The CISOs CISO

Interview of Will Pelgrin, New York State Director of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Coordination Will Pelgrin is a CISOs CISO. Minnesota Chief Information Security Officer Chris Buse describes Pelgrin - director of New York State's Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Coordination - as "cool testament" to the type of leaders emanating out of state government. Pelgrin chairs the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center - MS ISAC - a 50-state consortium that collects information on cyber threats to government and critical infrastructure IT shares that information among the states and local governments. He also served as a member on the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency. In New York, he heads the New York State Public/Private Sector Cybersecurity Workgroup that consists of representatives from federal, state and local governments, academia and business and ensures cyber readiness in the state. In the first of a two-part interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Pelgrin discusses the synergy between safeguarding IT and physical infrastructures and the need for government and business to work together to ensure cybersecurity. In part 2 of the interview, Pelgrin addresses the impact of the recession on government cybersecurity spending and how best to employ social networks securely. Pelgrin was interviewed by Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com.