For the first time, ITWeb's annual Security Summit will feature a Community Hub - a dedicated area within the expo where delegates can engage with all the communities at the event, to exchange information, share ideas and network.
“The 2011 summit is very much about connecting people,” says ITWeb events directory, Angela Mace. “With this in mind, we introduced the Community Hub, and involved the security community in shaping the agenda.”
Tony Olivier, MD of Performanta Consulting, says there are a number of security organisations working in the interests of the South African InfoSec community, that often receive little media attention. These include the Information Security Group (ISG), ZACon (the hacker's conference), the Computer Society of SA (CSSA), ISACA, OWASP and others.
He says the hub will provide an area where these organisations can congregate, provide the delegates with information regarding themselves and their objectives, and highlight to the general community what resources are available to them.
It is Olivier's view that the hub will give the community a greater sense of itself as a collective, allowing people to understand what resources are available, share information more readily, and enhance the skills levels and capabilities of practitioners in their daily lives.
“There are a lot of South African resources available to the average information security practitioner - but my experience has been that people frequently feel isolated and unsure how to engage,” he adds.
Furthermore, Olivier continues, there are some individuals that are very actively sharing information, but the same people seem to pop up again and again.
He says he would want to see more practitioners motivated to contribute to the communities, improving the level of information sharing and build better networks to source solutions for their problems.
To register for the Security Summit, or to view the agenda, click here.
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