State CIO Bill Kehoe will temporarily take on CISO responsibilities alongside his current role, and the state plans to launch a nationwide search for its next CISO.
Brahmapuram clocked nearly two and a half years as the state's CISO, and now heads to a Fortune 500 company where he will serve as senior director for security practice. The state did not specify the company in its announcement and an agency representative said Brahmapuram and Kehoe were unavailable for interview.
Former CIO Jim Weaver drew Brahmapuram to Washington from South Carolina, where he had spent roughly two and a half years as deputy CISO. That followed on more than 11 years in New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services, including some time as CISO, according to his LinkedIn.
In Washington, Brahmapuram saw the state adopt new enterprise security tools and helped build a community of state agency security practitioners who took an “enterprise perspective” to cybersecurity, WaTech said in its press release.
During his tenure, the state also launched a designated Office of Cybersecurity within its larger technology agency. The new office was charged with taking point on cyber matters, including creating incident management policies and reviewing cybersecurity risks and reporting back regularly about unmitigated ones.
“I want to congratulate Vinod on his new position and wish him the best,” Kehoe said in the statement. “I also want to thank him for all he has done to build a solid security foundation. I have been thoroughly impressed by his talent and am grateful for his commitment to the state of Washington and WaTech.”
