About the CIO Institute
Chief Information Officers, their deputies, and their closest advisors are a community of
practice responsible for ensuring that information technology is deployed effectively to
support enterprise goals. In the early years of information technology, CIOs had few trusted
channels to share lessons learned in solving important problems. The CIO Institute began in
1992 as an informal group of CIO community members from very large government agencies who
shared the goal of identifying what works and what does not work in areas of great
opportunity and high concern to people who serve as CIOs.
Beginning with the creation of the
Government Technology Leadership Awards, the CIO
Institute has designed and provided essential assistance to new programs and institutions to
help them become continuing sources of information on solutions to challenges faced by CIOs.
Its first target was data warehousing, but by 2000, cybersecurity had shown evidence of
becoming an existential issue and most of its work in the past two decades has been focused
on cybersecurity. The CIO Institute’s portfolio includes the
Data Warehousing Institute, 1995, the
Center for Internet Security, 2000, the
Critical Security Controls, 2008, the
U.S. Cyber Challenge, 2009, three landmark reports
from the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation, 2020,
What Works in Finding Elite Cybersecurity Talent, 2021, and several other initiatives.
The CIO Institute’s current focus is on supporting promising practices for expanding the
national pipeline of elite cybersecurity talent to protect enterprises and nations in the
face of escalating cyber intrusions.
