Cyber Pros Earn Kudos at Chief Information Officer Awards

By Amaani Lyle American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2012 – For their efforts in cybersecurity, and information technology, management and assurance, finalists emerged as overall winners of the 2012 Defense Department Chief Information Officer Awards during a ceremony here today. In the ceremony’s 12th year, DOD Chief Information Officer Teresa M. Takai and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Joint Staff director, presented individual and team awards from more than 100 nominations reviewed by the DOD CIO executive board. “You represent [more than] 300,000 individuals in the Department of Defense [who] continually work on our communications infrastructure to make sure that information is available,” Takai said to attendees. “Our thanks to all the individuals who [ensure] that our warfighters can communicate on a daily basis, often in a contested space, often in very difficult situations … [so that the] team has the communication necessary to do what they need to do." In his keynote address, Scaparrotti noted information technology rigors include having to thwart adversaries, often in remote locations, in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment. “A glance at current events underscores that there are more sustained non-state actors who wish to do us harm,” he said. “We are being tested every day and we have a responsibility to secure our interests -- we need to act like an enterprise and work as a team.” Leadership and peers selected the finalists for their initiative and excellence in three primary DOD-CIO objectives: facilitating delivery of mission capabilities to the warfighter, supporting the development of new technology for the warfighter, and guiding IT modernization. Individual finalists from first to fifth place are: -- Miyi J. Chung, Deputy Commander/Technical Director, Defense Information Systems Agency, Pacific Korea Field Office; -- Sally Mahony, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Capital Planning and Investment Control; -- U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Leonard Giaquinto, Secretary of the Air Force, Office of the Chief Information Officer A6; -- U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jerry Martin, Chief Automation Officer, HQ, Army Sustainment Command; and -- U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Bori Um, Plans and Resources flight commander, 608th Air Communications Squadron. Team finalists from first to fifth place are: -- Directorate of Communications, Office of the Defense Representative, Pakistan, (ODRP/J6); -- White House Communications Agency, Cyber Operations Team, DISA; -- Office of the Chief Information Officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff (J6); -- U.S. African Command-U.S. European Command, U.S. Army, Joint Enterprise Network Team; and -- PEO C41, PMW130, Crypto Modernization Team, U.S. Navy.