Office of the Chief
Information
Officer

Special guest blog post by Chief Information Security Officer, Isaac Straley

It is truly a pleasure and humbling experience to join the University of Toronto (U of T) as the inaugural chief information security officer (CISO). If you did not see the announcement, I am coming from the University of California (UC). After 13 years at UC Irvine, most recently as the CISO – risk and compliance and campus privacy officer, this is a great opportunity to share my experiences and equally learn from you.

In these early days, my highest priority is to hear from you: what you care about, your concerns, and your ideas! I am conducting a consultation and listening tour to get your feedback and input. But I did not make this big move to sit still – we will be increasing the protection of your UTORids and email through enhanced multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Office 365 protections, increasing detection of devices vulnerable to attack and informing faculties and divisions, and publishing risk assessment tools, best practices, and technology recommendations to help our community.

Enough about me, though! As we celebrate Data Privacy Day, it is important to recognize that as more of our information and lives become connected, we have a shared concern and responsibility in protecting our data and understanding of how solutions are secure and private by design.

As part of Data Privacy Day, on Monday, January 28, from 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., we are hosting an interactive pop-up booth event at the Bahen Centre where you can come learn more about individual steps you can take to protect yourself. I’ll be there from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – please stop by and say hello!

The event is in full-swing and I am enjoying meeting U of T students, staff, and faculty. What a warm welcome from the community. Come out and celebrate Data Privacy Day with us and join the conversation. We are here at the Bahen Centre until 4:30 p.m.