Each week, we’ll highlight a major city in the US and cover the places and events you can go to in that area to get your security information fix. This post is part of the information security communities.
Boise is an idyllic cluster of low rise buildings amid a sea of greenery and rolling hills. It’s postcard perfect and offers lots of great outdoors adventures. That’s not to say it doesn’t have any local professional groups.
- Boise ISSA – Just concluded their second meeting for this year last week. For queries and briefings on their upcoming activities, go here.
- OWASP Boise – The chapter meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month. A March 25 event is already scheduled. To get in touch they have a mailing list.
- AITP Boise – A student chapter in Boise State University. This small group have no immediate plans or events scheduled.
- Boise Infragard – Not a full fledged chapter but there is a point man/representative at Boise who can be reached.
There is only one hackerspace of note in Boise.
- The Faculty – A small group whose HQ is in the intersection of Rose and S. Latah streets. They can be reached thru email. (Click on the link.)
There might be a few groups and events we missed. If so, feel free to chime in at the comments.
The Boise Security Community is definitely small. I will not claim to know them all, but after a few years in town, I believe that I have met most of them. The majority are from the local businesses (Hp, Micron, SuperValue, etc.), utilities, (Idaho Power, Intermountain Gas, United Water, etc.) and government entities (City of Boise, City of Nampa, and various departments of the State and Federal government) large enough to support having any dedicated security resources and the local vendor technical resources. There are also a few telecommuters, travel consultants, and college faculty who live or work in town.
The local ISSA seems to have the biggest following, mostly this is from the CISAs and CISMs looking for CPEs.
The local Infragard chapter is small with the minimal number of meetings, and I believe they are looking for a new chapter president.
There is also a local HTCIA chapter, mostly the same members as Infragard but with a few more physical security people.
There is also a local IEEE chapter, but there are not enough members to support a Security & Privacy group at this time.
The local college campuses (BSU, CWI, etc.) occasionally play host to SANS training. Boise is also about to have another testing day for ISC2, which will likely lead to a sharp increase in the number of CISSPs in town.
The annual Interface conference seems to get most of the most of the working information security professionals in Boise to show up for a free lunch, but they are also mixed in with the general IT crowd. If someone is interested in getting into security community, any of the groups already mentioned should suffice as gateway into this small but diverse group.