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Nominations Open for State Cybersecurity Awards

Individuals and teams in state government technology are eligible for the awards, which are given in a variety of areas. Nominations will be accepted until Sept. 17.

The organizers of the 2021 State of California Virtual Cybersecurity Education Summit are accepting nominations of state IT workers or teams for outstanding contributions, best practices and works of distinction in information security.

The awards will be given at the online summit, scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6. The annual event is presented by California State University at Sacramento, the California Department of Technology, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the California Military Department and the California Highway Patrol.

The summit “is designed to engage the entire spectrum of California’s cybersecurity professionals, whose job functions and expertise range from highly technical to executive,” says the event announcement, which also contains details and a registration link. “Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the nation’s leading solution providers and discover the latest products and services for enterprise cyber defense.”

Nominations will be accepted until midnight Sept. 17 in these areas, as described by organizers:

  • The Information Security Innovation Award is a chance to honor an individual or team that has demonstrated forward-leaning initiative within your organization. An example is a CIO (chief information officer) and ISO (information security officer) who successfully worked together to foster a culture of security, or an individual or team who showed leadership through tools, procedures and processes or implementing innovative solutions.
  • The Excellence in Privacy Award is a chance to honor an individual or team who demonstrated leadership on innovation in privacy.
  • The Cybersecurity Influencer Award is a chance to honor an individual or team who promotes and fosters security awareness in program and business areas. The influencer is one who is raising the cyber profile of cybersecurity internally or externally within their organization. Some examples are desktop support, promoting secure coding practices in the non-ISO community, and developers.
  • The Newcomer of the Year Award is a chance to honor and encourage a newcomer who is expanding knowledge, building skills and demonstrating initiative in information security.
  • The California State Information Security Leader of the Year recognizes an outstanding individual who demonstrates outstanding influence across organizational boundaries by developing future IT leaders, creating strategies to promote information sharing and collaboration within their own organization or among government organizations.
  • The Information Security Woman of the Year is a chance to recognize someone who has shown an outstanding contribution to the information security industry through her achievements and continually enforcing diversity and awareness within the industry.
  • Collaborative Team of the Year Award is a chance to recognize a group of individuals working as a team through cross-organizational and disciplinary boundaries toward a mission in any risk reduction, mitigation or response effort. This can be a team or task force of individuals or organizations including state/federal, local, tribal, territorial, academic and private sectors.
Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.