Professional bodies are often introverted. They exist to further the careers of their members, usually by increasing and improving their professional knowledge and expertise within their own specialist activity. One such body is (ISC)², a not-for-profit organization with an international membership of 85,000 security professionals in 138 different countries. (ISC)² administers some of the industry’s most sought-after security qualifications, such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP), and the Certified Authorisation Professional (CAP).
Now (ISC)² is reaching out to the wider community. “We are responding to our membership’s overwhelming desire to give back to society”, commented co-chair Richard Nealon at the announcement of a new Advisory Board for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EAB). EAB is designed to use the combined security expertise of its 18,000 EMEA members to help the wider community, the digital society, in the fight against cybercrime – it is an example of an introverted professional body seeking to be extrovert.
EAB has set itself five initial projects. These are to work with International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) led by Europol; to reach out to the public and special interest groups such as e-skills UK and the Council for European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS); to inaugurate its own special interest group of academics to help combat the lack of security content in university computing courses; to support the Cybersecurity Challenge UK; and to expand the goodwill programmes run by the (ISC)² Foundation – such as the security awareness initiative for schoolchildren, Safe and Secure Online – into seven new European countries.
The overall purpose is to bring genuine hands-on, coal-face knowledge into society’s security initiatives. “The current instinct is to consult big industry and vendors,” explained Nealon, “with very few discussions actually including the information security professionals tackling the issues at hand. The EAB will work to balance the perspective.”
The move has been welcomed by the initiatives it seeks to support. John Lyons, chief executive officer of ICSPA (with whom (ISC)² has signed a global MoU of support) said “We expect the efforts of the EAB will extend our reach and contribute a wealth of knowledge to the work we are undertaking in the international fight against cybercrime. Having the weight of such a large professional community represents a real contribution.”