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View Erik Avakian, CISSP, CRISC, CISA, CISM, CGCIO, ITILv3’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP ...
- 500+
- Info-Tech Research Group
- 3.4K
- Enola, Pennsylvania, United States
Erik Avakian is former state chief information security officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Erik has over 22 years enterprise experience in security and program management, strategy, service delivery, relationship management, cross-collaboration, program execution, and leading and mentoring teams.
- Technical Counselor
Education: Finance, Bentley University, 1989-1992 Experience: Chief Information Security Officer, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2010-2022 ...
Listen Now 24 MINS. Erik Avakian, a former US State CISO, joins ISF CEO Steve Durbin to discuss the ever-evolving role of CISOs, emphasising their need to be business partners rather than just gatekeepers. Erik highlights the challenges of navigating change in the public sector and stresses the importance of building a resilient security ...
- Single Identity Project
- Consolidating Identities
- Utilizing Existing Solutions
- Project's Ultimate Goal
- Managing Single Identity System
- Passwords
- Cost Savings
- Reducing Fraud
ERIC CHABROW:Take a few moments to tell us about this project. ERIK AVAKIAN:NSTIC, which is the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace program under NIST, put out a grant and we were lucky enough to get one of those grant offerings from them as an award. ... We have a pretty robust identity management program in place in the commonw...
CHABROW:In describing the challenges the state faces in developing a single identity, you gave an example of a resident who might be known with one agency as J. Smith, with another agency as John Smith, and with another agency as 123456. How difficult is it to combine those various identities into one? What are the steps you need to take that you w...
CHABROW:You say you have an existing identity management solution? AVAKIAN:We have a solution today for on-boarding that works with our employees and, because we have that consolidated environment of 80,000 users, we can employ this as an enterprise system. That's something that we've been able to put into the commonwealth. CHABROW:Those same tools...
CHABROW:Ideally, if this works, a citizen who may be taking advantage of services in different agencies would be able to just have one identity that can be used for all these various agencies and services, correct? AVAKIAN:That's the ultimate goal in doing this very targeted pilot. But I think by doing this pilot, we can then potentially expand upo...
CHABROW:How do you envision this system of single identity to be managed? Would that be something through your office or would that be someone else overseeing this? AVAKIAN:From a governance standpoint, we're working through my office with the project management aspects of this, but we're working closely with our folks at the Department of Public W...
CHABROW:When you discuss having a specific identity for each constituent and resident that uses various state services, how does this work with things such as passwords? Would they still need to have separate passwords for different agencies? AVAKIAN:A lot of these things are still being worked out. It's a little premature for me to go into all the...
CHABROW:When something like this is implemented, do you envision cost savings for the state? AVAKIAN:Ultimately, it's always beneficial to have any kind of return on investment. That's what we're really looking to show with this, not just does this work from a technical standpoint, but from a return-on-investment standpoint. The ease of business an...
CHABROW:Would it also be something that would help reduce fraud? AVAKIAN:Absolutely, if we can show those metrics. One of the things that this grant is going to enable is that secure, privacy-enhancing online transaction which should also reduce fraud; it's not just enhancing the experience of the user, but reducing that fraud. If we have some good...
Sep 20, 2019 · But like so many other IT initiatives, elevating the role of cybersecurity is dependent on building relationships. Pennsylvania CISO Erik Avakian said that while he’s confident his office provides good services to the rest of the state government, he needs to reach out to the local government agencies that aren’t as self-sufficient.
The Government Technology Research Alliance (GTRA) is a 510(c)3 non-profit organization comprised of public and private sector leaders dedicated to the development and success of the government IT community.
