CISA professionals on the rise in Bangalore

BANGALORE: The demand for becoming a certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
is on the rise, especially in Bangalore. This has been displayed with the
Bangalore Chapter of ISACA obligated to launch an extra batch  for the
appearing candidates. The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA),
the governing body administering the CISA exam, holds the exam globally on the
second Saturday in June, every year.

The Bangalore chapter of ISACA conducts classes and imparts training for
candidates who have enrolled to appear for the examination. "For the first
time across all chapters in the country and in all the years of existence in
Bangalore, we have been obligated to start one more exclusively for Sunday too.
Generally the classes are held on Saturday only. This year about 55 people have
enrolled for the classes and 25 more have evinced interest and expect the second
batch to have about 40 candidates," said ISACA’s Bangalore chapter
Director for publicity, V Subramani.

To appear in the examination there is an international membership fee of $
160 and a examination fee of about $ 295 for members and $ 400 for non-members.
The Bangalore chapter of ISACA charges Rs 5,000 for conducting the classes. The
classes are held on either Saturday or Sunday from November to May, every year.
To become a member the qualification criteria is a graduation degree in any
subject and after clearing the CISA exam, a candidate has to satisfy the
criteria of possessing five years of domain expertise.

The Bangalore chapter currently has 175 members, since inception on January
1996, and expects to grow up to 300 by the end of this year. ISACA’s Bangalore
chapter president, G Dwarka Nath said, "Bangalore is the 138th chapter in
the world and second in India. It started with about seven members and its has
grown to about 220 today. Out of these 175 members about 50 have obtained the
CISA certification. We expect a lot more in the coming years as many people have
started showing an avid interest in the examination. Companies and banks are
also encouraging their employees in the IT department to acquire this
certification."

The Bangalore chapter is also organizing a two-day international conference
for the ISACA members in February 2002. The conference will have eight session
of technology paper presentation on information security and audit.