You’re Getting Recognition: SIA’s New Digital Badging for Certificants, Volunteers and Community Members!

By Frances Ippoliti, Senior Manager, Accounting and Operations, Security Industry Association on May 13, 2025 |

Hey Security Industry Association (SIA) members! SIA is excited to introduce a new program that will offer digital credential badges for our certification holders, volunteers and community members.

Through this initiative, over this week and next, SIA will issue digital badges, delivered through the Credly credential management service, to:

If you are involved with one or more of these initiatives, SIA thanks you and looks forward to providing you with this special digital recognition!

SIA will be sending you your digital badge over the next seven days. You will receive your badge in an email from admin@credly.com.

This new offering is presented at no cost to SIA certificants, volunteers and community members.

Want to learn more? Check out the FAQs here!

Q: What is an open badge?

A: An open badge is a web-enabled version of a credential, certification or learning outcome which can be verified in real time, online.

Q: How does my certification get displayed as a badge?

A: We have partnered with Credly to translate the learning outcomes you’ve demonstrated into a badge, issued and managed through the company digital badging platform. The technology Credly uses is based on the Open Badge Standards maintained by 1EdTech (formerly IMS Global). This enables you to manage, share and verify your competencies digitally.

Q: What are the benefits of my digital badge?

A: Representing your skills as a badge gives you a way to share your abilities online in a way that is simple and trusted and can be easily verified in real time. Badges provide employers and peers concrete evidence of what you had to do to earn your credential and what you’re now capable of. 

Q: Who is Credly?

A: Credly is the end-to-end solution for issuing and managing digital credentials. Credly works with credible organizations to provide digital credentials to individuals, worldwide.

Q: How will I know if I’ve earned a badge?

A: You will receive an email notification from Credly (admin@credly.com) with instructions for claiming your badge and setting up your account.

Q: How do I accept my badge?

A: This video shows you how!

Q: What if I don’t want my badge to be public?

A: You can easily configure your privacy settings in Credly. You’re in complete control of the information about yourself that is made public.

Q: Is there a fee to use Credly?

A: No. This is a service SIA provides to you, at no cost.

Q: What’s to keep someone else from copying my badge and using it?

A: While badges are simply digital image files, they are uniquely linked to data hosted on Credly. This link to verified data makes them more reliable and secure than a paper-based certificate. It also eliminates the possibility of anyone claiming your credential and your associated identity.

Q: Where and how can I share my badge through Credly?

A: You can share your badge directly from Credly to LinkedIn, X and Facebook, as well as over email, embedded in a website or in your email signature.

Q: How do I get the image of my badge to appear properly on LinkedIn?

A: While sharing your badge to LinkedIn, you’ll see a pop up that asks you to share with your network. If you click next, it will post a generic image to your feed and not your badge image. Please select Skip. 

Q: I have a question about my badge. Where can I find support?

A: You can find Credly tutorials and answers to additional questions at https://support.credly.com. For questions about SIA badges, please contact Frances Ippoliti, senior manager of accounting and operations at SIA, at fippoliti@securityindustry.org.