TOP STORY: OCIO nominated for Information Security Leadership Award

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of the Chief Information Officer has been nominated for the prestigious (ISC)² Government Information Security Leadership Award for Community Awareness.

According to the (ISC)² website, the award recognizes U.S. federal information security personnel who have significantly contributed to building or broadening security awareness within the federal workforce.

Regional Information Assurance Manager acting Program Manager Charles Mader and his team (including Alex Ruiz, Maureen Premo, John Xintaras Jr., David Blackman, Clarence Williams, Paul Zedeck, Jerry Shannon, Steve Kata, Marie Howell and Mary Merritt) were nominated because of their work with the ICE Social Engineering Training.

The training addresses several social engineering security risk areas that have been identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The training ensures that employees are cognizant of social engineering risks, such as leaving usernames and passwords, keys and badges, credit cards, sensitive personally identifiable information, server names, and external and internal drives unsecured and in plain sight.

The goal of the program is to close these findings, prevent them from reoccurring and educate the users on ways to prevent unintentional data spills through their own vigilance and awareness.

"We have measurable and documented results," said Mader. "We have been holding in-person and [video teleconferencing] training and we have also been conducting actual exercises. I think the team did a phenomenal job; it’s stunning for us to be nominated for this award."

Established in 2004, the award recognizes federal information security employees "who are modeling excellence and achieving clear results as they help to build a more secure federal [information technology] infrastructure and a highly qualified and ethical information security workforce."

"Getting an award from (ISC)² is like getting an 'Emmy’ in Information Security," said Chief Information Officer Thomas Michelli.