Building a Smarter Security Community: Why We Created the Certified DSPM Architect Program

In every conversation I’ve had with CISOs, CIOs, and security leaders over the years, one theme keeps coming up: we’re behind when it comes to data security.

This isn’t because we don’t care; we’ve never had the education, tools, or shared frameworks to do it well.

It’s time to change that.

At Cyera, we just launched the Certified DSPM Architect program to help build something bigger than a one-off course. It’s a community-driven, education-first initiative to help practitioners gain clarity, confidence, and momentum in one of the most critical and underdeveloped domains in cybersecurity: data security posture management (DSPM).

This is our way of helping the industry level up, together.

Data Security Is the Missing Layer of Confidence

We’re in the middle of a generational shift driven by AI and data. And yet, when we sit down with security teams and ask them to grade themselves from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest) on the basic security questions, it’s not a pretty picture.
 

The most elementary questions, such as:

1. Do you know how much sensitive data you have?
2. Who has access to it?
3. Is the sensitive data protected in a consistent, effective way?

Most people grade themselves a 1 or 2 out of 5. And these are hardly complex questions.

Put another way, when asking an enterprise security leader, if 50 of your executive teams were compromised tomorrow, could you answer: what’s the blast radius? Which customers are affected? Do we need to inform regulators? 

Most security teams tell us they’d need outside consultants, weeks of work, and expensive forensics just to start figuring it out.

Ineffective, inefficient, and just a sad state of affairs.

The problem isn’t lack of will. It’s a lack of education, common language, and scalable solutions. Until now, there has never been a platform or certification built around unifying the stages of data security across discovery, governance, access, protection, and response. And there’s never been a large, connected community rallying around it.

That’s what we’re building.

From Threat-Centric to Data-Centric Security

Security needs to evolve. For decades, we've centered our strategies around threats, vulnerabilities, and compliance checkboxes. But in the age of cloud and AI, data is the fastest-growing asset, the most dynamic risk surface, and the most valuable resource we have.

To lead in this new era, we must reorient our security programs around data — understanding its value, assessing its risk, and implementing controls that both protect and enable the business.

That starts with education, and that brings us to what the DSPM Certification delivers.

The Certified DSPM Architect program was designed alongside some of the most experienced security minds in the industry- practitioners who have led security at companies like Paramount, WarnerMedia, Netskope, and McDonald’s.

Here’s what the certification offers:

• A DSPM maturity model to benchmark your organization’s current state
  
  
• A structured framework to plan near-, mid-, and long-term improvements
  
  
• Real-world examples and tools built for practitioners, not theorists
  
  
• A vendor-neutral, zero-cost way to upskill yourself or your team
  
  
• CPE credits, a digital badge, and a certification to showcase your expertise
  
  

And most importantly, it’s designed for everyone. From practitioners managing day-to-day data security, to compliance officers and CISOs building long-term strategy - we all need to prepare for the rise of AI-driven transformation in every industry. But without trust in data (where it lives, how it flows, who accesses it) AI cannot scale safely.

Our goal isn’t just to secure AI. It’s to empower people with the tools and knowledge to lead in this moment. This certification is the first step in the data security journey.

So if you’re part of the community that’s been waiting for something to rally around, something that helps you learn, lead, and get better, this is for you.

‍Join the community. Sharpen your skills. Help us raise the bar for data security together.
👉 Register here for the Certified DSPM Architect program