(ISC)² Announces Winners of 13th Annual US Government Information Security Leadership Awards

From the Career Achiever to the Up-and-Comer, This Year’s Honorees are Recognized for Going the Distance in the Government’s Cybersecurity Marathon

Washington, D.C., U.S.A., May 19, 2016 – (ISC)^2® (“ISC-squared”) today announced the winners of its 13^th annual U.S.Government Information Security Leadership Awards (GISLA^®) program during a gathering of government cybersecurity executives at the GISLA Gala in Washington, D.C.

A judging committee of senior cybersecurity experts from (ISC)²’s U.S. Government Advisory Council (USGAC) and industry assessed individual and team achievements of a select group of nominees and awarded GISLAs in seven distinct categories.

The 2016 GISLA recipients are as follows:

Technology Improvement – Individual Category

Preston Werntz, chief of technology services for the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) is a member of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) team known as the Automated Indicator Sharing initiative (AIS) that works to drive federal-civilian bi-directional threat information sharing. Mr. Werntz led the implementation of the AIS initiative at the NCCIC and successfully drove AIS to operation. His efforts to improve threat information sharing have led to near real information sharing across 50+ non-federal entities with 10 department and agency participants.

Process/Policy Improvement – Individual Category

Gregory Touhill, U.S. Air Force brigadier general (retired), deputy assistant secretary (DAS) of DHS’ Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) leads DHS efforts to secure federal civilian networks, help the private sector manage cyber risk, coordinate interagency response to cyber incidents of national significance and engage with DHS’ international partners. DAS Touhill led the team that managed the response to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach, creating processes that focused on the best outcome for people – both the victims and the responders. Overall, DAS Touhill’s efforts have helped to build, exercise and transform DHS processes for working with critical partners across the country and around the world.  

Workforce Improvement – Individual Category

Robert Collins, CISSP, CAP, CISO of the Indian Health Service (IHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the principal healthcare advocate and provider for American Indians and Alaska Natives and directs the IHS Division of Information Security (DIS). Mr. Collins’ efforts to modernize the IHS cybersecurity program resulted in the establishment of award-winning cybersecurity awareness campaigns. Because of his leadership, the agency has increasingly built trust and a partnership with Tribes by showing transparency in processes and increased confidence in the security program.

Up-and-Coming Information Security Professional – Individual Category

Azzar Nadvi, just two years after graduating from college, serves as assistant to the Director of the Cyber Joint Program Management Office (JPMO) at DHS.  After President Obama signed the Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations Executive Order, DHS had to move quickly to build a coalition of existing information sharing organizations. With limited resources, Azzar was placed into a role typically reserved for a more senior member of the staff. In all circumstances, he exemplified leadership and professionalism beyond his years. As a result of Azzar and his peers’ contributions, the ISAO Standards Organization was stood up in record time – less than 7 months.

Community Awareness – Team Category

Led by David Rosinski,information systems security manager (ISSM), the Naval Computer & Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic, Detachment Rota, Spain team reached the majority of the 10,000 people associated with the U.S. military in Rota, Spain, changing awareness training from a one-way message to a two-way dialogue. As a result, there have not been any cyber incidents on the local network tied to user behavior since before October 2015.

Most Valuable Industry Partner (MVIP) – Team Category

Cisco’s Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), developed by Al Huger, vice president of engineering, is an overarching inter-architecture project that ties together Cisco security products to create one holistic security ecosystem. The AMP technology allows end-users to connect security products and endpoints into one homogenous system that communications within itself to find breaches. The system can then educate all components within the system to handle the breach. As a result, Cisco’s government customers are spending less human resources to monitor network health. In the long run, AMP is helping the government safely leverage network solutions to best serve their constituents.

F. Lynn McNulty Tribute Award

Richard Hale, deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity for the Department of Defense (DoD), acts as CISO for the government’s largest agency and ostensibly its most targeted. A man highly respected across the DoD, the government and industry for his wide reaching and deep technical knowledge and dedication to ensuring dependable mission execution in the face of cyber warfare, he continually fosters collaboration through his respectful and thoughtful, yet decisive, leadership style. His career has been marked by achievements of far-reaching significance to not only the DoD, but also the American public.

For more information on the GISLA program, including past recipients, selection criteria and eligibility requirements, please visit www.isc2.org/gisla.  

About (ISC)²^® 
Formed in 1989, (ISC)² is the largest not-for-profit membership body of certified cyber, information, software and infrastructure security professionals worldwide, with over 114,000 members in more than 160 countries. Globally recognized as the Gold Standard, (ISC)² issues the Certified Authorization Professional (CAP^®), Certified Cyber Forensics Professional (CCFP^®), Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP^®), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP^®) and related concentrations, Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP^®), HealthCare Information Security and Privacy Practitioner (HCISPP^®) and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP^®) credentials to qualifying candidates. (ISC)²’s certifications are among the first information technology credentials to meet the stringent requirements of ISO/IEC Standard 17024, a global benchmark for assessing and certifying personnel. (ISC)² also offers education programs and services based on its CBK^®, a compendium of information and software security topics. More information is available at www.isc2.org. 

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Media Contact:

 Courtney Jewell Beveridge 
Extension Group                 
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