As reported previously by Infosecurity, membership of the not-for-profit organisation is open to anyone with an interest in information and application security.
This is (ISC)²'s 21st year and one of its most popular facilities is the organisation's InterSeC forum, an online site that was established to help professionals discuss the latest security issues and solutions as well as their careers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world.
According to officials with the organisation, InterSeC currently has more than 8500 professionals participating on the site.
W. Hord Tipton, the executive director of (ISC)², says that the site features many tools for security professionals for connecting and networking, such as being able to start a group or join one of the 80-plus existing interest and language focused groups, create a blog, contribute to Wikis, and find other professionals based on common interests or region.
Newly added features include the ability to add and search for an event, and a security channel feed offering hundreds of information security presentations. "Our goal in opening up InterSeC is to make the cyber world a safer place through the support and development of information and application security professionals around the globe", he said.
Membership of the InterSeC site/forum is free and open to anyone with an interesting in IT security, although (ISC)² points out that membership is not open to vendors or individuals wishing to sell a product or service.
According to Tipton, there is a pressing need for information security professionals, technicians, managers and other personnel to maintain an effective security environment.
"Our organisation, including our 70 000 members, work diligently to improve our educational products and examination process to assure that we stay relevant in the rapidly changing information security and public awareness realms", he said.