Online Safety Discussion Today

October 2024 marks the 21st Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is excited to lead the federal government's efforts to reduce online risk across the nation! This annual effort brings together government and industry to raise the bar for cybersecurity awareness — helping everyone, from individuals to businesses, stay safe online in our ever-connected world. So, let's take this opportunity to discuss online safety — at work, home and the world around us!

Join Gayle Combs at Administrative Support Services Building, room 240, at 11 a.m. today, Wednesday, Oct. 16, to discuss ways to stay safe online with the U of A campus. 

Light refreshments will be available.

If unable to attend in person, please go to the calendar of events page to join the presentation by Zoom. 

Helen "Gayle" Combs is cybersecurity adviser for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Region 6, state of Arkansas. As a cybersecurity adviser for Arkansas, her focus is cyber services and resources for Northwest Arkansas. Combs' responsibilities include strategic relationships/partnerships with owners, operators and communities at the state, county, tribal and local level to minimize risk and strengthen resilience of critical infrastructure.

Combs previously served as cyberspace systems engineer for the United States Air Force. She provided enterprise-level research, design, analysis, performance optimization, standardization, service management, budgeting and acquisition in support of a resilient Air Force critical infrastructure. Her focus areas included data centers, data systems/services, storage, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), continuity of operations (COOP), disaster recovery, inside/outside plant telecommunication cable distribution, networking and cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). Combs' background also consists of adjunct professor, business and industry training, network consultant, real estate and the establishment of a food business based on generational family recipes.

Combs was awarded the inaugural USAF Information Assurance Fellow — the analysis, synthetization and evaluation of the complex challenges in cyberspace. As USAF AFWERX Fellow, she supported the effort to foster innovation and expand the Defense Industrial Base for advanced technologies. A graduate of Air Command and Staff College, her team received the Research Excellence Award for study of the electrical grid as a target.

Combs is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and the University of Oklahoma, where she earned a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering.

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Combs' work stems from a family rooted in agriculture, community, service and education. Combs' family is her foundation — nieces and nephews her light. She enjoys sports, music, technology, culture and civic engagement.