Security professional associations form alliance

Together, ASIS International, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) represent more than 80,000 professionals with various security expertise.

The Alliance aims to define the qualifications and training requirements of the new converged security manager role - a role that combines responsibility for physical and inforomation security as well as governance issues.

The group also hopes to help companies manage their security risks by defining models that better encompass qualitative and quantitative aspects of risk. It also will provide a unified voice on legislative issues.

Ray O'Hara, senior managing dirctor for Vance International, an investigative and security consulting firm and member of the ASIS board, said ASIS - which represents traditional, or physical security professionals, has been very active in Washington D.C.

"With this Alliance we'll have more impact," he said during a press conference at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Dave Cullinane, CISO, Washington Mutual and president of ISSA, said the Alliance will serve as a focal point for developing and integrating programs to support security professionals, drawing from the programs and research of the three associations.

"We will define business models to manage risk and complete the research required to definte the issues and solutions to further the converged security solution within organizations," he said.

www.isaca.org
www.asisonline.org
www.issa.org