Information Security Awareness Ireland

As I mentioned previously, I am trying to get involved in some new things that I have been thinking about for a while. I want to formally create ‘Information Security Awareness Ireland’. This is a subject that I am involved in at work but something I am genuinely interested in both from an organizational perspective and from the perspective of a private citizen. 

The big question the entity seeks to answer is

How the hell do you get people to care about information security?

This will be a completely voluntary, not-for profit organization.

While it is early days, I see the purpose of Information Security Awareness Ireland being the following;

• ·      To promote an understanding of information security to the general public in Ireland (It may be a stretch to get people actually interested but I would like them to be aware of the ideas and concepts).
•         To promote development of an improved information security culture within organisations, both private and public sector in Ireland.

Now there are some excellent organisations in Ireland already covering related areas, most notable CyberSafeIreland and ISC2. However, these groups are very focused on cyber security for children and, as such, have that area covered very well. My interest is broader than just educating children. Other groups such as ISACA Ireland and Irish Information Security Forum do cover this topic to some extent but their remit is so much wider, covering a wide range of information security topics. And obviously there are companies which cover this area and sell their expertise to their clients. However, I believe there is a gap in the landscape in Ireland for such a voluntary group to promote awareness of the topic.

This was very much inspired by Lance Spitzner and the SANS Securing the Human Program which I have blogged about previously. I have taken my own organization on a bit of a journey in recent years and have seen information security awareness and understanding taking a quantum leap. Of course the environment helped foster this but we developed a program to meet the requirement.

So, short term, I will

• ·      Set up a LinkedIn Group
• ·      Try to get a few people who are interested in being involved and have an initial kick-off meeting within the next month.
• ·      Set up a .ie website (in progress)

I am really keen to generate some interest in this. So if Security Awareness rocks your boat and if you are interested in being involved please drop me a note on LinkedIn or just respond with a comment below leaving your email address.