SANS Institute Scholarship up for Grabs

By Alan Harten

The SANS Institute and ISACA London Chapter have begun a new initiative aimed at increasing understanding and awareness of security issues within the IT profession.

They have just launched a pilot scheme which consists of a security awareness course via online tuition.

They have also announced that a scholarship will be awarded for the best white paper on the subject of Information Security and Governance/Assurance which takes into account the current chaotic financial climate.

The “SANS ISACA CPE Initiative” will focus very heavily on the area of Security Awareness and Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits and supports.

There will be some need for continued learning without assistance to be able to keep up to date with all the latest technologies and trends as well as accepted best practices.

In order to maintain accreditations CPE credits will also be needed.

Once each member has completed the course they will automatically receive three credits towards their accreditation needs.

There will also be live SANS Webcasts available to watch as well as the extensive library.

There will be available a full course credit to the winner of the scholarship competition.

The winner will be able to select any SANS training conference they wish to attend.

The credits available for these 2 to 6 day courses vary up to a maximum of 36 CPE credits, and courses have a financial value of up to £3000 each.

Any member may view the webcast but needs to submit a white paper to be in with a chance of the scholarship opportunity.

The length of the paper should be a minimum of 3500 words up to a maximum of 5000.

The question that must be answered in paper is “What priorities, challenges and solutions do you see for your organization, over the next 12 months, regarding Information Security and Governance/Assurance, considering the current economic climate?”

The white paper will be judged against the following criteria:

Relevance (Must cover InfoSec and Governance, or InfoSec and Assurance or all three subjects)
Practical considerations (Achievable, realistic implementation)
Financial considerations (Budget)

The paper must be submitted before 21 November and the winner will be announced a week later on 27 November.