Coordinating cybersecurity across the various federal agencies that make up the U.S. government is no small job. Actually, up to this point it's been no job at all. But that's expected to change following a Tuesday announcement from the White House detailing plans to hire its first-ever chief information security officer, The Guardian reports.
The federal CISO will oversee computer security basics, including identifying and remedying security flaws and ensuring best practices are used to secure networks and information, officials said in a press call regarding the position. The CISO position is just one component of a cybersecurity national action plan that will also seek to increase coordination between officials in charge of government privacy and overhaul outdated IT infrastructure.
The creation of a federal CISO position may be an indicator that data breaches and IT coordination have solidified as serious federal concerns following lapses in cybersecurity oversight that led to events including the historic Office of Personnel Management data breach in June 2015, which impacted over 20 million government employees, and the announcement of a Monday hack that exposed the information of more than 9,000 Department of Homeland Security employees.