CISO of the Year award presented for the second time
Picture (from left): Simon Tjoa (jury chairman), Bettina Thurnher (Gebrüder Weiss) and Marcel Lehner (MM Group) – both CISO of the Year 2023, Harald Erkinger (Managing Director CIS) at the award ceremony during the CIS Compliance Summit 2023 © Anna Rauchenberger
The state-accredited certification organisation CIS once again honoured the best Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) in Austria at its annual CIS Compliance Summit 2023 in Vienna. Bettina Thurnher from Gebrüder Weiss and Marcel Lehner from MM Group were named “CISO of the Year”. In addition, a special prize for “Lifetime Achievement” was awarded to Thomas Schober from the Allianz Group Austria. Harald Erkinger, Managing Director of CIS – Certification & Information Security Services GmbH. Due to the large number of professional submissions, two people were honoured for the first time this year. Bettina Thurhner, Information Security Manager at Gebrüder Weiss GmbH, and Marcel Lehner, CISO at the MM Group, impressed the expert jury and took home the title of “CISO of the Year 2023”. In addition, a special prize for “Lifetime Achievement” was awarded to Thomas Schober, CISO at Allianz Group Austria. The awards were presented by Simon Tjoa, jury chairman and IT security researcher at St. Pölten UAS. “We were particularly impressed by the leadership achievements, measurable added value and exemplary role of all the award winners for the Austrian security community,” said the jury.
Awareness for increased security and expertise
Bettina Thurnher, Information Security Responsible at Gebrüder Weiss GmbH, implemented an information security management system (ISMS) – certified according to the international standard ISO/IEC 27001 – as well as a data protection management system and IT emergency management in the company.
The creation and annual review of information asset management, licence management and the development of a comprehensive security curriculum for all employees were also part of her remit.
“The award is a wonderful recognition of our work for Gebrüder Weiss and in the cyber community. Information security is teamwork. This award therefore also belongs to all employees who have supported us in information security over the past decade and continue to do so”, Thurnher is delighted.
Business value through new features and innovation
The Chief Information Security Officer at the MM Group, Marcel Lehner, was able to reduce the number of security incidents by 25% and at the same time shorten the detection time by 50% by introducing an information security management system (ISMS) at the 71 production sites for around 16,000 employees, thereby minimising the risk of damage in advance.
At the same time, the company has been strengthened to meet the strict requirements of legislation such as the EU GDPR.
“The security landscape is constantly evolving and it is essential to keep up and be proactive. The information security management system definitely gave us the opportunity to analyse our strengths and weaknesses in more detail, which in turn helped to optimise our in-house security strategies”, says Lehner.
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