Welcome Mark Herron as UB's new Information Security Officer

Mark has 21 years’ experience in information security, including 11 years in higher education, most recently at Central Michigan University. He also spent 10 years in healthcare, experience that will serve him well at an institution helping to transform the region into a national health sciences hub.

The reality is that the external digital environment has never been more challenging to an institution like UB. We rely more each day on digital data for our research and operations, while the techniques of malicious actors seeking access to private data are getting more sophisticated.

All around us, institutions and public entities are starting to react to the threat. The New York State government and many U.S. federal funding agencies have increased requirements for information security in the grant process.

Mark comes to us at a time when the role of UBIT is evolving, when supporting the university means not only enabling our intellectual pursuits, but also keeping our environment compliant and competitive.

The new ISO is continuing UBIT’s work of diligently helping to find the right balance, by engaging with the community to develop policies that let us do what we do best in a responsible way.

In a little over a month, Mark has already met with dozens of stakeholders on campus, including distributed IT staff from all over campus, to learn more about the unique challenges each UB department faces in this area.

Awareness and dialog will be critical as our approach to IT security evolves—and it is an evolving process, and will continue to be. You can expect to see more opportunities to engage with us, and with Mark, in the future.