GSE UK Security Working Group – February 2021
What a great start to 2021 for the GSE UK Enterprise Security Working Group (ESWG). On the 4th February we held our winter meeting and it was a great success. The agenda featured over 8 hours of content, covering a variety of topics to cater for Mainframers and Security people from all walks of life. We tried something new for the Working Group, which was a panel discussion to debate passwords – it was certainly a lively discussion with lots of great input from the audience – maybe we should have our own chat show! I think its safe to say that we will have more panel discussions going forward.
The meeting attracted 108 registrations from different countries – it was great to see so many people making the effort to join us live. For some it was an early start time (like 4am), but I am told by those folks it was totally worth getting up at that time to tune in!
Some feedback we received so far . . .
“Hi guys, thanks for the great event yesterday – I really enjoyed it and learned loads, some very interesting stuff to have a quiet contemplate about now it is over”
“It was a great day with lots of valuable content!”
“Thoroughly enjoyed the day. Interesting topics.”
“I thought yesterday went brilliantly, and I was being sincere right at the start of my presentation when I said that it’s so good to be in the hands of such professionals as you and the team. Thanks again for keeping the community going so strongly, it’s really important to people as people, way beyond the day-job aspects.”
As the meeting was virtual, we continued to attract some new presenters and first-time attendees. Virtual meetings can be challenging to run, but not for this meeting. Once again, Zoom did us proud and I can say with confidence that we had 100% uptime for the whole meeting.
In the meeting, I announced that our spring Security Working Group meeting will take place on the 10th June 2021 – once again, this will be a virtual only. We are currently looking for presenters, so if you are interested please email me your proposal. We are particularly keen to hear from user presenters – attendees love to learn about real life stories, so if you have a story or problem to share, we want to hear from you! Vendors are most welcome too.
I also announced in the meeting that we made some changes to the Working Group committee – these changes ensure we have a good representation from the user community. During 2020, the following people joined as ESWG committee members, so please join me in welcoming them:
Valerie Hanham (TESCO)
Beth Newman-Jones (Lloyds Banking Group)
James King (Lloyds Banking Group)
Finally, a big thank you to all of you who attended the winter meeting and to all presenters for taking the time to come and present. We have a great community and long may it continue.
Stay tuned to the GSE UK Region Website for more updates on the next Working Group meeting and indeed other meetings, including the Annual Conference.
Jamie Pease CISA, CISM, CDPSE, CISSP, CITP, MBCS – Chairman of the GSE UK Security Working Group