SecureUGA recognized for innovation and excellence by Executive Alliance

Office of the Chief Information Officer Press Release
The University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

WRITER: Bert DeSimone, 706/338-9849, bert@uga.edu
CONTACT: Brenda Elliot, 706/425-3136, bje66red@uga.edu

ATHENS, Ga.— The Executive Alliance, creator of the Information Security Executive (ISE) of the Year Southeast Awards, has announced that SecureUGA has been nominated for the 2009 Project of the Year Award.

Recognizing the role each faculty, staff, and student has in protecting and minimizing risk in managing sensitive and critical data, the University of Georgia designed, developed, and implemented an information security program called SecureUGA in April 2008. SecureUGA delivers a role-based security training and accountability model in which every individual, regardless of their campus position, has a responsibility to protect sensitive and critical data.

SecureUGA is comprised of three pieces: Policy and Procedures, Technology, and People. Faculty, staff, and students on the University's payroll are required to view a set of brief, self-paced presentations accessible via the Internet. The process is audited by the UGA Internal Audit Division and participation on an annual basis is reported to unit and department leadership each December.

For 2008, 88% of the faculty, staff, and students on the University's payroll registered completion for the first four presentation modules.

The ISE Project of the Year award recognizes a project completed in the past 12-18 months that has had an impact on an organization's risk management or information security posture. Introduced in 2008, the award has been a tremendous success as it recognizes the team behind the work and brings to light their successful accomplishments.

CIO and Associate Provost Barbara A. White, who is the executive sponsor for the award nomination, stressed the "team behind the work" in her nomination form. White recognized Stanton Gatewood, former chief information security officer at UGA and now serving in that same role for the University System of Georgia; Sandi Glass, executive director of the College of Education Office of Information Technology and CIO Advisory Council Chair; and Brian Rivers, director of Security, Network Operations, and Infrastructure for EITS, and their respective staffs, for their commitment to protecting UGA's sensitive data and information.

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The university community at large was also recognized for their commitment to information security, as indicated by the aforementioned 88% completion rate.

Award winners will be revealed at a ceremony held on the evening of Thursday, March 26, 2009, at the Westin Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Executive Alliance
Executive Alliance is the creator and provider of premium leadership-recognition forums that honor and celebrate outstanding achievement of executives in different industries. These forums facilitate deep relationships within a network of peers; provide visibility for executives and their companies, and offer access and insight into the leaders of these industries. Through an extensive platform of collaborative events, which include Industry Award Events, Summits, Executive Roundtables, Executive Forums, Private Receptions, and Customized Programs, Executive Alliance creates interactive assemblies for bringing together top executives and innovators in their field.

Since 2003, over 5000 executives have benefited from Executive Alliance events putting them in the right place at the right time with some of the smartest people in the world.

About the Office of the CIO and EITS
The Office of the Chief Information Officer and Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) are committed to the mission of UGA as a land-and-sea-grant institution where academics come first and the research extensive university community encourages research efforts at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To that end, under the direction of the University´s Chief Information Officer, EITS endeavors to provide a robust, reliable, and secure information technology infrastructure, maintain essential production services, and offer world-class support.

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