JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Office of Administration, along with its Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) and Office of Cyber Security, announced that the State of Missouri is among 50 organizations being awarded with a prestigious 2018 CSO50 Award from IDG’s CSO. Annual award-winners are recognized for innovative security projects that demonstrate outstanding thought leadership and business value.
Missouri’s Cybersecurity Awareness Program was chosen for delivering targeted security lessons to more than 40,000 end-users on a regular basis to train state employees to better identify and resist cyber-attacks. Since inception of this new program, nearly one million individual lessons have been delivered, tracked and gamified — with participation and results graded and shared throughout state government.
“Our Office of Cyber Security plays an unbelievably important role in keeping our citizens’ data safe,” said Office of Administration Commissioner Sarah Steelman. “Part of that responsibility includes educating our state workforce to ensure they have the tools to safeguard our systems against potential cyber-attacks. I am incredibly proud of our team’s efforts, which again and again have resulted in well-earned recognition as a national leader in cybersecurity best practices.”
“As the frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks continue to intensify, it is more important than ever that we train our workforce to recognize and appropriately respond to potential attacks,” Missouri Chief Information Security Officer Mike Roling said. “The State of Missouri’s Cybersecurity Awareness Program has allowed us to create a new security control against cyber-attacks: the human intrusion detection system. We are pleased to report that our end-user assessments indicate our victim rate is well below the private sector standard, and we are proud to be recognized by CSO50 for our efforts.”
"Amid the seemingly constant stream of news-making security breaches, vulnerabilities introduced by new technologies and increased attention from company boards, today's security leaders have their plates more than full," said Amy Bennett, executive editor of CSO. "They and their teams are charged not only with protecting their organization's critical systems and sensitive data, but with driving business results. Our annual CSO50 awards shine a light on projects that enhance an organization's security posture and also deliver measurable ROI. We are pleased to give them the recognition they deserve."
The CSO50 Awards are scored according to a uniform set of criteria by a panel of judges that includes security leaders, industry experts, and academics. The 2018 awards were presented yesterday at the CSO50 Conference + Awards ceremony in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Office of Administration also received a CSO50 Award in 2017 for the Office of Cyber Security’s data alert program, which was launched in 2016 to alert Missouri organizations about critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.