A new industry member body, the Information Security Vendors Association will be launching its initial charter and kick off a recruitment campaign at this year’s Infosec Europe show at London Earls Court in late April. ISVA has an aim to represent the information security vendor community.
Ken Bagnall, Managing Director, The Email Laundry, says: “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.
“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 seeks to champion the cause of information security and act as a voice for the vendor community worldwide at all levels in government, industry, commerce and the wider consumer community.
“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,” says 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 April 24 to 26, 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.”
ISVA representatives will be available for meetings during Infosec and will present at stand C83 for the show. For more information and to view the draft charter, visit www.isva-global.org.
