FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Army News Service, Sept. 3, 2004) -- As part of its annual conference, the Army Knowledge Management/Directorate of Information Management community recognized its top Information Assurance professionals during a ceremony Sept. 1 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

This was the first year the awards had been given and reflected the conference’s theme, “Securing the Information Enterprise for Battle Command.”

Award winners were:

Gregory S. Bigelow, IA Professional of the Year -- Government Civilian. A senior technical expert and Network & Security program manger for the Army Corps of Engineers, Bigelow designed and updated a security model that provides best-in-class business continuity services for the ACE network using multiple security tools. Additionally, he developed standardized equipment stack for each ACE site -- reducing redundancy and allow better remote network manageability.

James K. Lynch, IA Professional of the Year – Government Contractor. A senior policy analyst with the Army Common Access Card Program, Lynch was recognized for developing policies for appropriate use of digital signature and encryption, and on the procurement and use of personal data assistants. His work has been adopted for use by the Air Force and Navy CAC programs.

ACE Huntington (West Virginia) District Information Management Office, Most Innovative Project or Implementation by Unit or Command. Faced with a number of IA compliance and software deployment deadlines, a shortage of personnel and policy constraints, the Huntington District developed an in-house tool that activates at logon to allow users to choose to do a software install then or after. The tool is now in use by other ACE districts.

IA honorable mentions went to Angela V. Rhodes, ACE Huntington District; Eleanor Brings, ACE Washington, D.C.; and the Information Assurance Office, Information Support Activitiy -- St. Louis.

“The bottom line of Information Assurance is to protect Soldiers’ lives -- it’s a force protection measure,” said Col. Ted Dmuchowski, director of Army Information Assurance Office, Network Command. “These awards are about providing recognition to those being innovative in securing and managing the information on Army networks and encouraging others to be innovative. Hopefully some of these great ideas will be adopted by others.”