ISACA Singapore Chapter Annual Report 2014/2015
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ISACA Singapore Chapter
Annual Report 2014/2015
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 1
Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 2
Chapter Administration ............................................................................................................. 3
K. Wayne Snipes Award – Special Mention ............................................................................... 4
Industry Outreach ...................................................................................................................... 4
Industry Collaborations .......................................................................................................... 5
Monthly Seminars ...................................................................................................................... 6
Workshops ................................................................................................................................. 7
Certification Review Course ....................................................................................................... 8
Membership ............................................................................................................................... 8
Members’ Movie Night .......................................................................................................... 8
Members’ Year-End Dinner 2014.......................................................................................... 9
Membership Breakdown ....................................................................................................... 9
GTACS 2015 .............................................................................................................................. 10
Member Services ..................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter Library .................................................................................................................... 12
Job Postings .......................................................................................................................... 12
Financials .................................................................................................................................. 12
Moving Forward ....................................................................................................................... 13
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 2
Introduction
ISACA Singapore Chapter is a volunteer-run non-profit association, representing ISACA
members based in Singapore. The chapter organizes both educational and recreational
activities to benefit ISACA members in their professional pursuits in the areas of IT Audit,
Governance, Compliance and Cybersecurity.
Setup in 1983, over 30 years ago, in Singapore, the chapter has grown to over 2000 members.
Many of its members hold at least one ISACA certifications, including the Certified
Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified
in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) and Certified in the Governance of Enterprise
IT (CGEIT). With the introduction of the Cybersecurity Fundamentals Certificate launched by
ISACA, the chapter is poised to play a bigger role in the Cybersecurity community in Singapore.
In pursuit of these objectives, the chapter organizes both regular and ad-hoc activities for its
members. Many of them support the CPE points requirements of ISACA certifications,
providing a convenient and effective way to satisfy the continuing educational aspirations of
its members. Key activities include:
Monthly Seminars & Networking Dinner
o Organized monthly, this three-hour activity includes a sumptuous networking
dinner, followed by an educational talk on a topic of interest. Participants get
to network with one another, as well as, to pick up new knowledge in support
of their career objectives.
Annual conference – GTACS
o This flagship conference of the Singapore chapter aims to provide an
opportunity to local members to participate in knowledge-rich sessions, led by
local and international experts in the areas of Governance, IT Audit,
Compliance and Cybersecurity.
Certification review courses
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 3
o The chapter organizes certification review courses to help certification
aspirants gain essential knowledge required to pass the ISACA certification
examinations. Experienced and knowledgeable practicing professionals are
engaged to deliver these courses.
Recreational Networking activities
o Organized throughout the year, these events provide opportunities for
members to meet and network with one another, in a relaxing atmosphere.
Past events include movie nights, social outings and dinner.
Chapter Administration
For many years, the chapter has relied on professional secretariat services. In such
arrangements, the service provider undertook to provide manpower to perform common
secretariat and administrative services as required by the chapter. With the increased
number of activities organized by the chapter, along with a corresponding increase in the
scale and complexity, this arrangement is no longer tenable. Essentially, the chapter requires:
A dedicated team of administrators to provide continuity in following up the chapter
activities and administrative activities.
Higher level of service to be provided to members and partners alike.
Continuity in following up on keeping accounting records of the various activities.
To further exacerbate the problem CEMS, the then secretariat service provider, informed the
chapter in May 2014 that it was unable to continue providing secretariat services to ISACA
Singapore Chapter due to the lack of manpower and the complexity of the chapter’s
requirements.
In June 2014, when the current board took office, it decided to move ahead with a plan to
setup the chapter’s own office and to hire its own staff, dubbed as ‘Secretariat 2.0’. In July
2014, the chapter established its very own office at 27 West Coast Highway in a serviced office
environment. The chapter identified and hired 2 staff to manage the chapter’s
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 4
administration. Due to the tight labour market and the dearth of suitably qualified personnel,
the chapter saw several staff turnover, which hindered some of the chapter’s planned
activities. However, the chapter board took it in its stride and ensured its major activities
were carried out.
It was only in March 2015, when the chapter finally managed to secure the services of 3
dedicated staff who have served the chapter till now. Moving forward, the chapter hopes to
deliver on its intention to improve the chapter’s operations, thereby ramping up its activities,
as well as, to provide more and better services to its members.
