Steven Hernandez named new Department of Education CISO

Hernandez was the Department of Health of Human Service’s Office of Inspector General, where he served as CISO since 2010.

The Department of Education has hired government IT veteran Steven Hernandez as its new chief information security officer.

Hernandez comes to the position from the Department of Health of Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, where he served as CISO since 2010.

Hernandez will be responsible for maintaining the integrity and privacy of the department, as well as “the coordination and integration of all aspects of the Department’s cyber, telecommunications, and information security programs,” according to a job listing posted in June.

Additionally, the CISO will help department CIO Jason Gray with “preparing budget justifications and ensuring compliance to federal statues and directives governing management of enterprise-wide security operations, Risk Management, mitigation of security vulnerabilities and improvement of the Department’s IT security posture.”

“I’m excited to have a cybersecurity leader with Steven’s knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences join our leadership team” Gray told CyberScoop. “I look forward to Steven joining [the Department of Education] and his contributions to continuing the great work being done here. I am fortunate to work with a group of such high caliber professionals.”

Hernandez assumes the role as one of the department’s key digital products has come under scrutiny. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid has had a rocky year and was taken offline for several months before returning Oct. 1. As recently November, cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs reported that it could be manipulated to expose a trove of personally identifiable information. The department refuted the report.

Hernandez’s first day is Dec. 10.

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Policy

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