End Users '20 under 40' 2016—Chris Boyer

Chris Boyer, 24

System administrator, National Cancer Institute

Bethesda, Md.

Chris Boyer is the system administrator for physical security at the National Cancer Institute, which means troubleshooting badges and access to the building, as well as keeping up with security policies and working with the emergency preparedness branch's community outreach.

“Biometrics have recently piqued my interest,” Boyer said. Particularly, he's interested in camera analytics with gait recognition, he said.

Would the National Cancer Institute look to incorporate biometrics in the future? “Oh yes, definitely. If that becomes standard in the government, I think—if anywhere—we would do it.”

Biometrics will also play a part in how end users configure their security systems in the future, according to Boyer. “With biometrics being introduced into the field, it's increasingly more important that cybersecurity be a huge factor in planning and implementation. “With physical security moving into the IT world, I think cybersecurity is of the utmost importance and will continue to be � into the future.”

Boyer pointed to the differences in governmental agencies' identification badges as a security challenge for NCI. “There's some headaches caused just because of the differences in between the agencies, and we're not able to accommodate all of the different types of badges here quite yet, although we're working toward it and moving fast.”

Boyer joined NCI a little more than two years ago. “I heard about this position � and understood that it's a little more on the end user side but it still allowed me to get into the weeds a little bit more with being in an IT position,” he said.

In terms of long-term projects, Boyer said that the company is bringing in a new visitor management system, “that I'm pretty excited about.”