K. Wayne Snipes Award – Special Mention
For the year 2014, the Singapore Chapter has been awarded the inaugural Special Mention
for the K. Wayne Snipes Award. In winning this award, ISACA recognizes the Singapore
Chapter’s efforts in being one of the chapters in strong contention for the K. Wayne Snipes
Award.
Industry Outreach
The chapter remains connected with the industry, by engaging with technology leaders as
well as relevant industry associations. In particular, the chapter has engaged with the
following through various activities :
Company Engagement
Blue Coat Sponsorship of 1 Monthly Seminar and CISO event
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 5
ACL Sponsorship of 1 Monthly Seminar and GTACS 2015
HP Sponsorship of 1 Monthly Seminar and GTACS 2015
Relevant industry associations play a crucial role for the chapter through joint activities and
reciprocal arrangements to allow members of both parties to participate in each other’s
activities at special rates.
A key event was the signing of a new MOU between ISACA Singapore Chapter and the IT
Service Management Forum – Singapore Chapter. Mr. Vinay Jain, president of iTSMF
Singapore Chapter signed the MOU with ISACA Singapore Chapter on the first day of GTACS
2015 at Sands Convention Centre, on 3 March 2015.
Industry Collaborations
The chapter continues to maintain relationships with relevant organizations, both non-profit
and technology leaders. In particular, through these collaborations, the chapter seeks to
obtain privileges and value for its members, either in the form of complimentary access or
discounted passes for ISACA members.
Where offered, the chapter has set up a presence in major local conferences and seminars,
including:
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 6
CLOUDSEC Congress Singapore (2-4 September 2014)
Cloud Expo 2014 (28-29 October 2014)
Interpol World 2015 (14-16 April 2015)
These opportunities allow the chapter to publicize the awareness of ISACA as an association,
as well as its offerings, including COBIT 5 and the 4 certifications.
Monthly Seminars
ISACA Singapore Chapter continues its highly successful Monthly Seminars & Networking
Dinner series. Each month, the chapter invites relevant speakers to provide educational talks
to members. At the same time, members get to network among one another. In the period
2014/2015, we were able to work with key technology leaders who were kind to support the
chapter’s activities through sponsorship of the event, creating value for chapter members.
Through this monthly activity, members are able to clock valuable CPE hours in support of
their various ISACA certifications.
Date Topic Speaker
17 Jun 2014 Are you Ready for FATCA? Rohit Johri
21 Jul 2014 Anatomy of a Breach. Evolve your Approach to Cybersecurity.
Unmesh Deshmukh
19 Aug 2014 Static Analysis in Software Development: Software Security Perspectives
Tin Aung Win
16 Sep 2014 Continuous Monitoring – The Missing Piece to Security Operation (SOC) today
Matthias Yao
8 Oct 2014 Introduction and Overview on Enterprise Governance of IT with CoBIT 5
Leonard Ong
18 Nov 2014 Being Relevant: What you need to know about next-generation audit technology
Ross Paul
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 7
Date Topic Speaker
16 Dec 2014 Business IT Integration Is Key for Successful Enterprise Architecture Implementation
Aaron Tan Dani
23 Jan 2015 Building a PCI Compliant Application Security Program
Sandeep Nain
10 Feb 2015 Intellectual Property Protection for the IS Professional
Rohit Johri
16 Apr 2015 Analysis of Privileged Users' Activities - An Auditor's Look at Key Issues
Samuel Lim
A total of 540 participants have attended the monthly seminars, which translate to 1,080 CPE
points generated by the chapter for members’ continuing educational benefits.
The chapter continued to make available to its members, the Annual Pass 2015, which allows
holders to attend all the monthly seminars at an attractive rate. This not only provides
members with an opportunity to earn valuable CPE points on their certifications, but also to
do it at an affordable cost. From the chapter’s perspective, this arrangement increases the
attendance rate of the monthly seminars, ensuring its continued success. The chapter would
like to thank its members who have supported the chapter by purchasing the Annual Pass
2015.
Workshops
The chapter organizes workshops at competitive rates for members in support of the
chapter’s mission to provide meaningful educational opportunities. In the year 2014/2015,
the chapter organized the following workshops.
Date Workshop
16-18 June 2014 Combined COBIT 5 Foundation Certification + Information
Security Workshop
23-24 Aug 2014 COBIT 5 Foundation + Information Security Workshop
25-26 Aug 2014 COBIT 5 Assessor Course
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 8
Date Workshop
27-28 Aug 2014 COBIT 5 Implementer Course
29 Aug 2014 COBIT 5 Assessor & Implementer Exam
Certification Review Course
In support of the ISACA 4 certifications, the chapter continues to organize certification review
courses. Review courses were organized in May, August and November 2014, and May 2015.
