RSA Conference 2014 Names Recipients of 17th Annual Awards for Excellence in Information Security, Excellence in Public Policy & Excellence in…

RSA Conference 2014 Names Recipients of 17th Annual Awards for Excellence in Information Security, Excellence in Public Policy & Excellence in Mathematics

RSA Conference, an information security conferences and expositions, announced the recipients of its 17th annual awards program, including the Lifetime Achievement Award and the awards for Excellence in the Fields of Information Security, Mathematics and Public Policy.

According to a release, the recipients of this year's RSA Conference Awards are:

Lifetime Achievement Award

F. Lynn McNulty

Accepting on McNulty's behalf: Peggy McNulty

Lt. Col. Frederick "F." Lynn McNulty was the first Director of Information Systems Security for the U.S. State Department, a pioneer in the field of cybersecurity, and has been characterized as the "father" of U.S. federal information security. McNulty played a key role in influencing U.S. national security policy on everything from export controls on commercial encryption products to the deployment of key federal cybersecurity infrastructure.

A Fellow of the International Information Systems Security Consortium (ISC)2, McNulty was the recipient of the Federal 100 Award and inducted into the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Hall of Fame. Earlier in his career, McNulty worked in information security at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Excellence in the Field of Information Security Award

Zurich Insurance Group

Accepted on organization's behalf: James Shira, Group CISO and Head of Technology Architecture, Zurich Insurance Group

This year's recipient, Zurich Insurance Group, is recognized for transforming its Global Security Operation, by establishing evidence based IT compliance assessment methodologies and strengthening its overall information security posture via a multi-year Data Security Initiative designed to move the company to a modernized information security capability. A Global Information Security Organization was reorganized and established as a centralized group responsible for the delivery of all information security capabilities. Several 'security hubs' have been created across Zurich locations to support this strategy. Zurich's leadership recognizes the importance of data security and has continued to make the appropriate investments in solutions as well as in this team by encouraging the achievement of security certifications by Zurich staff members. Currently Zurich's Information Security team has more than 600 industry recognized security certifications. Zurich is also leveraging what it has learned during this transformational journey to help better serve its customers around the globe as they make important decisions about how to protect themselves from risk.

Excellence in the Field of Mathematics Award

Prof. Bart Preneel, COSIC, University of Leuven

This year's recipient was selected amongst a list of the world's leading cryptographers and was selected for his contributions to early understanding of hash functions, MAC functions, and his contributions to cipher design (stream and block ciphers) via cryptanalysis. One central contribution from Preneel is his classifying and characterizing of how to build hash functions from block ciphers (the PGV constructions), as well as hash functions based MAC functions (MDx-MAC and RIPMD-160). In addition he has been focused on maintaining a strong emphasize on convincing European bodies of the importance of crypto research as part of security and privacy concerns, and assuring funding for this research. He also served the crypto community (via the IACR) in various leadership capacities including the president of this body.

Excellence in the Field of Public Policy Award

Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology

This year's award winner is a public servant who has been an active leader in our nation's cybersecurity efforts for both his agency and within the United States federal government's executive branch. Dr. Pat Gallagher has been a dedicated public servant for over twenty years, starting when he joined the National Institute of Standards (NIST) in 1993.

For the past six years, Dr. Gallagher has been an integral leader in the policy, strategy and execution of significant cybersecurity efforts across the public and private sectors. Under his leadership, NIST established the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) to demonstrate practical solutions by public and private sector partners. This past year, he has led NIST's responsibilities under President Obama's Executive Order to secure critical infrastructure, developing a Cybersecurity Framework driven by the private sector.

"This year's RSA Conference Awards winners have shown what it takes to be true leaders and role models in mathematics, public policy and cyber security," said Alex Bender, General Manager of RSA Conference. "The winners this year follow a long line of award winners over the last 17 years including security leaders from the FS-ISAC, Cox Communications, Department of Defense, Goldman, Sachs & Co, and CBCInnovis among others.

RSA Conference helps drive the global information security agenda with annual events in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

More information:

www.rsaconference.com

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