Kevin Mitnick Speaking at ISSA Puerto Rico

When I started working for the Information Risk Management practice of KPMG, I remember reading about Kevin Mitnick’s body of work and learned a few lessons in what he had accomplished as one of the world’s well-known hackers.

Working as a IT Security professional and coach of Information Security Management Systems such as ISO 27001, one of the most difficult things I have encountered is getting individuals to understand that the most critical component of IT Security is the humans monitoring and making decisions on behalf of an organization in every role and department.

If the humans don’t safeguard the assets, which they are accountable for, an organization put at risk and no existing technology does a better job than a human safeguarding assets.

Everyone is in charge or Security

My friend, fellow blogger, and business designer Chris Brogan always reminds people that when one is in business everyone is in Sales and so are you.  Chris is trying to help everyone understand that no matter what part of your company you are in charge of you are in sales. The same way everyone is part of customer service and other critical areas of the business as logical and physical security.

Just by trying to be polite you might open the door to an unauthorized person. If you bypass a safeguard like door lock you may put your company or your clients at risk. When I visit companies doing security assessments I realize that most of the faults they have is because they need to take ownership of safeguarding assets.

Great Learning Opportunity

When I want to see well-known speaker at a conference, I usually have to get on a plane and spend a large amount of money on a conference ticket, airfare, lodging, meals, and other expenses that are tied with travelling.

Occasionally, I don’t have to travel because well known speakers such as Internet Pioneer Jeff Pulver, visited the island for an event. On November 16, 2012 respected and admired individual in the Global Security community here on the Island. My colleagues at the ISSA Puerto Rico Chapter board invited Kevin Mitnick to their annual symposium.

This is one of the few local events that I look forward to attending every year given the ISSA Board always does a great job with it.

Why I think you should go see Kevin Mitnick?

If you are a geek and/or in the IT Security field like me, you should go and I really don’t need to explain much.

If you are not a geek or in the IT Security Field I recommend even more that you go. Most industry specific conferences are usually full of people from the same field. Which makes learning from the experience of others in different roles a lot more difficult. Bringing an audience diverse so people from different areas of the business can speak the same language or at least understand each other better.

What a better way to understand those security consultants, regulators, and IT Auditors on topics of IT Security than having an opportunity to sit down next to them and learn from whom they admire.

If you want to learn more about security no matter what your role in business, the ISSA Annual Symposium is the place to be.

If you are at the conference please stop by and say hi I will definitely be there thanks to the invitation of ISSA Puerto Rico’s board where they extended a complimentary pass as long as I spread the word with you (so I would appreciate if you could pass this along to someone that would be interested).

Take Advantage of the Early Bird Special

Only a Few Days Left (until October 5, 2012) for the Early Bird Special where if you are a member of ISSA you only pay $75 and if you are non-member you pay $110.00 more details → here.

Disclosure: I received a Complimentary Pass in exchange of helping ISSA spread the word on this year’s annual Symposium. Even though I received a complimentary conference pass I don’t feel that this influenced the writing of this post in any way.