EY’s Halterman Receives AICPA’s Special Recognition Award

The American Institute of CPAs’ (AICPA) has honored Chris K. Halterman, CPA, executive director, advisory services at EY LLP, with its Special Recognition Award for his work on the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee (ASEC), contributions to ASEC’s Trust Information Integrity Task Force, and leadership of ASEC’s Cybersecurity Working Group.

Since 1999, the AICPA has bestowed the award upon individuals who have performed or contributed to the success of a particular project or initiative of an outstanding nature.

In his role on ASEC, Halterman helped to put in place the foundation for Service Organization Control (SOC) Reporting, anticipating a growing need and helping to lead the development of the SOC 2 guide just in time to meet market demand for a SOC 2 service. Since 2008, he has chaired the ASEC Trust Information Integrity Task Force. In that role, he has led the development and maintenance of SOC 2 guidance and the underlying Trust Services Criteria.

Under Halterman’s leadership, ASEC’s Cybersecurity Working Group has further evolved the Trust Services control criteria to support not only SOC 2 and 3 engagements, but also a new entity-wide cybersecurity risk management examination engagement. In addition to revising the Trust Services Criteria to support cybersecurity engagements, the working group also developed a set of cybersecurity Description Criteria, which provides companies with a common language to use in communicating key elements of their cybersecurity risk management program to stakeholders such as boards of directors and investors. The Description Criteria are now part of a market-driven, flexible and voluntary cybersecurity risk management reporting framework unveiled by the AICPA earlier this year.

“A pioneer in delivering assurance services for almost 30 years, Chris has worked tirelessly to establish the profession as the premier provider of high quality, independent information security services,” said Barry C. Melancon, CPA, CGMA, president and CEO of the AICPA. “He exemplifies the power of combining the core competencies of the CPA with specialized subject matter expertise. This differentiates and elevates the value proposition offered by CPA firms in an increasingly complex and global business environment.”

The Special Recognition Award was presented to Halterman at a meeting of the organization’s Board in New York on June 28.