SANS Announced the Security Leadership Awards

The United Kingdom National Infrastructure Security Co-Ordination Centre (NISCC) was recognized for its extraordinary success in information sharing among private organizations and between the private organizations and the government.

In announcing the award, SANS' Director of Research, Alan Paller, described the extraordinary level of trust that NISCC's cyber security information exchanges have developed as well as the leadership NICSS has shown in sharing government information with the private sector.

"Corporate officers typically avoid disclosing any information that could embarrass their companies," said Paller, "The one exception we have seen is in the UK information exchanges where global companies, even many headquartered in the United States, willingly share sensitive information."

The second 2004 Information Security Leadership Award goes to Chairman Adam Putnam and the staff of the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census, of the Committee on Government Reform, in the US House of Representatives.

Congressman Putnam and his subcommittee staff have been the driving force that has enabled the US federal government to lead by example in two critical areas: adoption and enforcement of minimum information security configuration benchmarks, and using federal procurement to encourage software and hardware vendors to deliver safer systems.

The award will be presented in December at the Cyber Defense Initiative Conference in Washington Information Security Leadership Awards recognize successful efforts that measurably improve security and that serve as models.

Among the past winners were Microsoft for its automation of patch delivery for Windows XP that is helping millions of people patch their systems painlessly, and MCI for stopping the Lion worm "on the wire" before tens of thousands of organizations had their password files stolen and sent to China.