end of third years December.

3- ) Pay annual maintenance fee. You must pay annual maintenance fee of ISACA to maintain your ISACA certification. This is $45 for ISACA members and $85 for non-members. If you do not pay the maintenance fee, you will not be able to log into ISACA CPE submission system to complete your CISA CPE reporting.

Make sure you fulfill these three fundamental requirements when earning CPE points and renewing CISA certification. Now, let’s take a look at CISA CPE resources that you can earn CPE credits.

CISA CPE Resources and Courses

There are several alternative resources that you can earn CPE credits. Following are some of the CPE resources that you can earn CISA CPE points. Note that, some of these resources have CPE limits that you cannot submit more than a certain amount.

  • CISA CPE training: You can attend in an ISACA or non-ISACA information security course. These courses provide CPE credits once you completed the training. There is no up limit for earning CPEs from training resources. Therefore, you can complete all 120 CPEs from CPE courses. ISACA counts every 50-minutes of information security training or course as one CPE hours. Following is a sample CPE credits calculation for a CISA CPE training.
    • CISA CPE training is from 9:00 till 16:30 and the schedule is as below:
      • 09:00-09:50 – Lecture #1 –> One CPE hours
      • 10:00-10:50 – Lecture #2 –> One CPE hours
      • 11:00-11:500 – Lecture #3 –> One CPE hours
      • 12:00-13:30 – Lunch Break
      • 13:30-14:20 – Lecture #4 –> One CPE hours
      • 14:30-15:20 – Lecture #5 –> One CPE hours
      • 15:30-16:20 – Lecture #6 –> One CPE hours
    • You will earn six CISA CPE credits in total from this training.

Check our CPE Training Video

  • Self-study CISA CPE course: You can earn CPE credits by attending self-study CISA CPE courses as well. If you attend in a webinar or online CPE course, you will be able to earn CPE point for CISA renewal. Actually, this is the most convenient and affordable way for earning CPE hours to renew CISA certification. Another benefit of this method is there is no up limit so that you can earn all CPEs from this category to renew CISA certification. Especially, if you are a full-time working professional, it will be tough to find time to attend in a classroom CISA CPE course. You have to align your schedule with the training’s schedule and you have to reserve a reasonable amount for the CISA CPE course fee. On the other hand, an online CISA CPE training will be self-paced and very affordable. You can consider our online CPE training bundle to complete your CISA CPE needs.

Our Online 60 CPE Course bundle contains three courses and each of these courses will provide 20 CPE credits after completion. You can enroll in this bundle to earn 60 CPE credits online and look for other sources to complete the remaining 60 CPE credits.

CPE Training Bundle

  • Marketing or Sales Presentations of a Vendor: organizations or companies providing information security products or solutions prepare sales or marketing events or presentations to demonstrate their offerings. If you attend in such an event, you will earn CPE hours as well. However, keep in mind that, you cannot submit more than 10 CPE credits annually from this category and in total; you cannot earn more than 30 CPE credits from this category in a three-year CISA renewal period.
  • Teaching: If you prepare a presentation or course and if you train people about information security, you will earn CPE points for CISA renewal process. There is no up limit for earning CPE credits from teaching category. ISACA gives high importance to contribution to profession. Therefore, if you train people about information security, you will earn five CPE credits for each hour you will spend during teaching activity.
  • Publishing: You can write articles, books or contribute in an information security blog. These will be counted under publishing category and there is no up limit for earning CPEs from this category.
  • Other: There are some other alternative ways of earning CPE credits from other resources such as mentoring, volunteering in ISACA activities etc. You can check all available CPE earning options from CPE requirements post.

cisa cpe courses

Reporting

Once you earned CPE points, you must do your CISA CPE reporting in order to renew CISA certification at the end of three-year period. You can do CISA CPE reporting from your profile under ISACA website.

Note that, ISACA reviews each CPE submission. Therefore, make sure your CPE submissions are ISACE CPE policy compliant as we have detailed above. Otherwise, your CISA CPE reporting might be rejected.

Audit

ISACE might audit your CISA CPE reporting. In case your CPE submission hits CISA CPE audit, ISACA will ask you to provide documents or proofs about the CPE activity. This is mainly for checking whether your CISA CPE reporting is compliant with the ISACE CPE policy.

For instance, if you have attended an information security conference, you can show your enrollment papers, tickets or certificate of attendance. If you have enrolled in a CPE training, you can ask your training provider to send your certificate of completion and letter of enrollment. Note that, these documents must indicate the CPE hours earned from the regarding information security activity.

After you have provided your CPE activity evidences, ISACA will review your CPE reporting and if everything is aligned with the ISACA CPE policy, your CPE submissions will be approved.

Summary

CISA certification is very valuable if you are proceeding your career in the field of information security. Therefore, if you have the CISA certification, make sure that you will maintain it and renew CISA certification in each three years. To do this, ISACA expects CISA certified professionals to earn minimum 20 CPE credits each year and 120 CPE credits in total for three-year period.

There are several alternative resources to earn CPE hours for CISA renewal. However, we strongly recommend you to attend in an online CPE course. This is the most convenient and affordable way of earning CPE points for CISA renewal. You will be able to follow the CPE course lectures 100% online, self-paced and in any place, you wish. This is a great flexibility especially if you are full-time working professional.