On Saturday, January 13, it was unusually busy on a business park in Geldermalsen (The Netherlands)! A call of the Board (of the Dutch Chapter of (ISC)²) had resulted in the arrival of over 20 passionate security professionals whom happily sacrificed their free Saturday to our profession! As will another group of 20 volunteers, whom could not attend today and for whom a similar meeting will be organized very soon. Impressive numbers, given that there are now roughly 520 members of the Dutch Chapter! (https://chapter.isc2.nl)
The first group was hosted by our sponsor Snow BV, Unix specialists in Geldermalsen. The intent of the group was to work out plans for the further growth of the (ISC) ² Dutch Chapter. Not just growth in member numbers but especially growth in activities that contribute to interest in cyber security in our digitizing society. President Heinrich W. Klöpping gave a short status update of the status and outlined the recent hopeful developments in the chapter. The board has restructured the organization and created a roadmap. The number of members is now increasing rapidly. Time for expansion of activities and of the group of people whom are willing to contribute! It was good to see that, apart from willingness to participate in activities, there were also members interested in (future) Board and committee positions.
Secretary Mark Tissink introduced the objectives and outlined the approach for this first Dutch Chapter Volunteers Day, frequently supported by co-directors Rosita, Eric and Otto. In the Netherlands there is still too little information available on information security for children and the elderly. The 'Safe and Secure Online' activities of our parent organization (https://safeandsecureonline.org) come to mind. In addition, cybersecurity should receive more attention in secondary and higher education for different professional groups. A challenging task for the security professionals that were there!
After a round of introductions concrete plans were quickly established in various groups (communication, logistics, content, target groups). At the end of the afternoon we all agreed that we could look back on a relaxed and productive first Volunteers Day. The board will discuss the results later this month during their monthly board meeting (January 18th) and will use these results as input for the meeting with the second group of volunteers. After that second meeting, the activities will be bundled into a plan to allow the Dutch Chapter to engage 40 enthusiastic, passionate volunteers to make a concrete contribution to our field and a safe society!
This is a translation of the original article (in Dutch) written by Paul Oort. That article can be found on the chapter website. If you can't read Dutch, a visit is still worth while to check out the photo's!
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Heinrich W. Klöpping, MSc CISSP CCSP CIPP/E CTT+
