This continues our recognition of our Global Achievement Award recipeints. Click here to read more about our award honorees in part one.
(ISC)² Government Professional Award
Recognizing government information security leaders whose commitment to excellence has helped to improve government information security and to advance an in-demand workforce. The 2022 honorees:
Americas:
Jermone Andre Leach, CAP, CISSP, Defensive Cyber Operations Lead, United States Coast Guard
For his efforts in ensuring industry standard awareness and threat remediation. This includes a focus on International Defensive Cyber’s Hunt Forward Operations.
EMEA:
H.E. Dr. Mohamed Hamad Al-Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity, UAE Government
For being instrumental in elevating the UAE’s position as a global leader in the cybersecurity field, improving the national cybersecurity capabilities and collaborating with other nations to improve the national cyber defense and response mechanisms. He led the UAE National Cyber Capacity Building initiative, which is a multipronged program addressing several crucial aspects to improve the UAE’s national cyber resilience and strengthen the cyber security posture of the UAE.
(ISC)² Rising Star Professional Award
Recognizing the accomplishments and contributions of an up-and-coming professional who has made a significant impact in the information security industry early in their career. The 2022 honoree:
Americas:
Rajvardhan Oak, Applied Scientist, Microsoft
For his involvement in the Network Protection team for Microsoft ads, developing novel algorithms to detect poor quality traffic originating from specific questionable sources using clustering and other machine learning techniques.
One of the key breakthroughs that provided significant improvement in time-to-detect and time-to-mitigate was the correlation of data in a coherent manner across various disparate datasets to construct ground truth.
(ISC)² Board Awards
Recognizing outstanding contributions and achievements in the field of cybersecurity throughout a career. The following award recipients for 2022 were selected by the (ISC)² Board of Directors.
(ISC)² Diversity Award
The (ISC)² Diversity Award honors an individual who represents the core values of (ISC)2 through significant contributions to driving a more diverse workforce in the cybersecurity community. The 2022 recipient:
Sarah B. Lee, Ph.D., Director, School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi
In 2019, Sarah co-founded The Last Mile Education Fund to provide financial support to college students in computing majors when they find themselves faced with challenges beyond their control. Since then, the nonprofit organization has provided funding for 1,200 women who were facing financial obstacles to degree completion. Recently, the organization was awarded a $6 million grant by Microsoft.
The Mississippi Alliance for Women in Computing (MAWC) project that Sarah started in 2016 identified and capitalizes on factors that influence and motivate female students and female African American students in Mississippi to enroll and persist in an undergraduate computing or cybersecurity major. Using discriminate analysis methods, the project analyzed which pre-collegiate experiences influenced them to enroll; determined which stakeholders influenced these girls in their decision-making process; and what programs are effective in impacting their persistence in the major. From there, a team created activities designed to engage girls and young women with computing and cybersecurity, emphasizing computational thinking and cybersecurity knowledge and awareness, as well as illuminate a pathway forward through Alliance partnerships.
MSAWC continues to generate interest and participation of women in computing and cybersecurity, improve recruitment and retention rates of women in undergraduate computing and cybersecurity majors, and help post-secondary women make a transition to the computing and cybersecurity workforce.
(ISC)² CEO Award
The (ISC)² CEO Award is presented annually to (ISC)² members who have made a significant impact on the cybersecurity profession through dedicated and exceptional volunteer efforts. This award is a top honor among the annual (ISC)² Global Achievement Awards. The 2022 recipient:
Andrew Smeaton, CISSP, Chief Information Security Officer, DataRobot, Inc.
Andrew is being recognized for his heroic action in conducting a risky rescue mission for a colleague and his family who were in distress amidst the Ukraine crisis. His dedication to his team far exceeded any expectations, traveling 4,500 miles from his home in Boston, MA, U.S. to bring a co-worker’s family to safety. (ISC)² celebrates members like Andrew whose character, moral instincts and passion for people continue to inspire a safe and secure cyber world.
(ISC)² Chapter Recognition Awards
The (ISC)² Chapter Recognition Awards are presented to official chapters of (ISC)² within each region that best promote the vision of (ISC)² by inspiring a safe and secure cyber world. Each chapter has demonstrated a well-rounded offering of activities and services designed to benefit its members and affiliates while making a significant contribution to the profession and its local community through the core focus areas of the (ISC)² Chapter Program of Connect, Educate, Inspire and Secure. The 2022 recipients in each region are as follows:
Americas:
New Jersey Chapter
The chapter took a creative approach to overcome the challenge of the pandemic and quickly adapted to virtual connection with members with meetings every month as well as larger joint conferences with other organizations; they also held outdoor picnics. The chapter supported members and cybersecurity professionals by holding resume and personal branding/development workshops, certification bootcamps, mentorship programs, and partnering with multiple levels of schools including high school, college and graduate. The efforts across the different chapter focus areas of Connect, Educate, Inspire and Secure have had a global reach and impact.
LATAM:
Mexico City Chapter
One of the newest chapters that launched at the beginning of the pandemic and overcame adversity at every turn. The chapter held multiple virtual educational member meetings, partnered with universities to help prepare students for a career in cybersecurity, and developed a partnership with schools, the National Guard and police departments to raise cybersecurity awareness for parents and kids.
APAC:
Colombo, Sri Lanka Chapter
The chapter hosted a series of panel discussions and conferences with multiple organizations to connect with the community to foster education, raise awareness, and support diversity and inclusion. The chapter was a partner for the 14th Annual National Conference on Cyber Security, attended by 1,046 participants, where the president moderated the panel discussion on “COVID 19 Triggered Shift to Digital.” The chapter also offers mentorship programs and workshops for students that encourage them to pursue a career in cybersecurity, hosting multiple workshops with over 50 students in attendance at various sessions.
EMEA:
Hellenic Chapter
The chapter held multiple member meetings in addition to participating in industry events with other organizations. The chapter focused on connection by launching
a newsletter and utilized social media to cultivate its membership. They implemented several creative ways to earn or win CPEs to reward chapter members and increase engagement. They held CISSP trainings, Safe and Secure Online presentations, and created cybersecurity awareness videos for parents and kids in collaboration with other organizations that are available to the public. The chapter received the Bronze award for “Public Cybersecurity Awareness” at Greek Cybersecurity Awards 2022