Government Executive magazine held a Leadership Briefing to publicize the publication naming their Chiefs of the Year. The magazine named Jerry Davis, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Security, as their Chief Information Security Officer of the Year.
In their profile of Mr. Davis, Government Executive highlighted that prior to coming to the VA, he broke “new ground at NASA by demanding real-time monitoring of every computer system for threats….” As FISMA Focus has already noted, NASA has demonstrated federal leadership in continuous monitoring.
In his remarks at the Briefing, Mr. Davis emphasized the importance of human capital and his concern over a shortage of security professionals. The issue raised by Mr. Davis was also highlighted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) which released a report, Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity: Technical Proficiency Matters.
The ability of NASA security professionals to quickly and effectively respond to hacking attempts after RSA’s systems were breached demonstrates the crucial importance of Mr. Davis’ emphasis on continuous monitoring and ensuring that the agency has the qualified cadre of experts necessary to protect information security.
Attached below is Government Executive’s profile of Mr. Davis.
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