The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) London Chapter

Aspiring to be the recognized global leaders in IT governance, control and assurance


Home  |  Chapter  |  Board  |  Events  |  SIGs  |  CISA  |  CISM Publications  |  Resources
Conferences
  |  Jobs  |  Library  |  Various  |  Contact   |  Feedback  |  Search


Board Workspace


Contact Details  |  Distribution Lists  |  Meeting Schedule  |  Events Roster  |  Events Check List
Website stats  |  Manual  |  Away Day Minutes  |  Monthly and Other Reports


Awayday Minutes - 24 May 2002 (Agenda)

Awayday Minutes - 22 June 2001

Awayday Minutes - 30 June 2000


22 June 2001 

Agenda (Word 53KB)

Attendees:

Karen Sharpe

John Mitchell

 

Archie Watt

Bill Hawkins

 

Michael Christodoulides

John Hunter

 

Charles Mansour

Annabel Lane

 

Gideon Pretorius

Allan Boardman

 

Kamal Khan

 
     

Apologies:

Joseph Wright

 

1

Report on Internal Presidents Meeting and Conference

 

Two main issues arose from the Conference:

  1. Getting close to the EU - specifically obtaining EU funding. This process will start through attempting to obtain funding for Eurocacs 2002 in Hungary. If this is successful other areas will be considered.
    An important issue was to ensure that any profits resulting from this bid remains within Europe. This has added to the growing support for a European ISACA office.
  2. International standards setting:
    • Building on previous involvement in BS7799.
    • Standards are bottom-up and cannot enforced from an organisational level.
    • Encouraged to be involved in standard setting.
    • Board responsibility for standards is required. This is currently being performed by Joe Wright. There was a view that this has currently a low profile and feedback on activity in this area should be included in future meeting agendas.
    • From a local chapter perspective, involvement in standard setting could possibly best be achieved through involvement with the Institute of Directors.

2

Responsibilities

 

All responsibilities will remain the same for the new year, with the following changes/confirmations:

Jo Wright: Secretary and Standards

Bill Hawkins: Remain responsible for the Library

John Mitchell: Past President and Academic Relations

 

All Board members to review the Manual on the website and have it updated where it is out of date. Changes can be made and submitted to Allan Boardman. To be completed by September meeting.

 

A section in the Manual is required on Standards. To be written by Joe Wright and John Mitchell.

 

Written reports are required for all meetings, especially if the member is not able to attend. These reports should be submitted 7 days before the meeting where possible.

 

Moving the monthly meeting to coincide with the monthly members' meeting was discussed. It was decided that this is not feasible as the board members are required to be available subsequent to the members' meeting to answer questions.

 

Karen Sharpe is unable to attend the majority of members' meeting for the upcoming year. She proposed that the meetings be moved to another date and this was accepted. Future members' meetings will be held on the 4th Thursday of each month as opposed to the 3rd Thursday.

 

There is no indication that this will impact on members' attendance and ABN Amro has indicated that they can accommodate meetings on the revised dates.

 

Board members indicated that attending the members' meetings starting at 4:30pm requires them to leave work very early. A proposal to move the meetings to 5pm was accepted with the proviso that it will be reviewed should there be a significant fall-off in members' attendance or a large number of complaints.

 

The members' meetings for 2001/2002 are as follows:

27 September
25 October
22 November
13 December
24 January
28 February
21 March
25 April
23 May
27 June

 

Charles Mansour is to draw up an attendance rota and distribute this to the Board. Board members can arrange individually to swap dates if these are not convenient.

 

Board members on attendance duty will be required to collect attendance fees from non-members attending the meetings, amongst other tasks. Charles Mansour will draw up a checklist of duties for board members on attendance duty. The checklist will be distributed/published on the website for comment.

3

Events

 

The theme for the 2000/2001 members' events will be Tools and Techniques.

 

Following a brain storming exercise, the following events were decided on:

 

Month

Topic

Presenter

 

September

Security Policies

Brian Shorten

 

October

COBIT (Audit Plan)

Charles Mansour

 

November

Selling Recommendations

John Mitchell to arrange with Lindsay Mercer (BAA)

 

December

IT Fraud & Forensics

Charles Mansour to arrange

 

January

E-systems Testing & Change Management

Gideon Pretorius to arrange

 

February

CAATS

Archie Watt to arrange

 

March

Project Audit

John Mitchell

 

April

3rd Party Vendor outsourcing

Karen Sharpe to arrange

 

May

Firewalls & Middleware

Karen Sharpe to arrange with Yag Kanani (DTT)

 

June

Desktop Audit

Steve Bailey

 

Board members responsible for arranging speakers should confirm to Gideon Pretorius by 13 July and at the time provide the following for each speaker:

  • Presentation title
  • Short description of presentation
  • Presenter
  • Biopic for presenter
 

Where possible, speakers should be encouraged to submit an article to DataWatch.

