Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute has tapped former federal Chief Information Security Officer Greg Touhill as director of its CERT Division.
SEI helps government and industry organizations develop and operate software systems that are secure and reliable. The CERT Division focuses on cybersecurity areas such as cyber incident management, malicious software analysis, cyber resilience, insider threat detection and mitigation, and cyber workforce development.
Touhill’s cybersecurity experience spans not only the U.S. government but industry and academia as well, said CMU Vice President for Research J. Michael McQuade.
“As an adjunct faculty member of the CMU Heinz College, he well knows the cybersecurity needs from all sectors,” McQuade added. “We are pleased to have such an experienced leader and internationally recognized lecturer and educator to direct the CERT Division of the SEI and to partner with researchers across the university in our work to improve the security and resilience of our nation’s information infrastructure.”
An adjunct professor at CMU teaching cyber risk management, Touhill is a retired Air Force brigadier general. He entered active duty in 1983. His last military assignment was chief information officer and director of command, control, communications and cyber systems at U.S. Transportation Command.
Touhill most recently served as president at AppGate Federal, formerly Cyxtera Federal Group. Before that, he was the first federal CISO, appointed by President Barack Obama in September 2016. And prior to that, he was deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications.
Touhill said he was honored to be named the director of the CERT Division to pursue the mission of assuring U.S. cyber defense.
“I look forward to joining this internationally-recognized team of cyber experts that for over 35 years has been at the forefront of reducing cyber threats to the nation’s critical infrastructure and researching next-generation solutions that harden the cyber ecosystem,” he added.