When most people speak of any city government, they often mention words like “Bureaucratic”,
“Behind the times”, and “Slow.”  This is especially true when considering cybersecurity initiatives.  However, a small town in Texas is changing that view.  Seguin, Texas, which was once the smallest Texas city to have a full-time cybersecurity employee, was the only government entity to be named in the CSO50 2022 Awards. The CSO50 awards recognize security projects that demonstrate outstanding thought leadership and business value. 

The CSO Awards are quite significant, and The City of Seguin shares a position on the award list with some of the most recognized names in business, as well as global technology companies, including Bank of America, Accenture, and The MITRE Corporation.  Seguin was the only government entity to win an award.  No other city, State, or Federal government body shared this recognition. We recently had the opportunity to speak with Seguin’s IT Director, Shane McDaniel, whose dedication, and commitment made it evident that the CSO50 award was well-earned.

What was the criteria for winning the CSO50 award?

Shane McDaniel:  I told our story, which consists of a multi-year effort to build a cybersecurity program from essentially nothing. When I started in March of 2018, we did no awareness training. We had a few other early pieces of security technology, but there was no security culture. The award represents all we’ve done to progress cybersecurity on behalf of the organization, and on behalf of the city; the folks that we’re responsible to. The award is not just a bunch of tools that are working together to protect the city assets. It’s what we are doing as a culture, as an organization.

Can you expand on that idea of the culture of cybersecurity within a (Read more...)