Information Security Day goes global today

Information security is such a hugely important subject worldwide that it has made its mark on the calendar year. We will now have a day dedicated to it --- in fact two, stretching from today (Thursday) to Friday. Information security professionals  have always felt the need for widespread awareness on this  domain and its issues. In the community and industry circles too  there have  been initiatives. All that has resulted in Information Security Day.

The Information Security Research Association (ISRA), along with

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 Matriux Security Community, is  promoting the first International Information Security Day. ISRA and Matriux  have been commemorating Information Security Day at the national level since the last five years. However, this year they have tried to celebrate the day at the international level by organizing c0c0n 2010 -- a two-day International Security and Hacking Conference. The event is supported by Kochi City Police and other internal forums like SimWitty (an open source security information management system).

Manu Zacharia, information security evangelist and Director of Infosec at Millennium IT Consultants Pvt Ltd says, "Information Security Day was started in 2006 to spread the awareness of information security issues. Information Security Day aims at reducing the risks associated with the information systems by increasing the awareness among  the user community."
 The five user communities  targeted are the government, industry or corporate, universities, students and end users (home users). Zacharia says, "The main objective of observing an International Information Security Day is to dedicate a day for evaluation and analysis of security posture by individuals and corporate." 

The core agenda of c0c0n 2010 is to spread the message about Information Security Day. "We are also going to have a live video streaming of all the sessions during the two days," says Zacharia. "Many renowned people are expected to present their research papers at the event. A few from the open source community will organize a similar event in Delhi for the cause of this day. Some  colleges are also expected to conduct awareness sessions."      
            
Regarding participation from corporates, Zacharia says  they have tried to get in touch with the maximum professionals through mailers. He however agrees that it may not be enough. The keynote address at the event will be provided by Laxman K Badiga, CIO, Wipro Limited.

For the corporate Zacharia reiterates the mantra which they have selected for this year's Information Security Day, "Every day is information security day. Instead of remembering information security once a year (while doing audits or testing), make it a regular process, imbibe it in organizational culture, and make people aware of their information security responsibilities."