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Elections 2020 – Cybersecurity and Resiliency for New York State Board of Elections 

Successful CISOs navigate crisis by meeting challenges head on -- following a plan, being open to possibilities, and fostering organizational change. Between a pandemic, climate change, lack of pollworker availability, PPE shortages, poll site changes, and increased reliance on 3rd parties, the ability to be agile is key to effective response.  A constantly changing landscape through executive orders and legislation compounds the challenge.  In this talk, Jeffrey Baez from the NYS Board of Elections will discuss the modern threat landscape for boards of elections and the New York State Board of Elections Cybersecurity Plan.

Key takeaways include -

• Building community is essential for problem solving
• Defining reactive response through metrics
• Communication - it’s not what you say, it’s what people hear
• How to make sense of a constantly changing problem landscape

Jeffrey Baez is a business leader, cybersecurity expert and Certified Information Systems Security Professional.  He participated on a panel at the 2nd Annual CISA Cyber Security Summit where he spoke with the Secretaries of State from Michigan and Ohio and other elections officials addressing senior leaders in both private and public sector on emerging technologies, vulnerability management, incident response, risk mitigation, and more as they relate to protecting elections systems. Jeffrey is a recognized security strategist and speaker, having spoken at numerous conferences in North America, including Canada, and Europe. He has run teams of over forty people, manages budgets in the millions of dollars, and successfully changes organizational culture in order to help government innovate and stay protected while using the Internet to provide world-class services.

He is a graduate of the University at Albany and earned a Master of Science in Information Science. He is an adjunct Professor and PhD student at the University at Albany teaching courses on cybersecurity, information technology, elections and business resilience. Jeffrey also serves on the Information Technology IAC Advisory Committee in the School of Undergraduate Studies at Excelsior College.  He has been at the New York State Board of Elections since 2018 as the Chief Information Security Officer and Director of the Secure Elections Center, helping to make and maintain New York State as a leader in elections cybersecurity.  He has worked in the both the public and private sectors at Albany Medical Center, the Department of Public Service, Palo Alto Networks and the Department of Financial Services.

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