#338 Tony Sager - The Center for Internet Security, & the Role of Non-Profits in Cyber Defense
Today we are talking to Tony Sager, the SVP and Chief Evangelist at the Center for Internet Security. And we discuss the role of nonprofit organizations in national cyber defense. Why we need to simplify the resources at our disposal for cybersecurity, and how we can prepare ourselves against the repeatable kinds of attacks that happen every day.
All of this, right here, right now on the Modern CTO Podcast!
To learn more about the Center for Internet Security, check them out at https://www.cisecurity.org/
About Tony Sager:
Sager is a Senior Vice President and Chief Evangelist for CIS® (The Center for Internet Security, Inc.). He leads the development of the CIS ControlsTM, a worldwide consensus project to find and support technical best practices in cybersecurity. Sager champions of use of CIS Controls and other solutions gleaned from previous cyber-attacks to improve global cyber defense. He also nurtures CIS’ independent worldwide community of volunteers, encouraging them to make their enterprise, and the connected world, a safer place. In November 2018, he added strategy development and outreach for CIS to his responsibilities.
In addition to his duties for CIS, he is an active volunteer in numerous community service activities: the Board of Directors for the Cybercrime Support Network; and a member of The National Academy of Sciences Cyber Resilience Forum; Advisory Boards for several local schools and colleges; and service on numerous national-level study groups and advisory panels.
Sager retired from the National Security Agency (NSA) after 34 years as an Information Assurance professional. He started his career there in the Communications Security (COMSEC) Intern Program, and worked as a mathematical cryptographer and a software vulnerability analyst. In 2001, Sager led the release of NSA security guidance to the public. He also expanded the NSA’s role in the development of open standards for security. Sager’s awards and commendations at NSA include thePresidential Rank Award at the Meritorious Level, twice, and the NSA Exceptional Civilian Service Award. The groups he led at NSA were also widely recognized for technical and mission excellence with awards from numerous industry sources, including the SANS Institute, SC Magazine, and Government Executive Magazine. Mr. Sager holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Western Maryland College and an M.S.in Computer Science from The Johns Hopkins University.
About The Center for Internet Security:
The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®) makes the connected world a safer place for people, businesses, and governments through our core competencies of collaboration and innovation. We are a community-driven nonprofit, responsible for the CIS Controls® and CIS Benchmarks™, globally recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data. We lead a global community of IT professionals to continuously evolve these standards and provide products and services to proactively safeguard against emerging threats. Our CIS Hardened Images® provide secure, on-demand, scalable computing environments in the cloud. CIS is home to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (MS-ISAC®), the trusted resource for cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery for U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial government entities, and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (EI-ISAC®), which supports the rapidly changing cybersecurity needs of U.S. elections offices. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org