Government Security News

Information Security Leadership
Award winners
Continued from page 7
bridging the gap between standard
course material and the daily reality
of civil servants and DoD personnel.
On Right: Award Presented by: Charles
“Chuck” McGann, CISSP, CISM, IAM, Chief
Cyber Strategist, CRGT, Manager of Corporate
Information Security, U.S. Postal Service,
Retired, (ISC)² U.S. Government Advisory
Council Member
Winner in Middle: Benjamin Bergersen, cloud
cybersecurity program manager, MAX.gov
Shared Services, U.S. Department of Education
On Left: David Shearer, CISSP, PMP, (ISC)²
Executive Director
Process/Policy: Benjamin Bergersen,
cloud cybersecurity program
manager, MAX.gov Shared Services,
U.S. Department of Education
Bergersen utilized his expertise
in the areas of governmentwide
collaboration, building high
performance teams, business process
transformation, IT governance,
strategy, enterprise architecture,
information security and portfolio
management to lead security transformation
of cybersecurity business
processes for MAX.gov Shared Services.
His ability to coordinate dozens
of staff, multiple major applications,
hundreds of servers and over
120,000 users employing the Federal
Risk Authorization Management
Program (FedRAMP) model
resulted in MAX.gov becoming the
first federal agency application and
software-as-a-service agency to become
FedRAMP authorized.
Most Valuable Industry Partner:
The CERT Coordinating Center,
Vulnerability Research and Coordination
team, Carnegie Mellon
University Software Engineering
Institute
The team pioneered efforts in
vulnerability research automation
for existing and emerging computing
domains that have significantly
strengthened the larger US-CERT
mission of improving information
security and providing value to industry
partners. The team deployed
On Left: David Shearer, CISSP, PMP, (ISC)²
Executive Director
Winner on Right representing Team: The
CERT Coordinating Center (CERT/CC)
Vulnerability Research and Coordination
team, Carnegie Mellon University Software
Engineering Institute
the Tapioca automated vulnerability
discovery tool and applied it to the
11,000 applications available on the
Google Play Store. Within a period
of several days, over 20,000 vulnerabilities—or
15 percent of the total
vulnerabilities identified in 2014—
were discovered. These results are
enabling this new community of
developers and vendors of the platforms
they use to adopt better security
practices and increase the utility
to the expanding universe of mobile
devices.
Up-and-Coming Information Security
Professional: Samuel A.
Maroon, IT operations instructor,
U.S. State Department
Winner On Left: Samuel A. Maroon, IT operations
instructor, U.S. State Department
On Right: David Shearer, CISSP, PMP, (ISC)²
Executive Director
Maroon spends his spare time
teaching and managing the Wounded
Warrior Cyber Combat Academy,
a program administered by
the Federal IT Security Institute on
behalf of the FITSI Foundation. Maroon
has worked with more than 30
injured veterans, volunteering 15-
20 hours per week, to train veterans
to help protect their country against
cyber attacks. By engaging these
male and female wounded warriors,
he is tapping into a very talented
and motivated resource pool to assist
addressing the current shortage
of skilled cybersecurity workers
while helping to protect our national
infrastructure.
F. Lynn McNulty Tribute: W. Hord
Tipton, CISSP, former executive
director, (ISC)²
Tipton was the first government
CIO to obtain a Certified Information
Systems Security Professional,
helping to bring high-profile
attention to the need for a more
professionalized information security
workforce. Throughout his
career, Tipton drove support and
advocated for federal government
workforce initiatives such as the
NICE Framework, DoD Directive
8570 and reform of OPM’s 2210
In Middle: Award presented by Corey Schou,
Chairperson, Ph.D., CSSLP, Fellow of (ISC)²
On Right: W. Hord Tipton, CISSP, former
executive director, (ISC)2
On Left: David Shearer, CISSP, PMP, (ISC)²
Executive Director
Job Series. He spearheaded
major initiatives such as
(ISC)²’s Global Academic
Program and U.S.A Cyber
Warrior Scholarships that
are currently assisting the
government in filling its cybersecurity
workforce gap.
Tipton has been instrumental
in fostering the security
education and certification
of hundreds of thousands of
individuals worldwide. He
has dedicated his life to the
advancement of the information
security profession
in the U.S. government and beyond,
and is considered one of the most
influential people in security.
The U.S.A. Cyber Warrior
Scholarship recipient was also announced
during the GISLA ceremony.
This scholarship program was
developed by the (ISC)² Foundation
in collaboration with Booz Allen
Hamilton to help close the government’s
cyber workforce gap by providing
cyber security career training
to qualified veterans who served
in the U.S. military.
Scholarship recipient Wajahat
Qureshi ended his active duty in the
Navy in 2007.He has served with
Navy Reserve Command, and in
2013 was named Sailor of the Year.
His career goals include attaining
his CISSP and earning a commission
into the U.S. Navy Reserve as
the information warfare designated
officer.
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On Left: David Shearer, CISSP, PMP, (ISC)² Executive
Director
On Right: Scholarship RECIPIENT: Wajahat Qureshi
The winners were selected by
a judging committee of senior information
security experts from
(ISC)2’s U.S. Government Advisory
Council.
For more information on the
GISLA program, including selection
criteria and eligibility requirements,
visit www.isc2.org/gisla. For more
information about the U.S.A. Cyber
Warrior Scholarship, visit https://
www.isc2cares.org.