Government Security News

(ISC)² announces U.S. Government Information Security
Leadership Award winners
(ISC)2 has recognized leaders in advancing
the government’s cyber security
mission with its annual U.S.
Government Information Security
Leadership Awards (GISLA).
At the May 14 event, the
nonprofit organization of certified
information and software security
professionals announced individual
and team winners in seven
categories during a gathering of
government information security
executives at the GISLA Gala in
Washington, D.C.
These top leaders are
working to mature the government’s
cyber world, encourage
others in professionalism and
training, streamline operations
and share ways to fight emerging
threats. The honorees represent
the best in the industry,
across all levels within the U.S.
government community, according
to Dan Waddell, CISSP,
CAP, PMP, (ISC)² director of
U.S. Government Affairs.
“Competition is tough every
year, but this year seemed
especially challenging,” Waddell
said. “The finalists’ scores were
often separated by a very thin
margin, which really speaks to
their commitment to excellence and
dedication to advancing the security
posture of government.”
The (ISC)²’s 2015 Global Information
Security Workforce
Study shows the gap between the
need of qualified information security
professionals and the supply is
negatively impacting government
security readiness and existing
workers’ morale. “This year’s GISLA
recipients are those who have persisted—and
prevailed—in the midst
of significant obstacles in the areas
On Right: Award Presented by: Peter Gouldmann, CISSP,
Director of Information Risk Programs, Office of Information
Assurance, U.S. Department of State, Co-Chair,
(ISC)² U.S. Government Advisory Council
Winner in Middle: John Simms, CISSP, ITIL 3.0, MCSE,
PMP, requirements and acquisition support branch chief
and Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM)
program manager, Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), Office of Cybersecurity and Communications
On Left: David Shearer, CISSP, PMP, (ISC)² Executive
Director
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istration and others. “It really took
a monumental effort to plan, coordinate,
and orchestrate activities
necessary to get to where we are today
and to see that we, indeed, are
achieving financial cost savings,”
said Simms, who has worked in information
technology for 25 years
and in information security for 15
years.
His innovative approach to
rapidly deploy nearly $60M of CDM
tools to 21 agencies was a productonly
delivery order focused on agencies
that could immediately benefit
from additional tools. While saving
taxpayer dollars and protecting
federal networks, he also ensured
that the agencies acquired critical
capabilities to meet emerging, government-wide
cyber threats. “We’ve
received substantial savings, most in
the form of savings on product delivery
orders.”
Going forward, Simms anticipated
the tools now in place will be
used for continuous monitoring and
will be leveraged as the preferred
approach for federal civilian government.
Within each group, tasks
and processes required to solicit solutions
have been streamlined for
each agency. The impact, he said, is
expected to continue, with followup
orders also including a high percentage
of product discounts based
of funding, policy and rapidly growing
threats,” Waddell said.
For instance, in the category
of Technology Improvement, winner
John Simms, CISSP, ITIL 3.0,
MCSE, PMP, of the Department of
Homeland Security, was honored
for rapidly deploying tools to 21
agencies, saving about $26 million
through cost discounts on a $60
million purchase.
“Obviously, I was very humbled
by the award,” said Simms.
“Being award the GISLA individual
award for technology improvement
under the (ISC)² program
is a huge honor.”
Deep experience in the
field and the collaboration of
more than 60 agency and departmental
partners allowed
Simms, the requirements and
acquisition support branch
chief and Continuous Diagnostics
and Mitigation (CDM)
program manager in the Department
of Homeland Security’s
Office of Cybersecurity and
Communications, to save money
by avoiding significant costs.
To do so involved a threeyear
collaboration with the
upon IT schedule 70 list prices.
security and course development is
odology enhancements to any gov-
Government Services Admin- More on page 8
Other 2015 GISLA recipients are:
Community Awareness: 81
Cyber Protection Team (CPT)
As the U.S. Marine’s first National
Cyber Protection Team, 81
Cyber Protection Team quickly
became the most sophisticated incident
response element in the Department
of Defense (DoD). 81
CPT created innovative approaches
to building an advanced defensive
cyberspace capability in training,
technology employment, methodologies
and mission planning.
Using both proprietary and commercial
technology, the team built
one of the most modern and effective
defensive cyber programs for
the DoD, including a CPT toolkit
that has become the standard for all
CPTs in the department
81 CPT produced experts
capable of conducting incident response,
vulnerability analysis and
mitigation, and procedure/meth-
ernment organization. As a result,
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81 CPT has shaped the way that the
U.S. Cyber Command implements
CPTs and has set the standard for
other DoD teams.
Workforce Improvement: Michael
C. Redman, CISSP, CISM, CCNA,
CompTIA Network+, CompTIA
Security+, CompTIA A+, Comp-
TIA Linux+, MCP, MCSA, senior
information assurance manager
and chief, Policy and Accreditation
Branch
Redman identified a training
gap for DoD cybersecurity professionals
and delivered in-house
training courses to more than 300
personnel using training materials
that he created. With the knowledge
transfer to students at their level of
learning, 93 percent achieved a pass
rate on certifications such as CISSP,
CISM, Security+ and Linux+. His
holistic approach to information