Donald (Don) Benack is the Deputy Associate Director of Vulnerability Management for the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). As a trusted advisor in the industry, he established and led the Nation’s first civilian Federal-wide cybersecurity risk assessment program, and is known for driving process improvement, maximizing operational excellence, and delivering security best practices.
A seasoned professional with more than 20 years of federal and civilian cyber experience, Don has contributed to several government reports, including Data Handling and Network Architecture papers for the National Security Council. Most recently, he supported the National Institute of Standards and Technology in developing a cyber framework to reduce risks to the critical infrastructure and led efforts to integrate national incident response capabilities. Wanting to pay forward what he had learnt, Don began promoting awareness and sharing best practices to mitigate vulnerabilities across the federal enterprise and critical infrastructure. Holding a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Buffalo, Don now partners with others across the federal civilian enterprise on a collaborative approach to reducing risk and increasing resilience of our nation’s cyber infrastructure.