 

The following topics were not assigned to a specific event and were considered to be more appropriate as DataWatch articles:

  • Auditing SAP/Oracle
  • Audit standards
 

The following topics were not assigned to events and were noted for possible future events:

  • Public infrastructure
  • Cryptography & PKI
  • Business objects/Middleware
  • Mobile security
 

Cards will be distributed to members in the summer mailshot using previous year's design. This needs to be finalised by the Events committee by end July.

 

Board meetings will continue to be held on the first Wednesday of each month except in July and August. Specific dates are:

5 September
3 October
7 November
5 December
9 January
6 February
6 March
3 April
1 May
5 June

 

Board meetings will be held at Deloitte & Touche starting at 6pm.

 

Chargeable events

 

2 x 5 day events will be held with the themes:

  • Computer Audit Fundamentals
  • Enhanced Computer Auditing
 

The events will consist of linked modules that can be attended in entirety or separately.

 

The Aeonian Training Centre should be available for the events, based on the final dates at a cost of £49 per person per day, excluding VAT. A Litepro is also available at £150 per day, excluding VAT.

 

The possible dates are:

Event 1: 17 September

Event 2: 5 or 19 November

 

The first event (September) will be aimed at approx. 20 people with the following topics:

17th Risk Management and Control in IT by Derek Oliver
18th Computer Fraud by John Mitchell
19th Systems Development Auditing by Derek Oliver
20th CAATS by John Mitchell
21st Business Continuity Planning to be arranged by Karen Sharpe

 

The second event (November) will also be aimed at approx. 20 people:

Day 1 E-commerce by John Mitchell
Day 2 Internet Risks and Control - speaker to be arranged by Karen Sharpe
Day 3 Change management by Derek Oliver
Day 4 Information Security by Derek Oliver
Day 5 IT governance by John Mitchell

 

John Mitchell is to revise the business cases for each of the events and submit this to the Events committee and Archie Watt.

 

Archie Watt is to confirm the availability of the venue.

 

John Mitchell to confirm the availability of all speakers.

 

The Events committee is to approve the business case and submit this to Archie Watt and Karen Sharpe. For the September event this has to be completed by end June and for the November event by mid July.

 

Nancy should forward the format of previous events booking/information document to John Mitchell for updating.

 

The Events committee is to start considering possible chargeable events for 2002 and discuss this at the first board meeting.

 

The Events committee has further responsibility to ensure that speakers at monthly events are available and to provide them with a checklist.

4

Finance

 

Archie Watt reviewed the current financial information of the Chapter. The following comments were made:

  • Flyers and mailshot income has dropped off significantly (from approx. income of £2000 to cost of £2000-3000).
  • DataWatch income is continuing to increase.
  • Income from Events has been removed from the financial statements due to the uncertainty at the time of preparation of whether the events will occur.
  • The drop in the Exchange rate has increased the value of holding in US$. This has also affected income from members remitted in US$ (between 80% and 90% of members). This has lead to a FX gain of £1400.
  • There is still uncertainty about the costs of meetings as no bills have been forthcoming. This has been held at £500 + VAT per meeting.
 

International subscriptions have been increased by US$5 for the next year.

 

Reserves are remaining constant, however, the cost of servicing members is currently not met out of membership dues but is supplemented by other income.

 

The current reserve policy of approx. 150% of net costs was discussed in detail. Currently reserves stand at approx. 100% of gross expenses.

 

John Mitchell submitted a proposal that the official policy on reserves should state that 100% of gross annual projected expenditure should be maintained as reserves. This was seconded by John Hunter and carried by vote. This proposal has to be ratified at the next board meeting.

 

The format of the financial statements were considered to be appropriate and provide more detail than most chapters' financial statements. Archie Watt was requested to split postage and administration costs in future financial statements.

5

Publications

 

Shiraz Mistry of Acumen Recruitment has approached DataWatch through Karen Sharpe to include a research questionnaire on the status of the IT Audit Market with a follow up article once the research has been completed. His has indicated that:

  • His company's name will not included in the initial questionnaire
  • The company's name will be included in the article
  • The questionnaire will not ask for respondents' names and employers.
 

The board indicated that they were not keen on this proposal. Actions agreed are:

  • A copy of the questionnaire will be requested and reviewed at a board meeting
  • Contact will be made with Information Security to assess their experience of earlier research attempts.
 

The board made it clear that their reservations are based on:

  • The requirement to be associated with reputable organisations only;
  • Protection of members; and

The impact on the relationship with Barclay Simpson (the board also made it clear that they do consider that this relationship alone should prevent the board from accepting the proposal).

