Mayor Karl Dean announced Monday the appointment of Greg Schaffer as chief information security officer of Metro’s Department of Information Technology Services.
Greg Schaffer, formerly the assistant vice president for network and information technology security at Middle Tennessee State University, will oversee Metro’s Information Security Management Program, which was created by executive order in 2010 to enhance and maintain Metro’s information security practices.
The creation of the position is the latest step in a series of new information security policies and practices Metro has undertaken since the December 2007 theft of some government laptop computers on which was stored the personal information of about 337,000 registered Davidson County voters. In 2008, Dean established an Information Security Advisory Board and called for an information security training program for Metro employees.
“Information security is vital to the operation of our local government,” Dean said in release. “Citizens and others doing business with the Metropolitan government have to feel confident that their information is safe, and we have to know that our information systems are protected using the industry’s highest standards.”
In addition to coordinating Metro’s information security initiative, Schaffer will be responsible for working with the Department of Human Resources to coordinate the training program. He will work closely with Keith Durbin, director of Information Technology Services.