The Security Standard Opens to Crowd of Industry Leaders; IDG Executive Forums Conference Brings Together Business and IT Elite.

SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass. -- The Security Standard opened to a full house of business and technology decision makers in Boston this morning, all gathered with one common goal in mind: tackling the most pressing political, business and technology challenges shaping security today. Inside tips on security investments from the financial giants, a panel with Microsoft's top security leaders and a special presentation from MIT's Stuart Madnick -- The Security Standard delivered on its promise to bring together industry visionaries with views that will help attendees transform their security strategies into a competitive advantage. Also highlighted today was an overview of the third annual CSO magazine eCrime Watch Survey. Tomorrow's featured keynote from Cisco President and CEO John Chambers, "Security in an Interconnected World," will give an insider's look at how Cisco is approaching security from an architectural standpoint.

"We created The Security Standard to study the business of security: the tested strategies, the best practices, the looming threats," says John Gallant, President and Editorial Director of Network World and co-chair of the conference. "The enthusiastic response from today's audience, made up of professionals from every corner of business, reinforces our belief that today's leaders are thirsty for innovative ideas and strategies that can help them get out ahead of the myriad security challenges they face."

IDG founder and chairman Patrick McGovern kicked off the day by citing the primacy of security as a concern facing corporations today and highlighting the scope and quality of executives joining IDG at The Security Standard. During the spotlight panel, Microsoft's security leaders answered some of the most pressing questions IT leaders have about emerging security threats, privacy and compliance issues and discussed the need for security to move beyond being a cost center to a business enabler.

According to Bob Bragdon, Publisher of CSO magazine and co-chair of the conference, "With our annual eCrime Watch survey showing an increase in the financial and operational consequences of eCrimes, it is more important than ever that security executives convene to share knowledge and practices that will help to shore up security at the enterprise level."

The Security Standard audience members will be presented with results from the 2006 eCrime Watch Survey, conducted by CSO magazine in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service, Carnegie Mellon CERT Coordination Center, U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection, and with support from Microsoft. The eCrime Watch Survey is one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind. Attendees learned the state of electronic crime, emerging threats and trends, and what methods work best in fighting electronic crime.

The audience also heard insights from Catherine Allen, CEO of BITS Financial Services Roundtable, on best practices from the financial giants; listened in on a Global Landscape panel discussing risk management for international business; heard lessons learned from Wal-Mart's Director of Emergency Management, Jason F. Jackson, as he described the business continuity challenges faced before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina; and gleaned effective ways to partner with law enforcement from representatives from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. And in an exclusive presentation for The Security Standard, MIT Professor Stuart Madnick shared his findings from recent research, which focused on the innovative application of gap analysis to determine how organizations can improve their security stance and get more from their multi-million dollar security investments.

In addition to copies of the eCrime Watch Survey, The Security Standard attendees will also receive the CSO Security Executive Council's Sarbanes-Oxley Baseline Report, which lists the SOX regulation requirements to be met in order of criticality and includes tested practices from experts who have implemented SOX controls. Valuable to security executives and audit professionals alike, the report is a way to help manage SOX compliance.

For more information on The Security Standard, go to http://www.thesecuritystandard.net/.

About The Security Standard

The Security Standard takes a fresh approach to the critical enterprise-wide topic of security, bringing together an intimate and exclusive audience of senior decision makers -- from both corporate and IT management -- to drill down into the most pressing business challenges surrounding information security. With high-profile keynotes, unique industry perspectives and an open dialogue running throughout the event between the decision makers in the audience and the visionaries on stage, The Security Standard will provide the audience with a strategic foundation on which to build current and future action plans for business security. The Security Standard will run as a single-track educational conference with an intimate 30 sponsor pavilion. Produced by IDG Executive Forums, the conference draws on the strengths of IDG's top U.S. business brands: CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld and Network World. For more information, visit http://www.thesecuritystandard.net.

About the Co-Chairs

Bob Bragdon, Publisher of CSO magazine, and John Gallant, President and Editorial Director of Network World, are the co-executive producers of The Security Standard and responsible for leading the event's steering committee and determining the conference agenda. Both leaders bring a wealth of security knowledge and experience to their respective roles. As publisher of CSO (chief security officer) magazine, the world's leading information resources for security executives, Bragdon works closely with industry vendors, enterprise security executives, government officials and law enforcement agencies in identifying and addressing the challenges of today's complex security and risk management environments. Bragdon is a member of the ASIS International (American Society for Industrial Security).

Under Gallant's executive direction, Network World has been a leader in covering the emergence of networking in corporate America and has become the newspaper of record in the network industry. Gallant has positioned Network World as a true service publication for network IS professionals, providing technology and business news along with a wealth of insight, opinion and analysis designed to help readers manage not only their networks and network-based applications, but their growing budgets and staff.

Sponsors

Principal sponsors for the event are Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft. Intel is a Platinum sponsor and Gold sponsors include Altiris, ArcSight, BigFix, Cybertrust, eIQnetworks, Inc., ENDFORCE, Entrust, Inc., Fiberlink Communications Corp., Finjan, Inc., IBM, Lancope, Inc., Lucent, McAfee, Inc., nCircle Network Security, NIKSUN, Qualys, Inc., RSA Security Inc., SafeNet, SecureWave, Sophos Inc., Trend Micro, Inc., Utimaco Safeware Inc. and Websense, Inc. Supporting organizations are CERIAS (the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security), the CSO Executive Council, (ISC)(2) (the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium), IT Business Edge, the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), and the Center for Digital Strategies.

About IDG

International Data Group (IDG) is the world's leading technology media, events, and research company. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers in 85 countries including CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, and PC World. IDG's online network includes more than 400 Web sites spanning business technology, consumer technology, digital entertainment, and gaming worldwide. IDG is a leading producer of more than 170 technology-related events including LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Macworld Conference & Expo, DEMO, and IDC Directions. IDC, a subsidiary of IDG, is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events. Over 850 IDC analysts in 50 countries provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends. Additional information about IDG, a privately held company, is available at http://www.idg.com.

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