Celebrating a decade of SIG-ISM achievements

The Special Interest Group for Information Security Management (SIG-ISM) reached a significant milestone of 10 years, celebrating with a meeting hosted by RedIRIS at their Madrid offices on 7-8 October 2025. The event brought together 23 representatives from the GÉANT community to not only reflect on the group’s achievements so far, but to look ahead to the future of SIG-ISM.

The meeting opened with a welcome lunch, providing an opportunity for introductions and reconnections ahead of the sessions. The long-standing steering committee members including Alf Moens (GÉANT), Urpo Kaila (CSC), and Rolf Sture Normann (Sikt), guided participants through a journey of SIG-ISM’s first decade highlighting key milestones and memorable moments that have shaped the group’s evolution.

Following this, the current steering committee presented its work and invited all participants to actively engage in small-group discussions to suggest ideas to share the future direction of the group by updating the SIG-ISM charter. From this, the Steering Committee will propose a new charter that will be approved by SIG-ISM members and the GÉANT Community Committee (GCC). The first day’s session concluded with updates from GÉANT’s CISO, Ana Alves, who shared insights from their recent ISO 27001 certification process, and with Alf Moens inviting input for upcoming CTO workshops on GÉANT’s strategic priorities.

In the afternoon, a panel on Security and Compliance, featuring Cynthia Wagner (Restena), Tangui Coulouarn (DeiC), Antonio Fuentes (RedIRIS), and Urpo Kaila (CSC), presented their organisation’s challenges to certification and compliance. This encouraged further discussions through to the end of the session. That evening, participants enjoyed a cultural tour through the city centre of Madrid, followed by a social dinner hosted by RedIRIS.

The next day started with an early morning presentation by Nicole Harris (GÉANT) on Secure Communications, highlighting a key message not to limit this to the CSIRT and Security specialists. This was followed by another panel session on Artificial Intelligence, including its challenges and opportunities, from expert perspectives, featuring Mirojay Dobski (PCSS for A.I.), Magdalena Rzaca (GÉANT for Privacy and Legal), Andy Roebuck (GÉANT for Security) and Maria Isabel (CSUC, SIG-NOC for Network).

The final session started with a presentation from Cérdic Bonhomme (CIRCL) who introduced the newly launched Vulnerability Lookup tool. Open table discussions followed this, creating the opportunity for spontaneous presentations, experience sharing, and opportunities for further collaboration. The meeting finished with an open lunch leaving participants the opportunity to engage in small group discussions before saying their goodbyes.

SIG-ISM extends sincere thanks to Antonio Fuentes and the RedIRIS team for kindly hosting the SIG-ISM meeting and providing excellent facilities and catering that helped make the special anniversary meeting a success.

Meet the new SIG-ISM Steering Committee:

Chair: Michel Gerdes (DFN-CERT)
Rolf Sture Normann (SIKT)
Urpo Kaila (CSC)
Cynthia Wagner (Restena)
Kathrin Schopen (JCS)
Ana Alves (GÉANT)
Coordinator: Annette Aylward (GÉANT)

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