I could sense the excitement and pride in Scott Spiro’s email announcing that his company, Computer Solutions Group of Los Angeles, was among the first to earn the CompTIA Security Trustmark accreditation.

“There are many thousands of IT providers and yet only 25 companies nationwide have earned this accreditation. I want to thank the CSG Team for their hard work over the three-month preparatory period to complete the documentation for this certification as well as the four-hour final assessment,” he wrote. “The Security Trustmark certification establishes Computer Solutions Group, Inc. as a leader in the areas of network security, cloud computing, business continuity, and disaster recovery in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.”

In years past, the mark of excellence among security was the Certified Information Security Systems Professional (CISSP), a grueling and highly competitive individual certification administered by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2). If you were anyone in the security business, you needed this certification. While thousands of security pros working in end user organizations and solution providers hold the credential, little else existed to demonstrate organizational excellence in the delivery of security services.

CompTIA last year launched the Security TrustMark accreditation to give security solution providers the ability to demonstrate their best practices. The assessment process isn’t as grueling as the CISSP, and it’s not as diligent as the ISO organizational security standards. What it does do is provide a foundational, verified assurance to end users that a security solution provider is following best practices in their own operations. The theory is that a solution provider that eats its own dog food will deliver a higher level of care to its customers.

CompTIA, which also administers the technical certification Security+, is making the effort to bolster security solutions and service delivery through community efforts. The Security TrustMark accreditation is just one example of its community-based efforts. Next week, it will host the IT Security Executive Forum in Torrance, Calif., where security solution providers will receive an overview of the evolving threat landscape and discuss what they need, as a community, to deliver better degrees of protection to their customers.

In the security channel, protection and prevention equals peace of mind to the customer and that equals value. What CompTIA wants to do with this security executive forum is identify the information, intelligence and resources needed to ensure security solution providers continue to anticipate threats and deliver value to their customers.

Communal efforts such as CompTIA is more than worthwhile since security solution providers can share their real-world experiences in a common setting, compare notes and draw upon the community’s combined strength to devise responses.

The CompTIA IT Security Executive Forum is meeting Nov. 19 and space is still available.