Who Am I

---

Candace Williams, MBA, CCISO, CISM, CISA, is a collaborative and influential Cybersecurity leader, speaker, and change agent with nearly 20 years of experience in Cybersecurity within the Department of Defense, as an active-duty military member and within the Aerospace & Defense Industry.  

Candace’s overarching responsibilities as Associate Director, Cybersecurity Leadership within a Fortune 500 Aerospace & Defense company include regional oversight of program operations ensuring information system security risks are identified, managed, and mitigated to acceptable levels. Additionally, she establishes key elements of tactical and operational strategies to ensure business operations are executed to customer and contractual standards. 

Prior to her current role, Candace proudly served in the United States Air Force in the Computer Communications and Operations (CCO) field. Her military career took her abroad to the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Iraq, during which time she worked in multiple roles within the CCO field, from Help Desk and Small Computer Support Technician to Information Assurance Officer. 

Candace offers perspectives from both a theoretical and a practical, real-world application of successful cybersecurity program execution, including:

• Risk analysis & management
• Process/system improvements
• Performance & effective metric analysis
• Vulnerability assessments
• Audit gap analysis & remediation
• Standards & compliance
• Customer engagement

Candace founded Cyb(h)er Ally Cybersecurity Solutions, LLC as a passion project to aid micro and small business in developing their cybersecurity programs and protecting their valuable information-based assets. Candace understands that organizations with weak cybersecurity cultures, policies, and procedures are more vulnerable to cyber breaches, data loss, regulatory penalties, missed business opportunities, and customer retention. Candace supports small businesses in bolstering their Cybersecurity posture and is dedicated to accelerating cybersecurity cultural transformations within their organizations by assessing and bridging Cybersecurity gaps to mitigate vulnerabilities. 

Candace is passionate about increasing the presence of women, notably women of color, in Cybersecurity. She believes that including more women is not only an important means for confronting the shortage of Cybersecurity professionals, it also better allows for diverse and creative problem-solving, leading to unconventional and innovative solutions. Solutions that to help increase an organization's capacity to establish and maintain a solid but agile Cybersecurity posture.