Panych Offers Insider’s View on Cybersecurity, Mentoring

As cyber attacks increasingly target government and education institutions, California’s chief information security officer, Vitaliy Panych, has four specific pieces of advice for his peers in the public and private sectors:

• Focus on the fundamentals first. Build stronger access controls, authorization and multifactor authentication into every user base/access point.
• Know where your critical assets are, which allows you to enforce proper protocols and controls. Continually patch software and hardware.
• Make sure critical systems are resilient from an availability aspect. Minimize disruption of services and test your resiliency plan. Always have a backup plan.
• Use a collaborative approach. Make sure state departments are collaborating with emergency services, National Guard and military departments. Vendors/providers should be a part of task force initiatives so they can contribute to transparent planning and services.

Panych is a nationally recognized leader in information security, overseeing protection of the largest collection of digital information assets among the 50 states. He was interviewed recently on “Davood for Thought,” a podcast about the people in technology, hosted by Davood Ghods, Government Sector lead for Launch Consulting and a former longtime state IT executive.

In addition to eliciting the info sec advice, Ghods quizzed Panych about his move to America from Ukraine 32 years ago, his interest in cybersecurity and how he decompresses off the job.

What drove Panych’s interest in public service? “It goes back to being mission-driven,” Panych tells Ghods. “The government serves a broad population in all kinds of ways. Supporting the community at large makes government and society more effective, resilient, and safe and secure.”

Panych also has some unconventional advice for budding leaders: “Find a mentor — and find someone to be a mentor to,” he said. Often, Panych said, people learn by teaching others. While a mentor is an invaluable resource for a growing professional, a mentee gives that person a chance to validate their understanding by imparting it to someone else — applying learning directly to changing circumstances.

Off the job, Panych decompresses by studying and teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a martial art that he has practiced for many years.

The full podcast episode is available here.