24 April 2008

ISACA explains its rationale

Steve Gold, reporting from Infosecurity Europe 2008

At the Infosecurity Europe event held in London this week, Infosecurity Magazine met up with Ron Hale, the Director of Information Security Practices with ISACA, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, along with John Mitchell, managing director of LHS Business Control and a past president of the London ISACA Chapter.

ISACA is an international professional association that was founded in the US way back in 1967 to act as a centralised source of information and guidance in the field of IT security.

Today, the Association has more than 70,000 members worldwide with around 170 chapters in more than 60 countries. Each chapter provides members with education, resource sharing, advocacy and networking facilities, backed up by around 80 full-time staff around the world.

Central to ISACA's reason to exist is its Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) qualification which, said Mitchell, allows IT security professionals to take an examination that proves their skills and expertise in the field.

Unusually for such a qualification, there is no formal course of study for CISM, but students taking the examination, which typically takes around four hours, must have at least five years experience in the field of IT security management.

"Achieving the qualification is proof that you have the expertise to be an IT security manager," said Mitchell, adding that, increasingly, he is seeing job adverts for IT managers that look favourably on CISM qualified applicants.

Ron Hale noted that, unusually for a qualification of its type, ISACA's CISM is international in scope, with members taking the examination in the US sitting the same test of around 400 multiple choice questions as their UK and European counterparts.

On top of this, he said, members must complete at least 40 hours of Chapter attendances and relevant courses in order to renew their annual qualification.

Joining ISACA, said Mitchell, costs around 60 pounds and members must then pay their local chapter dues of around 13 pounds a year. To take the CISM examination, he added, members pay around 300 pounds, which covers the cost of sitting the exam and having the papers professionally marked up.

With the exception of the 80 full-time staff, Mitchell said the organisation of the worldwide chapters of ISACA is purely voluntary, with senior members helping their junior peers and "putting something back into the IT security industry."

www.isaca.org

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