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ISACA Chapter Information
Website: http://www.isaca.org/
Investigated by Keith Watson
ISACA is an international association of information security professionals, auditors, consultants, and other IT professionals. It has more than 86,000 members in 160 countries. There are 175 chapters. The association has three certification prorgams: the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), and a designation called Certifed in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT). The association also has an associated organization called the IT Governance Institute which develops and publishes information on enterprise IT governance. A technical journal, the ISACA Journal, is published monthly. The ISACA website has a significant amount of technical and administrative information for auditing and security management for members-only.
There is only one Indiana ISACA chapter in Indianapolis. Several members of the Purdue community are associated with that chapter.
Note: I sent a request to ISACA on forming a chapter as there is no information posted on the website regarding the process or requirements. The response was vague though the timeline may extend beyond twelve months.
Issues
Members of ISACA must also be members of a local chapter if there is one within 50 miles. The yearly ISACA dues are $130 per year (and a one-time new member fee of $30 or $10 when applying online). There are also local chapter dues. The chapter dues are set by the chapter. The range varies between $25-$50 in the US. A new member may need to pay out $200 to join. That maybe prohibitive for some members. There is a student membership which is $25 per year plus local chapter dues.
Several members of the group are already members of ISACA. Their cost to join a local chapter would be minimal.
There maybe At Large ISACA members (members with no chapter affiliation) in the area that may want to join. These people may not be known to us in advance. They may also be forced to join by ISACA once the chapter is formed.
According to the membership Services Coordinator, the process to form a chapter may take twelve months or more. The process was not explained. There were no requirements listed. I responded and hope to have more detail soon.
Recommendations
Full disclosure: I am a current member of ISACA and hold the CISA certification. Given that, I feel that the ISACA website, the information repository, auditing standards, and the ISACA Journal are quite valuable.
- If cost is an issue for the members, then ISACA is not a good choice.