StateScoop honors Georgia's CISO and GovHub

Georgia's Chief Information Security Officer and new digital platform, GovHub, have been honored as part of the 2020 StateScoop 50 Awards. The winners were announced virtually for the first time at a roundtable event, sponsored by Google Cloud and Duo Security, on September 17.

David Allen was among seven people nationwide to receive a State Cybersecurity Leader of the Year award, while GovHub was among 10 projects to receive a State IT Innovation of the Year award.

As Georgia's CISO, Mr. Allen champions collaboration in safeguarding state systems and data. Advocating shared responsibility for security, he directed delivery of cybersecurity awareness training completed by some 70,000 state employees in 2019. Mr. Allen supported several agencies and counties challenged by ransomware attacks and connected them with high-caliber security resources. He coordinated Cyber Dawg 2019, a three-day multi-agency exercise at the Georgia Cyber Center, where state information security professionals sharpened technical skills for ransomware attack response. The annual event allows practice in live-action scenarios and builds cross-agency bonds.

The GTA Digital Services Georgia team, led by Chief Digital Officer Nikhil Deshpande, built GovHub and migrated 77 agency websites to it through 2019. The platform gives state organizations powerful tools to effectively provide Georgians with services and information, while also exceeding the latest web accessibility, security, and performance standards. Collaborating with leading private-sector partners and with state agencies that use GovHub, Digital Services Georgia fashioned a digital platform that features new branding and promotes a consistent look and message across state websites.

Members of the state and local government IT community nationwide cast more than one million votes on StateScoop's website to select this year's winners. Hundreds of nominees from readers were in the running across six award categories.

Learn more about the StateScoop 50 Awards.