As we reflect on 2025, we’ve pulled together an infographic showcasing some of our key achievements and projects completed. We also invited members of the CIISec team to share their standout moments and personal highlights from the year.
To download the infographic please click here.
Read below for some of our team highlights!
My highlight for 2025 has to be CIISec LIVE. I’ve been attending our annual conference for 9 years now, and this one for me was by far the best. The quality and range of speakers was exceptional and catered for our variety of members from different sectors. LIVE was very well attended and it was great getting the opportunity to network with our members during the event, and the night before. The feedback I have received from members post event has been outstanding. It was a joy to be a part of the day!
My highlight so far has been the process I’ve put in place to make the CIISec renewals process easier for all involved. In mapping out my renewals process I thought it was worth an attempt contacting lapsed members from the beginning of this financial year. Despite thinking these members were lost to us for good, I had some wonderful conversations, and achieved a 20% renewal rate. I’m currently working on winning back those members who are a few months out of date and am hoping to improve on this – watch this space!!
I am proud of the growth the CyberEPQ has achieved this year — from an increase in participating schools to larger cohorts and, most importantly, the impressive achievements of our students. One of my personal highlights has been developing the enhanced one-year free CIISec membership offered to students after completing the CyberEPQ. This year we worked hard to strengthen the pathway from the CyberEPQ into both the cyber security industry and CIISec’s academic partners. A key part of this was expanding the student webinar series, which has enabled students to connect with leading cyber security professionals, build their soft skills, develop their career readiness, and engage directly with our academic partners.
It’s been a really exciting year, but the part that stands out the most for me is our ongoing collaboration with our volunteer assessors, which has thrived over the past twelve months. We have increased our pool of Full Member assessors for accredited membership, and we have now opened this up for Associate members to evaluate ACIIS applications. We ran a training webinar for current and potential assessors, sharing guidance and advice as to how to complete assessments and professional discussions. We also held our first quarterly forum, providing the opportunity to release updates and share different perspectives. This has all had a really positive impact on our accreditation process and has resulted in 115 hours (and counting!) of Full Member professional discussions in 2025. We truly appreciate the time and support that our assessors give, and it’s a real highlight for me to work closely with them as a key part of the CIISec community.
It’s difficult to pick just one highlight from an incredibly busy year, but at a push I’d probably choose our presence at Infosec in June. We’ve developed a fantastic relationship with the event organisers, and our stand this year was three times its previous size. This gave us space to have meaningful conversations with both members and prospective members. Our logo wall in particular drew people in, and we also had a gallery room, providing member networking lunches alongside professional development sessions – all pulled together in under eight weeks. It was hard work, but incredibly rewarding, and resulted in us onboarding new corporate and individual members.
One of the achievements I’m particularly proud of was to see the Fred Piper Awards grow into a more comprehensive celebration of talent, now encompassing categories across all our educational initiatives. Watching the awards come to life at CIISec LIVE was a personal highlight; meeting the students and seeing their enthusiasm reminded me how meaningful it is to shine a spotlight on emerging talent in cyber security. Another milestone I’m proud of is the successful organisation and delivery of our first student Pathway to Progress event. Seeing the positive response from attendees was encouraging, and I’m excited to build on this momentum over the next 12 months.
One of this year’s highlights for me was the update and release of the ABC Guide on Supplier Management. The guide complemented the Cyber resilience through collaboration: strengthening the supply chain workshop at CIISec LIVE and is the result of the dedicated efforts of our member volunteers from a wide range of industries. It also marked the first review of the ABC Guide series, updating the content to ensure it remains a valuable and relevant resource for all our members.