Personal growth at Nestor Security: Choose your own path 

Our colleagues focus on strengthening our customers’ digital resilience every day. Therefore, it is important that they continue to develop in this rapidly changing field. How do they do this? To a large extent, they can do this themselves. Our security consultants Rients van Blanken and Wilbert Hilhorst share more about their recent experience in obtaining their Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) and CISA Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) certifications in this article. 

What are CISM and CISA? 

CISM (Certified Information Security Manager): is an internationally recognized certification that focuses on managing and directing information security within organizations. The focus is on governance, risk management and the strategic deployment of security measures.  

Rients explains, “The certificate shows that someone can think like a manager. It shows that I have a good foundation and know how to deal with major incidents, have knowledge of policy and can ensure that security remains supportive of the organization.” 

CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor): is a globally recognized certification for professionals who assess, control and audit IT systems. The certification focuses on managing risk, ensuring compliance and improving the reliability of information systems.  

Wilbert explains: “With this certificate, I demonstrate that I know how the audit process works. It's about knowing what a control framework is and how to test it, so that ultimately a good and complete picture of the environment to be audited emerges. That also ties in nicely with CISM, but from the audit side. 

Why CISM and CISA? 

Obtaining such certificates is important for the personal development of our employees. They get the chance to delve into subject matter that is relevant and interesting to them. In addition, it is a tool to demonstrate expertise to clients.  

Rients: “There is no specific training for our work. It is therefore up to ourselves to acquire the right knowledge. Fortunately Nestor Security has thought about this by means of a training plan. This plan outlines a possible course which every employee can follow in order to develop himself as well as possible within the work field. The CISM certificate, which I obtained at the beginning of this year, is part of this training plan. The certificate is primarily focused on managing large organizations, but with the knowledge I have gained, it certainly relates to our smaller clients as well.”  

Wilbert adds: “I earned my CISM certificate about a year and a half ago. One of the positive things about this certificate, besides being able to demonstrate a certain level of expertise, is for me that there are requirements to maintain it. Specifically, anyone who has earned it is required to spend 40 hours a year on continuous professional development. That means, for example, attending community events, joining webinars, or coaching colleagues. Because of this, I continue to immerse myself in the subject matter and my knowledge stays up to date.” 

For Wilbert, the next step was to become CISA certified. “I did that in December 2025. I chose this certificate because I wanted to go deeper into auditing. I find this an interesting part of my job and I wanted to take the next step in that. It's nice that at Nestor Security I get the space to do that.  

Personal growth at Nestor Security

For Nestor Security, it is of great importance to offer colleagues the space for their personal growth. This ensures a broader expertise within our team and makes us a strong all-round cybersecurity partner for our clients. For us, it is important that colleagues can choose their own path in this, because we believe that growth driven by interest is more sustainable than imposed growth. Initiative is rewarded in this regard, and Rients and Wilbert are great examples of this. They are already thinking about their next challenge. For Rients, this means obtaining his Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certificate. Wilbert wants to delve into project management through PRINCE2 certification. 

Taking advantage of Wilbert and Rients' expertise? View here how they can be used.