AFCEA International Announces The 2024 Cyber Edge Writing Award Winners

Fairfax, April 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The threat of cyber attacks is constant and the ability to identify and mitigate the danger is a 24-hour challenge. In AFCEA’s fourth annual The Cyber Edge writing competition, sponsored by ManTech, 37 thought leaders challenged themselves to write articles that addressed this year’s theme, Mitigating Cyber Threats Today and Into the Future. Experts judged entries on criteria including content originality, usefulness, objectivity and writing quality. Entrants had to illustrate innovation, advanced technologies, strategies, tactics and policy or legislative changes to counter cyber threats.   

Winners will receive engraved awards and monetary prizes and will be recognized during an awards ceremony at AFCEA International’s TechNet Cyber conference, June 25-27 in Baltimore. 

• Third place was awarded to retired U.S. Navy Capt. George Galdorisi, who is also a 2021 winner, for his submission titled “Leveraging Social Engineering for Successful Cyber Operations: Enhancing Minds of Decision-Makers.” Capt. Galdorisi is director of strategic assessments and technical futures for the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. Prior to joining NIWC Pacific, he completed a 30-year career as a naval aviator. He also served as an executive officer, commanding officer, commodore and chief of staff. During his final tour of duty, he led the U.S. delegation for military-to-military talks with the Chinese Navy. 
• Second place went to Maj. Jonathan Harbin, USA, for his submission titled “Innovation of Military Management Systems to Mitigate Hardware-Related Vulnerabilities.” Maj. Harbin, a graduate of the University of South Carolina Upstate, has 22 years of service and currently serves as the future operations officer in charge for the 35th Corps Signal Brigade. His previous assignments consisted of leadership roles at levels of operations ranging from Platoon Leader to Theater Staff. 
• First place was awarded to Sam Richman, also a 2021 winner, for his article “The Great Overcomplication.” Richman is an associate principal solution architect at Red Hat, specializing in zero trust and DoD ecosystem partnerships. He has more than 20 years of experience in U.S. government enterprise IT, both in the federal service and in multiple industry roles, supporting civilian and Defense Department initiatives such as cybersecurity, agile architecture, application delivery and data integration/analytics. 

All three winning articles will be published in SIGNAL Magazine’s July 2024 issue as part of The Cyber Edge special section.  

Details about the 2024-25 contest will be available in fall 2024 at https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/the-cyber-edge-writing-contest.  

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AFCEA International is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit international professional association that connects people, ideas and solutions globally. Established in 1946, the membership association serves the military, government, industry and academia by developing networking and educational opportunities and providing an ethical forum. This enables military, government, industry and academia to align technology and strategy to meet the needs of those who serve. AFCEA operates under the guidance of a board of directors, international staff and committees. A large network of chapters is managed by a group of regional vice presidents. Join online. 

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• 2023-2024 The Cyber Edge Writing Award

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