Cloud Security Alliance Announces Annual Ron Knode Service Award Recipients

Contributions from Six Dedicated Individual CSA Volunteers Recognized in Honor of the Late CSA Member and Volunteer Contributor Ron Knode

LAS VEGAS, NV – CSA CONGRESS 2015 - September 30, 2015 – The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) today announced the recipients of its fourth annual Ron Knode Service Award, recognizing six members from the Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions for their excellence in volunteerism. The honorees were selected by the CSA executive team and chosen based on their valuable contributions towards fulfilling CSA’s mission of promoting best practices to help ensure security in cloud computing and next-generation IT. This year’s recipients will be honored this week at the CSA Congress 2015 & IAPP Privacy Academy 2015.

Ron Knode was an information security expert and member of the CSA family who passed away in May 2012. He is remembered as an innovative thinker with endless energy and humor to guide his volunteer contributions. He also was the creator of the CSA Cloud Trust Protocol, which today remains an important asset for the continuous monitoring and auditing for cloud assurance and transparency certification.

Established in 2012, the Ron Knode Service Award is awarded to CSA members on an annual basis whose contributions reflect Ron’s passion for volunteerism and embody the spirit for which this award was established.

This year’s six recipients are:

Brian Russell, CSA Americas: Brian Russell is a Chief Engineer focused on Cyber Security Solutions for Leidos. He oversees the design and development of security solutions and the implementation of privacy and trust controls for customers. Brian leads efforts that include security engineering for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Connected Cars, the design of secure next-generation energy systems (microgrids) and the development of high assurance cryptographic key management systems. He supports the Center for Internet Security as a member of the 20 Critical Security Controls Editorial Panel and serves as Co-Chair of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Internet of Things (IoT) Working Group. Brian also represents CSA in many IoT industry collaborations, including the FCC Technical Advisory Council.

Dr. Said Tabet, CSA Americas: Dr. Said Tabet is a Senior Technologist and Industry Standards Strategist in the Corporate Office of the CTO at EMC. He is a member of the Object Management Group Board of Directors and the principal EMC representative to the Industrial Internet Consortium. Said is the Chair of the INCITS CS1 Secure Cloud Computing Ad-Hoc Group, and a member of the US delegation to ISO SC27. He is also a member of the Cloud Security Alliance International Standardization Council, Co-Chair of the SME Council and the Cloud Security SLA working group. Said spent over two decades driving and contributing to various international standardization activities including ISO, RuleML, OMG standards, W3C Semantic Web and Rules, Risk and Compliance, GRC-XML, Regulatory Reporting and Supervision, Security and Data protection and Privacy. Said continues to work on challenges around Cloud Computing adoption, IoT, Cloud SLA and security SLA automation, Big Data Analytics and security, cyber security and best practices, Industrial Internet of Things, and Semantic Data Collaboration. He is a regular speaker and panelist at industry conferences and international standards meetings, authors and editor of book series and articles.

David Siah, CSA APAC: David Siah is actively involved in cyber security activities in Singapore. He is a member of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s (IDA) Cyber Security Alliance as well as IDA’s working group on Cloud Outage Incidence Response. David is also a committee member on the Singapore Information Technology Federation’s Security and Governance Chapter and is the Country Manager of Trend Micro. In his capacity, he runs Trend Micro’s business operations in Singapore and is in charge of Trend Labs Singapore—responsible for malware analysis and response.

Benildus Nadar, CSA APAC: Benildus Nadar provides senior advisory services in area of Information Technology with a concentration on Information Security and Risk. Currently with Ericsson, he has worked with IBM, Fidelity Investment, and Comodo in a career spanning 14 Years. Benildus is the founder and chairperson of the CSA Bangalore Chapter, one of the biggest chapters for CSA worldwide.

Mariano Benito, CSA EMEA: Mariano J. Benito is CISO at GMV, a leading Spanish company in the cybersecurity field, and CSA Spanish Chapter task force (CSA-ES CTO). Along his twenty-year long career, he has contributed to the development and implementation of international standards, including ISO 27001 & 22031 at GMV. Mariano J. Benito has also developed a specific focus also on Cloud Computing, Compliance & Governance, being the author of the first security analysis in Spain regarding cloud security (2009) and currently contributing to the deployment in Spain of CSA Guide, CCM, PLA and other local CSA initiatives.

Kai Roer, CSA EMEA: Kai Roer provides Fortune 1000 companies worldwide with expertise on how to build and maintain security culture based on his free and open Security Culture Framework. Roer is a bestselling author, speaker and security culture facilitator who believes in the power of volunteerism.

“We will always remember Ron’s humor, energy and incredible generosity. CSA is grateful for his hard work and dedication, and we continue to benefit from his commitment and passion,” said Jim Reavis, CEO of the CSA. “The six individuals we are recognizing today embody the spirit of Ron’s tireless efforts and commitment to volunteerism. In his honor, we congratulate and thank them for their deep commitment to promoting secure cloud computing globally.”

About the Cloud Security Alliance

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, certification, events and products. CSA’s activities, knowledge and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud — from providers and customers, to governments, entrepreneurs and the assurance industry — and provide a forum through which diverse parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. CSA has developed the definitive best practices for the industry, such as the “Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing”, the “Cloud Controls Matrix”, “Top Threats to Cloud Computing” and 50 other cloud security research artifacts.

Media Contacts:

Kari Walker for the CSA
703.928.9996
[email protected]