Nominations are open for the first-ever (ISC)² EMEA Information Security leadership Awards (ISLA) to recognize the achievements of your fellow cyber, information, software and infrastructure security professionals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is a great opportunity to showcase the outstanding work and remarkable contributions the profession is making despite the challenges and widening skills gap we face.

The 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study confirms more than two thirds of the region’s hiring managers are looking to expand their teams in the next 12 months, and about half are struggling to find qualified talent for their roles. This stems in part from a poor articulation of the profession and the opportunities it presents. The ISLAs are designed to demonstrate the impact you and your colleagues have within your workplace, industry and society. The nominating questions explore how nominees have worked to inspire people, collaborate and/or contribute to a community initiative. We are looking for detail around a specific project or initiative or tangible evidence of an improvement made at work or within a community.  

Nominations must be put forward by a colleague, and we hope many of you will be inspired to recognize your professional peers. To create the best opportunity for your nominee, we advise:

1. Create an account early and fill in the basic details, so that you can tab through the forms to become familiar with the questions. Then take the time to consider your answers before returning to complete the entry. You will be asked to create a Nomination Title (or file name) for each entry, which allows you to save and return as often as you like until the entry deadline of midnight July 12 British Summer Time. Don’t forget to push the submit button once you are finished.
2. Be detailed and don’t be afraid to use up the character limits provided. The judges are information security professionals themselves and will be looking to understand the project or initiative, so give as many specifics as you feel relevant and create a list outcomes with descriptions of the impact they have had.
3. Communicate vision. Your nominee is likely to be quite passionate about what they have done and if you can get this across it will strengthen the entry. If you can, take the time to interview them, ask a few questions about their motivation, why they worked to achieve what you are nominating them for and why they feel it is important.
4. Demonstrate relevance. Include information about whether the project or initiative directly addresses a current challenge being faced by the profession or an industry sector, a defined business objective, community need, or all the above.
5. Call out evidence of leadership. These are the Leadership Awards after all, and the ability to show leadership is not limited to senior roles. Tell us how your nominee has inspired others and/or how they have led an initiative or motivated a collaborative effort.

What the judges are looking for

Submissions will be judged by members of the Europe, Middle East and Africa Advisory Council (EAC) , who are all certified practicing professionals and members of (ISC)². We asked some of the judges for their thoughts on what they will be looking for:

Yves Le Roux, EAC co-chair says: “(ISC)² EMEA ISLA will show the strength of our constituents in finding information security solutions, and provide some examples which may be used by other members of our community. The main criteria for me will be the presence of a solid strategy and understanding of the business; a high-level of success in the execution of a project, as well as the impact it had. I will also be looking for creativity in areas such as consumer engagement, and unique use of information security.”

Rainer Rehm commented that he believed that it was important to “recognize and appreciate perfect solutions and concepts within our industry, and express admiration for those educating and safeguarding the users of internet services. When judging nominations, I will be looking for steady and long lasting efforts to improve our community, exposure to the community, a dedication to give back and a commitment to make the world a more secure place.”

Get Started

The EMEA (ISC)² ISLAs have four categories – Senior Information Security Professional, Information Security Practitioner, Up-and-Coming Information Security and Woman Information Security Professional – spotlighting good work at various levels of practice, and will be an added dimension to our Secure Summit UK event in December.

Nominations are open to all working in the profession, not just members of (ISC)² (barring (ISC)² staff and the judges). While nominees must be living and working in EMEA, nominators can be from anywhere. It is free to put someone forward. You can nominate as many people as you like and you can enter one person in multiple categories, as long as you create a separate entry for each.

Ready to get started? Go directly to (ISC)² EMEA ISLA nomination web portal .

Posted by your (ISC)² EMEA ISLA team.