Robert Bigman
President, 2BSecure
Former CIA Officer, Chief Information Security Officer
Robert Bigman retired from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after serving a thirty year distinguished career. Recognized as a pioneer in the field of classified information protection, Mr. Bigman developed technical measures and procedures to manage the nation’s most sensitive secrets. As an information security trailblazer, Mr. Bigman participated in developing security measures for Government computers well before commercial industry found the Internet. He then developed creative solutions to allow the CIA to use the Internet to further its mission without exposure. With twenty-five years of experience, Mr. Bigman worked in every area of information and data security, the last fifteen years as the Agency's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). As the Agency CISO, Mr. Bigman managed a large organization of technical and program officers responsible for the protection of all Agency information. As the CISO, his responsibilities included cryptography, information security policy/processes, standards and requirements, testing and network defense/response. Mr. Bigman also served as the Agency's designated officer for all discussions with the information security industry and its commercial partners. Mr. Bigman has contributed to almost every Intelligence Community information security policy/technical standard and has provided numerous briefings to the National Security Council, Congress and presidential commissions. Mr. Bigman's earlier assignments at the CIA included participation in the technical design of the Intelligence Community's first counterterrorism database and delivery of the Agency's first secure TCP/IP local and wide area network for the Counterintelligence Center. In recognition of his expertise and contributions, Mr. Bigman has received numerous CIA and Director of National Intelligence awards.
Mr. Bigman is now an independent consultant and works with U.S. Government, foreign governments and the top 50 Fortune corporations, helping them both build productive cyber security programs and successfully resist attacks from the most sophisticated hackers. Examples of his engagements include: Working with financial institutions to re-engineer their network and desktop defenses to reduce the risk of sophisticated (i.e., Nation-State) hacking; Working with a large ISP to reorganize their entire corporate cyber security program and develop new program charters and technical security policies; Working with a medical device manufacturer to ensure that their in-body monitoring devices exhibit the highest level of system, application, and network security, and; Working with a customer service organization to ensure that their Internet/Web services both satisfy security and privacy regulations and adequately protect sensitive consumer privacy information. Mr. Bigman also provides cyber security program and technical training to global government and private organizations. His training activities include cyber awareness programs for board of directors, cyber threats/vulnerabilities and secure design requirements briefings for IT system architects/engineers, cyber security policy training for IT security professionals and general cyber security training for all employee levels/types within an organization. Mr. Bigman is also the author of a comprehensive course entitled: “Building a High Performance Cyber Security Program.”
Mr. Bigman contributes to a number of cyber security blogs and frequently appears on cyber security media outlets including web pod cast, radio and television. His company, 2BSecure, is located in Rockville, Maryland.