TAGITM C² Mission Statement and Upcoming Presentations

As Eric mentioned in last month’s newsletter, the committee has been diligently developing a mission statement. We further clarified how we will achieve this Mission statement. We are proud to now share with you the formal mission statement of your TAGITM Cybersecurity Committee (TAGITM C²): 

“Our mission is to be a trusted cybersecurity resource to our members through educational opportunities, information sharing and guidance toward application of industry best practices.” 

How do WE achieve this Mission? 

1. Members of the committee will actively participate and be in good standing with the TAGITM community 
2. The committee should endeavor to provide bidirectional channels of communication between Texas state resources and our constituents 
3. The committee should remain vendor agnostic. Although individuals can discuss their experiences regarding specific solutions, emphasis should be made that this does not represent an endorsement from the committee at large 
4. Make every effort to remain current on cybersecurity topics, technologies and threats 
5. Represent and advocate for the committee while maintaining a high level of ethics and standards 

Your TAGITM C² has been hard at work lining up several excellent and informative presentations from organizations that can and have had a positive impact on the cybersecurity of several of our member organizations. 

In February we heard from Theresa (Teri) Blackwell, who is the President and CEO of the Virtuo Group Corporation. Teri’s group has developed a free, web-based, shareable, and scalable cybersecurity package of best-practice documentation, based on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. (https://www.cciitool.info) 

The TAGITM C² already has a full schedule lined up for March and April. First up in March is Tony Sager from the Center for Internet Security (CIS). Tony spent 34 years with the Nation Security Agency (NSA) and is currently the Senior Vice President and Chief Evangelist for CIS. CIS offers valuable and free resources tailored for local government. Then in April, we will hear from Andrew Stokes who is the Assistant Director and Information Security Officer for Texas A&M Engineering. He directs security governance, operations, and defense for Texas A&M Engineering’s research agency and the College, as well as the incident response team for the Texas A&M University System. His incident response experience includes leading the investigation on several high-profile incidents, including the 2019 Texas Ransomware Attack. 

The goal of these presentations is to vet and condense the best of the best resources available and present them to the TAGITM community -- hopefully helping you to save time in research. 

We cannot do this alone. To provide the most value, we need to hear from the TAGITM community. What are the cybersecurity challenges you are facing and how can your cybersecurity committee support you?  

Please go to the cybersecurity committee page on the TAGITM website and contact one of our committee members with any ideas, suggestions, or feedback. 

The committee is excited to be your trusted cybersecurity resource! 

Scott Smith 
Marketing/Communications, TAGITM C²