Darrell Dontje is a Security Specialist with the Office of Enterprise Security.  He is currently assigned to FIA, overseeing the security of their systems with regard to State and Federal policy, guidelines and procedures.  Nominated by his coworkers, he is the latest “Day in the Life” feature.

Security in FIA is interesting, says Darrell, due to the size of the department (it makes up nearly 1/3 of the state’s executive branch employees) and the sensitive nature of the information and data they deal with.  In a typical day, Darrell spends most of his time responding to various security issues as they come up.  For instance, right now, FIA is in a push to help their clients e-file their taxes at various statewide branch offices.  This brings up a number of security issues, like the protection of personal information, computer virus control, network and computer security because of the number of people publicly using state machines and ensuring that the private information that is transmitted is secure. 

Darrell is also wrapping up a two-month project review involving the MICSES program.  Security specialists are helping to produce reports on the security, disaster recovery and privacy of the system, which are required by federal and state government.  The biggest challenge in dealing with FIA security is balancing the sensitive nature of the data with the desire to make services quicker and easier for the FIA clients.  There are often critical timelines involved.

Darrell came to DIT from FIA, but has only been with Enterprise Security since September of 2003.  Prior to September, he was part of DIT Field Services.  His 27-year background in state government is extensive.  He received his education at Ferris State University in Electronics and came to the state as part of DMB Telecom, which led him into IT.  Darrell says he is lucky because he has always gotten the opportunity to work on “what’s really important at the time.”  For instance, when he was with Telecom, there was a big push for the state to develop its own phone and data infrastructure system, and then when he was with FIA network services, he was working on a major project to centralize their network functions.  Now, with DIT, he works on security issues, which are among the most visible.

Outside the office, Darrell is an avid golfer, hunter and fisherman.  In the summer, you can often find him in his vegetable garden.  His cayenne pepper dill pickles and horseradish are locally famous and he has trouble keeping up with the demands from his friends and co-workers!  Darrell also has two sons – one lives in Chicago and the other in Oregon.  Thank you, Darrell, for all your hard work for our department!