Information Security Communities

by Auston Holt, CISSP

The Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Capital of Texas Chapter just had its Board of Directors elections today and a fresh line of leadership was introduced for 2011 (myself included). This is the same ISSA who’s current International Board of Directors includes Oracle’s Mary Ann Davidson and who’s past International President is current White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt. ISSA aside, I wanted to take a moment to drive home the idea of participating in local information security groups.

As a business community, meeting together locally gives us an opportunity to network for new business contacts, learn from each other, and even more importantly learn from our past mistakes. Without this collective sharing of know-how we as companies are prone to repeat past failures and not take full advantage of the current technology landscape learned through outreach. In my six years experience in the IT Security profession I have found that there are many avenues to learn and contribute; in Austin, TX alone there are several active organizations to choose from. Here’s the list of the ones I know, how would you like to help?

• Austin AITP
  (Association of Information Technology Professionals)
• AHA!
  (Austin Hackers Anonymous)
• Austin SPIN
  (Software Process Improvement Network)
• IAPP Austin Chapter
  (International Association of Privacy Professionals)
• ISSA Capital of Texas Chapter
  (Information Systems Security Association)
• InfraGard Central Texas Members Alliance
  (public-private partnership with the FBI)
• ISACA Austin Chapter
  (The Information Systems Audit and Control Association)
• OWASP Austin Local Chapter
  (Open Web Application Security Project)