ISC2 honors federal IT security professionals for creating innovative apps

Everyone wants better federal cybersecurity, and the ISC2s group of information security professionals is honoring individuals and teams that are making it happen.

Winners of the U.S. Government Information Security Leadership Awards for 2011 announced on Oct. 19 were:

For technology improvement by an individual, the ISC2 honored Emma Garrison-Alexander, assistant administrator for IT at the Transportation Security Agency, led development of the TSA's Redaction Toolbar that helps to prevent release of sensitive security information.

The team award for tech improvement went to the information assurance program management team at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, led by Austin Pearson and supported by Mary Johnson. The team designed an architecture to host an automated classified spillage solution.

For workforce improvement, the ISC2 honored the Cyberspace 200/300 Professional Continuing Education Team at the Air Force Cyber Technical Center of Excellence, led by Harold Arata III. The team developed senior rating courses for a cyber career force.

Davin Knolton, chief information officer of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, won the individual award for process and policy improvement. The team award went to the Air Force’s Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate’s information assurance manager team, led by Steven Martin.

For community awareness, the ISC2 honored Henry Yu, chief information security officer of NASA, for outstanding contributions to an IT security video project.

The team awarded for best community awareness was the cybersecurity communications working group at the Homeland Security Department, led by communications manager Joel Benge.

Shawn Wilson, senior manager of information security for Verisign, Inc., won the federal contractor award for his efforts to executive certification and accreditation at the General Services Administration’s .gov registry.

The team contractor award went to NJVC LLC’s cyber dashboard team, led by Chris Hughes, for creating a dashboard application that helped to foil several hacker attempts against Defense Department systems.