Not for profit association to launch charter and recruitment campaign at Infosec Europe 2012
Information Security Vendors Association will be launching its initial charter and kick off its recruitment campaign at this year’s Infosec Europe show at London Earls Court this April. ISVA has a stated aim to become a global organisation founded on democratic principles that is run by and for the benefit of its members, representing the information security vendor community.
“The IT security industry comprises of thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of people around the globe who provide critical goods and services that ensure business and the wider society can reduce the risks associated with information and technology,” explains Ken Bagnall, Managing Director, The Email Laundry.
“Even though we have associations for travel agents (ABTA), bankers (BBA) and other IT areas like storage and networking (SNIA), there has never been a coherent and democratic association that represents the corporate security industry – The ISVA aims to be that voice!”
Founded as a not for profit organisation with elected officials, ISVA has three fundamental goals. The first being to promote the association, champion the cause of information security and act as a voice for the vendor community worldwide at all levels throughout; government, industry, commerce and the wider consumer community.
The second is to become indispensable in the provision of services that are both germane to member needs and delivered effectually. The third is to cultivate vigorous relationships with special interest groups, other industry associations and government bodies to build awareness and develop business opportunities for the members.
“Our initial direction was based on discussion with nearly 200 vendors. We already have a dozen or so early adopters but once we have established a core of around 100 founding members, we will start the process of ratifying our charter and begin the initial election process for the executive board and steering committees,” explains Graham Mann, Executive Director, ISVA, “In the past, some associations have morphed into autocracies, which has weakened their ability to operate for the good of all members. Instead, we are building the ISVA on democratic principles from the outset so that every member has an equal voice.”
ISVA will be holding a series of presentations to outline its goals, structure and obligations of both ISVA and its members during Infosec Europe, which runs from 24th to 26th of April in London. “We will initially be focusing on Europe, with Infosec a natural starting point to meet with potential members and kick-off the recruitment process.”
In John Bedrick’s, CMO and VP, Product Management for Opengear view, “There is a clear need to elevate awareness of the importance of information security in every walk of life worldwide. Much has been done by individual vendors, governments and independent bodies to increase security awareness, but until ISVA, the Infosec vendor community had no unified voice.”
“Moreover, the vast majority of vendors cannot afford expensive PR campaigns and even if they could why would they wish to create “general” awareness? Clearly it makes sense to consolidate our efforts globally to develop generic security themes and build awareness. The Association will be active in the area of social media to bring information security closer to the customer, ”Rory Higgins, VP Marketing, Mancala Networks adds.