(ISC)2® Announces Two New Affiliated Local Interest Groups in Asia-Pacific

New Groups in Thailand and Hong Kong will provide career support to local information security professionals

Hong Kong, September 7, 2007 – (ISC)²® (“ISC-squared”), the non-profit global leader in educating and certifying information security professionals throughout their careers, today announced that the Thailand Information Security Association (TISA) and Hong Kong Professional Information Security Association (PISA) have recently joined the (ISC)² global Affiliated Local Interest Group (ALIG) programme, which supports local information security professional associations around the world. Currently, there are six (ISC)² ALIGs in Asia-Pacific.

TISA, formed by a group of information security professionals in Thailand, aims to assist the country in rising to meet the evolving information security threats and to bridge the security divide between developing and developed countries in Asia-Pacific. TISA's founding members consist of information security professionals representing many organisations from government and private sectors. They include the National Science and Technology Development Agency, Software Park Thailand, the Department of Special Investigation, the Royal Thai Police, the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Provincial Electricity Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission. TISA was launched in mid-July 2007 during an (ISC)2 member networking reception in conjunction with the Secure@Bangkok Conference, an (ISC)2 Security Leadership event.

Prinya Hom-Anek, CISSP, CISA, CISM, SANS GIAC, GCFW, CompTIA Security +, founder and acting president of TISA said, ”TISA aims to develop a solid career path for information security professionals throughout Thailand. We plan to achieve this through at least six information security awareness and other informational and networking events per year.”

PISA, founded in 2001, is a not-for-profit organization for information security professionals in Hong Kong. It aims to develop the local information security market while establishing a global presence in the industry. At the moment, PISA has about 100 members, including a majority of them being long-time (ISC)2 credential holders. It is one of the most prominent and independent information security associations in Hong Kong for the professionals..

Howard Lau, CISSP, chairman of PISA (2006-2007) said, “PISA has been very active in the information security scene in Hong Kong for several years. By joining the (ISC)² ALIG programme, we are demonstrating our commitment to promoting information security awareness both within the IT industry and to the general public in Hong Kong. The ALIG programme will allow us to be more engaged in regional and international information security issues and events.”

Ed Zeitler, CISSP, executive director for (ISC)², commented, “We are excited to see more ALIGs forming in Asia-Pacific. The role of information security professionals is vital to every community. Only by educating our business community and the general public on their responsibility to be prudent Internet users can we minimize the risk and impact of security incidents. We are proud to add TISA and PISA to the growing list of ALIGs, who are raising security awareness and advancing information security professionalism one community at a time.”

Launched in 2005, the ALIG program aims to help local interest groups support their members by offering enhanced benefits such as convenient education opportunities and greater access to other local professionals and peer networking opportunities. The initiative also aims to promote the information security profession worldwide by increasing awareness of the importance and benefits of professional certification and continuing professional education among information security professionals.

Current ALIG members in Asia-Pacific include:
* Australian Information Security Association (www.aisa.org.au)
* Hong Kong Professional Information Security Association (www.pisa.org.hk)
* Korea CISSP Chapter (www.cisspkorea.or.kr)
* Malaysia INFOSEC.my (www.cybersecurity.org.my)
* Singapore Special Interest Group in Security and Information Integrity - SIG^2 (http://www.security.org.sg/)
* Thailand Information Security Association (www.tisa.or.th)
For more details of (ISC)2 ALIG members, please visit https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?page=634

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© 2007, (ISC)2 Inc. (ISC)², CISSP, ISSEP, ISSAP, SSCP and CBK are registered certification marks and CAP is a service mark of (ISC)², Inc.

Media Contact:
Kitty Chung
(ISC)2 Asia-Pacific
+852 35204001
Email: kchung(at)isc2(dot)org

About (ISC)2
The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. [(ISC)2®] is the internationally recognized Gold Standard for certifying information security professionals. Founded in 1989, (ISC)² has certified over 50,000 information security professionals in 129 countries. Based in Palm Harbor, Florida, USA, with offices in Vienna, Virginia, USA, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, (ISC)2 issues the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and related concentrations, Certification and Accreditation Professional (CAP), and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) credentials to those meeting necessary competency requirements. The CISSP, CISSP-ISSEPÒ, CISSP-ISSAP and SSCP are among the first information technology credentials to meet the stringent requirements of ANSI/ISO/IEC Standard 17024, a global benchmark for assessing and certifying personnel. (ISC)² also offers a continuing professional education program, portfolio of education products and services based upon (ISC)2’s CBK®, a taxonomy of information security topics and is responsible for the annual (ISC)² Global Information Security Workforce Study. More information is available at www.isc2.org.

This release was published on openPR.