 

Datawatch – General

 
  • This is doing well with thanks going to Nancy (officially recorded). Also the International Chairman Conference was very well received. Responsibilities remain unchanged.
  • There is a continuous requirement for each board member to submit one article and source one during the next year. Next copy date is 14th September 2001.
  • Possible printer changes may reduce our costs
  • There is no current concerns about costs and no requirement to do external benchmarking.
  • There is a suggestion for reward of regular contributors.
 

CPE Hours

 
  • A suggestion was made that there is a requirement to record member meeting attendance and training courses for CPE proving purposes.
  • Due to the overhead required for this activity and the limited benefit, a decision was taken not start record members attendance.
  • For publications there is no requirement for recording as publication is sufficient of the article is proof enough for CPE purposes.
 

Provision of Datawatch to other Chapters

 
  • Hungary is happy with accessing archive copies on website
  • Currently Datawatch is provided to Northern England, the Midlands and Ireland who are paying £1.50 (£3 in January) per copy plus postage.
  • There is a proposal to provide other chapters with content for own publication. This has not been pursued further.
  • Instead, the website version will be further distribution to European chapters with invitation to approach us if they are interested in own publication.

? Karen to take up at next President’s meeting

→ Allan to arrange for a link on international website

  • Data Protection issues on website to be addressed with Archie and Joe by Allan

6

Website

 
  • A general comment was expressed that content on the website is getting old and needs updating.
  • The availability of alternative Internet sources makes SIGs almost redundant. Instead of further updating these, old SIG content will be archived and made available through the website.
  • Conferences – where information is available submit to Alan. Potential advertising revenue is being lost – restrict to ISACA information and other chapter items and BCS
  • The move of the security news feed to the main page has been very eye-catching. (Information provided by Infosec).
  • A specific area for Board members is now available and will be password protected in future.
  • Any further information that needs to be published should be submitted to Alan.
  • Allan will investigate getting events on the international website.

7

Research

 

COBIT 4 has not yet started:

  • The Maturity model currently being worked on
  • This can be supported via ISACA
  • Work is being performed in 2 phases with costs of £20k and £25k respectively
  • Support can be both academically and financially
  • In the past there had been no viable projects for support – this project is identified with locally and would be a proper investment.
  • Involvement will raise the reputation of ISACA amongst the right people.
  • Based on the earlier decision (previous meeting) to invest, this is accepted.
  • Proposal accepted to invest $3,000.

8

Eurocacs 2003

 
  • There is a general feeling that Eurocacs 2003 should be held in London (should be recommended by global programme committee)
  • Involvement from local chapter depends entirely on the chapter ranging from nothing to complete involvement.
  • The following is required:
    • Programme committee → independent from Chapter
    • Organising committee → could be independent
  • Rolling Meadows does most of the organising work
  • 2 possible venues in London are available: QE2 or ExCel
  • Should have 200+ people including 100 from the UK
  • The local chapter has responsibility for sponsorship for events and the welcome reception.
  • The chapter will also have some input into the gala event.
  • The conference is run for profit with an allocation to the local chapter which increases in line with profits.
  • Lobbying is required to get support from the global programme committee. Archie is to make contact with members and discuss their views on London hosting this event.
  • Decision to be taken in September but would require provisional booking of conference centre and hotels.
  • Timing of conference: March 2003
  • Archie to speak to Steve on what he has arranged and to speak to QE2
  • Concern about lack of interest from European delegates due to London cost – might consider international conference due to American participation.

9

External/Inter-Chapter Relations and Alliances

 
  • At a workshop at the Presidents meeting discussions were held on attempts to broaden range of people attending meetings. Hong Kong had success through alliances and cross-participation
  • Agreements are in place with BCS and ICAEW (IT faculty). Attempted with IIA but no success yet due to fragmented structure and perceived competition in computing qualifications.
  • Attempt to improve relations with security professionals such as ISC².
  • Karen, with Allan’s support, will make contact with ISC² and also ICAEW

10

Academic Relations

 

This is a new area to attempt to get to students before qualification through building of relationships with universities and supplying of items such as COBIT: There are 5 universities in UK that provide IS control courses but most provide only Computer Science.

John Mitchell will act as a contact between international and local universities, concentrating on Southern universities which provide the IS Control Course.

No incentives are being applied to students.

11

Subscriptions for 2002

 

Based on discussions and required break-even points, the subscriptions for 2002 are to be increased to to $180 or £115 + £5 for cheque handling.

There is a requirement to give members an indication on what the US does with money allocated to them.

Discussion of Nancy’s increase to be held at next board meeting

Reserves are to be maintained at 100% of predicted expenditure.

 

Home  |  Chapter  |  Board  |  Events  |  SIGs  |  CISA  |  CISM Publications  |  Resources
Conferences
  |  Jobs  |  Library  |  Various  |  Contact   |  Feedback  |  Search

Copyright © 2002.  Information Systems Audit & Control Association London Chapter.  All rights reserved.
Send mail to webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 28 October 2002
Disclaimer and Privacy Statements
Restricted Area