CHIPS Articles: DON CIO Congratulates Award Winners

The DON IM/IT Excellence Awards recognize IM/IT projects, teams and individuals that have transformed the Navy and Marine Corps through information technology. Winners were selected for their superior leadership skills and innovative use of IM/IT to significantly improve the effectiveness of the organization in delivering its mission.

The DON Cyberspace/IT Person of the Year and Rising Star of the Year Awards acknowledge individuals who display visionary thinking, innovation, and superior leadership skills in delivering IT to support the DON’s mission.

The John J. Lussier Electromagnetic Spectrum Award is presented to an individual who demonstrates superior achievement in DON Electromagnetic Spectrum management and use.

The following individuals and teams were selected as the 2015 winners.

DON IM/IT Excellence Award Individual Winners

Commander Joaquin S. Correia, Commanding Officer, Security Material System for extraordinary efforts significantly increasing the security of communications and information throughout the Sea Services. Commander Correia delivered results through the aggressive use of new processes and technology, ensuring operational success for units worldwide. Recognizing a critical gap in support to operational forces, Commander Correia assumed responsibilities for National Security System Public Key Infrastructure token issuance oversight for the Navy. Employing streamlined processes and teclmology, he directed and oversaw the issuance of approximately 30,000 PKI tokens to classified-system users over a six-month period, meeting Department of Defense deadlines. Through leadership and vision he produced enterprise-wide results of lasting value.

Mr. Joseph Petto, Deputy S-5 Plans, Marine Corps Network Operations and Security Center for demonstrating superior leadership, managerial skills, technical acumen, and forward thinking ingenuity in the next generation planning and engineering efforts to prepare the Marine Corps to migrate from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet Continuity of Services contract. He served as the Marine Corps Network Operations and Security Center (MCNOSC) lead for all network transition activities and consistently represented the MCNOSC and G-6s, maintaining an operational focus throughout this critical period.

DON IM/IT Excellence Award Team Winners

Marine Corps Network Operations and Security Command (MCNOSC) Enterprise Monitoring Team for implementing the first enterprise network event management tool set for the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN) Event Management System (MEMS) monitors network hardware, software, and services which provide critical capabilities to over 100,000 Marine Corps users. The MCNOSC Enterprise Monitoring Team’s superior implementation of MEMS greatly improved the overall operations and defense of the MCEN.

NAVIDFOR Fleet Cybersecurity Program of Objectives, Actions and Milestones Team, Navy Information Dominance Force for identifying over 100 Fleet cybersecurity readiness gaps and made significant progress on long-standing problems requiring alignment of multiple stakeholders to resolve. Key focus areas were the improvement of Fleet scanning/patching processes, implementation of the Navy's Cybersecurity Readiness Manual, improved Fleet Host Based Security System performance, registration of all Programs in the Vulnerability Remediation Asset Manager for improved enterprise situational awareness, creation of a "1 stop shop" for all orders and software patches/remedies to help deckplate Sailors find and respond to actions addressing the most pressing threats, and processes for periodic risk analyses identifying threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences. The team's efforts reduced Sailor workload, and improved situational cyber awareness across the enterprise and cybersecurity readiness on Navy networks.

NCDOC Move Team, Navy Cyber Defense Operations for providing essential support in moving the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command from Little Creek, in Suffolk Virginia, during the largest cyber defense operation in Navy history. As a result, the Navy has vastly improved capabilities and infrastructure to support more advanced and complex defensive cyberspace operations.

Navy Enterprise Resource Planning Program’s Technical Team, Program Executive Officer, Enterprise Information Systems for, while facing a complex cybersecurity engineering challenge estimated to cost over $12 million dollars and 18 months to implement, working to understand the true technical, business, and cyber requirements of the challenge; investigating technical and operational alternatives; and eventually preparing a detailed analysis of alternatives specifically recommending a near zero cost alternative that essentially had no impacts on the master schedule of the program. Because of the team’s efforts, the Navy ERP system is now more secure, and still meets all functional business and operational requirements.

SPAWAR Knowledge Management Team, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command for significantly increasing the organization’s knowledge management capabilities through use of a social intranet that for the first time connects all of SPAWAR. The social intranet aids recruitment and retention of new employees, and captures knowledge in-flow to aid succession planning. SPAWAR geographical and organizational boundaries are rapidly disappearing as the social intranet is embraced at an affordable cost.

DON IM/IT Person of the Year Award

Mr. Robert W. Boshonek, NCDOC Technical Director, Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command for providing exceptional leadership and technical expertise to Navy Cybersecurity. His conceptualizing of the “War Room” was paramount to the success of the largest cyber operation in Navy history. He drove the creation of the cyber remediation list to harden Navy networks, and his work with Task Force Cyber Awakening is bringing additional security to combat systems and hull, maintenance, and electrical systems. He was a critical player in the Joint Information Environment/Joint Regional Security Stack (JRSS) discussions, which will completely reshape the DoD information network and create an entirely new governance structure. The vast cybersecurity knowledge and dynamic leadership provided by Mr. Boshonek were instrumental in shaping the future of Navy and DoD cybersecurity.

DON IM/IT Rising Star Award

Mr. Jacob Sylvia, Computer Scientist, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport for establishing himself as a technical leader in cybersecurity for project areas such as the BYG-1 Combat Control System, the Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical Systems (SWFTS), and Tomahawk Strike. In his short time at Division Newport, he earned multiple lead cybersecurity roles, most of which he manages concurrently. As a leader in the evolving world of cybersecurity, he has been a cornerstone of implementing cybersecurity solutions to make BYG-1, SWFTS, and Strike products more secure while maintaining their capabilities. His role in implementing and improving the complex and critical capability of classification posture transition on submarine platforms, as well as the strengthening of the SWFTS In-Service Engineering Agent role, has made him the primary point of contact for Division Newport's Submarine Combat Support Center (SC2) for issues and topics pertaining to cybersecurity. Mr. Sylvia’s work with the SC2 has been critical to maintaining submarine platform deployment dates and keeping deployed platforms fully capable.

John J. Lussier Electromagnetic Spectrum Leadership Award Winner

Captain Michael L. Watkins, USMC, Aviation Electronic Warfare Capabilities Integration Officer Marine Corps Combat Development Command for, while working as a program analyst within the Command & Control/Cyber & Electronic Warfare (EW) Integration Division (C2/CEWID), supporting the development of the Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Coordination Cell (CEWCC) Concept and attendant operational experimentation. He refined the organizational construct of the CEWCC, and developed tactics, techniques, and procedures for integrating EW within the planning and execution processes of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) command element. Knowing that any system is only as good as the support behind it, he evaluated supporting material solutions and began to identify the training needs of personnel to be assigned to CEWCC. Developing positive partnerships and markedly increasing trust, he fostered teamwork and a cross-organizational exchange that resulted in support for the Marine Corps cyberspace operations capabilities development process.