Chris DeRusha, who headed information security efforts for the Biden-Harris campaign last year, will become the Federal government’s next chief information security officer, Federal government security officials said today.
His appointment as Federal CISO has not yet been formally announced by the White House, but DeRusha reported the news via a social media account.
Acting Federal CIO Maria Roat and Sean Connelly, who heads the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Program Office at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), both offered their congratulations on the appointment via Twitter.
DeRusha was CISO for the Biden for President campaign from June to December 2020, and before that was the chief security officer for the State of Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
From 2015 to 2017, DeRusha was a senior cybersecurity advisor at the White House, and before that was an advisor to the Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security.
DeRusha takes over the Federal CISO role from Roat, who served very briefly as Acting Federal CISO. The Federal CISO position was created in 2016 and reports to the Federal CIO. Both positions are in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
