The certification process evolved. A need happened which was to do security testing reliably. There are a lot of people with these knowledge certs (the kind that requires knowing or memorizing something) and they didn't seem to get it. They just all made these horrible mistakes when it came to testing. Oh sure, they poked holes and penetrated but were completely incapable of actually really testing security. It was like they tried to light up all the holes in Swiss cheese with a pocket flashlight from 100 meters away. Sure, some holes got exposed but so many more didn't. So we decided to make sure that if we did a certification that it would have to ask the candidates to prove what they know by doing something. So we made the first walk-the-walk security certification of its kind. I'm happy we did it because it adds professionalism and legitimacy to this actually nascent field of security testing. Now it's not sparkly or fancy like certifications on penetration testing or ethical hacking because it's about getting the job done. It's hard work to pass them. It's the difference between rolling up your sleeves to work better and rolling them up to look like you are working. We prefer to help those who really need security and not just look like they have it for compliancy reasons.