President's
Message
Joseph Murphy is the InfraGard
Atlanta President
Atlanta
Chapter Update:
Last year was an exceptional year for our Chapter with a near fifty
percent growth in membership. Clearly, the value of InfraGard is becoming
more widely known, across the country 79 Chapters have sprung up with
over 10,000 members being represented. Our ranks continue to swell but
are just a fraction of what this organization will become one day.
Last year was also an exceptional
year in terms of speakers presented for the membership. Your Steering
Committee and Board of Directors worked very hard to bring you some
very notable professionals and to arrange for our meetings to be held
in truly wonderful venues such as the UPS Worldwide Headquarters, Cox
Enterprise’s Corporate Offices and the Corporate Headquarters
office of The Home Depot. The support our Chapter has received from
corporate Atlanta is notable and greatly appreciated. Many of these
venue hosts have volunteered their facilities again for 2004 and 2005
to facilitate our meetings.
The talent presented to our membership
last year was very impressive: from Bob Liscouski of the Department
of Homeland Security, to William Duffy, US Attorney for the State of
Georgia, to former Senator Sam Nunn we were able to create meetings
which we believe were of great value to the membership.
We look to continue that trend throughout
2004 with our first meeting to be held April 6th. We have assembled
an extraordinary panel of experts to address the always present concerns
of business continuity planning in light of convergence issues, emerging
threats and budgetary concerns.
Additionally, through the efforts
of Roger Dixon who Chairs our Education Committee we have presented
monthly “lunch and learns” throughout the second half of
2003, these value-added no cost learning sessions will continue in 2004
to benefit our membership.
InfraGard’s involvement as
an entity with other organizations continues to grow as well. We have
worked with the CyberCrime Summit, the SecureWorld Expo and the Information
Security Executive of the Year Awards Program to name a few. We are
delighted that this year’s recipient of this prestigious award
is not only an InfraGard member but is now a member of our Board of
Directors as well. Additionally, many of our members were nominees for
the ISE Award; we are proud to be surrounded and supported by such notable
professionals.
Discounts:
Just a reminder that InfraGard members receive discounts at The SANS
Institute, MIS Training Institute, and on purchases of publications
from McGraw Hill Publishers (requires a special form).
SecureWorld
Expo:
As an event partner, the Chapter has been given a booth at
the SecureWorld Expo scheduled for May 26-27 at the Cobb Galleria. Chapter
members will receive a discount off the standard registration fee again
this year, more details to follow at a later date.
National
InfraGard Update:
The National Congress is scheduled for June 28th-30th. The Atlanta Delegate
will be Richard Farnham this year, he will be representing the chapter
and voting on national issues for us. Richard is serving our Chapter
Steering Committee for a second term as Treasurer this year.
More information will be presented
concerning the National Congress and issues before the membership when
available.
Personal
Comment:
It is my sincere pleasure to serve as your Chapter President this year,
as the Chapter VP last year I was fortunate to be able to serve with
Pam Crawford who had lead this Chapter to greatness. My single goal
is to continue the exceptional standard she had set for our Chapter
and programs throughout 2004 and to continue to add value wherever possible
for our membership. We are well under way this year with a renewed Board
of Directors, a very competent and experienced Steering Committee and
very strong industry and corporate support.
I have begun working with other like
minded or similar associations to identify opportunities for us to share
resources for the mutual benefit of all. There is a great deal of talent
in this city, much of that talent is already a part of InfraGard but
many people still do not know about us or our mission. It is our responsibility
to continually expand our membership for the benefit or our country
and it’s citizens. We are the next line of defense in the war
against our way of life, many of you are on the battlefield daily defending
your companies against cyber attacks and other threats, we recognize
that and want to offer you the tools you need to be successful in your
efforts to protect our nation’s infrastructure. At the same time
we need to build our ranks and come together to prepare for whatever
comes next, a new worm or virus, a zero-day attack or some threat we
have not seen or imagined as yet. We have the talent to address these
concerns, only through the active exchange of information and resources
will we meet and defeat our future threats. I look forward to standing
with you in this effort.
Joseph
Murphy
770.414.7958
