The Office of Personnel Management has quietly named its first chief of information security in the wake of last year’s news that a series of breaches compromised the information of more than 21 million Americans held in the agency’s databases.
Cord Chase — most recently a senior adviser for cyber and national security with the Office of Management and Budget — started as OPM’s CISO in April, an agency spokesperson confirmed to FedScoop.
Chase will head OPM’s Cybersecurity Program, which — with the assistance of Jeff Wagner, director of security operations, and Clifton Triplett, senior cybersecurity adviser — provides support to the OPM CIO on IT security matters.
Currently, Lisa Schlosser, the deputy CIO in the Office of Management and Budget, is on a detail serving as OPM’s acting CIO and senior IT adviser to acting Director Beth Cobert. She is expected to return to OMB at the end of the fiscal year, the spokesperson told FedScoop, and OPM is on the hunt for someone to permanently fill that spot.
Prior to Chase’s arrival, OPM’s cyber program was co-led by a director of IT security policy — last held by Andy Newton, who left the agency in May 2015 — and Wagner’s position as director of the security operations. In November, OPM announced it would begin looking for its first CISO to oversee all cybersecurity for the agency.
Chase spent several years of his federal career at the Agriculture Department, where served as chief technology officer and director of security operations, and he also spent time as director of security engineering and as a senior security engineer.
Since starting as CISO, Chase has focused on improving patch and vulnerability processes; continuing the buildout of a continuous monitoring program to support ongoing authorization of OPM’s IT systems; achieving 100 percent personal identification verification compliance for privileged and nonprivileged users; aligning with the Department of Homeland Security’s Einstein and Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation programs; boosting malware, intrusion and data loss prevention; and establishing full network visibility for OPM’s Security Operations Center, the spokesperson said.
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