ANSI Accredits Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Bolstering Information Security Infrastructure Workforce

NEW YORK, April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system and a global leader in conformity assessment, is pleased to announce the accreditation of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) under ANSI's Accreditation Program for Personnel Certification Bodies.

A federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University, the SEI helps organizations make measurable improvements in their software engineering capabilities. The ANSI accreditation was granted to the SEI's CERT®-Certified Computer Security Incident Handler (CSIH) program for computer security incident response professionals and others responsible for an organization's information security infrastructure. The CSIH program is a certification that incorporates work experience, an examination, and renewal requirements. After earning their CSIH certification, cybersecurity professionals are prepared to participate in incident handling efforts and can help their organizations stay current on innovations and trends in computer security.

"ANSI commends the SEI for achieving accreditation and demonstrating its commitment to the continual improvement of its credentialing program," said Dr. Roy Swift, senior director of personnel credentialing accreditation programs at ANSI. "Accreditation by ANSI demonstrates compliance to a rigorous internationally recognized accreditation process and creates a valuable market distinction for the SEI's CSIH certification."

"The SEI certification program has for years equipped computer security professionals with the skills to participate in incident handling efforts," said Jeff Welch, director of the SEI certification program. "We are proud of our accreditation from ANSI and the additional confidence it can provide to our certification candidates."

The ANSI accreditation process is designed to increase the integrity, confidence, and mobility of certified professionals. Since the launch of ANSI's Personnel Certification Accreditation Program in 2003, the Institute has accredited 38 personnel certification bodies across a range of industry sectors involving more than 5 million workers.

ANSI's accreditation program is based on the American National Standard (ANS) and international standard ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024. ANSI was the first to develop a personnel certification accreditation program in the United States to fulfill the requirements of ISO/IEC 17011:2004, Conformity assessment - General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies, which represents the highest internationally accepted practices for accreditation bodies. ANSI's accreditation program is well respected domestically and internationally, and is recognized as a world-renowned leader in personnel credentialing.

About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.

The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

About the Software Engineering Institute
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. The SEI helps organizations make measurable improvements in their software engineering capabilities by providing technical leadership to advance the practice of software engineering. For more information, visit the SEI website at www.sei.cmu.edu. For more information about the SEI's CERT-Certified Computer Security Incident Handler certification, visit http://www.sei.cmu.edu/certification/security/csih.

SOURCE American National Standards Institute