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Steve Katz, World’s First CISO, Dies in Hospice Care

Former Banking CISO Remembered as Pioneering Leader, Generous Mentor and Colleague

width=Anna Delaney, Marianne Kolbasuk McGee (HealthInfoSec) December 4, 2023

Champion of Information Sharing

Katz would also become a force for raising the profile of information security in the financial sector as well as in the government. He testified before Congress on information security issues in the late 1990s and was appointed the financial services sector coordinator for critical infrastructure protection by the Secretary of the Treasury, later becoming a founder and thought leader at the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

“Steve saw the value in information sharing and collaboration and the benefits that came with it – helping to improve security and resilience across the critical infrastructure sectors while also providing learning and career development opportunities for the individual participants,” said Errol Weiss, chief security officer of the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, of which Katz was a board member.

Katz was a big believer in the ISACs, Weiss said. “Well after his retirement and to this day, Steve gave selflessly back to the global infosec community – as just one small example – Steve was an active adviser to the Health-ISAC and our board of directors, attending regular board meetings and contributing on several board committees,” Weiss said.

“On a personal level, I and so many others looked to Steve for career development tips and advice on organizational challenges. He graciously mentored dozens of individuals and the global infosec community owes Steve Katz an eternal debt of gratitude for the trail he blazed as the world’s first CISO,” Weiss said.

Denise Anderson, president of the H-ISAC, also knew Katz from her previous work at the FS-ISAC. “He then graciously served as an adviser to me and the Health-ISAC Board. Steve was a friend, a source of truth and knowledge, a mentor and a tremendous person all-around,” Anderson said. “He was so excited about what we were doing in the ISACs, and he gave selflessly of his time to help the community.”

Read the full article in Bank Inforsecurity

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/steve-katz-worlds-first-ciso-passes-away-a-23769

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