Aventiv Technologies’ Chief Information Security and Enterprise Risk Officer Melanie Sankaran has been selected to Chair the IJIS Institute’s new Cyber Security Task Force, a nonprofit collaboration network working to promote the deployment of technology in the public sector and expand the use of information to maximize safety, efficiency, and productivity. The task force will identify and review tools, processes, techniques, and practices that can yield immediate benefits for the IJIS domains of focus, and will be dedicated to developing standards, best practice guides, and recommendations to help increase defense to the growing cyber threats to technologies and communities nationwide.
“If there’s one lesson repeated each day at Aventiv, it’s that ending digital deserts can empower rehabilitative justice. But we cannotunlock the full potential of technology to connect incarcerated individuals with family and opportunity unless that technology is safe and secure for everyone,” said Sankaran. “In many ways, that’s the same mission that’s at the heart of IJIS. We can deliver better results across the public and private sector with technology, but that conversation is built on a foundation of security and safety.”
Since joining Aventiv in 2019, Sankaran has leveraged her financial services background in leading-edge information security to advance the company’s overall enterprise security vision and approach in alignment with Aventiv’s transformation. Historically, cybersecurity conversations have overlooked the unique needs of the justice-impacted, despite the unique cybersecurity needs of correctional facilities, the incarcerated, and their families. Ensuring secure, closed networks and technology is a crucial way Aventiv protects the identities of its users and their family members, and Sankaran’s leadership on this task force is vital to voicing those perspectives.
As Aventiv works to connect families, address recidivism, and support rehabilitative justice, it has invested over $300 million over the past three years in technology and infrastructure. Aventiv looks forward to continuing to invest and collaborate with communities, industry, and researchers nationwide.