So, DC has an ISM-Community chapter.  We have a membership last I checked of 3 and we grew by an amazing 50% today. =)

Seriously, though, and I know you’re asking: What can one more security group in the DC area fulfill?  That was my first question when we first started talking about local chapters many months ago.

I mean, we have the following groups:

• ISC2 (get certified, do good works, get CPEs, work on DoD contracts)
• ISSA-NOVA (Take some training, be an auditor or manager)
• Infragard (Protect the infrastructure, get some priviledged information, rub elbows with the F-B-I)
• NovaSec (We’re not CISSPs, we’re technical!  Check your guns and your certs at the door)
• Security Geeks-DC (We’re highly technical, but we died out while Mike was taking his “vacation” in “someplace sunny”, much to his lament)
• SANS (go to a conference, get a technical certification, start a university)
• Numerous others

As usual, I’m tongue in cheek (I’m a jerk, but not that much of a jerk =)   ) about what these groups do, but keep in mind that I’m in some way associated with some of these groups, so I’m not by any means hating on them.

We have all these other organizations that do a fine job at what they do, so where is there room for just another security group?

ISM-Community is different.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t even think about trying to “compete” with these other guys.  What we are about is projects which other people can use the output from.  In other words, we’re the kind of community that can throw together a hasty boundary determination guide (for example, just writing “off the cuff”) if we want, and in a matter of days, people will have a quick-reference chart to print out and hang on their cubicle wall, use as a C&A artifact, cut up and make training slides from, use to teach their boss, and thumb through on the metro.

This is all stuff that if I were to do it for an agency, you wouldn’t be able to use it because it would belong to my customer or have sensitive data in it or be covered under a non-disclosure agreement.  However, all of us can clean-room a version and then it belongs to everybody.

Now isn’t that special?

• In This Corner, the Business Reference Model
• And in This Corner, Special Publication 800-60
• Feds to Embrace SaaS, End is Nigh for Security!
• The “Off The Record” Track
• ISM-Community DC Chapter Meeting Announcement

There is both a VMWare appliance for a hard-drive install of backtrack and a CD-boot appliance that you point at a .iso file.

It works flawlessly.  Mike is much happy.

• Backtrack 3 USB Slides
• Internet in the Remote Desert
• Build a Hack Bag
• Is Myspace Satan?
• It’s Wireless Audit Time Again

Well, I’m shocked.  I thought maybe people would trickle into ISM-Community and that it would be a gradual growth of users, chapters, and forum posts.  For the first 2 days, I have to say it’s been an overwhelming response, more than I was expecting.  To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect, and if it was just hyperbole.

I’m still trying to land on my feet, so to say, and things just keep coming.  Things are still fun, I guess we’re in the NPO honeymoon stage.  If this pace keeps up, though, I’m going to need to clone myself into a random array of redundant Mikes just to be able to sleep.

This is what I miss about the dotcom era.  Even though I ended up broke, divorced, and homeless by the time it was over, by God it sure was a fun ride at times. =)

The lesson of the ISM-Community launch is that there is a need for what we want to accomplish, and there are people who realize that there are things in a NPO that you can’t do elsewhere.  For example, create joint intellectual property where normally it would be a proprietary process, tool, etc.

• ISM-Community DC Chapter Meeting Announcement
• Can I at Least Get My Shoes?
• ISM-Community DC Chapter
• Making Press Releases
• Busy Days