(ISC)² Creates Award in Honor of Columbus Professional

(ISC)² is the certification organization behind the well-known Certified Information Systems Security Professional credential (CISSP), the first information security certification accredited by ANSI to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 17024:2003. Among the elder statesmen who helped to make the organization and certification what it is today is Jim Wade, most recently of Columbus. In his long and distinguished career, Jim served as a director for (ISC)², a president of the international Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and held senior executive positions in both industry and government. Jim was lost to cancer at the end of October 2007.

At the RSA Conference 2008, (ISC)² held a reception for members announcing, among other things, a new service award for information security professionals. "In honor of the selfless and lifelong contributions of our esteemed colleague," read the notice from (ISC)², "we want to recognize volunteers who have made a sustained and valuable contribution to (ISC)²."

As I wrote yesterday, Columbus has a tremendously strong information security community, full of people whose impact is felt far and wide throughout the profession. With this new service award, the contributions of one such Columbus-based professional will be memorialized.

Checking in from RSA 2008

Greetings from San Francisco. I'm here not for the carrying, defense, or protest of the Olympic torch. I am here for the RSA conference 2008. I'm hardly alone; the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that I'm here with about 17,000 colleagues. Among them are a number of Columbus-based security professionals.

Something that even the local technology community might not recognize is the tremendous level of information security and privacy talent that we have in Columbus. I don't mean just people who are taking on security and privacy work as part of their normal jobs or people who are going into a field that's perceived as hot. We have a tremendously accomplished group of professionals who have been providing thought leadership not just within their own firms or within their own communities, but are doing so at the national and international level. RSA, presented in San Francisco, is a pretty good view of some of what's happening in information security, and more than a little bit of it is coming from Columbus. Maybe you know some of the practitioners who are advancing the state of the art or the businesses that keep the industry alive and healthy.

Dan Houser, Sr. Security Architect at Cardinal Health, is likely the winner of the unofficial contest to see who can spend the most time presenting at a conference this year. He has five separate presentations, including the two presentations he had in the pre-conference.

Rounding out the Columbus information security contingent that I saw at last night's conference reception was Kevin Flanagan of RSAEMC (also presenting), Mike Radigan of Cisco Systems, and Jeff Sweet of DP Sciences.

Let me know if I've missed anyone. I'll check in again later in the week with developments of interest to the local tech community. Are there concerns that you have about information security that might be addressed here? What security issues are on your mind? I'll let you know the latest and best thinking on the issues that concern you.