HomeHottest 50Donna S. Bennett

Donna S. Bennett

Enterprise Chief Information Security Officer, U.S. Department of State

Running toward the identity management fire, Donna S. Bennett has mastered one of the hottest topics in homeland: personal identity management with over 25 years of experience leading large enterprise information security architecture, policy, operations, and modernization. Her mantra of ‘never stop learning’ and encouragement of her team to not be afraid, have courage, and believe in themselves ranks her among the hottest names in homeland.

Recently named as Enterprise Chief Information Security Officer for the U.S. Department of State, she was also Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the U.S. Department of Commerce and former CISO at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), responsible for the unprecedented Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) integration of Personal Identity Verification smart cards for the Single Sign-On (SSO) access of all assets include derive credential within the FEMA Enterprise Network (FEN).

After the 2015 data breach at the Office of Personnel Management, Donna completed a critical part of the recovery effort by overseeing a stronger, more secure login called the Personal Identity Verification Single Sign-On for the agency’s myriad platforms. She ensured 76 high-priority systems were more heavily shielded from unauthorized access and met the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s highest level of assurance.

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