Media Contacts:

Amie Sabourin Executive Alliance Marketing Director Phone: 404.982.8562 E-mail: asabourin@execalliance.com

ATLANTA, Ga., January 5, 2005 – Executive Alliance, Inc. announced today the opening of the Call For Nominations for the Information Security Executive of the Year Midwest Awards™ 2005 (ISE Midwest Awards 2005). Nomination forms for this prestigious award are currently available at www.infosecaward.com and will be accepted until Friday, March 4, 2005. The winner of this prestigious award will be named at an evening Award Ceremony on Thursday, May 12, 2005 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, IL.

Built upon the foundation of very successful award programs celebrating security executives in the southeast and on a national basis, the ISE Midwest Award will be presented to a chief security officer or an executive in an equivalent position who has overall responsibility for network and/or Internet security who demonstrates outstanding leadership in the field of information security in the Midwest.

Since this award applauds the information security pioneers whom have made a contribution to their organization and the industry, nominations are encouraged from security executives in all private and public companies, as well as government agencies and academic institutions. These nominees will be evaluated by a distinguished panel of industry experts and past ISE nominees and winners.

“With such great recent success at our national awards program in Washington D.C. and our past history in Atlanta of sell out crowds, moving to the Midwest region to recognize the professionals in the security industry is a great fit for us”, stated Marci McCarthy, CEO of Executive Alliance, Inc. “These award events really bring together the community; family, peers, friends and the media turn out to celebrate the successes of the nominees and their companies.”

Nominee Criteria

The Information Security Executive of the Year is defined as a leader who guides the effective use of information/Internet/network security to improve his or her company's cyber security posture while proactively implementing security technology and processes. This person can be a CSO, CISO, CTO, CIO, vice president, director or manager from IT, networking or security departments, but cannot be a network security vendor or service provider. Other characteristics of the Information Security Executive should include the following:

• Must be primarily responsible for the information security performance of the company or organization as well as tactical security and business decisions
• Promotes a security vision that supports the organization’s strategy
• Must be a member of management
• Must have a proven track record of information security leadership
• Must be employed by a business or oversee the security infrastructure of a subsidiary that is located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio or Wisconsin
• Creates a work environment that are positive and rewarding to employees
• All nominees are asked to attend the awards reception and gala on the evening of
  May 12, 2005 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, IL.

Nominations must be received by Friday, March 4, 2005 via email to iseMidwest@infosecaward.com or by fax to 404.633.4492.

About the ISE Midwest Award 2005 Sponsors

The Information Security Executive of the Year Midwest Award 2005, a property of Executive Alliance, Inc. is brought to the business community by the following sponsors: Megabyte – Intellitactics and Lancope; Kilobyte – Courion; Media – Network Computing, Network Magazine, and Secure Enterprise.

About Executive Alliance and ISE Awards

Based upon the success of previous ISE Award Galas, Executive Alliance, the premier provider of leadership-recognition forums, launched the ISE Award Program Series to recognize outstanding leadership and exemplary achievement in the field of information security. Nominees are information security pioneers from private, public, government and academic institutions that have made contributions to their organizations and the security industry. Previously, the ISE Georgia Award was presented to Rich Baich, CISO of ChoicePoint, in 2004 and to Monique Shivanandan, VP of IT Strategy, Security and Business Continuity for BellSouth, in 2003. Ann Garrett, the CISO of the State of North Carolina was the winner of the ISE National Award in 2004. In 2005, the ISE Award Program Series will include the ISE Southeast Award (Atlanta, GA), ISE Midwest Award (Chicago, IL), ISE New England Award (Boston, MA), ISE Tri-State Award (New York, NY) and the ISE National Award (Washington, DC). For more information, please visit www.infosecaward.com.

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