BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, has awarded a contract to provide the certification qualification to CESG, the information assurance arm of GCHQ and the UK's authority on information assurance.

Chris Ensor, head of profession for information assurance at CESG, said: "This is a major step forward in professionalising key information sssurance roles needed by the public sector. It is an important development along the path of securing the UK against cyber attack and protecting government and individuals' data."

The initiative will deliver an information assurance certification scheme for anyone working in any government department. It will certify information assurance specialists against specific roles and skills aligned to the competency framework Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) and BCS' SFIAplus.

Roles covered by the scheme include security and information risk advisor, security architect, accreditor, information assurance auditor, IT security officer, and communications security officer.

There will be certification available at three levels for each role: practitioner, senior practitioner, and lead practitioner.