Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, one of the most active state legislators on the issue of cybersecurity, has echoed concerns about where California's chief information security officer (CISO) should be positioned in the state bureaucracy.
Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, discussed what qualities a CISO should have as the state looks to fill the job, and where that position should be located, in an interview for Techwire's summer 2016 magazine.
"There is some question whether the CISO should really be under the Technology Department. That was one of the questions we asked the administration to look at — should that be more of somebody functioning independently as opposed to reporting directly to the head of technology?" Irwin said.
Two months ago Michele Robinson left her job as the chief information security officer of California in the wake of an unflattering state audit that examined the cyber readiness and compliance of state agencies and departments. A replacement for Robinson has not yet been appointed by the Brown administration.
"You don’t necessarily have to have somebody with a deep software engineering or technical background, but they certainly should have a pretty broad, higher-level knowledge in that. They really need to be good managers, see the big picture on how to get things done, make sure that all departments are accountable for any breaches that take place and that they have emergency plans in place for how to recover when there are breaches. I think it has to be somebody with that type of broad knowledge and really good management experience," Irwin said.
Read the full Q&A with Irwin in Techwire's summer 2016 magazine issue.
