Renowned Security Leaders Join NY Board

Schmidt, Clarke, Reitinger, Pelgrin, Henry Named to State Panel
Renowned Security Leaders Join NY Board

Several former top U.S. federal government IT security policymakers are joining a new board that will advise New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on developments in cybersecurity and make recommendations for protecting the state's critical infrastructure and information systems.

See Also: OnDemand | Identity Under Siege in the EU: How to Combat Data Breaches with Proactive Measures

The announcement of the board's creation, coincidentally, comes as New York is in the spotlight for a cyberheist in which hackers helped a team of criminals pilfer nearly $3 million from ATMs in the New York City area [see $45 Million Heist: Lessons for Banks].

Tapped to serve on the Governor's Cybersecurity Advisory Board are:

  • Howard Schmidt, former White House cybersecurity adviser;
  • Richard Clarke, former cybersecurity adviser to Presidents Clinton and Bush, who heads Good Harbor Consulting, a risk management consultancy;
  • Phil Reitinger, Sony chief information security officer and former Homeland Security deputy undersecretary;
  • Will Pelgrin, chief executive of the Center for Internet Security, founder of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and former New York State CISO; and
  • Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike Services, an IT security services provider,and former executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services branch.

"In the 21st century, almost all of our daily activities are linked to the Internet, from banking to shopping to using our telecommunications networks and physical infrastructure systems," Cuomo says in a statement announcing the creation of the board. "Our federal government is working to combat emerging cybersecurity threats on a national level, and our state must do its part. Just as we protect against crime on our streets, we must also work to defend New Yorkers from cyberthreats, ranging from identity theft to consumer fraud to threats to our physical infrastructure."

The formation of the board is seen as complementing the creation of a combined physical security and cyber-infrastructure security operations center in the state. The center, which will house security intelligence experts from a variety of federal, state and local agencies, will help them to share intelligence information.

The governor's office says the advisory board - to be co-chaired by Elizabeth Glazer, deputy secretary to the governor for public safety, and Benjamin Lawsky, state superintendent of financial services - will work closely with the Cuomo administration to develop innovative, actionable policies to ensure that New York is in the forefront of public cybersecurity defense.


About the Author

Eric Chabrow

Eric Chabrow

Retired Executive Editor, GovInfoSecurity

Chabrow, who retired at the end of 2017, hosted and produced the semi-weekly podcast ISMG Security Report and oversaw ISMG's GovInfoSecurity and InfoRiskToday. He's a veteran multimedia journalist who has covered information technology, government and business.




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