ISACA Advocacy is happy to report on a busy and successful past few months including events in Washington, D.C., and Dublin, Ireland.
In September, seven US chapters sent representatives to Washington for a day full of member advocacy. It was a great opportunity for our chapters to work together and engage with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Topics included cyber workforce strategy and artificial intelligence, both very hot topics in Washington and around the world. These meetings were timed well as the Biden Administration released its executive order on AI a few weeks after our event.
A few weeks later, ISACA’s VP of Publishing, Shannon Donahue, returned to Capitol Hill to participate in the Future of Work Caucus Briefing on these same topics. She presented to lawmakers about the cybersecurity workforce shortage and noted that 48% of companies are reporting more cyberattacks than ever, which presents a real problem. Congressmen heard directly from Shannon that ISACA and many other organizations are developing a pipeline of entry-level cybersecurity professionals, but more can be done. A large part of ISACA advocacy is showing leaders that we are part of the solution!
In October, ISACA was also invited by Rep. Eric Swalwell to his inaugural cyber summit to help small businesses. ISACA participated in the event, which explored both public and private responses to cyberattacks with experts from around the country.
Meanwhile, also in October, ISACA Europe was busy on the advocacy front as well. ISACA held its successful Digital Trust World conference in Dublin, where chapter leaders, IT and IS professionals, and institutional representatives met to learn and discuss key global and European trends around digital trust, audit, governance, privacy, cybersecurity and emerging technologies. The conference was a great opportunity for ISACA to convey its key advocacy messages and recommendations to build a trustworthy digital ecosystem in Europe. During the conference, an ad hoc roundtable session took place with EU policymakers, business officials and academia experts to discuss the importance of a skilled workforce for Europe’s Digital Decade.
The conference marked a positive step for ISACA’s 2023 advocacy agenda in Europe, which saw many impactful achievements over the past few months. In particular, ISACA’s participation in key EU and international initiatives and forums, such as the European Commission’s Cyber Skills Academy and the UK DSIT activity on corporate governance and emerging technologies, contributed to the increasingly acknowledged role of ISACA as a credible interlocutor and partner in the region.
In order to contribute to the efforts of filling Europe’s worrisome skills gap that is limiting the digital transformation of the European economy and society, ISACA continues its engagement with the relevant European leaders and actors from both the public and private sectors, and supports the advocacy activity held by its regional chapters for this purpose.
ISACA Advocacy looks forward to continued impact in 2024, with emphasis on artificial intelligence-related policy.
Editor’s note:To learn more about the data ISACA shared with these government leaders, access ISACA’s 2023 State of Cybersecurity Report and Generative AI pulse poll data.
