IISFA Is Irrelevant

For the past several months, I've been receiving notices from "Marcus Lawson - ISFA" of the International Information Systems Forensics Association. IISFA is the organization that awards the Certified Information Forensics Investigator™ (CIFI) Certification. I initially thought this would be a good certification for the reasons outlined in that post and previous posts linked within it.

The emails from IISFA have said the following.

Subject: Your International Information Systems Forensics Association membership is past due for renewal.

Dear Richard,

I have good news and bad news:

Bad news: your membership has, or is about to expire to the Information Systems Forensics Association. This means you will no longer be a part of the "Global Voice of Information Forensics;" you will not longer receive "The Information Forensics Journal;" and you will no longer be able to participate in ISFA events; internationally or locally.

Good news: You can renew your membership and continue to be a part of the excitement of investigative and scientific discovery for another year.

We hope you will continue to enjoy the benefits of ISFA for another year.

Sincerely,

Michelle Bourque, CISSP International Director of Membership International Information Systems Forensics Association

Your International Information Systems Forensics Association membership expired on 01/20/2006. Please take advantage of our limited time grace period offer and renew by 2/19/2006 to continue receiving all the benefits we have to offer.

Member Name: Richard Bejtlich,
Current Membership Type: Member
Membership Start Date: 01/06/2005
Membership Expiration Date: 01/20/2006

I've tried sending this response to multiple email addresses. No one has responded.

I've received mutliple renewal notices regarding my IISFA membership. They say:

Bad news: your membership has, or is about to expire to the Information Systems Forensics Association [sic].

Isn't it IISFA, the International Information Systems Forensics Association?

The email then says:

you will not [sic] longer receive "The Information Forensics Journal;"

Has there been any new issue of IFJ since the July/August 2004 issue?

The email continues:

you will no longer be able to participate in ISFA [sic] events; internationally or locally.

Have there been any IISFA events? I was scheduled to speak at the 22 Sep 04 meeting in Georgia, but I haven't heard anything about IISFA meetings since that event was cancelled (due to tragedy).

The most recent news item at iisfa.org dates from April 2005.

Overall, I do not get the impression that IISFA is offering much of value to me. Why should I renew membership?

Why should I renew, indeed? Has anyone gotten anything of value from IISFA, period? I plan to let membership lapse and my CIFI standing disappear.