CIS Benchmarks Community Volunteer Spotlight: William Ferguson
The CIS Benchmarks™ are the only consensus-developed secure configuration recommendations both created and trusted by a global community of IT security professionals from academia, government, and industry. The community brings real-world experience and expertise to the development process, ensuring the Benchmarks keep pace with technological change. We value all of our volunteers and encourage you to join!
William Ferguson is a Cyber Capability Development Consultant with Thales Cyber Digital Solutions (CDS) in Luxembourg. In this role, he focuses on Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) Capability Maturity Models (CMM).
Ferguson has been a contributor to the CIS Benchmarks Community since 2020.
“CIS has a fantastic culture. One of the biggest benefits of my experience so far is having an inclusive environment where I feel relaxed to express technical opinions as well as learn others' perspectives on critical issues like browser settings,” said Ferguson.
Ferguson’s diverse background spans 31 years of military service as an enlisted Meteorological and Navigational Systems Specialist and Instructor of Technology and Military Science. He was also an Enterprise Security Professional and commissioned Cyberspace Operations Officer with the United States Air Force.
Ferguson has met many people across the globe and has become the CIS point-of-contact within his current workplace, which has generated interest from others to join a CIS Community as a volunteer.
“IT hygiene and configuration drift are core elements of what we need to protect our global infrastructure. It may not seem exciting from the outside, but your journey with CIS can bring immediate value to the greater community as well as a great opportunity for personal growth,” he added.
Ferguson is also a volunteer instructor for the ethicallyHackingspace (eHs) nonprofit project, which is focused on space cybersecurity operations and resilience workforce development.
“CIS is a topic we discuss, and there is a clear benefit to having IoT- and space technology-related CIS Benchmarks in the future,” he said.
Interested in becoming a volunteer like William Ferguson?
