About Me


Stephen Fried has spent his professional career studying, designing, and building information security programs for both large and small organizations. He is an accomplished leader with over 25 years of experience in information security risk management, technology, and organizational leadership, including the creation of the security programs for two global Fortune 500 companies. His expertise covers a wide range of cyber risk areas, including information risk management, privacy, governance and regulatory compliance, cloud security, security architecture, insider threat, and incident management. He is a frequent invited speaker at conferences, and his book, "Mobile Device Security," was published by CRC Press in 2010. Stephen is also a contributing author to the "Information Security Management Handbook," "The Official (ISC) Guide to the CISSP CBK," and "The Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) Review Manual."

Stephen is currently an IT Security Principal at American Family Insurance in Madison, WI. supporting the company’s Information Risk Management program. Prior to joining American Family, he was the Senior Vice President for Information Security for QBE North America, the 1st Vice President and CISO for People’s United Bank in Bridgeport, CT, and the Vice President for Information Security at FIS.

Stephen lives in the suburbs of Wisconsin and spends his scarce spare time golfing (badly), amateur woodworking, watching Star Trek, and building electronic gadgets that have no useful purpose.

Professional Certifications

  • Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)

  • Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

  • AWS Cloud Practitioner

  • Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agilist 5

Contact Information