Generally, CISA, CISM and CRISC review courses continue to be in demand. The chapter will
continue to review the format of its certification review courses to increase participation and
to help certification aspirants to successfully pass the examinations.
In H2 2014 and H1 2015, the following review courses were organized by the chapter. They
include :
Course Dates
CISA Review Course May & Aug 2014, May 2015
CISM Review Course May 2014
CRISC Review Course Nov 2014
CISA Review Course (Customized for Standard Chartered Singapore)
7-9 Oct 2014
Membership
Members’ Movie Night
Members were given a treat on 31 July 2014 at Golden Village, Vivo City for the screening of
‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie. Over 120 members and guests were present, making the
event a huge success.
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 9
Members’ Year-End Dinner 2014
The annual Members’ Year-End Dinner 2014 was held on 25 November 2014 at the Hard Rock
Café in Resorts World Sentosa. Over 100 members attended the event, and the general
feedback was great.
Membership Breakdown
The membership of the chapter has maintained its membership numbers well into 2015. As
of 30 March 2015, the chapter membership figure is 2190, which is 4% higher than the same
period in 2014 when the number was 2101.
Of the membership, the breakdown of certifications held by members are :
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 10
Certification Breakdown (Data as at 1 May 2015)
GTACS 2015
The Governance, Technology Audit, Control & Security (GTACS) conference 2015 was held on
3-5 March 2015 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. This year, the conference was a
success, which saw over 120 delegates with many prominent figures in attendance. In
particular, Mr. Robert Stroud, ISACA International President 2015, and Mr. Matthew Loeb,
ISACA CEO, were in town to join the local ISACA community on the first day of the conference.
Mr. Loeb delivered the Opening Address, while Mr. Stroud presented a Keynote presentation.
CGEIT, 89
CRISC, 244
CISA, 1240
CISM, 444
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 11
Key highlights of the conference include presentations by prominent speakers from
Information Security Forum (ISF), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Infocomm
Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Microsoft.
Mr. Steve Durbin, Managing Director of ISF delivered the conference workshop on Cyber
Security on 5 March 2015. A total of 30 participants signed up for the workshop, which has
been a success.
Member Services
With the setup of the chapter’s own secretariat, the board has initiated various services, some
of which were either new, or discontinued earlier. The following services have been initiated
so far :
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 12
Chapter Library
The chapter has restocked its library with the latest offerings, mainly from ISACA
International, including the review manuals for the four certifications and their respective
review questions and supplements. To meet the needs and demands of members, the
chapter has acquired additional copies of the books for them to be loaned out to members.
Job Postings
The chapter has initiated a job postings page within its website. Available positions
communicated to the chapter will be posted for the information and interest of its members.
The positions described are those which are relevant to the general body of ISACA members
in Singapore. Members whose organizations which are sourcing for talent can contact the
chapter for the postings to be posted on our website.
Financials
The chapter increased its membership dues from US$20 to US$40 for the year 2015. This was
mainly due to increased cost of running the chapter activities, especially in the area of hiring
personnel and also a dedicated office space.
In spite of this, the chapter needs to explore and find additional sources of income to support
the various activities and benefits to its members. For example, the movie night and
members’ dinner were either free or heavily subsidized. In this regard, the chapter has
successfully acquired these funds from the sponsorship of GTACS conference, provision of
email blasting services to members, workshops and sponsorship of the monthly seminars.
I am happy to report that the chapter, for the year 2014, has manged a surpulus of over
$35,000. This is especially impressive, given the general increase in the cost of operating in
Singapore, and the fact that the increased membership dues were not fully factored into the
figures for 2014.
ISACA SINGAPORE CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT 2014/2015 13
Moving Forward
As a volunteer-run non-profit organization, ISACA Singapore Chapter has grown
tremendously in the last 32 years. As the world becomes more connected, and more
dependent on technology for critical and strategic purposes, ISACA members are poised to
play a leading role in ensuring the efficient and effective use of Information Technology. With
the current focus on Cybersecurity, and the efforts of ISACA International, the chapter hopes
to be a prominent agent of change in Singapore’s landscape. Let’s work together to further
our profession and our cause.
Yours sincerely,
John Lim, CISA CISM CGEIT CRISC
President (2014/2015)
ISACA Singapore Chapter
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