It’s another step along the convergence path. ASIS International has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Information Systems Security Association.   ISSA serves information security and risk professionals with more than 138 chapters and members in 70 countries, ranging from the first-year systems administrator to the senior-most information security executive.   ISSA is the second industry organization to align with ASIS in 2009. 

The vision of this relationship is to increase collaboration in and among organizations that have access to the disciplines and thought leadership surrounding Enterprise Security Risk Management. Providing a foundation where the respective organizations and their members can actively collaborate in the development of education content through research, demonstrated best practices, principles and approaches involving ESRM is the immediate objective.  

The ASIS approach was initiated in 2008 in response to the development and evolution of an Enterprise Security Risk Management body of knowledge.   ESRM is the practice of integrating all the areas of an organization that involve the protection of people, property and information. A key component of Enterprise Risk Management—which considers the entire risk universe, including financial, strategic and operational—ESRM is where security professionals ensure that multiple disciplines and business units communicate effectively and work together to identify, prioritize and mitigate risk.

"Our involvement with the ISSA is in the interest of rapid advancement and development of the ESRM body of knowledge," says ASIS' Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Stack.   "This relationship allows for periodic discussions regarding common strategic, tactical or operational opportunities or partnerships that would be mutually beneficial to each member's organizations."

According to the terms of the agreement, members of ASIS and ISSA will meet regularly to identify joint strategic and operational opportunities.   They will also collaborate on developing educational content for each other's domestic and international programs.   Additionally, ASIS and ISSA will cooperate to provide mutual member discounts on fees to attend ASIS/ISSA educational programming, provide access to member's only content on websites and support global evolution of security standards and guidelines.

"As the worlds of logical security, physical security and compliance converge, we need to continually equip our members, and our profession, with the skills to present a holistic view of security risks," says ISSA's President Howard A. Schmidt. "Working together with ASIS provides our chapters and members access to an array of educational events, as well as an extended network of security professionals, that will help prepare us for the next generation of security risk challenges."

Earlier this year, ASIS formalized a relationship with the Open Security Exchange, a group dedicated to accelerating convergence of IT and physical security.