New York City, Alaska, Sacramento County Among Winners of the 2013 Cybersecurity Leadership and Innovation Awards
Oct. 2, 2013: The Center for Digital Government today announced the winners of its third annual Cybersecurity Leadership and Innovation Awards at the FOCUS 13 Security Conference. Topping the list is New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority for upgrading 15,000 desktops and servers with increased security and antivirus capability; Alaska, for consolidating security and risk management technology from 10 different areas saving $3.8 million; and Sacramento County for moving its email system to the cloud for business continuity during disasters.
Four additional awards were given: to the University of North Carolina Wilmington for its comprehensive security program, including tracking every university-owned device; St. Joseph Health System for its new security-connected platform; Virginia Information Technologies Agency for its partnership with Northrop Grumman resulting in significantly decreased cyberattacks; and Monroe County Schools in Forsyth, Ga., for its digital citizenship curriculum.
The awards program, underwritten by McAfee, was established to recognize the commitment, dedication, hard work and contributions of state and local government, education and healthcare organizations in cybersecurity technology services.
“These award-winning programs demonstrate leadership and creativity in solving cybersecurity challenges across all sectors of government and education,” said Todd Sander, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Government. “The Center recognizes that cybersecurity threats are prevalent and that the healthcare sector isn’t immune, which is why we’ve added a new award category honoring efforts that aim to boost cybersecurity defense in healthcare. Congratulations to all the winners!
Cybersecurity Leadership and Innovation Award Winners 2013
State Government Category: Alaska
Alaska consolidated security and risk management technology from 10 different areas, previously managed under seven separate vendor contracts and disparate technologies, into an integrated enterprise license agreement and unified enterprise security approach. This consolidation effort will save the State of Alaska $3.8 million over a three-year period.
City Government Category: NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority upgraded its entire suite of legacy desktops and servers (about 15,000) - providing cost effective, improved energy efficiency, better security and better manageability - and assured business continuity while performing the upgrade.
County Government Category: Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center
The primary Public Safety Answering Point for Fire/Medical calls in Sacramento County, Calif., the Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center (with eight Fire Departments and more than 3,000 employees) implemented increased security measures, including white listing, Domain Name System resolution, firewall settings, and a cloud spam filter solution – resulting in cost savings and increased business continuity during disasters.
Education Category: University North Carolina Wilmington
Unique aspects of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s IT security program include a certificate program established for system administrators, and a comprehensive program to equip all university-owned devices with tracking for the physical location of the computer and network traffic in and out of the machine, and also to remotely lock down the missing device and delete sensitive information.
Healthcare Category: St. Joseph Health System
The St. Joseph’s Health System (26 locations and 30,000 employees) implemented a new security-connected platform and onsite security professionals, which has resulted in reduced costs, improved staffing security skillsets, and increased security visibility - transitioning their organization from reactive to proactive and enabling compliance to the new HIPPA/Omnibus requirements.
Cybersecurity Integration Partnership Award: Virginia Information Technologies Agency
The public-private partnership between the Commonwealth of Virginia and Northrop Grumman is transforming state government's IT infrastructure technology and providing the expertise and resources to support improved delivery of services for 89 agencies at more than 2,300 sites. Based on threat analysis, Commonwealth Security and Risk Management recently upgraded enterprisewide security infrastructure, significantly decreasing the number of attacks and adding insight into situational awareness.
Cybersafety and Digital Citizenship Program Leadership Award: Monroe County Schools, Forsyth, Ga.
Within the last two years, Monroe County Schools has trained students, teachers, staff, parents and their community regarding cybersafety, providing specialized cybersecurity and cybersafety training to teachers and ensuring elementary students are learning about digital citizenship through an age-appropriate curriculum. By proactively engaging high school students, families and the community, school officials are spreading the word to older students about the critical importance of being safe online through presentations like “What Does Your Digital Tattoo Look Like?” and other links to YouTube videos and government media sites.
CLICK HERE for photographs at the awards presentation.
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government.
The Center is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on the state and local government market and education.
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