Washington Names CISO

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Washington state has named a new Chief Information Security Officer. Ronald Buchanan will start in the role on January 22.

As state CISO, Ron will oversee the state Office of CyberSecurity. He takes over for Scott Bream, who has served as the acting state CISO since July 2018.

Currently, Ron is the Chief Information Risk Officer and IT Director, Information Security and Privacy Office, for the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Human Services. Previously he worked as the Director of Special Investigations and Threat Analysis for Pearson VUE and as a Senior Cyber Security Advisor with Battelle supporting the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) division.

Buchanan was hired by State Chief Information Officer and Washington Technology Services (WaTech) Director Jim Weaver. As CivSource previously reported, Weaver took over WaTech in December. He was previously Commonwealth Chief Technology Officer in Pennsylvania.

WaTech is in the midst of shifting from a services provider to a service broker, the CISO role will be a critical component of the vetting process the state uses before brokering services with vendors. Buchanan will also be tasked with overseeing the security of critical systems at a time cyber attacks on state and municipal systems are happening with increasing frequency.