Ford spent the last five years working as the Department of Innovation and Technology’s CISO, and had worked for the state of Illinois since 2000 when he started as network architect and engineer.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s now working as chief technology officer for state and local government and education for Zscaler, a cloud security company based out of San Jose, Calif.
Prior to his departure from the state, he expressed gratitude to the state’s administration for “strong sponsorship of cybersecurity initiatives” and the leadership at DoIT.
“In my more than 20 years with the state of Illinois, I’ve never failed to be impressed by the people who work here,” Ford wrote on LinkedIn. “Public service isn’t all glamour, folks! Thank you to all my co-workers at DoIT and other agencies for putting in long hours, for wading into seemingly impossible problems and solving them, and for your friendship while doing so.”
Ford was the recipient of the 2023 Thomas M. Jarrett State Cybersecurity Leadership Award, an honor that recognizes state CISOs for accomplishments in their field. Among the achievements NASCIO highlighted for the award were Ford’s use of cutting-edge technology to enhance the state’s cybersecurity infrastructure, initiatives to enforce multifactor authentication for network and system access and the formation of public-private partnerships to improve information sharing, joint training exercises and coordinated responses to cyber incidents.
The open CISO position has been posted on the state’s website, and the job opening closes to applications Jan. 19.
