Senior leadership of ASIS International (ASIS) and the Security Industry Association (SIA) formally announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Thursday, April 11, 2013 at ISC West.

The objective of the MOU is to promote collaboration and information sharing between the two leading security industry associations, which represent security management professionals and electronic and physical security solution providers.

The overarching goals of the agreement are to foster growth of the security industry, promote public safety, and protect critical infrastructure globally. Among the issues that may be addressed by the two associations are: privacy concerns over the use of security technologies; the development of an educated security workforce; voluntary consensus standards; and the availability of federal and state financial resources for the protection of critical infrastructure during a time of fiscal austerity.

 “A key strategic SIA goal is to increase our collaboration with organizations within the security industry toward the common goal of protecting critical infrastructure around the globe,” explained SIA chief executive officer Don Erickson. “Combining the expertise of technology leaders from the supplier community within SIA with the vision of leading security practitioners from ASIS will help shape the future direction of the homeland security industry. We can do more working together to achieve our common objectives in the fields of education, government relations, research and standards than we can do on our own.”