Building Resilience with ISACA

Hakan Kantas
Author: Hakan Kantaş, Principal Consultant
Date Published: 15 February 2023

Resilience has become increasingly top-of-mind – especially recently, you may be encountering the term “resilience” in many different areas of IT. It is possible to talk about resilience in almost every field of IT, such as cyber resilience, operational resilience and data resilience.

While the term “recently” refers to the last year for some, others may think of it as the last 10 years. Therefore, I will clarify that I mean the pandemic and its aftermath when referring to “recently.” During this period, we have seen an increase in problems that we do not experience very often, such as war and economic/energy crises. Of course, our objective here is not to touch on these and their causes, but we should be aware of the increase in these negative events so that we can better understand why resilience has started to become such a focal point since the pandemic.

Before continuing, let’s briefly recall what the concept of resilience means. Resilience can be defined as “the ability to ‘bounce back’ from a setback,” although there are many definitions with very similar meanings. For example, resilience can also be defined as “the ability to successfully adapt to difficult or challenging life experiences.” If we think about the pandemic and the troublesome events in the world in the ensuing period, it shouldn’t be surprising that we come across this concept so often in our lives, right?

We started to hear about the concept of “individual resilience,” which is described as mental/emotional resilience, especially during the pandemic. For example, due to the effect of the pandemic in such a short time, outcomes such as having to work completely from home, a strained supply of essentials such as medicine and food, fear of illness and death, and almost no socializing greatly affected our lives.

If you ask me where the location of ISACA on this journey is, let me tell you right away: it is right next to you or right behind you.

If you are looking for a new role, you can increase your opportunities with new credentials offered by ISACA. Do you want to share your expertise and knowledge? You can help other members by authoring articles for ISACA or giving a presentation at an ISACA event. By guiding those who want to open the doors of the IT world through the ISACA Mentorship Program, you can make them more resilient against the career challenges they will encounter. All kinds of possibilities and options that will enable you to become resilient await you in the world of ISACA. There are more alternatives than I can count, both for those who need it and for those who want to support those in need.

ISACA is a huge network that makes all of us more resilient: through education and credentialing, though the sharing of knowledge and best practices, through local chapters that provide great networking opportunities, and by providing enriching volunteering and leadership opportunities. ISACA is one of the largest professional associations in the world and undoubtedly the largest and most powerful family in the world of information systems and digital trust.

I spent the pandemic period preparing presentations, articles and blogs in order to be more involved in various ISACA activities and to share my knowledge with those in need. And I am proud to be a full 12-year GOLD member of ISACA.

I hope all of you find your way to become more resilient through ISACA.