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SIG-ISM: obsession with post-it notes and plans for the future

There is a reason why SIG-ISM meetings are called workshops – for the 7th time Information Security Management experts got together for two days of interactive sessions, some of which included their favourite brainstorming and problem-solving tool – post-it notes. This simple method of writing down ideas on sticky notes, putting them on the flipchart and then rearranging thematically if needed has proven to work the best when we need to pick their brain.

The meeting took place on 15-16 October in Luxembourg, hosted by RESTENA. At first, there were the usual updates from other R&E security collaborations, SIG-ISM regional collaborations and a few participating organisations. After that, working in groups and individually, SIG-ISM members have set out to look into various ways in which they can be involved in the upcoming GN4-3 project’s security work package. Many of the SIG-ISM members helped in shaping the project proposal by contributing at the public consultation sessions within the past year. Although majority of them will not be officially contributing resources to the project, most agreed to take on an advisory role when it comes to the ISM related topics, such as Business Continuity and Security Baselining.

The second day of the workshop was spent working on the topics of the 3 SIG-ISM working groups: Inventory for Security Officers, Guidance on Setting up and running ISMS for NRENs and Security Awareness. It was decided to take a leading role within the worldwide R&E security collaborations in setting up a space where security awareness materials could be shared, which is something that has been raised as a priority at various meetings.

Watch this space for future announcements!

And then we were back to post-it notes for the final part of the workshop – reviewing CLAW guideline for Crisis Management in preparation of the CLAW Crisis Management Event, which will take place on 12-13 November in Malaga. The group looked at what works in the current version of the document, what questions should be added and what is missing. A long discussion and many ideas later, it was decided, paraphrasing Voltaire, that perfect becomes the enemy of the good and that although we could have spent days making further changes, the feedback provided will have to be sufficient for now.

Full agenda, notes and pictures can be found on the event wiki page: https://wiki.geant.org/display/SIGISM/7th+SIG-ISM+Workshop+-+Agenda

We would to thank RESTENA for organising the meeting, including fun evening entertainment with dinner and bowling, and, of course, for providing the post-it notes.

The next SIG-ISM meeting will take place at the beginning of 2019.

Learn more about this activity and how to get involved by visiting the SIG-ISM wiki:

https://wiki.geant.org/display/SIGISM/SIG-ISM+Home

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