Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has named Maryland’s first statewide chief information security officer, part of an effort to boost defenses against cybersecurity threats.
John Evans, who had served as the chief information security officer for the state Department of Information Technology since October, will lead the newly created Office of Security Management and chair the Maryland Cybersecurity Coordinating Council, a panel made up of nearly a dozen agency heads.
The council will create a strategy to implement cybersecurity initiatives, identify cybersecurity risks and respond to bad actors. Hogan signed an executive order Tuesday authorizing the new entities and the new position.
The effort comes as Baltimore continues to fend off a powerful ransomware attack that has nearly paralyzed the city government for the past month, and as government agencies across the country and around the world work to protect computer networks and databases from ever-more-sophisticated outside interference.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Ovetta Wiggins over at the Washington Post