The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) leads worldwide security and law enforcement efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy and safeguard national security interests. In order to provide a secure digital environment for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy and empower the mobile diplomat, DSS established the Directorate of Cyber and Technology Security (CTS) in 2017.
CTS brings together cyber, technology, and investigative expertise from across DSS to form a center of excellence that enhances our global defense-in-depth capabilities while enabling trusted innovations in technology to address emerging cyber-based threats affecting the Department’s personnel, critical infrastructure, and information assets.
CTS functions as the DSS cyber services hub to detect, analyze, and respond to all forms of cyber-based threats in a holistic manner. In addition, CTS plays a vital role in protecting national security by:
- Maintaining a 24x7x365 watch on the Department’s global cyber infrastructure and managing many aspects of cyber defense including incident response, in-depth analysis of cyber intrusions, cyber threat intelligence reporting, independent vulnerability assessments, and technical security assessments.
- Generating predictive threat analysis to track malicious cyber activity, delivering threat alerts, hastening deployment of technical countermeasures, and supporting cybercrime and counterintelligence investigations.
- Conducting tailored evaluations of emerging technologies, developing security configuration standards for software and hardware, and guiding development of progressive cyber security solutions.
- Serving as the Department’s liaison to US-CERT and maintaining relationships with the FBI, NSA, and members of the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities.
Leadership
The Directorate of Cyber and Technology Security is led by Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) Gharun S. Lacy, a Senior Foreign Service Security Engineering Officer with the Diplomatic Security Service. DAS Lacy previously served as Director of the Countermeasures Division, where he managed the domestic and overseas technical countermeasures program and served as the Department’s point of contact for related operations within the United States Intelligence Community. Since 2000, DAS Lacy has held numerous posts in Iraq, Colombia, Belgium, Brazil, and Nigeria.
In 2015, DAS Lacy was one of the first members of the DSS Council for Diversity and Inclusion. He is a proud native of Washington, DC, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University.
Facilities
The DSS Foreign Affairs Cybersecurity Center (FACC) is a state-of-the-art facility designed to detect suspicious cyber activity and understand emerging cyber threats in the foreign affairs community. Located in Maryland, the center focuses on the “who, what, when, where, and how” of cyber incidents to enhance the Department’s cybersecurity situational awareness capability, enabling CTS to provide near “real-time” response to malicious cyber activity, quickly ingest cyber threat intelligence data from US-CERT and industry sources, and expedite internal threat mitigation actions.
Contact
For media inquiries, please contact the DSS Public Affairs team at DS-Press@state.gov.
For employment inquiries, please contact the DSS Recruiting office at DSRECU@state.gov.