Last year’s America’s Information Security Leadership Awards (ISLA®) ceremony and dinner was a highlight at Security Congress. Diego Andrés Zuluaga Urrea was one of the evenings honorees, winning the ISLA for Senior Information Security Professional.
Diego started his career working as a systems administrator, while still studying in university, for the first ISP in Colombia. He saw malicious hackers working against the systems, on one occasion seeing nine university servers attacked in a single evening. After witnessing the vulnerabilities, he decided to learn more about information security on his own. Diego learned that creating a culture of security was just as important as technical knowledge.
The biggest professional challenge that Diego has faced was leading the development of cybersecurity regulation for the electric sector in Colombia. It began as a corporate social responsibility effort that required close work with several different companies within the sector, as well as other authorities and institutions. Identifying the cybersecurity needs, challenges and opportunities to be addressed was difficult, but the outcome was rewarding as it created a better security posture for critical infrastructures in the country.
Working in information security gives Diego new challenges every day and can involve anything from developing strategy, to working on administrative networks and anything in between. Having the opportunity to learn daily and apply his experiences to new scenarios ensures that Diego is never bored. He hopes to continue his work in social responsibility, as making this world and the companies in it more secure is an important achievement to Diego.
“Work for what you love, and love what you work for” is a guiding phrase for Diego. He believes that loving your work helps develop others, as you share your knowledge.