CYBER PROS JOIN BIDEN CAMPAIGN

The presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden announced Friday that it had filled the positions of chief information security officer (CISO) and chief technology officer (CTO) in order to address potential cybersecurity threats to the campaign.

The campaign hired Chris DeRusha to serve as CISO and Jacky Chang as CTO. DeRusha previously served as chief security officer for the state of Michigan, and previously served in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, along with leading Ford Motor Company’s enterprise vulnerability management program.

Chang is taking unpaid leave to join the campaign from her role as senior technologist at Schmidt Futures. Chang previously worked as a senior engineer on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and is a former member of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) voter protection team during the 2018 midterm elections.

“Biden for President takes cybersecurity seriously and is proud to have hired high quality personnel with a diverse breadth of experience, knowledge, and expertise to ensure our campaign remains secure,” a Biden campaign spokesperson told The Hill.

“Jacky and Chris will be central to strengthening the infrastructure we’ve built to mitigate cyber threats, bolster our voter protection efforts, and enhance the overall efficiency and security of the entire campaign.”

The news was first reported by The Washington Post, which noted that the Biden campaign is still looking to hire a senior cloud security architect and a senior cyber incident response analyst.