UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Kyle Crain, director of consulting and architecture and information security architect for Penn State IT Information Security, has been named acting chief information security officer (CISO) for Penn State while Keith Brautigam serves as interim vice president for information technology and chief information officer.
"I have worked closely with Kyle over the past eight years and have complete confidence in his abilities," said Brautigam. "His established connections and trusted reputation across the University will make this a seamless transition."
As acting CISO, Crain will provide guidance and expertise across all units, colleges and campuses to protect Penn State from malicious attempts to access secure data and systems. He also will continue to advance the proactive security measures that keep Penn State research and data safe and compliant within required regulatory security frameworks.
"Information security is critical to Penn State's mission of teaching, research and service, and it genuinely is an honor to take on this role," Crain said. "I truly love the work that our office does, the positive impact we make, and the team who works vigilantly to protect our faculty, staff and students' data. I look forward to continued collaboration with colleagues across the University to build on our strong information security foundation. I have always believed in maintaining a proper balance between cybersecurity controls and data usability and will keep that focus during my time as acting CISO. "
Crain has been with Penn State since 2008. He began his career supporting faculty in the College of Education before accepting a similar position with Penn State Law. He joined Information Security in 2011, where he held roles as a network security analyst and cybersecurity engineer before entering security leadership. Since 2019 he has been the director of consulting and architecture and information security architect, where he is responsible for setting the strategy and high-level vision for secure architecture design and implementation for the University.